Flexible-format stores can fit in urban areas, and also skirt anti-business regulations like Montgomery County has that prevent certain big box stores like Walmart from expanding here. Walmart has a similar urban-scale design, their Tysons location being an example.
The 35,500 SF Bethesda Target store will carry apparel for all ages, toys, sporting goods, fresh and "grab-and-go" groceries, health and beauty products, home decor items, portable tech devices and even a CVS-branded pharmacy. Essentially, it sounds like it is well-geared to downtown apartment and condo dwellers who need groceries, prescriptions, or a new table lamp on short notice.
Opening day is currently expected to be March 2017.
Target's announcement raises some interesting issues. First, the parking garage at this shopping center is notoriously unpleasant to deal with. But it's likely that, as with anchor Trader Joe's, the diehard Target shopper is going to go ahead and deal with it. Owner Douglas Development has been renovating the center for several years, but new parking has not been part of that project. Douglas has not responded to inquiries as of this writing.
Second, is competition. A new Trader Joe's is the anchor tenant for JBG's stalled 7900 Wisconsin project. Until that project is delivered, Target groceries will be serious competition for general grocery items at Trader Joe's upstairs. And CVS has a pharmacy directly across the street. Why go there, if you can kill two birds with one stone at Target?
Now that Target is entering the market, maybe Walmart will wake up and open one of its urban format stores in a new or existing development in downtown Bethesda.
Rendering courtesy Target
Photo: Robert Dyer
53 comments:
Love Target and Trader Joes. Hate that location due to parking and will avoid it. Been working to shore up that garage for 2 years and it's 1/3 the necessary size. Must be the same planners that moved the Bethesda Post Office to a spot without parking.
Looks like Dyer photoshopped a Target sign on the photo. BM caught him with his pants down, so now he's desperately trying to catch up.
#Snoribund
#Plagiarism
Wow.. big big news. I'm looking forward to it.
I love seeing the rendering. Looks great!
An urban Wal-Mart could replace Barnes & Noble very nicely. I'm sure Giant isn't happy.
4:21: Not catching up to anybody. I filed my report as soon as Target sent me the official announcement, and this is an official rendering from Target. Anybody home, McFly?
A bit of breaking news with this new rendering: it shows CVS and Starbucks inside the Target!
@ 4:57 PM - looks like Dyer got the colors on Target's logo backwards. The bullseye should be red (not white as in Dyer's photoshop), with the first ring white (not red), and so forth. LOL
The rendering is official, from Target corporate, per Dyer above.
Good to see how it will look! Better than having to imagine with a Google Street view image on other half baked reports :)
Maybe a Walmart can move into the now moribund "Collection at Chevy Chase"? There goes the neighborhood!
"The rendering is official, from Target corporate, per Dyer above."
In a court of law, that would be called "hearsay".
Dyer has his source listed. Journalism 101 folks.
That's pretty bush league to not cite Bethesda Magazine. What a massive inferiority complex you must have, Robert.
"Journalism 101 folks."
#DyerForgotToSignIn
Worst. Parking. Ever. Will avoid at all costs.
"A bit of breaking news with this new rendering: it shows CVS and Starbucks inside the Target!"
Target sold all of their pharmacies to CVS in January 2015. CVS now manages those and any pharmacies in Target stores that have been built since then.
But don't expect Dyer to be bothered with that.
#Snoribund
Hmm Target's rendering shows a different restaurant where Makibar currently is. Is Makibar getting kicked out? I never see any customers in there, which I attribute to poor location and bad parking.
Remember when Dyer accused BM of stealing anytime they post after him? Despite them citing sources oftentimes.
How are they allowed to have a CVS pharmacy literally right across the street from a full size CVS pharmacy??
6:44: Why would I cite another news outlet when a press release was put out by Target? Speaking of sources, you'll note they didn't cite me as the person who broke the Louis Vuitton closure. They ran down there after my report and then ran it through their angel-investor-funded pipes on Facebook and Google News. Where was your outrage then, punk? Didn't see you comment there on their story. You're a complete fraud.
6:44pm & 8:02pm desperately want to change the topic from the new Target to their magazine. No one cares about your magazine! You're desperate to stay relevant.
IMHO, this Douglas renovation is almost as bad as all the Karr / Greenhill ones like that red Tomato ugliness. The Lauren is ugly too! Bethesda design has been terrible lately, especially for the renovations.
Relevant!!! Don't try to claim otherwise.
Same way there's a Starbucks cafe in b&n down the street from the full Starbucks on Wisconsin, why there's two new drive thru TD banks in the downtown, etc.
Big, big story for downtown Bethesda residents. We're walking distance to Target now!
Yes it's bad, horribly bad. But it would have been so much worse if Greenhole had been involved.
This is going to wind up like the Dave and Busters in White Flint.
D&B was profitable at White Flint
It will be interesting to see if this smaller format Target Express concept works here. Wal-mart closed all 106 of its Express stores in January. They rely on customers who are grocery shopping to carry over into their other retail departments and this small footprint concept did not work for them. Target has a better chance, because Wal-mart just does not translate well to a more urban clientele. I worry that this particular location is just not very good for any business. Trader Joe's is different because it has such loyal customers. Target, I am not so sure about.
