Target tests new design, layout in N.J. prototype

UNION, N.J. —Target’s latest prototype in Union, N.J., showcases retro-modern architecture and a modular layout. Featured as a powerhouse triplet alongside Best Buy and a new-generation Whole Foods Market in a long, singular facade perpendicular to a major local thoroughfare, Route 124, the Union Target’s major difference is immediately noticeable—the airy, apparel-focused layout that had been typical to Target is gone.

Apparel now shares front, center space with home/stationary and continues rearwards with sportswear, maternity and women’s, actually proceeding down one side wall to fitting rooms in the rear corner, and men’s wear along the back wall. On the center aisle’s far side, cards, party and school/office supplies share front, center space with small electrics, kitchenware and tabletop. Aisles are the key to sightlines, and even line up departments.

In a front-of-store aisle, looking to one side wall gives customers a view of jewelry and accessories through to photo. The other side provides a panorama of cosmetics, health and beauty aids, and consumables to the front and stationary/home opposite, leading to an elaborate pantry. Two aisles quarter the center store. Looking rearwards, a shopper sees the service desk in electronics.

From the center point, one side view is past boys’ and hosiery on one side and infant/toddler and intimate apparel on the other to sportswear. Looking to the other side of the store, the view is through home storage and furniture on one side, bath and bedding on the other through to dry grocery.

During Target’s fourth-quarter conference call in November 2007, ceo Gregg Steinhafel said that changes to floor plans have been incremental, even as the retailer gears up for cyclical prototype adjustment. “We update our existing prototypes on an ongoing basis,” he noted.

“We have evolutionary change in virtually every cycle of new stores, and then about every fifth year, we have a more substantive change… We’ve been focused on our prototype evolution for end of this year and early ’09… We’re making some architectural element changes, some visual element changes, but overall, I would just basically tell you it will be a better version of the existing formats,” stated Steinhafel.