Target’s Kona store, on Makalapua Boulevard across from Kona Commons, will start a major remodel on Tuesday, December 27. Store team leader Roger Thomas said the project will add more capability for the store to offer fresh meat, produce, and baked goods.
Target piloted this new expanded food format in 2008 at two existing stores in Minnesota. They call the concept PFresh. Based on the program’s success, Target began testing the new layout at several other locations across the country in early 2009 and continues to remodel existing stores to include more fresh food and baked goods. The Target in Kona opened in July, 2009, but construction started in June, 2008, when the PFresh concept was new. The Target store in Hilo, which opened in July, 2011, sells a full variety of fresh food and baked goods, following the new corporate model.
Big box stores which offer a wider variety of food in addition to the standard offerings of housewares, clothes, beauty items, drugs, and more have proven to be more financially successful. The concept is of offering the customer a one-stop shop experience.
Thomas said construction should take about three months. He stressed he will work to minimize customer inconvenience during the project. He also said they will be using local contractors to do the remodel, some of the same workers who built the store in 2008 and 2009. He also said their chief supplier will be Suisan of Hilo, and they will strive to use local products whenever possible.
Wal-Mart in Kona recently completed a similar remodeling job, adding refrigerated cases to accommodate more food items.
