Target boosts groceries, nixes gardening items

The Minneapolis-based discounter known for trendy clothes and stylish home decor now is now beefing up its stores' supermarket aisles. Target is adding meat, fresh fruits and vegetables, and packaged baked goods such as pies.

Target says it's feeding the demands of its customers, who want increased convenience.

The chain plans to spend $1 billion on remodeling 340 of its stores this year. Target has stores in Annapolis, Glen Burnie, Laurel and Bowie.

Other changes will take place as well. Beauty sections get a makeover with softer lighting and curved fixtures. The home sections will display decor in a way that allows shoppers to more easily envision them in their homes. Video games, now locked away in cases, will be in the open, where customers can touch them.

Meanwhile, Target is phasing out all its garden sections, planning to get rid of them by September. It says the garden areas are no longer profitable. A few gardening items will still be sold in other areas of the stores.

In the stores getting remodeled, new layouts will devote about 10,000 square feet to food, expanding existing grocery sections by anywhere from 50 to 200 percent. The new sections are still dwarfed by those in SuperTargets, which have about 22,000 square feet for food sales.

Target for a long time has offered basics such as macaroni and cheese and soda. It also has its own food brands, including Archer Farms and Market Pantry, for everything from eggs to maple syrup.

Adding meat, fruits and vegetables will lure existing customers into store more frequently, said Mark Hamstra, an editor at Supermarket News. "They don't need new clothes from Target once or twice a week," he said.

Gwen Comfort is one of the customers Target is aiming for. Comfort said she stops into Target every few weeks for housewares and other odds and ends. "If I could get groceries, I would probably come a little more often," she said.

But Comfort, 48, of Apopka, Fla., said she probably would not do all her shopping there because she doubts Target would have all the specialty items she likes.

Kristin Butler of Altamonte Springs, Fla., said she can't wait for the expanded grocery section. Last week she had stopped into Target for coloring books and other toys, and stopped into the grocery aisle for milk, crackers and Juicy Juice.

"It's just easier for a one-stop shop," said Butler, 28, the mother of three young boys. "If I could get what I need here, I would be all about that."

Target is not the only retailer trying the strategy. Drugstore chain CVS is doubling the number of groceries on its shelves in about 3,000 of its stores, including some of the 10 so in Anne Arundel County and on Kent Island.

While drugstores' sections will remain places people make quick stops, Hamstra said some shoppers will likely begin doing the majority of their grocery shopping at the remodeled Targets.

Still, Target faces some challenges, Hamstra said. Groceries don't generate as much profit as general merchandise, partly because they have to be replaced so often. The heavy turnover of produce and meat requires more work - and often, more employees - to keep the shelves stocked and neat.

Target is moving toward doing more of its own food distribution, rather than relying on retailer Supervalu as it has in the past.

"That should help them," Hamstra said. "That should make it a little bit more economical for them."

Target has a number of competitors in food sales. The list includes traditional supermarkets, such as Publix and Safeway, and no-frills Aldi, which stocks its shelves with almost all generic products.

And of course, there's Wal-Mart, which Hamstra said now accounts for about 20 percent of grocery sales nationwide. Wal-Mart is No. 1 on Supermarket News' largest 75 food retailers for 2009. Target doesn't even make the list.

Target's sales in established stores lagged behind Wal-Mart's during much of the recession, as customers stayed away from the trendier apparel and looked for rock-bottom prices. That trend, though, has reversed recently.

Target's niche, Hamstra said, will be "basically the same shopper they (already) appeal to ... someone who wants to save money but is a little bit more concerned about style, fashion, trends than the typical Wal-Mart shopper."