Trendy fashions, frozen foods and futons are coming to Westwood Village on July 29 when one of the first three CityTarget stores in the country opens its doors on Weyburn Avenue.
The Westwood store will open at the same time as others in Seattle and Chicago. While Target officials are still playing coy about the local store’s contents, the company’s social-marketing teams roaming Westwood are happy to spread the news: clothing, electronics, and dorm and apartment furniture are among the items the store plans to carry, along with nonperishable food, a pharmacy, and accessories like jewelry and shoes.
The store also applied for a permit to sell alcohol for off-site consumption, but the permit is in limbo: A Los Angeles zoning administrator denied Target’s application, but the company is appealing that ruling at the July 18 meeting of the West L.A. Area Planning Commission, said Vincent Wong, assistant director of UCLA’s Government and Community Relations. The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control still lists the license as pending. Community groups like the Westwood Neighborhood Council maintain that the village already offers plenty of alcohol options, and that CityTarget should carry products shoppers can’t already get at the neighboring Ralph’s or Trader Joe’s.
“CityTarget’s edited merchandise assortment will offer a selection of apparel, accessories and home products, as well as household basics, commodities and items suited for urban lifestyles,” confirmed Target’s west coast communications manager, Mya Walters. Pedestrians eager for a look can peek in the store’s window and see newly hung sectional signs for kitchen goods, clothing, bedding and towels, school and office supplies, pajamas and undies, and even an in-store Starbucks.
The store will fill the former EXPO Design Center at Weyburn and Glendon avenues, across from Trader Joe’s. The CityTarget concept shrinks the traditional Target store from its traditional big-box size of approximately 126,000 square feet into a 98,000-square-foot store, according to company figures.
That’s still about double the size of the nation's median supermarket size of 46,000 square feet, according to the Food Marketing Institute's 2010 numbers. Two more CityTargets are scheduled to open in Los Angeles: one downtown in October and another at the Beverly Connection in March next year.
Target’s social-marketing teams will answer questions and hand out lemonade at the Westwood Farmers Market on Thursdays, July 12, 19 and 26. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays until the opening, they’ll be roaming Westwood Village with a wheeled cart and handing out free canvas bags and other goodies.
See previous articles and links about the Westwood CityTarget:
Nov. 2011:
Target: Westwood store to open July 2012 Sept. 2010:
Target to put a bull’s-eye on Westwood
