Target to cut thousands of jobs at Minneapolis headquarters

Several thousand? Stribber Kavita Kumar reports, “Target Corp. over the next two years will cut several thousand jobs at its headquarters in downtown Minneapolis, where it is the largest employer, as it pours the savings into digital initiatives executives believe will meet the changing habits of shoppers. Company executives were expected to use a meeting with investors and analysts Tuesday to announce job cuts. The scale of the move, along with its focus on the headquarters, was a surprise. Target aims to produce $2 billion in annual savings.”

For the Wall Street Journal, Paul Ziobro says, “Over the next two years, Target expects to cut costs by $2 billion to pay for investments in technology, the development of smaller urban stores as well as upgrades to its selections of food, apparel and home goods. … A key question had been how Target would pay for the turnaround, and the effect it will have on earnings growth. Target’s headquarters had long been viewed as bloated, with too many layers of management and unnecessary complexity.”

Hiroku Tabuchi of The New York Times says, “Craig Johnson, the president of Customer Growth Partners, a retail consulting firm based in New Canaan, Conn., said that succeeding would be difficult, but that it could attract a lot of customers. He also said that cutting jobs and costs was a painful but necessary step. Still, he added: ‘The trick is, you can’t cut your way to growth. You have to build traffic. You have to get your customers back.’”

At USA Today, Hadley Malcolm writes, “Target wants to position its brands to appeal to Millennial families and Hispanics in particular, two groups that are increasingly making up its customer base. That means bolstering its mobile apps and digital experiences in stores. Three-quarters of Target customers start shopping on a mobile device, Tesija said, and last year mobile traffic grew 44 percent. Customers who shop on multiple channels also spend three times as much as customers who shop only in stores.”

Some folks might want to catch up with Stewart “Whole Earth Catalog” Brand’s thinking on this topic. Don Davis of the Forum News Service says, “The owner of Minnesota’s nuclear power plants has no plans to build a new one, but wants flexibility to do it if needed. Noting state law bans nuclear plant construction, Sen. Mary Kiffmeyer, R-Big Lake, has sponsored a bill to overturn Minnesota’s nuclear power plant moratorium. … Nathan Makala of the Heartland Institute in Chicago, however, said that nuclear power is safe and ‘requires far less land than other sources of green energy such as wind’. Nuclear supporters said it causes little pollution and can pump millions of dollars into the local economy. It provides ‘stable and affordable energy,’ Makala said.”

After another wasted two weeks: Stribber Allison Sherry writes from DC, “There has been so much drama with funding the Department of Homeland Security that the effort basically sucked all the energy out of the last two weeks of Congress. Yet, today, the divided Minnesota House delegation all voted the same: To support a ‘clean’ bill to fund the Department through this September. The three Republican Reps. Tom Emmer, John Kline and Erik Paulsen joined Democratic Reps. Tim Walz, Betty McCollum, Keith Ellison, Rick Nolan and Collin Peterson in a yes vote.” I’d suggest we declare a holiday anytime that crowd gets something done, if it weren’t for the fact they treat every term like a holiday.

Hey pal, this is supposed to be a team sport. In the PiPress, David Montgomery reports, “Wisconsin Republicans are trying to pass a controversial ‘right-to-work’ law that would ban ‘union shop’ contracts requiring union membership. But on Tuesday, they got some pushback from a top member of their own party from Minnesota. Rep. Pat Garofalo, R-Farmington, said Wisconsin’s right-to-work bill is ‘heavy-handed and wrong’ and would hurt business owners who want to work with unions. And he wants to bring those businesses to Minnesota.”

Does anyone ever follow up on this stuff to see what real business comes out of these junkets? The AP notes, “Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton has Mexico in his sights. The Democratic governor’s office said Tuesday that he will lead an August trade mission south of the U.S. border. Specific details about duration and precise destinations weren’t immediately released.”

A quartet of legislators has a Strib commentary touting their legislation to get crowd-sourced investments functioning in Minnesota. They say, “We introduced legislation known as MNvest that would modernize Minnesota securities laws so that businesses in the state could use the Internet to connect with ordinary Minnesotans who might want to become investors. This process of pooling together capital from a large group of citizens is commonly known as ‘crowdfunding.’ … We’ve found that many of our constituents are surprised to learn that this type of ‘equity crowdfunding’ is not currently permitted in Minnesota. This is primarily due to the fact that our laws have failed to adapt with technology, and in doing so have prevented companies from accessing billions of dollars of untapped capital.” Really? Billions?

Adrian Peterson is willing to play … in San Diego. At Yahoo Sports, Charles Robinson says, “While Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson continues to have an open dialogue with the franchise about his future, he has pondered potential trade destinations and would consider a contract restructure if a deal becomes necessary, sources have told Yahoo Sports. … the running back prefers five teams: the Arizona Cardinals, the Indianapolis Colts, the Cowboys, the San Diego Chargers and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.”