MINNEAPOLIS, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- Target Corp. confirmed 13 of its U.S. stores will close after the holiday shopping season because of their slow sales.
The company, which has nearly 1,800 retail locations nationwide, generally announces store closures at this time of the year.
A spokeswoman cited "several years of decreasing profitability" of the stores scheduled for elimination. In August, Target reported a 2.4 percent increase in second-quarter sales, beating the results of rival stores Macy's and Walmart. Target's sales are doing well across the board, so it could be in their best interest to eliminate the under-performing ones.
The stores to be closed are in Austin, Texas; Odessa, Fla., Casa Grande, Ariz.; Flint, Mich.; Columbus, Ohio; Milwaukee, Wis.; Superior, Wis.; New Ulm, Minn.; Ottumwa, Iowa; Anderson, Ind. and Louisville, Ky.
The move comes less than a year after Target announced the closure of all of its locations in Canada -- 133 stores in total -- after a failed bid to expand into the country. Those closures resulted in the elimination of 17,600 jobs.
Earlier this year, Target announced a $1 billion investment in its e-commerce unit, as well as a $2 billion, two-year cost savings schedule which eliminated several thousand jobs in the Minneapolis area, where Target is headquartered.
