POINT OF SALE WITH THOMAS LEE
A glimpse of Target's futureAs a rule, I generally don't like to work during vacation. But last week, I was walking through downtown San Francisco with a friend and stumbled across one of Target Corp.'s new CityTarget formats, set to open next year in San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle and L.A.'s Westwood neighborhood.
The smaller stores, which focus more on everyday essentials, are about 60,000 to 100,000 square feet, compared with the usual 125,000- to 180,000-square-foot big-box locations.
CityTarget is one of the retailer's key strategies to boost growth, especially as online and mobile sales chip away at big-box dominance. The smaller locations also allow retailers like Target and Wal-Mart to penetrate dense, urban markets where real estate is limited and local resistance to big boxes runs high.
In this particular case, Target chose its spot well. The store is located at 4th Street and Mission, near Union Square, a hotbed of retail and pedestrian traffic. Walk a few blocks and you'll find top-tier retailers like Macy's, Nordstrom, Coach and Tiffany's.
I kind of wondered how Target managed to convince liberal San Francisco to approve its project. Again, location matters. Target is building its store on the second floor of the Metreon complex, which has been hurting for tenants ever since Sony pulled out of the building five years ago.
![Main entrance to the Gonda Building. For more than a century, the city of Rochester has been shaped and defined by the Mayo Clinic. Now the Mayo has a $6 billion vision to reshape the city and itself.Wednesday, February 21, 2013 ] GLEN STUBBE * gstubbe@startribune.com ORG XMIT: MIN1302211648220346](https://arc.stimg.co/startribunemedia/DW2TKC4EDLZZOGDOC5ZEYZNOJ4.jpg?&w=436&ar=3:2&fit=crop)
