While many Americans know the Whole Foods brand, there are only about 450 locations nationwide, a fraction of the number of stores held by national retailers like Walmart, Kroger, or Target. Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods is expected to help grow the supermarket chain’s footprint — which would help Amazon’s food delivery business — but some competitors have realized they can use the fine print in their real estate contracts to undercut Amazon’s Whole Foods hopes. [More]
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How Malls & Big Box Stores Are Using Real Estate Contracts To Stall Amazon’s Whole Foods Expansion
By 10.24.17
Target’s Holiday Plan: Fewer Sales, More Focus On Everyday Low Prices
By 10.23.17
From “doorbusters” to “advance deals” to hourly specials all through Black Friday weekend (not to mention Cyber Monday), the holiday shopping season is a continuous barrage of retail promotions varying in quality and value. In an attempt to rein things in, Target says it plans to offer fewer sales this holiday and hope that customers will be won over by everyday lower prices. [More]
Target’s Plan To Combat Online Rivals: Open, Remodel More Actual Stores
By 10.19.17
While Walmart increasingly turns its focus online to bring in customers, Target is doing the opposite, doubling down on efforts to get customers inside its physical stores. To that end, the company will open dozens of new stores and remodel another 1,000 in coming years. [More]
Target Says It’s Not Trying Compete With Amazon, Just Trying To Be “Best Target”
By 10.10.17
They say that before you can be in a truly happy relationship you have to be happy with yourself. This apparently applies to retail, too: Target executives say the company isn’t trying to compete with Amazon to get customers in the door, instead the retailer is just tying to be the best version of itself for customers. [More]
Target Now Offering Curbside Pickup At Some Stores — Yes, Again
By 10.3.17
Three months after Target once again began testing curbside pickup with employees in the Minneapolis area, the perpetually-playing catchup retailer has expanded the program to actual customers. [More]
Target Ends Freshii Concept, Closing 18 Salad & Wrap Cafes
By 9.27.17
After only two years, Target is giving up on a test of offering customers salads, pressed juices, and other supposedly healthy foods. The retailer is closing the handful of Freshii cafes it’s operated in stores since 2015. [More]
Target Raising Minimum Wage To $11/Hour With Promise To Hit $15/Hour By 2020
By 9.25.17
In an attempt to beat Walmart on worker pay (but not go as far as Costco), Target is raising its lowest hourly wage from $10 to $11 starting next month, with plans to increase that base rate up to $15 per hour by 2020. [More]
Target Debuts Maps Of Stores So You Don’t Have To Talk To Employees
By 9.20.17
Big box stores are, well, big. So big, in fact, you might get lost looking for the toilet paper. But instead of sheepishly approaching an employee, you can now just follow the map on your phone — at Target, anyway. [More]
175K Dressers Sold At Target Recalled For Tip-Over Hazard
By 9.14.17
Just a week after more than 1.6 million topple-prone dressers sold at Walmart were recalled, Target has issued a safety campaign of its own, recalling 175,000 potentially dangerous dressers. [More]
Target Slashing Prices On Thousands Of Items As Amazon Heats Up Grocery Wars
By 9.8.17
As Amazon heats up the grocery store wars with new discounts at Whole Foods — which has been bringing in more shoppers since the companies became one — Target is fighting back by promising to cut prices on thousands of items. [More]
Mom Spots 2-Year-Old In Hot Car At Target, Alerts Police
By 8.31.17
Even though summer is winding down, temperatures can still be pretty hot, and it’s especially dangerous to leave children or pets behind in your car. That’s why it was fortunate that one shopper at an Ontario, CA, Target store happened to notice a small child in the backseat of a locked car in the store’s parking lot. [More]
Target Goes After Costco, Trader Joe’s With New $5 Wines
By 8.28.17
All around the country, thrifty wine drinkers pop into their local Trader Joe’s for a bottle of Two-Buck Chuck wine, or pack up their massive Costco trolley with some Kirkland Signature vino. But Chuck and Kirk have a new competitor for that discount drink dollar: Target, which has just unveiled its own line of $5 wines. [More]
Judge Throws Out Dozens Of Lawsuits Over Cellulose In ‘100% Grated Parmesan Cheese’
By 8.24.17
The recent revelation that your grated parmesan cheese might contain some cellulose powder led to dozens of lawsuits against Kraft Heinz, Walmart, Target, Albertsons, Publix, and others, alleging that these companies misled shoppers with labels that declared “100% grated parmesan” or something similar. But today the federal judge overseeing all these disputes dismissed the lawsuits, saying that people should read the labels on the food they buy. [More]
Target’s Efforts To Bring Customers Back Are Starting To Pay Off
By 8.16.17
For the last year or so, Target, America’s other national big-box discount store, has been struggling. Its leaders blamed falling sales on shoppers renovating their houses, on lower traffic to pharmacies after they were sold to CVS, and on customers’ general disinterest in shopping. In the last year, Target refocused on fundamentals instead of retail innovations, and that has paid off in more customer traffic and improved sales. [More]
Target Buys Shipping Tech Company To Speed Up Deliveries, Compete With Amazon
By 8.14.17
From drones to airplanes, and fleets of on-demand delivery drivers or employees dropping off packages, many retailers — most notably Amazon — have begun dipping they toes in the logistics and delivery game. Now it’s Target’s turn, as the big box retailer has acquired a transportation tech firm with the intention of speeding up deliveries to customers. [More]
Target To Partner With Online Dog Supplies Retailer Bark, Carry Items In Stores
By 8.10.17
Maybe it’s suddenly time for subscription services and big-box discount stores to be pals. After yesterday’s report that Walmart may be in talks with beauty products subscription service Birchbox, today we learned Bark, a pet supplies company best known for its Barkbox subscription service, has made a deal with Target to put its products in stores. [More]
Instead Of Busing College Students To Stores, Target Opens New Locations, Tests Pickup Options
By 7.31.17
As back to school season kicks into high gear, retailers across the country are competing to fill students’ backpacks with supplies and adorn their dorm rooms with TV, mini-refrigerators, and other college-esque paraphernalia. Target just happens to be one of those retailers, and the big box store is upping its back to school game by opening smaller format stores, offering new pickup options, and hosting pop-up shops on campuses. [More]
Which Major Retailers Sort Their Toy Departments By Gender?
By 7.25.17 — Updated: 7.26.17
While some toy companies have been giving up on long-held preconceptions about gender-specific products in recent years, we were curious how this was affecting retailers, so we checked out a few of the big chains. Here’s how the major stores sort their toy departments so you can shop by your preference. [More]
