Target Closing 2 Small Stores in the San Francisco Bay Area

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Alpha8472
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Target Closing 2 Small Stores in the San Francisco Bay Area

Post by Alpha8472 »

One San Francisco store and one Cupertino store will close. These are tiny 35 employee stores. The Cupertino store is in an affluent area in the same city as Apple's Headquarters.
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Re: Target Closing 2 Small Stores in the San Francisco Bay Area

Post by babs »

Alpha8472 wrote: March 30th, 2021, 12:31 pm One San Francisco store and one Cupertino store will close. These are tiny 35 employee stores. The Cupertino store is in an affluent area in the same city as Apple's Headquarters.
Doesn't surprise me. It's going to take some time to find the right mix of location and merchandising for what is essentially a new chain.
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Re: Target Closing 2 Small Stores in the San Francisco Bay Area

Post by lake52 »

Alpha8472 wrote: March 30th, 2021, 12:31 pm One San Francisco store and one Cupertino store will close. These are tiny 35 employee stores. The Cupertino store is in an affluent area in the same city as Apple's Headquarters.
The San Francisco store is also within walking distance of the Stonestown store which is currently being expanded into the former Nordstrom. IMO the Stonestown store is a much better location to begin with.

Cuptertino also has a full sized store within relative walking distance. They probably were hoping this store would capitalize off the Vallco redevelopment which is progressing, but very slowly. Maybe they’ll try again once that starts to open.
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Re: Target Closing 2 Small Stores in the San Francisco Bay Area

Post by storewanderer »

Both of these locations seemed kind of redundant. One side of me says it is a sign the small format may be failing. But these locations seem redundant, why would someone go to them with full size Targets nearby that held longer hours and a larger product mix?

I am still not sure the drugstore-sized Target works. I don't think it is consistent with consumer expectations of Target.

I wonder if the leases ended or they will be paying rent on dark stores.
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Re: Target Closing 2 Small Stores in the San Francisco Bay Area

Post by pseudo3d »

I think they really blew it with trying to rebrand CityTarget, et. al. as just Target, because the brand, once known for consistent stores (usually around 100k square feet, give or take 20k) is now pushing out these tiny stores and stores that are less-tiny (a 70k-ish one squeezed into a former supermarket, for example, in Houston).

The major supermarkets (which have well under 100k square feet as an average size) almost never build tiny stores like that with the same name, most of the "tiny stores" that supermarkets have (and until relatively recently, JCPenney as well) are all legacy stores from prior to 1960.
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Re: Target Closing 2 Small Stores in the San Francisco Bay Area

Post by buckguy »

They come in different sizes, some as small as 20K sf. The whole point is to do a "line extension" rather than the expense of launching a new chain and competing against yourself usually fails. I've seen at least one that seems set-up to do a lot of pick-up for online sales. I wouldn't be surprised if pick-up of high demand items from online sales would be one of the niches they hope to fill with these.
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Re: Target Closing 2 Small Stores in the San Francisco Bay Area

Post by mjhale »

buckguy wrote: March 31st, 2021, 4:30 pm They come in different sizes, some as small as 20K sf. The whole point is to do a "line extension" rather than the expense of launching a new chain and competing against yourself usually fails. I've seen at least one that seems set-up to do a lot of pick-up for online sales. I wouldn't be surprised if pick-up of high demand items from online sales would be one of the niches they hope to fill with these.
Wasn't this the idea behind the Walmart Express locations? Limited selection of popular items but also a hub for online order pickup. Walmart gave up on the Express locations before the upswing in online ordering from coronovirus though. The one small scale Target I visited is one the first floor of a new apartment building across from the University of Maryland campus. It reminded me of a drug store with an oversized grocery section. Not enough for a big shop but enough to get one or two things quickly. This location had an online order pick up counter right inside the door - very prominent. Nice store but why go there when I can go to a full line Target store and get everything I need in one shop.
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Re: Target Closing 2 Small Stores in the San Francisco Bay Area

Post by kr.abs.swy »

I have family that lives within walking distance of the San Diego City Target, or Target, or whatever they call it. They love it. They can walk to it, they can be in and out of it quickly, and it seems to have the stuff they need despite the smaller footprint. I've been in that store a couple of times and was pleasantly surprised at how they had managed to curate down their normal selection and still make it feel like they had a comprehensive offering without making the store feel crowded. That store isn't that much bigger than a typical CVS or Walgreen's but is much more useful in that neighborhood.
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Re: Target Closing 2 Small Stores in the San Francisco Bay Area

Post by storewanderer »

kr.abs.swy wrote: March 31st, 2021, 5:08 pm I have family that lives within walking distance of the San Diego City Target, or Target, or whatever they call it. They love it. They can walk to it, they can be in and out of it quickly, and it seems to have the stuff they need despite the smaller footprint. I've been in that store a couple of times and was pleasantly surprised at how they had managed to curate down their normal selection and still make it feel like they had a comprehensive offering without making the store feel crowded. That store isn't that much bigger than a typical CVS or Walgreen's but is much more useful in that neighborhood.
I agree with this. The store has a better depth of products than a drugstore by far and focused on much better margin products overall. But I am not sure if these stores are actually generating enough sales... also not sure how the logistics of running small stores, supplying small stores, etc. pencil out financially.
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Re: Target Closing 2 Small Stores in the San Francisco Bay Area

Post by Alpha8472 »

Target said that the stores were closing due to not meeting sales goals. Even with the pandemic, most people do not want to pick up in the store when you can get free shipping directly to your house.
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