By Jeff Martin - jeff.martin@examiner.net
The Examiner
Posted Oct 07, 2009 @ 12:25 AM
Blue Springs, MO —
Reports were sketchy Tuesday night at the Blue Springs Target, but it appears as if the first two purchases at the new store were – a medium Starbucks coffee and a Snickers bar.
That’s right – Target is now open in Blue Springs.
The first store in the highly anticipated Adams Dairy Landing retail complex to open, the Tuesday event brought out dozens of people, most of whom were city officials and friends and family of the approximate 135 employees.
Dan Fogt, store manager, considers the store a kind of utopia.
“This is one of the nicest stores I’ve been in, and I’ve been with Target for 18 years,” Fogt said.
For the past three-and-a-half years, Fogt managed the Target in Independence.
But this Target is a bullseye for Fogt, the result of months of intense planning and busy stocking, of planning and coordination, of rigorous work. Hiring staff was a massive task alone – interviewing more than 500 applicants to fill the estimated 135 positions.
“To compare, this store has about 90 percent of what a Super Target has,” he said, referring to those retail stores located in Lee’s Summit and Liberty. “I think people will find pretty much anything they’re looking for when they come here.”
Like Starbucks coffee and Pizza Hut pizza, two features that, in most stores, are not typically located in the front.
“The pharmacy is up front, too,” he said, “which is what Target wanted because it’s more people friendly.”
In staying with the Mediterranean theme that is Adams Dairy Landing’s signature, the new Target is full of cool red and blues, of gold, of glowing lines and a pleasant mixture of tan colors. In the aisles, high graphics lure shoppers north, south, east, west as they navigated the unscuffed tiled floor.
“It’s more decorative,” he said.
Unlike most untraditional Target stores, this Target has a large produce section. Grapes and strawberries are literally stacked like bricks; there is a variety of yogurt and breads and salads and subs. The frozen foods section lights up as shoppers walk past, then turn off as they move on.
“There are more signs, which help people find the area’s they are looking for,” he said.
And the photo lab! Fogt can’t stop talking about the photo lab.
“The quality is great,” he said. “People should stop and see the quality.”
But the store is more than just a store; it’s also a boundary the city has been wanting to cross for years. City Council member Sheila Solon, who cut the ribbon Tuesday night, said many year’s ago city officials and leaders envisioned and planned the Adams Dairy Parkway as a place devoted for mixed use purposes.
Serving as Mayor Pro-tem Tuesday night, Solon said shoppers in Blue Springs now have another choice.
“This is keeping in line with the city’s vision,” she said.
Target is planning for a grand opening on Sunday, though the store is now open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday.
Michelle Ratliff of Grain Valley arrived Tuesday night to shop. At the entrance, she took a long look at the nifty new plastic shopping carts and slid one out.
“These are neat,” she said.
And a new concept for Target stores, Fogt said.
Ratliff is pleased there’s no more Interstate 70 travel in her future – at least not when it comes to going to Target.
“No more going to Independence,” she said.
And that’s a bull’s-eye for her, too.