Shoppers Are Awaiting New Target Stores

With the scheduled opening of the Target discount store in a former Gemco location in Northridge just days away, manager Bob Holden said late last week that his employees were “doing some fine-tuning” after a few trial runs.

In North Hollywood, manager Larry Pearson has fielded phone calls from interested shoppers and anticipates a “stupendous” opening at a new Target in another former Gemco spot.

While its sibling chain, Mervyn’s, is sweating out inventory and cost-control problems (and its parent company continues to be the subject of takeover speculation), Target is going gangbusters. The 252-store upscale discount chain, which had $3.45 billion in sales last year, plans to open 73 stores in eight states this year. California will get 55, bringing its total to 91.

Today marks the official openings of 19 of these locations, including 11 at Southern California stores that until last Dec. 24 were Gemco membership department stores. All told, 54 former Gemco locations are expected to reopen as Target stores this year, including locations in Nevada, the company said.

In October, Target, a division of Minneapolis-based Dayton Hudson, will make its first foray into Northern California, with 12 stores in the Bay Area, and into the Central Valley, with 15 stores.

California is a key market for Target, which competes with a gamut of retailers, including J. C. Penney, department stores, lawn and garden stores and consumer electronics retailers--and even Mervyn’s. The state accounted for about $600 million of the chain’s sales last year, and spokesman George Hite estimates that the contribution will top $1.5 billion by 1988.

So far, the new Target stores have each hired between 250 and 300 workers, including a few of the 9,000 workers who lost their jobs when Gemco was shuttered. “They were treated equally in the interview process,” said Pearson, himself a 23-year Gemco veteran.

Since buying the Gemco sites late last year from Lucky Stores for $374 million, Target has been renovating the buildings at an estimated cost of $2 million per store. Late last month, newly trained employees started racing to get more than 750,000 items on shelves and racks at each location.

Shoppers apparently are chomping at the bit. “Folks have been coming up to the door every five to 10 minutes,” Holden said.