Lost in translation: Target joins a list of companies who had trouble exporting their formula

Target is far from the first retailer that's had trouble making its U.S. formula for success work in other countries. Here are some others:

WAL-MART: The world's largest retailer, which now operates in 27 countries, rarely acknowledges defeat. But in 2006, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based discounter, threw in the towel in Germany, announcing it would sell its 85 stores to Metro Group, a German retailer. Two months earlier, it sold its stores in South Korea.

BEST BUY: In January 2013, the consumer electronics chain said it would close 15 of its stores in Canada and cut about 5 percent of its workforce in the country as it tries to revamp its strategy there. In November 2011, it said was closing all 11 of its big-box stores in the United Kingdom. Later it sold its stake in a European joint venture in Europe to its mobile phone retail partner in the region, Carphone Warehouse Group.

BIG LOTS: The discounter, based in Columbus, Ohio, said in December 2013 that it would close its Canadian business, which operated nearly 80 stores. It had acquired the stores just two years before.

TESCO: The U.S. can also prove daunting. Tesco, Britain's largest retailer by sales, announced in 2013 that it was exiting the U.S. market by selling its Fresh & Easy supermarket chain. Tesco opened the chain just before the start of the Great Recession and misjudged its shoppers.