The hot trend in big-box stores is now small-box stores. First, tiny Walmarts proliferated across the country, and now Target is joining the mini urban store boom by expanding its TargetExpress brand into more markets. Target has announced fifteen planned store openings for the coming year, and nine of them are the tiny-format TargetExpress.

Mini-stores are about 15% of the size of a standard Target discount store, and fit into former urban grocery stores. They began experimenting with CityTarget in 2012, but kept the test small until 2015. Now, planned sites for TargetExpress stores are in Boston, San Francisco, and San Diego. Stores announced just this week are planned in Chicago and in Washington, D.C.

Target is growing a little bit in the United States as its failed Canadian expansion shuts down: the chain’s northern outpost is waiting for court approval to begin liquidating its 133 stores.

Target joins industry trend, will open more express stores this year [Star-Tribune]

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