Target Corp. is adding fresh and frozen seafood products in its P-Fresh format stores and its SuperTarget stores this year.
The Minneapolis, Minn.-based retailer, the United States’ second largest after Walmart, is remodeling 400 of its traditional stores in 2011 to the P-Fresh concept, which offers a limited selection of seafood, meat, produce, dairy products, frozen foods and dry grocery items. In 2010, Target retrofitted around 350 of its stores to the P-Fresh concept.
Fresh seafood is not available in the P-Fresh stores, but the concept’s frozen seafood selection is expansive. While they vary from store to store, the products in most P-Fresh stores, according to Target spokesperson Tammy Robertson, include Market Pantry panko shrimp, Market Pantry shrimp ring, Archer Farms tuna steaks, Archer Farms sea bass fillets, Blue Horizon tempura shrimp, Mrs. Paul’s breaded fish fillets, Gorton’s grilled salmon and SeaPak popcorn shrimp.
Meanwhile, Target is also adding fresh and frozen seafood products to its already extensive selection at its 251 SuperTarget stores in 2011, according to Robertson.
A recent visit to an Orlando-area SuperTarget store found eight doors of frozen seafood products. While Target’s Market Pantry and Archer Farms items were most prevalent, branded items included SeaPak Light and Crispy Shrimp, Savoies Crawfish and Crab Pie, Treasures tilapia and Van De Kamp’s fish fillets.
The fresh seafood offerings at the SuperTarget store were much more limited, comprising 4 feet of packaged seafood fillets such as wild Alaskan salmon, steelhead trout and tilapia. The fresh selection also featured Sonoma tilapia stuffed with crab meat, lump crab meat and an extensive choice of surimi products.
According to Robertson, fresh seafood products carried at some other SuperTarget stores across the U.S. include Echo Falls lox salmon, Viking lutefisk, Hilton oysters and Blue Star lump crab meat.
(A year ago, Target announced that it eliminated all farmed salmon from its fresh, frozen and smoked seafood offerings from its stores.)
