Target Opening Additional Small Stores In NYC And Chicago

Target has announced it is opening additional small-scale stores in New York City (NYC) and Chicago.

In 2016, the company announced it had opened 23 “flex-format” stores — smaller stores less than 50,000 square feet designed for urban shoppers — in metro areas like Chicago, Philadelphia and Berkeley, California.

Target CEO, Brian Cornell, explained at the time that Target planned to open “hundreds” of these smaller locations across the country in the coming years that will cater to local customers and their neighborhoods, and serve as pick-up locations for online purchases.

According to Retail Dive, Target committed more than $7 billion to a variety of initiatives, including the small-format stores.

Three NYC neighborhoods — the Upper East Side, Staten Island and Astoria, Queens — will be home to three new, small-format stores. In addition, another small-format store in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood will open this summer.

The Upper East Side store (70th Street and Third Avenue) and the Staten Island store will open in 2019, while the Astoria location, at Ditmars Boulevard and 23rd Avenue, will open in 2022. The store sizes will range between 22,000 and 47,000 square feet and feature services like CVS Pharmacy and Order Pickup.

The stores are part of Target’s plan to construct 130 across the country by the end of 2019 in urban, suburban and college campus areas. These latest stores are in addition to previously announced small-format stores in NYC’s East Village and Lower East Side neighborhoods, which are opening this summer. And other locations will open in Hell’s Kitchen, Jackson Heights, Queens and Brooklyn’s Midwood in 2019.

Ray Hartjen, director of marketing at RetailNext, told Retail Dive, “Paramount for the success of Target’s smaller-format stores is to expand upon shoppers’ baskets with non-grocery items. While the stores might draw the grocery and prepared-foods shopper, perhaps an entirely new shopper to the Target brand, their success will likely ultimately depend on the conversion of non-grocery products.”