Target blurring lines between regular and "Super" stores

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Brian Lutz
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Target blurring lines between regular and "Super" stores

Post by Brian Lutz »

There are no SuperTarget stores in Washington, Oregon or Idaho that I know of, although a significant number of Targets have added (or been built with) moderate-sized grocery departments in the past few years (no fresh meats or produce.) Given what I would assume to be a significant expense on store remodeling in order to put even that in, I can't see any SuperTarget stores showing up here anytime soon. Even Wal Mart supercenters are relatively uncommon here though (and often subject to massive union opposition if they try to build more. In Wenatchee, there was actually an attempt to get a court to order a completed Wal-Mart store demolished before it could even be opened. It was, of course, rejected.)
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Re: Albertsons Exiting Utah

Post by Alpha8472 »

Target is already adding fresh produce, baked goods, and fresh meat to their regular Target stores. It is blurring the line between Super Target and regular Target stores. The selection of produce is in plastic bags, but they do carry the most popular produce items.
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Re: Albertsons Exiting Utah

Post by Brian Lutz »

The Targets here do have some baked goods, but their selection is minimal at best. The only meat products available are frozen/prepackaged ones, and I haven't seen any produce. This is probably because there is no distribution in place for those items around here at this time.
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Re: Albertsons Exiting Utah

Post by Super S »

Brian Lutz wrote:There are no SuperTarget stores in Washington, Oregon or Idaho that I know of, although a significant number of Targets have added (or been built with) moderate-sized grocery departments in the past few years (no fresh meats or produce.) Given what I would assume to be a significant expense on store remodeling in order to put even that in, I can't see any SuperTarget stores showing up here anytime soon. Even Wal Mart supercenters are relatively uncommon here though (and often subject to massive union opposition if they try to build more. In Wenatchee, there was actually an attempt to get a court to order a completed Wal-Mart store demolished before it could even be opened. It was, of course, rejected.)
A lot of Targets are in strip malls, that fact alone makes expansion difficult. It seems like a lot of the newer ones though are being built as standalone units, those could be easilly expanded. Wal-Mart built a lot of standalone stores for this very reason. Wal-Mart does not have a strong supercenter presence here, I think Fred Meyer has more stores, and Target seems to be clustered along the I-5 corridor. I could see Target moving toward SuperTargets if they get enough properties that could be easily expanded. I have noticed too that they have added some frozen foods, but not enough to be a serious competitor.
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Re: Albertsons Exiting Utah

Post by Alpha8472 »

The produce is gradually being introduced into stores.

Here is a Minneapolis regular Target store with a Produce and Meat Department.
The Meat is on the left and salads are on the right:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21241102@N00/3776951146/
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Re: Target blurring lines between regular and "Super" stores

Post by submariner »

Looks like we were veering into a new topic, so I split these off...
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Re: Target blurring lines between regular and "Super" stores

Post by romleys »

Whatever happened to Target "Greatland"? There was one in San Mateo but the "Greatland" signs were removed. The store is San Ramon still has the "Greatland" signage although the garden center was closed in 2004 with an expanded grocery department (frozen foods) and a pharmacy added into the portion of the building.
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Re: Target blurring lines between regular and "Super" stores

Post by Alpha8472 »

The Target Greatland format has been phased out. The last Target Greatland opened up in Antioch, California in 2007. The first Target Greatland opened in 1990.

Target Greatland was used for stores larger than 150,000 square feet. They had a greater selection of merchandise than regular Target stores pre-2004. Greatland stores did not carry a full line of groceries like Super Target stores.

Target Greatland stores can be identified by the double entrances. There are two large entrances separated by a great distance.

However, these days Target is just building regular Target stores with an expanded selection of merchandise including expanded groceries. Existing Target Greatland stores are slowly getting remodeled and the Greatland signs are being removed.

In the case of the San Ramon store, I believe they figured that expanded groceries and a Pharmacy were a more profitable use of the floor space than a Garden Department.
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Re: Target blurring lines between regular and "Super" stores

Post by Brian Lutz »

The Target here in Redmond opened as a Greatland store (I believe 1996 was when it first opened) with the double entrances. I remember reading at the time that it opened that this particular store was the largest Target west of the Mississippi when it opened, and I can't ever recall there being any other Greatland stores around here. The Greatland branding on the store (little more than the sign on the front of the building really) went away during a total remodel of the store between 2006-2007, and I believe that there are at least a couple of newer Targets in the area of a similar size to this one. None have the double entrances though.
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Re: Target blurring lines between regular and "Super" stores

Post by Alpha8472 »

The Target in my city was demolished and rebuilt all within the timeframe of several months in 1999. It was amazingly fast and created a double decker building with the store on top of a parking garage. Also a standalone Garden Center building was built.

When it opened it was one of the biggest Target stores in Northern California, but it was not a Greatland. It only had one entrance. Technically, it also had an underground parking lot entrance, but it was not the widely separated double entrance that Greatland stores have.

The difference between regular Target and Greatland only had to do with the double entrances. The San Ramon Target Greatland to the south was slightly smaller than the new regular Target.
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