The liquidation of Target Canada's merchandise is underway, as Canadians began showing up in larger-than-usual crowds across the country early this morning to look for bargains.

In Toronto, about a dozen people were lined up in the frigid cold outside the East York Target location around 7:30 a.m. ET before the store opened. Several more sat in their vehicles watching the crowd slowly grow.

In an advertising blitz, Target said late Wednesday that customers could expect discounts of up to 30 per cent as the company offloads millions of dollars worth of merchandise to pay back creditors.

But as with most liquidations, the discounts are likely to get even deeper as time goes by and the company looks to clear out product.

Indeed, some customers managed to haggle themselves a deal. Graham Kitching, a student at Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont. was in that community's Target Thursday morning and unimpressed with the deals. But he managed to negotiate with the sales staff and bought a $120 watch for $45, he told CBC News.

But many others left emptyhanded, CBC reporters on the ground in some of Target's 133 Canadian locations reported.

The chain says the liquidation sales could take between eight and 10 weeks, and the retailer's presence in Canada is expected to be gone by early May.