For some reason, customers lined up outside of Target’s Canadian stores in the very cold hours before the sun rose this morning, anticipating fantastic deals at the liquidation sale. These shoppers were disappointed. While a few people scored deals on TVs and other big items, other consumers complained about the low discounts.

The Montreal Gazette’s Basem Boshra was on the scene today checking out the hot deals at his local Target. He reports that very few items were marked down to 50% off. There were some marked down to the promised 30% off, but most were in the early discount phases of 10% off.

Experienced liquidation sale vultures know that this is normal, of course. It was like a combination of typical U.S. Target math with liquidation sale math, where prices are hiked up to the manufacturer’s suggested retail price, then gradually discounted more as the sale proceeds.

Meanwhile, another item for sale as Target flees Canada are its store pharmacy records. Target has both corporate-owned pharmacies and independent pharmacists who hold franchises to run pharmacies in their stores, and both have to go. The Huffington Post reports that the chain’s abrupt shutdown doesn’t leave enough time for the franchisees to start their own pharmacies with their established client base. It takes 45 days to establish a new pharmacy in the province of Ontario, for example. Target and the franchisees will end up selling customer records to competitors at maybe $1 or $2 per person.

Target Canada’s liquidation draws crowds, but also bargain hungry critics [CBC]

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