Commuters arriving at Grand Central Station in New York on Monday morning got a full blast of Target Corp.'s "Expect More" motto when they encountered the equivalent of a supercharged pop-up store.
Called the Dollhouse, the 1,600-square-foot replica of a house — complete with bedrooms, patios, and kitchen — features 3,500 items from Target's Threshold housewares collection, including bedding, dishes, and towels.
"Putting our Threshold collection in a house would be the most natural setting to showcase the brand," said Julie Guggemos, Target's vice president of product design and development. "Dollhouse invites people into it to experience the product, to touch and feel it."
Target is known for heavily promoting its exclusive collaborations with designers and musicians like Prabel Gurung and Justin Timberlake. But this project represents one of the retailer's most ambitious attempts to plug a store brand, one of several private label merchandise lines created by Target's 1,000-strong internal design staff.
In addition to Threshold, Target's other store brands include Mossimo, Market Pantry and Archer Farms.
Planting the store smack in the middle of Vanderbilt Hall during rush hour probably required Target to pull a few strings, so to speak. Fortunately for Target, the retailer is the official sponsor of Grand Central Station's 100th anniversary celebration.
Workers built the Dollhouse in Queens and then moved the structure to Grand Central where it took them three days to assemble it.
In a further nod to Target's focus on multichannel retailing, the house has two dozen products shoppers can purchase by using smartphones to scan a QR code. Target.com will later ship the product.
The Dollhouse will remain up until Tuesday.
Thomas Lee • 612-673-4113
