Dive Brief

• Minneapolis-based Target Corporation will open a 20,000 square-foot mini-store in a neighborhood of its hometown, Dinkytown, close to a university campus.
• If successful, the experiment could enable the company to expand into dense urban neighborhoods not suited to bigger stores of 80,000 (the company’s smallest to date) to 174,000 square feet. 
• TargetExpress stores would stock a smaller selection of basic grocery, pharmacy, clothing, home décor and electronics.

Dive Insight

The TargetExpress experiment brings to mind a similar move by Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.’s Walmart Express and seems aimed at reaching young people, who, studies show, are increasingly opting for city living and are staying in urban areas for a longer period of time.

John D. Griffith, executive vice president for property development at Target, said he wants the company to remain convenient. “Many of them grew up with a Target experience,” he said of younger people. “Now, they show up at their cool little bungalow they’re redoing, they’re five miles from downtown, and yet, Target is a little bit of an effort to get to.”