Target opens its first-ever 'receive center'
Target Corp. has unveiled a new type of facility in its supply chain network.
The discount giant has opened its first-ever "receive center," located in Houston. The $265 million facility intakes products directly from its global vendors and holds the product until it’s needed elsewhere, replenishing inventory in response to store and customer demand.
The 1.2 million-sq.-ft. hub will service six regional distribution centers and one flow center, helping replenish the inventory that then goes to stores. The receive center is positioned between Target’s import warehouses in Georgia and Washington and is designed to complement those coastal facilities by adding regionally based capacity to helping the retailer distribute products faster and at a lower cost due to shorter distances traveled.
In addition, by adding capacity at an earlier stage in its supply chain, Target intends to wait to distribute inventory until the moment it's needed, ultimately helping prevent distribution centers and store backrooms from getting overcrowded.
Target sees having this expanded capacity as particularly beneficial for items that are seasonal, bulky, challenging to forecast, or have long lead times. The retailer also seeks to be able to secure popular items, such as trending toys for the holiday season, earlier on from vendors to help ensure it stocks the most relevant assortment during rush sales periods.
Design
Target noted that one of the other innovative aspects of the new hub is how it was designed. Target supply chain teams designed the facility using immersive 3D visualization and simulation technology at the company's XR Experience Center in Minneapolis.
Although Target has used the technology over the past several years to design and remodel properties, it was the first time it was used end to end in the design process to create a 3D digital model of the facility before construction began. This allowed teams to pressure test layouts, processes and operational flow in a virtual environment before building anything on the ground.
Target expects the center to create 185 new jobs in Houston, with several new stores and remodels throughout the greater Houston area also scheduled for this year. The receive center marks Target’s first new supply chain facility concept since it piloted the concept of its sortation center model — which streamlines the process of fulfilling and delivering online orders, removing the sorting process from the backroom of stores — in April 2021 in its Minneapolis hometown.
Target now operates at least 12 sortation centers across the U.S. as part of the retailer’s larger "stores as hubs" strategy which enables it to fulfill online orders from local stores. In November 2025, the retailer began piloting a sortation center that will enable next-day delivery of online orders activated by its Shipt delivery subsidiary in the Cleveland metro area.
[READ MORE: Target pilots Shipt-only sortation center]
Headquartered in Minneapolis, Target operates more than 2,000 stores across the United States.
