I'll never quit working...Target Pulls the Canada Plug

Target
Today Target announced that they were closing all their Canada stores.  This is just a few years after remodeling their acquired stores from one end of Canada to another.  My former employer (of 'the 27-year gig') did most of those remodels.  I've forgotten the total amount of remodeling dollars but it was many millions.  Seventeen thousand people will be laid off.  The cost to close the stores will result in a write off of hundreds of millions.  Their stock rose 7% on pre-open trading today.   Most of those responsible for the move to Canada were eliminated following the recent credit card data loss, including the CEO who left with a $20 million severance package.

The $20 million might not last because he's not an old guy and what with lifestyle and all that he's probably not living on $40,000 per year.  Of course he did make a huge salary the entire time he was there and had stock options so he's set.  I used to work with a guy who was one of the departing senior executives.  It was almost exactly fifteen years to the day since I said to him "Target will eat you up and spit you out but you'll be set."

CVS, Walgreens, Dollar Stores, etc., are eating Target (and Walmart to a limited degree) on the small purchase, cheap product end of the spectrum.  I'm glad I'm not working in that space, but of course I'm not working and would actually like to be part of the 17,000 soon-to-be-laid-off and get the upcoming four months of severance pay.

55+ Communities,  Arizona & Working...
Today at the small business I started talking with a couple about the weather.  At 29 degrees it's unseasonably warm for mid-January in Minnesota.  They had just sold their home of 21 year in Tucson, AZ.  Last weekend or so the Star Tribune carried an article about a woman who was retrieving her 80-something mother from three years of an over-55 AZ retirement community.

Common Roots Cafe Mocha

Yesterday I had coffee with a colleague from the 27-year gig at Common Roots Cafe. He left about the same time.  It seems standard to announce what you're going to do with all your free time when you leave (retirement assumed).  He offered (a year ago) that he was going to work with a North Minneapolis group that was aligned along the principles of Habitat for Humanity.

In yesterday's update he commented that that had not really worked out.  Old guy's drinking coffee and talking about work took up far more time than old guy's actually doing work.  We agreed that in our post working days (mine are not over) the last thing we wanted to do was have anything to do with was an 55+ community. 

He indicated that he missed the people and intellectual stimulation.  When pressed on how many people of the 700+ he missed it was less than two handfuls.  I allowed him to take the conversation where it might go and we ended up talking about Israel and the Palestinians.  During the gig our paths crossed on large project process-improvement and IT issues.  He did offer to help me finished up a kitchen re-modeling project. 

Vehicles and Working...
My life as an executive including a series of commuter cars.  The last, a 2008 Ford Fusion with 133,000 miles left the fold a couple of weeks ago.  Not having an executive leaves one with no reason to have a commuter car.

Fortunately I have a backup on the vehicle front.  In 1983 we purchased a cabin 'up north' and soon found a pickup to be invaluable if not a necessity:

• 1980 Dodge-D50
• 1981 Dodge D50
• 1987 Ford F-150
• 1994 Ford F-150
• 2004 Ford F-150
• 2014 Ford F-150

The 2004 Ford is full of stuff including tools, work clothes, parts for things I was going to repair, batteries for all kinds of things...just a lot of debris.  Today I was taking out things and found a 1950s Erector set that I bought at a garage sale with the intent of putting it on eBay.  There is at least one Flip camera in the F-150 somewhere.  When I lost the first one (in the truck) I bought another which I also lost (not in the truck) and as technology goes those are antiques.  At least three times I'm accidentally dumped a gallon of chain saw bar oil in the back.  Not wishing to do that again I've not purchased a bed liner for the new vehicle.  It's a naive thought that I'll somehow not dump something.  

It's going to take a few more passes at cleaning out the 2004 and then I'll get it detailed and put it on www.craigslist.org or some other appropriate site.  I don't like the color of the new truck.  I miss the keypad entry system.  There is no compass.  The old truck is just fine.  Not having a job has resulted in a few odd choices.