Target's In-Store Cafes to Replace Hot Dogs, Nachos With Kale, Pressed Juiced

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

Target has decided to start phasing out the hot dogs and nachos that are synonymous with Target's fast-foody cafés, according to USA Today. The retailer will start testing out three brand-name cafés in 14 test markets: Freshii, D'Amico & Sons, and an "artisan" version of Pizza Hut. "We think this takes us a giant step in the direction of making a much better first impression," Tina Tyler, Target's chief stores officer, told USA Today. Customers in the test markets can expect pressed juices, kale salads, and margherita pizzas to replace the popcorn, nachos and Icees that usually can be found in a Target café.

Amazingly, 40% of Target customers typically frequent the current café while shopping. There's 1,700 cafés placed among the 1,800 Target stores in the US, so starting the healthy food rollout in 14 test locations makes for a particularly small scale operation. As it is now, over 20% of Target's sales come from food, so if the retailer can pull off a café that's more attractive to more people, an analyst told USA Today that it'll help keep people in the store shopping for longer.