Target To Close 13 Failing U.S. stores By January 2016

Retail giant Target on Wednesday revealed its plans to close 13 of its stores across the United States by January 31, 2016, CNN reported. The company is nearly 1800 stores in the U.S.

“The decision to close a Target store is not made lightly. We typically decide to close a store after careful consideration of the long-term financial performance of a particular location. Typically, the decision to close a store is as a result of seeing several years of decreasing profitability,” Kristy Welker, a spokeswoman for Target, told Patch in a statement.

The stores to be closed include:

• Austin North East in Austin, TX
• Suncoast Pasco County in Odessa, FL
• Casa Grande, AZ
• Victorville, CA
• East Flint in Flint, MI
• Columbus Southwest in Columbus, OH
• Springfield, OH
• Northridge in Milwaukee, WI
• Superior, WI
• New Ulm, MN
• Ottumwa, IA
• Anderson, IN
• Dixie Highway in Louisville, KY

The company also said that the decision was based on the poor financial performance of the specific stores, "not about the broader company in any way”, The Huffington Post noted.

Target also ceased its operations in Canada and closed all 133 stores which reportedly cost the company $7 billion, Fortune reported. Moreover, it also laid-off several employees in the Minneapolis area as part of its two-year cost saving plan.