The Shops At Target Lend Retail Space To Small Businesses

Target has announced plans to launch a new type of design partnership this spring, named The Shops At Target, that will place products from select small boutiques and specialty shops around the country in Target stores for six-week runs beginning May 6.

The department store is well known for its design partnerships with big-name designers and luxury clothing houses such as Jason Wu and Missoni, creating affordable, designer-inspired clothing and home collections. For The Shops At Target, the store teamed up with small-business owners to create a hand-selected line of goods for Target, while recreating each business's unique aesthetic with personalized displays.

The first round of featured shops include five U.S. based specialty shops; San Francisco's The Candy Store, Aspen, Colo.'s Cos Bar, Boston's Polka Dog Bakery, Connecticut's Privet House and Miami's The Webster.

Diane Campbell, who co-founded The Candy Store with her husband, Brian, said partnering with Target is "like finding the golden ticket." "This opportunity is amazing and it has been such a pleasure to work with Target on this," she said. "We're not exactly sure what's in store for us, but we're so excited for the future."

The first group of shops, which offer a variety of products from dog biscuits and lollipops to luxury home furnishings and unique cosmetics, will be on display in all Target stores in the U.S. Product prices range from $1 to $160.

"We've got a new website with an online store," Campbell said. "We're hoping this partnership will bring better recognition to the brand and help grow our online business."

Comments

[lulu3669]

02:34 PM on 04/24/2012

I find it interesting that Target is inviting these small shops into their big box store, since they set out to destroy small businesses in every category, all over the country. Who wants to go to a big box to shop for local independent businesses, while Target gets a cut of the action. Shop your local small stores and forego the Target hype.

[Jay Gould]

04:54 PM on 01/20/2012

Target is trying to sell its private-label credit card program, which has beenhugely beneficial for the retailer who reported profit of $143 million from its credit card unit in 2011 Q3, a 10% gain over the same period of 2010. Yet, Target is trying to sell the credit card receivables, while retaining ownership of the program, for reasons known to its management.

How will such a sale impact Target cardholders? Well, a change in ownership of your Target credit card account, if it ever happens, will not affect you in any way, as long you stick to your part of the agreement (things like making payments on time). As with all other types of financing, bad things start happening only when you stop doing that. Then again, that would be the case whether or not Target sold your account. http://blog.unibulmerchantservices.com/do-you-know-who-owns-your-target-credit-card

[MFS001]

03:14 PM on 01/19/2012

As I wrote elsewhere, be very, very careful of this. It seems like a great opportunity at first, until you understand the reality. Your margin will be chipped away at, bit by bit. You will work harder and harder and make less and less as your product is commoditized. Then there is the risk of returns -- the more stores you are in, the higher the rist of returns. A large return could put you out of business in an instant. Then at Target (and most others), there are the deductions -- they will charge you for fixture space and assorted "marketing" costs like their in-store TV. If you think you're margin is low, wait until you factor in these deductions. You could find yourself in the negative. Big vendors do this because they need the market share, especially if they are a public company. But small businesses should be very careful of building a business with mass merchants.

[barbra1971]

09:11 AM on 01/20/2012

Why don't we have the same support from government like those giants have? Why there aren't centers in every city for emerging small businesses where they can promote and test their products?

[AttyJayne]

10:52 AM on 01/19/2012

Great opportunity for small businesses to break out. Hopefully they have beefed up their internal operations and management to handle the influx. I have to wonder how big a cut Target will keep for themselves but glad to see they are wise enough to keep business in this country.

[Beatriz Sandoval]

01:21 PM on 02/01/2012

I agree with you! It's a great opportunity for small business. I think Target has a vision on how to keep its customers while helping others.

[freethinking moderate]

06:36 PM on 01/18/2012

Target is positioning itself as the anti-Wal-Mart. Now, if they can ween themselves off of China then so much the better.

[Sherry Powell]

05:36 PM on 01/18/2012

nice...