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Talk of the bay
New Target store in Tampa offers challenge for the adventurous
By MARK ALBRIGHT
Published August 1, 2005
The first Tampa Bay adventure in what's called "stacked retailing" is off to an auspicious start with the recent opening of a new Target discount store at 1544 N Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa.
Traffic backed up last week as puzzled customers tried to figure out how to negotiate their way into the parking garage. Then shoppers wandered on foot to find the store. Once inside they were confronted with a Target store laid out quite differently than what they are accustomed to.
"We've added a lot more directional signs, but it's still a work in progress," said Chad Ofiara, an assistant store manager whose clerks field tons of "where am I?" questions from the disoriented.
The new store is upstairs at the back of Walters Crossing, a new type of shopping venue that's becoming a common home elsewhere for big box stores elbowing their way into congested urban areas. This may be one-stop shopping of a sort, but it can be less convenient than the old strip center with a parking lot at the door. One project in Miami even has five big-box stores stacked on top of each other next to an eight-level parking garage.
This particular version is a pair of two-story buildings with a three-level parking garage in the middle. Target is upstairs. A PetSmart, Linens 'n Things and a Wild Oats Natural Marketplace grocery store will open downstairs.
Unless you park on the same level as the store, motorists need to use garage elevators to come and go. The lifts are big enough to handle multiple shopping carts. The signs, however, attempt to explain to Target shoppers that their destination is on the second floor of the shopping center, but the third floor of the parking garage.
The second batch of wall-covering signs Target installed since the opening are wordless. They are a series of huge arrows and followed by the familiar Target logo.
[Last modified July 29, 2005, 18:20:04]
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