the new target....

the new   s u p e r    t a r g e t   at 101st & memorial has officially opened!  YAY!  i am super excited b/c that's only a mile from my house.  saturday & sunday sarah and i checked it out.  now, you have to remember that i am an interior designer and my job is to make spaces flow well...you have to take into consideration the way people move through a space, what activities/jobs are being performed, good wayfinding, etc.  you will see me touching walls, looking at the ceiling, making comments about color, looking at floor patterns, etc.  all this to say that you may find my observances a bit ridiculous or that i am being way too critical, and that's perfectly fine, but it's just what i do when i walk into any space.  so, here goes!

the exterior of the new target is very nice and has their new "look" that you will find at the other new targets around town {71st & hwy75 and out in broken arrow}.  they have the big red concrete balls at the entrance and the LED "target" symbols.  right off the bat i noticed that they had done away with the grocery entry  being green and gone to both entries being red. 

my first impression upon entering the store was that EVERYTHING was RED!  now, i am the first person to preach to my clients about branding and identity, etc.  but this in my opinion was over the top.  i personally like how the older super target had a nice combination of red and green, green being in the grocery side of the store.  it all goes back to the complimentary colors...red and green are complimentary.  when everything is the same color nothing stands out.  i mean everything is red from all the signage to the wall behind the cashier stations to the ceiling furr downs...thank goodness they didn't do a red floor! 

as soon as we walked in sarah had to get a starbuck's {which they do have...but she did have to tell the barista how to make her drink....sketchy....}.

so, while she was teaching starbuck's how to do their thing i was looking around doing my thing.  i noticed that the snack bar area is right behind the cashier stations down by starbucks.  it is not in a little offset room or anything.  here's my problem with this....target is a busy place and when everyone decides to check out at the same time {which almost always happens} the cashier area gets extremley busy.  especially once you check out and are trying to navigate your cart to one of the exit doors, you are dodging screaming kids, people looking for customer service, slow people who pay no attention to the fact that they are in the CENTER of this aisle and are walking  s l o w , people using the registry computers {which are also along this back wall}, and now people waiting to get their pretzel and fountain drink.  luckily it wasn't too busy when i snapped this pic...but i can only imagine holiday season! 

 

the ironic thing is that right behind the snack bar and starbuck's there is this nice, relaxing, eating area that has a beautiful view of the........parking lot.  it is big and roomy and the perfect place for people to eat their pretzels.  it is simple, they could have rotated the snack bar so that you enter right behind the cashier stations and you walk into this great snack bar/seating area and it would eliminate the huge traffice jam that i foresee.  but again...just my observation!

 

 once you get back into the store you will notice that they have stepped up their visual merchandising.  they have new jewelry display tables that are a little more "department store" style, and they have a whole wall...or two of sunglasses!  lots of options, people!  i do like how their display tables are a nice maple laminate instead of something boring like grey.  they are also using more display tables in the women's clothing.

the new store is huge.  much bigger than the old super target and definitely better than the new regular targets that have just enough grocery items to make you curse them not having a full grocery section.  it's crazy that they already had out not only halloween and thanksgiving items, but christmas as well!  it makes me wonder what will be in those spots after the holidays.....new products??? 

overall the new super target is great!  it will take some getting use to...considering i had the old one memorized.  some of the grocery items and personal items are arranged in a weird way, but i'm sure i will get use to it soon enough! 

happy target shopping!