Sad indeed. I love Target. For a discount store, they’ve done a great job on their design and branding. Taking what basically is a store that differentiates on low prices, thier design makes them feel like so much more.

That would be “low-brow” rather than “lwo-brow” by the way.

Target is a great store, and their branding is superb, although I do carry one peeve. While wondering aroun Target the other day I noticed for the first time the “categories” of design that the products are organized into to. Now this may be a good retail strategy, but it forces the products to carry the extreme sterotypes if each “genre”: Contemporary, Modern, Exotic, etc. Of course this would all be fine and ok if all the products under each category were not totally designed to the stereotype. I just beleive they could show much more variation in their design than what the categories allow.

There are things you can find at Target that you can’t find at other discount stores. They were one of the first companies to carry Method soaps for instance. They also have their own lines of products by designers that aren’t carried elsewhere: Isaac Mizrahi, Yves Behar, Michael Graves. I liked that idea of bringing big name designers to the masses. And I’d rather buy a knock-off vintage shirt from Target that an over priced knock off vintage shirt from Urban Outfitters. Urban Outfitters always feels like cheating. (And over paying.) Target makes you feel like you got a great deal. That’s good branding.

As for Starbucks, I miss my beloved Peets (and their really, really strong coffee), but the consistency of the experience at Starbucks (and the lack of great indie coffee stores in DC — the east coast doesn’t do coffee well), I’ll take my Starbucks. And there are plenty of people that think their coffee is better than any. I’m not in that camp. But it definitely is good. And since they offer all their employees benefits, at are concerned with things like fair trade, I can feel a little less guilty.

My local Target (Springfield, MO) was recently renovated, and to answer Adrian’s question, yes, an old Target can be renovated to have that “fancy” feeling. It took a few months of typical “pardon our progress” disarray, but I think it was worth it. I’m still getting used to the books and electronics being in the back of the store, but I love the newly expanded grocery section. I love the Target store brand groceries, mostly for the lovely Archer Farms packaging. And I’m sorry to tell Joe, but the Target stores around here already have Starbucks inside.

i used to live in waterloo, iowa, and the target there has a starbucks in it. i thought it was a common thing, but according to the comments listed above, it doesn’t appear to be. i now live in/near dubuque, iowa, and an odd phenomenon is taking place: HyVee, big-deal-chain-grocer in the midwest/heartland has two stores in Dubuque with Starbucks inside. No biggie, except for the fact that a full-size Starbucks WITH A DRIVE THRU is going up in a strip mall less than 200 yards away. They face each other! They virtually share parking lot space! The new Starbucks is currently under construction, but the jumbo Starbucks cup-sign is already in place. Plaster and master, or death by ubiquity? I know McDonald’s took a huge hit when their idea of putting restaurants on both sides of the same freeway exits proved far more costly than profitable. Either way, my wife loves the idea of the new Starbucks with drive thru: not having to take junior in and out of the carseat makes her coffee experience 10 times better.

I got to this page from here. I work for Target in the Minneapolis market, and have seen stores go through this process before.

Very interesting to see it represented in photos.

I’m wondering though why they took what they took, and left what they left.. They removed the wrap stands, but left the rest of the shelves around the checkout. They left the camera domes in the ceiling..