Target and Other Big Box Stores Bet on Small Urban Outposts

Almost a year ago, we noted that traditionally suburban big box stores were scaling down and targeting Main Street in order to appeal to customers with a different, more mom-and-pop retail style.  Now, The New York Times reports, those same retailers are taking that approach and applying it to gain entry in urban areas.  Some businesses are adjusting their models to better suit customers’ needs, while others have been more overtly forced to play by cities’ rules in order to gain a foothold.  Via smaller stores and even smaller packaging, here’s how the national behemoths are changing their models for a metropolitan mindset:
Duane Reade appeals to youthful urban populations with its high-end beauty department, “Look.”

Target is working with a new model called “City Target.”  (Three opened yesterday, in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Seattle.) Besides being half the size of most Target stores, their products are packaged with apartment dwellers in mind.  Cutting back on bulk makes sense in urban markets.  What’s interesting about this approach is that it’s the exact opposite of what Target did in New York City eight years ago, when it opened a 192,000 square feet store in Brooklyn’s Atlantic Center.  Besides being one of the largest of its locations in the country, the company hailed the outpost as its first “metropolitan store,” while opening it in what is essentially an urban simulacrum of a suburban mall.  Despite a consistent yearly bottom line, the retailer seems to be moving away from its original city approach with forthcoming urban stores.