Home heats up

The housing market is still in a funk, but that hasn’t stopped Target’s discount store competitors from elevating their offerings and the level of competition in the home category. Walmart has made tremendous progress with the introduction and relaunch of brands that include Better Homes & Garden, Canopy, Mainstays and the recently introduced Your Zone brand. Meanwhile, just this week Sears Holdings announced a major home initiative with Hearst Magazines to launch a collection of home products under the Country Living brand that will extend to bedding and bath, tabletop, furniture and home decor, will debut this summer in both Kmart and Sears retail stores across the country. The products will be available in more than 1,200 Kmart stores and 500 Sears stores nationwide beginning in August.

The home business has been challenging of late, to say the least, and the resulting weakness has hurt sales and profits at Target. When the housing market improves and demand for home categories rebounds Target will have more competition for sales than it did before the downturn began.