Target a victim of its own success?

March 11th, 2008 | Category: Bad News

Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) has been on a roll lately, keeping larger competitor Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) on its toes when it comes to clean and contemporary store design, merchandising and presentation. And it’s done all that while maintaining affordability.

A big notion Target pioneered was joining well-known names with apparel and home fashion product lines. One of the most recognizable was the partnership with Martha Stewart for home fashions like pillows and living room furnishings. soon after came the apparel lines that joined celebrity type names with plain-jane clothing lines, while keeping prices as low as any other retailer.

But now the cat is out of the bag, as both Wal-Mart and

“mall store external the mall” retailer Kohl’s Corp. (NYSE: KSS) are partnering with all types of celebrity names for product lines ranging from candles to baby blankets. The trend Target created is now rolling out everywhere, and at the same instance, Target’s sales have recently slowed after many quarters of great growth. In February, Target’s same-store sales inched up just 0.5%. Target hopes that the economy is to blame for its recent sales slowdown, considering whether the duplication of its strategy by the competition is to blame, Target may be in for some slow sales quarters that year.

Original post by Brian White

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