Target’s furniture and lighting offerings are primarily comprised of the retailer’s in-house Target Home and Room Essentials brands, with a few notable exceptions.
In furniture, Target devotes substantial space to shelving and office furniture, in addition to standard RTA furniture items such as end tables, side tables and occasional chairs. Target’s furniture section is comprised of four and a half aisles, plus a backwall packed with Room Essentials-branded shelving units running the length of the department.
The retailer lives up to its fashionable reputation with trend-forward items not expected at a mass merchant store strategically placed on the furniture aisle endcaps. For instance, the featured Nolan leather chair ($199) and ottoman ($169) would look right at home at Crate & Barrel. Other attention-getting endcap items included a black sofabed ($149), available on the web in numerous colors including orange, pink and teal. A five-piece dining set ($229) commanded another endcap.
A wide collection of bar stools ranging in price from $15.89 to $94.99 take up the shelves on one side of an aisle. The aisle features a point-of-purchase display to help consumers “choose the right stool.”
Dining room and kitchen items include a Target Home-branded Kitchen Island for $249. A Target Home 42-inch expandable pedestal dining table retails for $149. Dining chairs range in price from $59-$79. For most of these items, Target includes take-away display cards showing them in room settings.
Television stands and entertainment centers receive plenty of space at Target. While most of the offerings carry the Target Home brand (starting at $99), the retailer also merchandises more expensive items from Z-Line suitable for flat-screen TV’s.
Table lamps, including desk, accent and task items fill one full aisle. One side plus some of the other are devoted to shades and bases sold separately—two shelves of shades and two of bases —and were mostly of the Target Home brand. They were also all labeled S, M or L (small, medium and large) so the customer could put together the appropriate sized shade with the base (and there was also a sign to help explain that). Among the shades, the Target Home brand ranges from a 12-inch white square for $12.99 to a large white drum for $24.99, while the bases ranged from a 14.5-inch black stick item for $9.99 to a wood surveyor style for $39.99.
The remaining area consisted of complete table lamps. The Room Essentials Style brand has a few items within this area, and included a $7.99 small rectangle shade and a $12.99 red floral shade, as well as tear drop bases for $9.99, $19.99, and $29.99 (for the small, medium and large size respectively).
There was also a section of smaller accent lamps, which included the Target Home brand. A Tiffany-styled lamp retailed for $49.99, buffet lamps for $12.99, accent lamps for $9.99, and a 11.75-inch walnut lantern for $29.99.
Floor lamps were found the next aisle over and took up one half of an aisle—the top shelf displayed the models, while the bottom two shelves held boxes of product. The Target Home brand was the most represented, with about two thirds of the designs. There were about 16 styles of the Target Home brand, at $39.99, $49.99, $59.99, and $69.99 price points. Items available at the $39.99 price point included a 48.5-inch oil-rubbed bronze lamp; a 71-inch antique bronze finish design with a reading light; a 70-inch rubbed bronze finish model with an alabaster glass shade; and a 64-inch black chrome design with five separate heads and plastic shades, and a 68-inch arch lamp with a white fabric shade.
The other Target brand on display was the Room Essentials Style label, with about seven styles available. They ranged from $8.99 for a 71-inch black painted item to a $34.99 for a 69.5-inch charcoal-painted model with metal shelves.
There was also a sole Thomas O’Brien 66-inch Vintage Modern floor lamp in a nickel finish for $69.99.—Duke Ratliff and Andrea Lillo