Target is portrayed in the book "Naked Statistics" as having some pretty advanced data collection and modeling techniques -- they could figure out which of their shoppers were pregnant and adjust their weekly ads sent to those particular households depending on that information. This was in fact too good because the pregnant woman ended up being a teenager, and had an angry father calling demanding to speak to a manager.

What any of this means to me is if they have capabilities like that I am sure they made an informed decision based on where they see the market heading and decided this would be a purchase that would increase the bottom line, not grasping for straws as you say.

If you lived in Canada or followed their operation here you’d probably take a different view

I thought Target pulled out of the Canadian market?

I think that was the parent's point. Target spent a whole bunch to enter Canada and it was an abject failure for, in retrospect, some pretty obvious reasons. If they were so good at data-driven decision making, they wouldn't have failed so badly.

They did. It was a major failure, costing them billions of dollars. Definitely makes you question their decision making abilities

The whole department that does the statistics modeling is based on one guy starting it up... And he probably has nothing to do with the rest of Target's operations.

I started using target.com instead of amazon, at least for certain things. It looks like they did a lot work and got their shit together. The website works well and shipping is fast. I recommend trying it out if you haven't used them in a few years.

They are clearly copying amazon, but doing a good job in my opinion. The site is much better than walmart's.

Can you elaborate on why you feel this is grasping for straws? From my admittedly limited view point, they see the writing on the wall to compete in the future and know that they will become irrelevant if they cannot offer a competing service. They basically thrive on being "Not Walmart", so it's probably good that they also create a form of same-day that meets and exceeds whatever Walmart ends up with.

I'm curious how this is grasping.

Everyone's moving to compete with Amazon. Only now, a year after Walmart bought Jet.com, Target is trying to get into the game too. Except all I see is a "me too" strategy, no thought leadership, no unique value proposition except "we're Target". It's not a competitive advantage, it's a not being left behind strategy.

Or they’re looking at Kmart and Sears and worried they’ll be next.

The funny thing is, I actually like sears online pickup. It is faster than anyone else. You can park outside and check in and have someone bring it to you. Or check in at a kiosk and someone is out within a minute. There is a timer that counts down from when you check in.

The online pickup is directly in front of a lesser used entrance so you don't fight for parking.

Also sears has lots of online loyalty incentives through shop your way that makes their prices probably the best... Problem is they don't have a large selection of items.