Inside Target’s Urban East Village Store

Target Corp. is demonstrating a gritty adaptability in its new wave of urban small-format stores, which are squeezing into places where the traditional multidepartment store would once dare not go.

One of the newest in that wave opened July 21 in Manhattan’s East Village.

The store got off to a somewhat auspicious start: An opening event meant to celebrate the neighborhood’s heritage as a music hotbed was met with mixed reviews. When WGB visited this week, the faux-CBGB decor (a renowned club that dominated the punk-rock scene in the '70s and '80s) was down, but the store appeared to be still finding its footing in areas such as fresh food.

Visitors entering the two-level, 27,000-square-foot store will encounter a produce display leading to the street-level food and grocery offering.

While the store had generally full shelves in most areas, refrigerated sections still required stock.

A variety of packaged string cheeses. Not a whole lot of butter beneath the "butter" sign.

Fresh meat was either shopped down or still filling in by the time of WGB’s visit.  The store borders the south end of the massive Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village residential community and is a block from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's L train station at First Avenue, bringing massive amounts of foot traffic to the area.

This display of breakfast cereals showed gaps on items marked with sale tags.

Products under Target's redesigned Market Pantry label were well-represented amid the edited grocery selection.

Ambient temperature fresh items such as oranges, bananas and onions were in better supply than refrigerated goods with handwritten prices welcoming shoppers to the grocery area.

The store’s basement level included selections of Target staples such as small appliances, home decor, toys and electronics.

The new store is among 16 “flexible-format” Target stores now opening or in the planning stages in and around New York City. These include units already open in Manhattan’s Herald Square and Tribeca neighborhoods, as well as stores in Forest Hills and Elmont, Queens; Downtown and Bensonhurst, Brooklyn; and Freeport, Long Island.

A Lower East Side Target is set to open later this summer, with units in Jackson Heights, Queens; Manhattan's Upper East Side and Hell’s Kitchen neighborhoods; Staten Island; and Midwood, Brooklyn, set for 2019. A Brooklyn- Kings Highway store is set for 2020, and a unit is coming to Astoria, Queens, in 2022.

Categories such as pet and laundry and other center store staples occupy the lower level.

A large and bright beauty section highlights the lower level.

Nine self-checkout stations were busy, and a line was forming when WGB visited.

Manned checkout sections and an internet pickup desk are located behind a mural near the entrance and exit off 14th Street.