Target has posted $9 billion in Food & Beverage growth since 2019, according to Forbes, transforming grocery from a convenience afterthought into the primary traffic driver for its stores. The shift repositioned Target as a grocery destination rather than a discount department store that happened to stock snacks.

The company restructured its F&B assortment to prioritize frequency over margin. Target expanded shelf space for staples—dairy, produce, frozen meals—alongside its existing packaged goods, betting that routine grocery trips would increase visit frequency and expand basket size across higher-margin categories like apparel and home. The F&B section became the anchor that justified the trip, not the reason for it.

The mechanism is cross-category pull. A shopper who drives to Target for milk walks past twenty aisles of discretionary product. The grocer model forces exposure. Target's average basket includes items from multiple departments, and the data shows that customers who buy food spend more per visit than those who shop general merchandise alone. The $9 billion F&B gain is not pure grocery profit; it is the unlock for higher lifetime value across the entire store.

Target also used F&B to create platform leverage for emerging brands. The retailer offers emerging food and beverage companies national distribution without the slotting fees and volume minimums that lock out smaller players at traditional grocery chains. For a young brand, a Target endcap in two thousand stores is the equivalent of a category-defining launch. The retailer absorbs some margin risk in exchange for differentiation and the first-mover halo that comes with discovering the next breakout product.

A small physical-product brand can run the same play at local scale. Identify a high-frequency anchor product—something customers need weekly—and use it to drive traffic to your full assortment. If you sell premium candles, add a line of affordable hand soap or dish towels priced under ten dollars. Stock the anchor product at cost or near cost, then capture margin on the impulse add-ons. The candle buyer who returns for soap sees your seasonal collection and upgrades.

For online DTC brands, the anchor is the subscribe-and-save SKU. Offer one consumable item—coffee, protein powder, dog treats—at a discount for monthly auto-ship. The subscription creates the recurring visit. Each shipment includes a catalog insert or sample of higher-margin products. The consumable is the Trojan horse. The upsell is the business.

Target's F&B expansion is not a pivot. It is a deliberate architecture decision: build traffic with necessity, capture margin with discretion. The same principle scales down to a farmer's market booth or a Shopify store with three SKUs. Frequency wins. Impulse pays.