3 Big Changes Coming To Target In 2026

After spending a large part of 2025 with its back to the wall, Target is intent on turning things around. The retail giant is heading into 2026 led by a new CEO who has ambitious plans, driven by a sharp focus on three areas: style and design, elevated customer experience, and better use of technology to improve speed and efficiency through the business. The appointment of Michael Fiddelke was announced during the Target Corp 2025 Q2 earnings call, in which senior management also discussed big changes coming in 2026. 

"At our core, we are a style and design-led company. We're merchants at heart who love product and win through offering a unique assortment," Fiddelke, who has spent two decades across different verticals at Target, said in the transcripts of the call. He went on and said that he intends to double down on this focus and deliver a "joyful shopping experience, both in stores and online that powers love for the Target brand." While the decision to part ways with Ulta Beauty has dominated headlines, Tasting Table is more concerned about the changes that will affect how you dine. 

Innovative appliances from Ninja Shark did well for Target in the home category last year, and the company's renewed focus on style and design is likely to result in more kitchen decor items for you to pick up on your next trip to Target. While we'll have to wait and see what those are, there are three changes that will affect shoppers at Target in more direct ways: remodels that dedicate more space to food and beverage, new looks for Target-owned food brands and more high protein snacking options from brand partners, and a re-assessment of locations that serve as online order fulfillment hubs. 

One of the differences between shopping at Walmart and Target, is that Target stores offer a much more upscale shopping experience — and, in 2026, it wants to elevate that. As Michael Fiddelke put it in the 2025 Q2 Target Corp earnings call, "We want guests to find a sense of joy from every trip to target and we must do that more consistently and frequently." A large part of this elevated guest experience will be delivered on the back of large-scale remodels to existing stores. 

Target has already announced multi-million dollar revamps of facilities in Central Texas as well as San Antonio. The good news is that this will result in more space on the shop floor for the food business. "We've talked about remodels for a while, but we've got several hundred stores that don't yet have our latest and greatest thinking." said Fiddelke. "That's an important step forward for those stores where we can expand categories to meet the needs of the business," he went on. 

The good news is that this will result in more space on the shop floor for the food and beverage business, with foods being "a category that gets some extra love in terms of more space when we do a remodel," according to Fiddelke.

Target's decision to refocus on style and design is not restricted to obvious categories. It extends, surprisingly, to food as well. The overarching goal of design is to end up with winning products, and in the Q2 2025 Target Corp earnings call, Michael Fiddelke said, "I'd argue that it's true in a category like food and beverage," adding that the ability to "bring newness with our national brand partners" and "grow that category on the back of ... Favorite Day [and] Good & Gather ... is the path forward for how we win across every single category."

Favorite Day and Good & Gather are Target's two in-store food brands. Favorite Day, however, is Target's more premium option. According to shoppers, the store-brand ice-cream is totally underrated, and its frozen triple berry tarts are perfectly sweet and tart. Good & Gather, meanwhile, is Target's ubiquitous grocery brand, selling over 2500 products — the majority of which are priced under $5, which explains the growing popularity of the brand. They also align neatly with the growing focus on wellness, a category that is set to see an expansion at Target. 

This means shoppers can not only expect their go-to Favorite Day and Good & Gather items to get new looks, but they'll also find more high-protein food options in stores. Those will include 100% grass-fed beef products, protein-packed snacks and powders, and more.  

While the in-store shopping experience is understandably important for any business that sees foot traffic touching 30 million people every week, and it remains a key area of focus for Target, online shopping is something no retail business can afford to ignore. The retailer saw an explosion in its online business during the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, with its network of nearly 2000 stores doubling as fulfillment centers, Target has built itself into a $20 billion digital business — and it's betting big on it in 2026.  

Trends in Target's digital channel remained strong through 2025, with comparable sales growing by 4.3% and same-day delivery by more than 25%. Now, with a focused emphasis on technology and operations — armed with results of trials run in 2025 — Target is set to build even more efficiency into its online shopping experience. Per Michael Fiddelke, it plans to do this by using store locations that have large back rooms and manageable levels of foot traffic as fulfillment hubs while shutting the pack rooms with higher levels of in-store customers down. 

"We've had a test in Chicago running ... where we've made some pivots and said some stores are built to fulfill," Fiddelke said in the Q2 2025 Target Corp earnings call. "Some other stores — on the digital fulfillment side, we might say ... sit this one out ... to focus exclusively on the drive-up business and importantly, the order pickup [and] the in-store experience." Fiddelke anticipates applying the learnings from these tests to 30 to 40 more markets in 2026, which should only lead to quicker food deliveries, more frictionless grocery order pick ups, and an overall better in-store food shopping experience across locations.