Target turning to fresh food to feed empty aisles
Filed under: Company News, Economy
When I was pregnant with my first child, and as a newish mother of young children, the aisles of Target (TGT) were my tonic, antidote for withdrawal from my designer label shopping addiction. I would wander the store, always marveling at the number of other pregnant women and parents with small kids, whiling away the hours through consumption. Have credit card and full SUV tank, will spend an idle $200 at Target. But now? Target is my cautionary tale. I advise other parents looking to reduce their spending and re-think the concept of "disposable income" to avoid Target and Costco. Those $5 seasonal t-shirts and array of cute candles and fashionable lampshades are the enemies of frugality. Today, I stick to the food co-op and farmer's market for my groceries, hopeful I'll avoid the temptation to buy all that extra "stuff" by shopping only where the necessities are.It looks like I'm not alone in my changing shopping habits, as Target's same-store sales fell 2.9 percent last year. The solution to the drop? Fresh food, to reel in people like me who do, after all, still need to eat. According to Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel, the best way to beat a recession is to give people strapped for cash the one thing they're always buying, no matter what (and hopefully they'll pick up that $5 tee because, after all, it reminds them of their flush days). "That's the power of this. This concept is not cyclical," he says.
Fresh food may not be cyclical, but Target's superstore strategy is. In 1995, the company unveiled its first SuperTarget, which offered a full grocery store in conjunction with its regular toys-clothes-books-electronics-home extravaganza. Now there are 245, although the company found it difficult to find more locations that would support such a huge concept. A better strategy for trying times: a mini-grocery to attract convenience-minded shoppers who, after all, aren't complaining about the bargain prices for toilet paper, diapers, and Thomas trains. (You know, necessities.)
A new slogan proclaims, "Eat Well. Pay Less," (a nod to "Expect More. Pay Less," says The Wall Street Journal, although I wonder if it isn't also a nod to Michael Pollan's famous "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants," which advises readers to, among other things, eat fresh produce instead of packaged convenience food.) To speed up checkout, produce is separately packaged and bar-coded; as the WSJ mentions, "even individual potatoes come wrapped in plastic."
But here's another thing: this strategy, unfortunately, misses the mark entirely for the customers who have stopped shopping because of a growing concern over their wasteful consumption habits. We look at Target the way a recovering alcoholic looks at a favorite pub; with fondness, but also, a little horror. Do you remember the way we were when we'd wake up in a pile of our own plastic bags? we'll say to ourselves, shivering at the thought. And when our idea of a good time was to buy enormous plastic seasonal toys, knowing they'd be in the trash pile by the end of the summer?
Consumers who have turned away from Target as a temple to over-packaged, heedless consumption will not come back for (seriously?) carrots and heads of lettuce individually wrapped in plastic. Are the bananas individually wrapped, too? No, don't answer that, it's going to have me breaking out in cold sweats.
This strategy is temporary at best, a half-considered concept that needs a serious overhaul before it will save the store. And please, Target, think before you add even more plastic to our materials economy.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
5-13-2009 @ 7:54AM
FOURDOGSLAUGHING said...
want fresh food ??? grow your own veggies !!
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5-13-2009 @ 8:10AM
chassadyz said...
the 2.9% fall in sales...it was me lol i quit shopping!
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5-13-2009 @ 8:32AM
w said...
I love target! go there every week sometimes twice. cant beat the prices and the value of the products.
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5-13-2009 @ 8:38AM
Tiffany said...
I love target. I stopped shopping at walmart recently because it became very personal how bad they treat their employees and how much they really do want to take down every other store that gives people jobs. So I go to target I think the super tagets are awesome and needed.
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5-13-2009 @ 8:39AM
Anonymous said...
Being a Target employee, what a joke! Targets selection in clothing, yuck! I find better prices at Walmart, for most things and many items are the same name brand. And a whopping 10% employee discount, Walmart is still cheaper. Oh and they pay their employee's more too! But hey, it's a job, right? Do not let the CEO's of Target fool you, by saying their sales are down! They are not! In their everyday huddles, 6 out of 7 days a week, we hear how sales exceeded projected sales dollars, based on last years "numbers" by THOUSANDSSSSS. Then let me mention an employee's pay at Target, that is another joke. Make a little over minimum wage, they only give raises once a year and they didn't give out anything over 10 cents, to all the co-workers I talked too. Oh and you do not get a pay increase after your 90 probationary period. So recession? hardly! Only for the "low person, employee" on the totem pole at Target.
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5-13-2009 @ 8:47AM
shine said...
I like both comments....stop shopping, use cash for what you need and not what you want, grow what you can and recycle the rest....
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5-13-2009 @ 8:57AM
DH said...
I hate Target with a passion. People think Walmart treats their employees badly, they have NO idea just how ruthless and cut-throat Target is all the while bragging all over the place about how they give so much money away to charity.
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5-13-2009 @ 12:03PM
Niki said...
