New Target coming to Bellflower Blvd.

Shuttered Ralph's to become a scaled down Target at Bellflower/PCH and 7th

Local media is reporting that the former Ralph's at Bellflower/PCH and 7th Street will become a TargetExpress.  The 3rd District location is across from the VA Hospital and CSULB was announced by Mayor Garcia and 3rd District Councilperson Suzie Price last week. While a new smaller Target version is expected, by time it opens the name will not be TargetExpress. 

(click on TargetExpress)

Designed for neighborhoods, TargetExpress and CityTarget locations are smaller versions of regular sized Target stores .  There are currently under 15 nation-wide.   However, the new Long Beach location will most likely never be called TargetExpress as reported locally.

According to  a Target Corporation  press release last month, the TargetExpress brand is now gone. Current TargetExpress and CityTarget's are slated to be "re-branded" with the standard "Target" name starting this October.  

(Click on Target ReBrand and SF Chronicle)

Target is not short on concept stores. The fourth type of store is operates is "Super Target". Those "super" stores (like the one in Seal Beach) are bigger with wider isles and more selections-especially in food.  

A fifth type of  Target called "Greatland Targets"  were changed into the Super Target format.

The smaller TargetExpress concept has not been universally welcomed into neighborhoods. In March of this year, residents in the historic South Park neighborhood of San Diego protested the opening of a TargetExpress claiming that it would change the historic charm of the neighborhood. 
(Click on Target Protest)

The "Fresh Fare" band Ralph's at Bellflower/PCH and 7th Street closed in October of 2014 after 40 years in that location.

In the same shopping center, the former sports bar Pete's at the Beach -which also closed-is currently being remodeled into a new restaurant.  The space had gone through several re-do's as a sports bar trying to cater to the ever-changing tastes of the close-by CSULB students.