Breaking Down Target's New SoHo Concept Store | Fast Five Shorts

Target has unveiled a Soho store concept featuring curated beauty and apparel.

Serves me right for trying to dig up all the different figures from that article in the last headline.

The store concept from Target features a rotating showcase of seasonal styles on the floor, on the first floor, I should say called quote the drop and a Broadway beauty bar.

Good alliteration.

Target with changing selections curated by beauty influencers and a gifting gondola with wow, cancel Christmas.

We've got a ton of alliteration folks for the holidays with exclusive Target branded merchandise.

Target's updated space also includes a seasonal edit edit called Curated by which features selections in partnership with influential people, starting with comedian and actress Megan Stalter, who sadly I actually do not know who that is and maybe you do.

The store also has a selfie checkout spot encouraging customers to take photos with their haul and are you buying or selling Target's new soho concept store?

Before I answer one thing that I think it was not clear to me.

This is not a pop up.

This is a permanent store, which I realized and I had to be corrected.

This is.

This is a permanent store that Target plans to use as a lab to evolve, test and change so that that I wanted to make sure that our audience is clear on because I was not.

But now comes the challenging task, I think of taking this concept and the data that they're learning about who shops it and how and figuring out how Target is going to evolve this into 2,000 stores or some segment thereof, their 2,000 stores.

And most importantly, I think that before that happens, Target has to look very closely at the technology that it's going to need to invest in to to make those rollouts successful.

This store is very based on the photos that we've seen and we'll go see it in New York I'm sure.

But there's nothing stored tech inserted into this.

It's very much about the product.

So I think that's going to be something that they're going to have to think about as they need to operationalize this.

If they can accomplish that, if they can do that and get this set up for scale success, I'm buying it.

And I think it'll bode well for the direction that Fidelke plans to take the company in.

Since this was kind of one, one of his first, you know, projects that he was kind of like interim CEO on, I think it makes sense.

The concept store is carrying great products in limited quantities.

It's localized and it's coming at a time when I think most importantly the there's Going to be a big hole in a lot of Target stores once Ulta departs.

And so I think if they could figure out how to scale this concept effectively, it could be a really good thing to kind of put into the Target store to get people interested in shopping, especially their key categories like beauty, apparel and other giftable items.

So this, if there's one project right now that I'd love to sink my teeth into, I think this would be it because I, I think there's a lot of things that Target will have to inject into this to really make it successful for the store rollout.

But where, what are you buying or are you selling?

I'm selling it hard.

I'm selling it hard.

In fact, if, if we hadn't talked about this headline, I don't think it even makes my top five for the week.

I think it's pure PR sizzle and I say it's pure PR sizzle for a number of reasons.

I think number one, it's in New York City, which is just not endemic or not representative of like your Target operation overall.

So it's not where I would put a concept store, quite frankly, because there's so many dynamics at play in New York City that don't pertain to your overall operation.

Sure, the pictures look great, you know, but you're not going to learn anything long term operationally because the idea is being tested here.

Are never going to scale whether it's a pop up or not a pop up because target, no 100% target needs to move more units and pictures of beauty bars and more boutique experiences are always look good in photos.

Always look good in photos, especially in New York.

But Target doesn't have the margins to sell products with so little on display.

Unless to your point, they operate the store on a completely different operational platform and business model, which for the most part it doesn't appear there's any representation that that is the case.

So net net, at the end of the day, this is still going to be a marketing installation when all is said and done and at best because it's not designed for scale and it's going to take more money than the average Target store can afford to keep it looking the way it does.

That's another point.

And lastly, this thing just drives me crazy.

The selfie checkout, that Idea is like 10 years old already.

And so when we're leaning into that, it just gets me, gets me shaking my head again.

And I don't want to be shaking my head again every week.

But you know, that's just, I just, I just can't get on board with this.

Yeah, I think the, the, the other thing that I look at Chris when I, I see somebody else doing something similar was the Walmart New York Fashion Week pop up.

They did that with two brands and their plan, Walmart's plan is to do the same thing.

We're testing this pop up in New York and then we're figuring out what the products are.

We're going to roll this out and we're going to change our scoop and free assembly experiences in store by the end of next year.

Denise and Candela said to, to get an understanding of how to bring newness and product to customers.

So I, I, I don't know.

I think but that's smart and because that's a smart, that's a.

First of all it is a pop up, It's a pop up designed to understand the product that you're putting in your fashion assortment which will then go into and informed a portion of the Walmart store versus taking an entire store operation and trying to pivot in this direction.

The are two very different sides of the coin.

Oh, I don't see it that different.

I think that this store.

Yes, this, the only difference to me is that it's a popup versus an, a long standing store.

And again if you're looking at your competitor, you know, if Target's competitor Walmart is doing popups to test this theory and you're doing a full time store to test this theory there you're going about it two different routes.

But I still think that Target's putting, I mean it's all Target product.

They're figuring out how to, how they can take this moment in New York and extend it across 2,000 stores.

I think is, is a, is a worthwhile endeavor.

I think it's a new way to showcase Target product and maybe they can use, maybe they'll have some of the shine of this New York experience to, to like give the people in the middle of the country.

I don't know.

Again there's a lot that has to go right in order for this to be successful.

But, but I don't, I'd like to see this I guess concept coming from Target.

I'd like to see them figure out how they're going to get people to fall in love again with the brand.

But you know taking that New York concept and scaling it is, is a big project.

It is for sure.