Target, Inc.

Millennials and boomers are driving an urban push

Generations after people deserted cities for the suburbs, young millennial-generation adults and older baby-boomer adults are moving back downtown.

Retailers aren't far behind, and new, seemingly instant neighborhoods — complete with housing, retail, offices and other forms of real estate — are springing up in redevelopment areas of cities across the country.

Widening competition for commodity grocery sales is changing grocery-anchored shopping centers.

Supermarket-anchored shopping centers haven't changed much since the invention of suburbia. Find a good location, sign a grocery anchor, get a construction loan and some inline local, regional and maybe national retailers, and you're in business.

Today, however, supermarkets are beginning to change, and supermarket-anchored shopping centers, of course, must follow along.

Why are grocers changing? Competition from all sides.

New York -- Target Corp. executives discussed the chain’s omni-channel initiatives on the company’s second quarter conference call with investors. Target’s executive VP merchandising and supply chain, Kathryn Tesija highlighted the company's investments in flexible fulfillment, including plans to expand a program allowing customers to buy items online and pick them up at the store the same day, starting in the third quarter.

Minneapolis -- Target Corp. reported that its second quarter profit dropped 13% to $611 million in the quarter ended Aug. 3, down from $704 million a year earlier, amid start-up costs related to its entry into Canada. Total company profits, excluding start-up costs related to Canada, increased 6.1%. Similar to other retailers, the chain issued a muted annual profit forecast as it deals with a still uncertain economy and cautious consumers.

NEW YORK — Canadian shoppers aren’t wowed by Target Corp., according to a customer-satisfaction rating survey by Forum Research. As reported in The Globe and Mail, the survey ranked Target at the bottom of a list of major retailers operating in Canada. (Satisfaction as measured by the survey relates to service, prices and/or merchandise offering.)

Over all, Target scored a mean 2.7 out of 4, compared with Costco’s 3.5, Wal-Mart’s 3.1 and a 3.2 average.

Minneapolis -- Target announced plans to open a store in King of Prussia, Pa., in July 2014. 

The new store, located on West DeKalb Pike, will be part of the Valley Forge Shopping Center. This will be the first Target store in the city of King of Prussia.

“Pennsylvania continues to be a strong market for Target, and we’re eager to expand our presence in the state this year,” said Samir Shah, Target’s senior VP of stores, Northeast. 

RFID has occupied a curious position in the retail IT landscape for the past decade. Most observers acknowledge that RFID holds great potential to offer expanded supply chain visibility and collaboration from source to shelf, but aside from a few high-profile programs run by retail heavyweights like Wal-Mart and Target, RFID’s potential still remains untapped after all these years. That may finally be changing.

By Stephen Springham, senior retail analyst Planet Retail
 
After the horror show of Q1, Walmart had so much to prove domestically in Q2. And it has again come up short. A U.S. comp store decline of 0.3% was below earlier management of a 0.2% decline, guidance that was endorsed as recently as the Annual Shareholder Meeting in June. This marks the second quarter that U.S. comps have been both in negative territory and below guidance. Those accusing Walmart of ‘crying wolf’ in its bullishness (ourselves included) may feel vindicated.