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Target to Close 12 Stores in the New Year
The underperforming stores in Michigan, Florida, Illinois and Texas are being shuttered as the retailer puts more emphasis on its small-format shops.
Target is closing 12 underperforming stores in February. The retailer will put more focus on its small format stores in urban areas, such as the one pictured here in Boston’s Fenway neighborhood.
Seattle--Target has joined a list of ever-growing retailers deciding to close non-profitable stores.
The company has confirmed to National Jeweler it will shutter 12 underperforming stores across Michigan, Florida, Illinois and Texas on Feb. 3, the end of its fiscal year.
The company would not say how many employees the closures would affect, but did note that all eligible employees at affected locations are being offered the option to transfer to other Target stores.
The following stores will close.
--Eastland in Harper Woods, Michigan
--Hutchinson, Kansas
--Benton Harbor, Michigan
--Fergus Falls, Minnesota
--Hastings, Minnesota
--Macon, Georgia
--Slidell, Louisiana
--Lauderhill, Florida
--Matteson, Illinois
--Romeoville, Illinois
--Baltimore West
--San Antonio Far East
A company spokesperson said, “This decision was not made lightly. We have a rigorous process in place to evaluate the performance of every store on an annual basis, closing or relocating underperforming locations as needed. Typically, a store is closed as a result of seeing several years of decreasing profitability.”
But even as the company is closing stores, it also is putting a focus on opening new opportunities; Target will have opened 32 new stores in 2017 to create 2,000 jobs, and plans to open another 35 stores in 2018.
Its focus of late has been on its small-format stores, of which it will have opened 28 by the end of this year. The stores are positioned mostly in urban areas and are more profitable for Target.
The retailer also has upped the number of stores it will remodel by 325, putting it on track to renovate more than 1,000 of its 1,800 locations by the end of 2020.
Meanwhile, Sears recently announced it will close another 63 stores early next year.
The company already has closed more than 350 Sears and Kmart stores this year, with another 45 Kmart and 18 Sears stores scheduled to close in January.
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