So Target decided to open over 200 stores around the nation at 12-midnight on Friday Sept 4th to sell Starwars items but what remains to be seen is how the company intends to recoup costs involved in training, paying employees overtime, setting up displays, etc.

207 Target stores are opening at midnight on Force Friday, Sept. 4, so you can be the first to get all the Star Wars: The Force Awakens items.

What is perplexing about this move is that it appears the fledgling company which saw a 46% drop in revenue last year after the massive credit card breach, is spending its remaining revenue to promote Starwars a movie that quite frankly needs no help promoting.

Other than a few die hard fans in very small markets in cities in Los Angeles like the store at Rodeo / La Cienega in Los Angeles where actor/podcaster Chris Hardwick is scheduled to make an appearance, there is no incentive for customers to get up and make the trek to the store after midnight especially on a school/work day.

Nowhere on the site does it mention any giveaways, exclusives and the items listed on their #ShareTheForce page are already in stock at most stores and online at Target.com and other retailers. So whats in it for Target other than a blurb on the news that Star Wars fans lined up at a store in Los Angeles?

50 stores seems like overkill but 200+ stores seems like a massive waste of time and money, if I were an investor I would be questioning the  motives of the current CEO Brian Cornell especially at a time when even Blackfriday sales are slumping and more consumers are choosing to do their shopping online over going “Brick and mortar” stores.

If he’s looking for brand awareness, they already have it since they are located in almost every major city/town in the states.

Things are not looking well for the retailer, within the past year the fledgling company has had to cease operations in Canada which resulted in 133 stores closing and 17,000 jobs lost, as mentioned before they suffered 46% drop in revenue last year over the data breach in addition to that, the breach alone cost it 162 million dollars in expenses including insurance related costs.

They recently laid off 2,375 employees including 235 jobs at from its technical operations division at its Minneapolis, Minnesota headquarters

Three employment assessments formerly used by the Minneapolis-based retailer disproportionately screened out applicants for professional positions based on race and gender – Associated Press

At the same time they publicly announced that it was eliminating gender based signs in its toy sections which left commenters on their own blog split, it was quietly announced that they paid 2.8 million to the Federal Government to settle a race/gender related suit where they were accused pre-screening and rejecting applicants based on race, gender and even health related reasons. They declined discussing this latest settlement on their blog.

It’ll be interesting to see how all of this plays out for Target over the next quarter but according to Reuters the company itself expects disappointing sales and also expects consumer demand to remain “choppy”.

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