David Soberman, a marketing professor at the University of Toronto, noted that businesses usually need to operate at full strength for more than a year to find success in new markets, but he faulted Target for using internal management with no international experience to run the company’s first foray outside the United States. “The result was basically problems that when you’re teaching first-year classes at universities you tell students no business should do,” Mr. Soberman said.

Target expects to report a pretax write-down of $5.4 billion related to the closing in the fourth quarter of 2014, and $275 million more this year. Pending court approval, Target will contribute up to $59 million to establish a fund to provide employees with a minimum of 16 weeks of severance pay. In court documents, Target noted that because the parent company will contribute all of its cash, the employee fund will not reduce potential payments to other creditors.

But Unifor, the large union previously known as the Canadian Auto Workers, sharply criticized Target’s treatment of Canadian workers. The retailer was previously criticized for not hiring Zellers employees, many of whom were unionized, when it took over that chain’s store locations.

Target’s profound stumble is a sharp contrast to Walmart’s experience in Canada. Walmart entered the Canadian market in 1994 by taking over leases of another struggling discount chain, the Woolco unit of Woolworth. It is now the largest retailer in Canada based on revenues.

H&M, Zara and Forever 21 are all expanding their Canadian operations. Nordstrom, moving at a much slower pace than Target, opened its first Canadian store last year and will add two more this year.

But other foreign retailers are struggling. Big Lots, which acquired the Canadian retail chain Liquidation World in 2011, closed nearly 80 stores last year as sales faltered. Best Buy has struggled to gain traction at its 120-odd Canada locations. Mexx Canada is closing all of its 95 stores. Even Sam’s Club, Walmart’s membership-only retail warehouse business, shut down in Canada in 2009 facing tough competition from Costco, which has been in the country since 1985 and now has 88 stores.

One widely noted measure of Target’s failure was a sustained nostalgia among many Canadians for the closed Zellers chain. While Zellers stores were disorganized, understaffed and often run-down, many Canadian shoppers have said that they offered better value and had more products in stock than Target.