In a New York Times article titled Retailers' Idea: Think Smaller in Urban Push, the Times examines the trend of larger retailers, like Wal-Mart and Target, opening small city stores to open their growth. "The suburbs are basically saturated with retailers," said Patrick L. Phillips, chief executive of the Urban Land Institute, an urban-planning research nonprofit, "but it's easy to develop stores in the suburbs, and hard to develop stores in cities." An excerpt from the article:
Most large American cities are growing faster than their suburbs for the first time in almost a century, according to a Brookings Institution analysis of census results released last month, largely because young adults are choosing urban apartment life. That population shift, along with Internet competition, have made the car-focused, big-box model less relevant.
Target opened its first City Targets, in Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle, on Wednesday. At 80,000 to 100,000 square feet, City Target, at its smallest just over half the size of a remodeled Target, is aimed at urban shoppers. For instance, City Targets would not carry a six-piece patio set, but a three-piece balcony set instead.
"We see this as an opportunity for the people who live, work and play downtown, who probably have a suburban Target they call their home base," said Molly Snyder, a company spokeswoman. "You'll see less 12-packs of paper towels and more four-packs, knowing most people will arrive by foot or public transportation and will have to carry it home."
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