Target floats a new kind of store

Jacksonville plans to tie up some cruise ships as floating hotels when it hosts the 2005 Super Bowl. So does Tampa if it wins its bid to house the 2004 GOP convention. Now Target Corp. is turning a big excursion boat into a makeshift store for midtown Manhattan.

With the exception of a two-story Kmart that opened a few years ago, sky-high real estate prices have kept Manhattan perhaps the last discount-store-free zone in urbanized America.

Target figured the easiest route around the lack of suitable real estate was to fix up a 224-foot, flat-bottomed boat as a discount store, then tie it up at the Chelsea Piers in midtown Manhattan for this Christmas season.

"We wanted something fun and unconventional that no one would have expected," said Brie Heath, spokeswoman for the Minneapolis chain. "We figured we'd also get a lot of publicity."

Target will prop a big lighted Christmas on the deck and plaster the boat's hull with red Target logos. It won't be a full-sized Target store, but it will be fully functioning, with cash registers and a returns desk. Target hopes New Yorkers into cheap chic will snap up the 92 home decor, toy and apparel items the chain developed exclusively for holiday gift giving this year.

The trendy items range from a 1-foot-tall Schwinn bicycle that goes for $69.99 to a Michael Graves-designed waffle iron priced at $29.99. The floating Target will be open two weeks through Dec. 1. That's long enough for media exposure the day after Thanksgiving. Besides, Target didn't think it could keep the vessel fully stocked any longer.

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