The new store will employ 75 workers, and have inventory that's specially curated for the neighborhood, with an emphasis on clothing, health and beauty products, home and dorm decor and groceries. It will also be smaller than Target's traditional big-box setup -- by design. Last time Target tried to come to Vermont, it had a difficult time.
Target attempted to open a full-size store in Williston back in 2012. At a meeting of the town's planning commission, the idea was shot down. "Suffice it to say, a single occupant, 160,000 square foot big box was not really what the town had in mind," Ken Belliveau, Williston's planning director, told CNNMoney. "This is a very strong progressive, small-scale, craft, communitarian kind of environment," he said.
That didn't leave Target with many options. At the time, the company was firm on size. But the retail environment has changed since then. Amazon has undercut many discount retailers, and brick-and-mortar stores have been struggling. The new Vermont location, which will be close to the University of Vermont, will be 60,000 square feet."Target's small-format stores allow us to go in much more easily than we would building a full-size Target store," Target spokeswoman Kristy Welker said.
For Vermont, the smaller size changed the calculus. "The juxtaposition of a big box with Vermont's small state, small city, small town feel ... you get into discussion with communities about fit," said Michael Schirling, Vermont's secretary of commerce and community development. Target currently has more than 1,800 stores in the U.S. The company opened its first location in Roseville, Minnesota in 1962.
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