Good article, Robert
8:09 how do you know they didn't get informed either? Your logic is so flawed and hypocritical.
A Walmart would go a long way to address the needs of less well-to-do county residents that the county must encourage to reside down county to achieve true economic diversity. Can't help but notice that most new and not-so new retail stores (Harris Teeter, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's) target (no pun intended) yuppies. Where are the ordinary folk supposed to shop? Even Giant and Safeway try to be "upscale." Adding a few low income units in the massive new buildings won't lead to diversity if basic retail needs are not addressed.
Walmart has abandoned its small footprint stores. Big-box is how they make their profits. These occupy an enormous amount of physical space and achieve economies of scale by focusing on large sales volumes. Because volume is high, the profit margin for each product can be lowered, which results in very competitively priced goods. There is a reason there ar not any in Bethesda!
Agreed.
TARJET! Hows that diversity workin' out for ya? You know your town is going upscale when a TARJET comes in! Have fun with the crime, trash, and never ending demanding of more even though your diversity refuses to contribute anything to the community that isn't violence, crime, and filth!
Where exactly do YOU think diversity has been give a fair shot in Montgomery County? Seems to me those communities and schools that have been passively resisting diversity are falling behind Fairfax and DC.
Corporations such as Marriott that have embraced diversity are thriving. Don't knock it until you've REALLY tried it!
@ 8:31 AM - It must totally suck that your fellow Americans elected a black man president.
Wal-Mart isn't in Bethesda because the rent is too high for the space they need. It's not their business model.
I think Target can work, particularly if TJ's takes off. There are lots of apartments within walking distance and no nearby grocery store. Safeway down Bradley is a bit too far away.
I've been to a Target "Express" in another city, and it's basically like a large-scale CVS with a bit more on the food side. Don't expect to outfit your wardrobe or buy a new gas grill there, but for daily necessities it'll be fine.
I'll still avoid it and just drive to the Target in Rockville due to much better parking and also wider selection of non-food items, which is why I go to Target anyway.
Remember when Councilmember Berliner went nuts and banned Walmart from his Rockville neighborhood? He went out of his way to stop retail competition that would be transit accessible on the Pike.
He didn't understand that Walmart has popular, upscale transit accessible urban concept stores, such as in Tysons right across the street from a Metro station.
If you are talking Trader Joe's?
Mango Joe-Joe's
You're welcome.
Seriously need a review of these cookies. (HINT)
Dyer says that this will be about the size and scale of the Walmart in Tyson's. I've been to that one as its a heck of a lot closer than Germantown. If this Target is that size, it would be good. But as someone said who has been the the flexible Target format, it's nothing more than a larger CVS. No thanks. I am on the Pike every day. Matter of fact, was at the Target there today. Plenty of parking. No issue, no hassle.
how about a wal-mart in westbard?? plenty of space and plenty of parking. and i'm sure that poppy and his upscale neighbors wouldn't mind. diversity!!
Westbard would be the perfect spot for Walmart, being so far from metro.
"Remember when Councilmember Berliner went nuts and banned Walmart from his Rockville neighborhood?"
No. Freshen me?
JBG wanted to put in an upscale urban Wal-Mart on one of their Rockville Pike strip centers. Berliner stopped it.
Meanwhile, JBG opened this style Wal-Mart next to a new Metro stop in Tysons. Very successful store.
MoCo residents seeking affordable goods by transit lose out again.
Time to get dead wood like Berliner and Leventhal off the Council.
We desperately need new voices tuned into what residents want.
"Berliner stopped it."
Single-handedly?
"MoCo residents seeking affordable goods by transit lose out again."
The Jumbo Center isn't particularly convenient to transit. It's out of the 1/2 mile walksheds of both Twinbrook and White Flint stations.
Yes, Berliner was the most vocal and prominent opponent at the time.
It never made sense to be against big retail on our big retail Pike. It wasn't even going to be a Super Wal-Mart. The urban Wal-Mart in Tysons is like an upscale grocery.
Those of us who rely on transit would have been served well to have Wal-Mart near Metro and major bus lines on the Pike.
Not to mention the money savings Wal-Mart would bring. Maybe Berliner and the Council need a bus tour of Twinbrook neighborhoods?
"Yes, Berliner was the most vocal and prominent opponent at the time."
Sorry, but that does not equal "single-handedly".
Let me put it this way: if Berliner was for it, we'd have the Walmart.
So sketchy and shady how Dyer tries so hard to specifically delete Karr and Greenhill comments or disallows comments on those posts. It's so unethical as a journalist. And he campaigns so hard against actions by current government members he perceives as wrong.
If voters were for it, Robert Dyer would be a county council member.
5:11AM Cease and desist letter. Deleting or banning comments is a solution.
Now with Target opening and soon after Party City opening what is to make of that place that tried to replace THE FAMOUS BRUCE VARIETY. Another empty spot will be open at Bradley Shopping center. That center is old and not what it use to be.
@ 9:16 AM - Dyer's supporter(s) hate free speech.
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