Target Lays Off 40 At Headquarters

Target, the Minneapolis retailer, has eliminated close to 40 corporate headquarter jobs as part of a massive overhaul of operations.

According to a report, the employees let go were notified a little more than a week ago and given the option to try to find another job within Target over the course of the next few months or they will get a severance package.

“While these decisions are never easy, we believe this is the right decision to position Target for future success,” Katie Boylan, a Target spokeswoman, said in a statement, according to the report.

The layoffs are part of changes at the merchandising division under Mark Tritton, whom the retailer appointed last year as chef merchant after wooing him from Nordstrom. As a result, a lot of employees’ roles are getting overhauled as more focus is placed on developing expertise in digital and pricing or promotions.

“As part of Target’s ongoing transformation efforts, we’ve been working over the past year to modernize our merchandising organization,” Boylan said in the report. “We’re introducing a new operating model within the merchandising team this summer that will enable enterprise buying, create shared accountability across partnering teams, and advance our data and analytics capabilities — which ultimately will help Target to deliver faster for our guests.”

The moves came as Target reported the fourth quarter in a row in which sales declines as it struggles to keep shoppers in its stores in the face of competition from online. It’s been investing in in-house brands, remodeling stores and expanding its merchandise, noted the report. Back in 2015 Target’s corporate headquarters went through a huge downsizing during which 2,000 employees were let go. Since that restructuring it has had  other, smaller layoffs and recently shut down some projects.