Yesterday Target announced that it is pulling out of the Canadian market, closing all 133 stores that have opened in the region since 2013. The company cites profitability as the main reason, with the newly opened stores in Canada not expected to reach profitability until 2021. For Target’s executives, that time frame was simply too long. While the closure is being blamed on poor performance, many Canadians would argue that Target’s higher prices when compared to their United States’ stores made them a poor choice for shoppers.
Either way, the closure of these stores brings into question the future availability of the Rosalina & Luma amiibo, which is a Target exclusive both in the United States and Canada. Those in the United States will be unaffected, but considering the release of the amiibo is pending in just a few weeks, we’re currently unsure of what will happen to the figure once these stores finally close for good.
Target has not specifically made any statements about the exclusive figure, but it has projected that the timeframe for closing the stores will take anywhere from 16-20 weeks. That’s plenty of time for early adopters to get the figure from Target when it launches and from there, Nintendo can decide if a new partner will receive exclusivity for that particular amiibo, or if they’ll open it up to being sold at other locations. While the closure shouldn’t have an affect on the availability of the Rosalina amiibo, we’ll keep a close eye on the situation for our neighbors in the north.
