FOODDIVE NEWS: Target to Test Smaller "Express" Stores in major Urban Areas

Quick Fact Dive Brief:

• Target is testing a smaller, "Express" format for use in urban environments.
• The first of the new stores, which will be dubbed TargetExpress, will run 20,000 square feet and is slated to open in Minneapolis later this year, just a few miles from corporate headquarters.
• The stores will stock grocery and pharmacy items, as well as a small selection of clothes and home decor.

Dive Insight:

We're big fans of Target. Strangely enough, most city dwellers like us seem to be fans. On those rare occasions when we find ourselves in the suburbs with a car, we make a stop at Target and stock up on — everything.
Just how well that experience would translate if Target was right down the street and served primarily to compete against the local bodega, we cannot say. But perhaps we don't need to. It would appear that nothing is more endangered in America than the corner grocery store. There are a few left in neighborhoods across all of our cities. But they are rapidly being replaced by small-format versions of the monsters of suburban retail and urban versions of the convenience stores that dot rural America.
We're coming to think of the entire phenomenon as the rise of the corporate bodega.

Recommended Reading:
BrandChannel: Target Hopes to Bring Big-Box Experience to Acute Locales with 'Express' Stores

New York Times (subscription required): Target Tests Small Store for Urban Shoppers as Young People Pick Cities Over Suburbs

Convenience Store News: Target to Test Express Format Aimed at Urban Markets

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Topics: Research and Development, Retail

By Paul Conley Jan. 21, 2014