Target Expands This Sunday
Discount retailer Target Corporation will open
23 new U.S. stores on Sunday, July 26, 2009. The new locations will include 17 general merchandise stores with expanded food options, four general merchandise stores, and two SuperTarget stores with full grocery sections.
Target, which will operate 1,719 stores in 49 states as of July 26, says the new store openings will create 4,000 jobs. Each general merchandise store employs 100-250 associates and is approximately 127,000 square feet, while each expanded food format store employs 100-250 associates and is approximately 135,000 square feet. Each SuperTarget employs 200-300 associates and is approximately 186,000 square feet.
Target opened
27 new stores, including its first two Hawaii locations, in March 2009. During Q1 2009,
Target reported a 13% drop in net earnings. However, net sales increased by 0.4%, which Target partially attributed to new store openings. In February 2009, Target enhanced
its assortment of dry, dairy and frozen food products, as well as added perishable goods to its product mix, in an attempt to improve sales, capture market share and increase profitability by beefing up its perishable assortment. Target said it would redesign most of its new and remodeled stores to reflect the increased presence of perishable grocery goods and launched an advertising campaign to promote the new product strategy, which continues with 19 of the new stores offering expanded or full grocery assortments.
The U.S. segment of Target’s chief rival Wal-Mart
performed better in its Q1 2010, which ended April 30, 2009, than Target did in its Q1 2009. In its U.S. segment, Wal-Mart reported a 3.8% increase in net sales, and also reported a same-store sales increase of 3.6% and an operating income increase of 3.3%. Wal-Mart has also been consistently beating Target in monthly
same-store sales. During April 2009, the last month Wal-Mart released individual monthly same-store sales figures before switching to a quarterly reporting format, Wal-Mart’s U.S. same-store sales increased 5.9%, compared to a 0.3% increase at Target.
Last October, Wal-Mart
announced plans to open 142 to 157 new or expanded stores during the 2010 fiscal year (begun February 2009) in the U.S. Meanwhile, in the same month Target said it would scale planned store openings in 2009 back to 70, and make unspecified reductions in its planned 2010 store openings.
