The Street reports that Target “plans to make a major shift in its grocery section” – it wants to be a specialty grocer.
“Target’s Chief Merchandise Officer Cara Sylvester explained the chain’s grocery strategy during its fourth-quarter earnings call,” the story says.
“‘We’re focused on what’s next, strengthening Target’s unique identity when it comes to food. We are not trying to be an everything grocer or just another grocer down the street. Instead, we’re building a truly distinctive grocery destination where emerging brands, wellness and owned brands intersect,’ she said.
“Abandoning the ‘everything grocer’ idea means admitting that your customers will shop at rival chains, something most large-scale stores try to prevent.
“Target has a different plan.
“‘Put another way, we’re bringing even more of our style and design authority to food for families looking for fun trend-forward options, whether it’s for lunch box snacks or a Tuesday night dinner. That’s why we’re delivering newness at twice the industry’s rate,’ she shared … ‘We’re also investing meaningfully in the in-store food experience because shopping for food at Target should feel distinctly Target, delightful, joyful, unlike what you’ll find anywhere else,’ she said.”
KC’s View:
I’m sorry, but mark me down as dubious.
The thing is, it isn’t easier to be an effective specialty food retailer. It’s harder. And I will remind you that eight months ago, when I visited a just-opened Target store, I found it already to be suffering from nobody-gives-a-damn disease, and the worst symptoms could be found in the grocery section. I think I used the phrase, “depressing, dispiriting, mediocre retailing experience.”
“Soulless” would be another good word – and the one thing a good or great specialty food retailer has to have is soul. It has to have taste, a perspective, a commitment to challenging its customers taste buds and imaginations. It has to be focused on culinary innovation.
Think Dorothy Lane Market. Think Bristol Farms. Think Zupan’s. Think Northgate Gonzales Market. Think Whole Foods (with which I have my own issues) or Sprouts.All of these stores represent the high bar set by the country’s best specialty food stores.
Some are suggesting that Trader Joe’s is the model that Target will try to mimic going forward, but I think that would be foolhardy – that format has been honed and perfected over decades, and brings enormous and specific credibility to the marketplace. None of which Target has at this point.
If Target really wants to try something different, what it ought to do is license out its grocery sections to Trader Joe’s in the same way that it got out of the HBC/Rx business and licensed out those sections to CVS. Or, quite frankly, it could abandon its “specialty food” ambitions and just license out its grocery sections to Aldi, Lidl or Dollar General. Or Sprouts. Those banners would be traffic generators, and would instantly differentiate Target stores from Walmart’s, while maintaining a value-centric approach that makes sense in the current environment and fits into Target’s broader ethic, such as it is.
There’s nothing delightful, joyful, or special about shopping at Target, and I would argue that Target’s apparent decision to shift to a more specialized grocery approach is the result of throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks – and in Target’s case, it is mass market, lowest-common-denominator spaghetti.
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