This is true. I cannot tell you all the times I got in trouble for helping a customer ("guest") They want you stocking, zoning (cleaning), getting people to sign up for yet another credit card they dont need, and in your spot at all times. So while everyone else was being good, I was being bad by running all over the sales floor answering help calls, checking the back to CONFIRM that we actually had these items in stock, and that the computer wasnt lying, even pulling these items because the stock room employees were either too busy, or didnt know what they were doing. Since I was the only BAD employee ("team member') customers ("guests") would actually look all over the store for me, even have someone radio for me because they knew that if they needed help, I would be the only one whod do it. ...this of course would get me in trouble more as they never assigned me a section where help was needed. Its pretty sad that someone two feet from you doesnt want to help you because despite only being two feet away, its not their department, the neighboring one is.
5-13-2009 @ 9:19AM
A mom said...
This article is so damn stupid, there are a HUNDRED more expensive worse places to drop you money, even overspending at the supermarket, mall, entertainment, etc etc etc. Target is the least of my spending worries.
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5-13-2009 @ 9:22AM
sally said...
i never see enough ppl in target to warrent all the work and money target will be putting in fresh foods... they dont last all that long so who will buy them so they can keep it all frest
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5-13-2009 @ 9:55AM
Target Sucks said...
I have never been 'onboard' with the terrible customer nonservice policy that this chain has on returns. I've seen people turned away when they only wanted a different size shirt but didn't have the receipt. The Tarbutt motto should be 'Their Way - Or The Highway'. Any other retailer (Sears, Wal Mart, JCP) won't give you such a hard time over a simple exchange, but for some reason Tarbutt thinks that if you don't have a receipt then you are automatically a thief.\
I have been pointing out how Tarbutt Sucks for 4 years now on my blog. I was sued for 23 months by them demanding that I remove blog content. They spent over $250,000 but had NO LUCK. The case was tossed out of Federal Court in Atlanta 7/16/08. The blog remains: http://targetfiling.blogspot.com
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5-13-2009 @ 10:00AM
Target Lover said...
Our Target's food prices are lower than all the other food stores in the area. I shop Target's grocery aisles for a lower total at the register. I seldom walk into the rest of the store, everything I need is on one side of the store. I love Target and will not go elsewhere.
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5-13-2009 @ 3:54PM
linda said...
I find their grocery items are lower than at other places also. I love their home decor department, and some of their clothing, not all. They are expensive with some of their stuff though. I like the store I go to. It was totally rebuilt about 3 or 4 years ago, and is actually still clean, and it also has underground parking and a Starbucks.
5-13-2009 @ 10:00AM
Beth said...
I love Target, but prefer to buy my produce at a local market.
I agree Target.com is great for a lot of things. I buy my bras
there. Their bra brand Gilligan and O'Malley is made by Victoria Secrets!
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5-13-2009 @ 10:02AM
BJ said...
I love shopping at Target, but I totally dislike the veggies wrapped in plastic!!! I will NOT buy them, I will go elsewhere to buy my squash and other veggies that are wrapped in plastic. This enviroment does NOT need more plastic to end up in the landfills or our oceans to kill our whales or dolphins or other precious wildlife. I would like to see Target and other grocery chains stop using plastic altogether. paper bags are maybe more expensive but in the end are much better for the enviroment. Wake up Target and other retailers. We do not need more plastic!!!
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5-13-2009 @ 11:16AM
bengibforprez said...
You are so right, but I got one better for you: the reusable totes that most groceries offer for about .99 cents apiece. A lot of groceries will give you a few cents credit on your bill for using them, too. I live in Seattle, and the powers that be here are actually considering placing a small tax on plastic bags where you would pay .20 cents extra for your groceries were you not to provide your own. This is good enough incentive for me, and for a vital cause. Also the proceeds will go to enviromental issues and research. I really hope that Seattle and other places around the country will turn this idea into a reality soon.
5-13-2009 @ 10:08AM
Jimmy said...
I can't stand these fluff pieces about this stupid store. If you want to find out about how bad they are just look at the various computer message boards where employees and customers post their complaints. Just 'google' the term Target Corporation to find them, or look at: http://targetfiling.blogspot.com/
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5-13-2009 @ 10:14AM
BJ said...
I agree with your comment about Target treating employees badly at times, as a current employee, I see this on a daily basis, the higher-ups do not treat you with any respect, they tell you to jump and you are supposed to ask "how high?"
There never seems to be enough employees around to get the job done these days so you are expected to do the job of several employees, yet there are always a few employees who always seem to be standing around doing nothing or going on a break, I can't figure out how they can justify their position or their paychecks but come payday, these employees are always there to pick up theirs.
But when it comes to charity, Target does give back to the community in a BIG way, what they seem to forget is that charity begins at HOME!!!!!
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5-13-2009 @ 9:06PM
mini said...
dear sarah: i don't know who or what you are promoting, but leave my Target alone and get a life.................
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5-13-2009 @ 10:52AM
BJ said...
mini: who is sarah?? I haven't seen a post from her?