Day: November 14, 2025

• Target revamped its stores with nostalgic holiday decor and sensory experiences to bring shoppers back to stores.
• The retailer aims to improve consistency and the guest experience after recent sales declines.
• I checked out a Target in New Jersey to see the holiday overhaul myself.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year for shoppers, but Target is trying to reduce the chaos of holiday shopping in its stores.

Target’s chief guest experience officer, Cara Sylvester, said customers are craving consistency when shopping in stores. For Target, that means cleaning them up, keeping shelves stocked, and having happy staff members.

It’s all part of an effort to keep consumers engaged and shopping the aisles of the winter wonderland that Target is creating throughout its 2,000-plus stores.

Although it’s spreading holiday cheer this season, Target hasn’t had a joyous past few years. The retailer posted declining comparable sales for six of the past nine quarters under exiting CEO Brian Cornell. Last month, the company said it would be laying off about 1,000 corporate employees and cutting another 800 open roles to help the company move faster and simplify workflows.

Target’s chief operating officer and soon-to-be CEO, Michael Fiddelke, has big plans for the retailer that he will helm in February. His strategy is based on “knowing what makes Target Target,” Fiddelke said during Target’s earnings call in August. The guest experience is one major area he wants to improve.

Target took me on a tour of a New Jersey location, where I stepped into a “whimsical Alpine world,” as Sylvester described it to me, to get a preview of how the retailer is revamping its stores to win shoppers back this holiday season.

“We want guests to see, to feel, Target” when they walk into stores, Sylvester said. It sounds simple enough, but the retailer has struggled with store traffic recently. The goal is to make it “look beautiful” with various holiday-themed displays to show off its winter collections.

However, I got the sense that some of the changes aren’t just seasonal; they’re targeting bigger issues.

I was immediately hit with holiday smells and sounds when I walked in

If it smells like warm holiday cookies when you first walk into your local Target, that’s by design. The store is targeting all five senses, with smell playing a new role. I caught onto the strategy immediately as the automatic doors slid open.

“Smell is actually the strongest of the five senses that triggers memories,” Sylvester told me.

In addition to the smells, the holiday vibes were established early on by a life-size gondola — similar to one you might find in the Swiss Alps — that’s used for photo opportunities during the weekly events hosted at the New Jersey location I visited.

Although there weren’t any events scheduled for the Wednesday morning of my tour, my guides told me that toy demonstrations and children’s activities would be held weekly leading up to the holidays.

The Alpine Hotel set the stage for the rest of the store

Cozy sweaters and matching knitted sets from Target’s Universal Thread brand lined the Alpine Hotel near the entrance of the store. It set the tone for the overall Alpine theme of the store, complete with electronic gondolas hanging from the ceiling.

I caught a vibe that would become a thread throughout the rest of the store. It felt like I’d stopped into a small shop that sold cozy knits and sweaters.

However, it was the same Target outside the Alpine Hotel display. There were still racks and racks of affordable, matching winter pajamas to peruse.

The Holiday Market served as inspiration for my Christmas decorations

With a six-foot tinsel Christmas tree as the centerpiece, the Holiday Market was hard to miss at the back corner of the store. Although the holiday vibes were sprinkled throughout the store, the Holiday Market is where you’d go to find the decorations you need for your tree, yard, and wherever else you want to place Santa Claus figurines.

Before my tour, I’d seen a TikTok user post a video that described the decorations as “tackier” than usual.

Telsey Group analyst Joe Feldman told me that Target has struggled to stay on trend and in fashion over the past few years.

However, that wasn’t my takeaway from this visit.

It had a nostalgic feel, which Gen Zers like myself are obsessed with. That’s intentional, Target told me. The ceramic trees and light-up reindeer weren’t unlike the decorations my grandma has used for years. Now that I’m decorating my own house, it feels like an opportunity to continue the tradition.

Target wants you to take your phone out while you’re browsing the store

Target said it overhauled its app for the holidays, with the “Get Ready Yeti” character who guides guests through what’s new on the app, including markdowns and deals.

Target is also pushing Store Mode in the app. The feature displays a virtual map to help shoppers locate what they’re looking for in the store. Many other retailer apps have similar features.

Target, like other retailers, is also infusing AI into the shopping experience with a new assistant that can help find the right gift for a loved one. My tour guide demonstrated it by looking up gift ideas for his gothic nephew, who loves video games.

Target also rolled out another AI-powered feature this week, enabling users to take a photo of their written grocery list and have the items added to their cart.

I felt like I was entering small specialty shops as we walked around.

Hearth & Hand with Magnolia is a brand collaboration between Target and home renovation stars Chip Gaines and Joanna Gaines. The brand has its own little holiday setup, and it made me feel like I’d stepped into a small shop selling specialty home goods, such as handmade wreaths and decorative candy canes.

Target-exclusive products were prominently featured in each display during my walkthrough. Both Target-owned and partner brands dominated the shelves, with national brands taking more of a backseat.

We finished the tour with steaming cups of hot chocolate

Well, sort of. The Target I visited does, in fact, host a weekly event on Saturdays where people can get free cups of hot chocolate. However, the Hot Cocoa Club, where the event is hosted, was still set up with sweet treats, gingerbread houses, and winter-themed plush toys.

Although it was a relatively small part of the store, it smelled of chocolate and mint as we approached. When I got closer, I saw that the cardboard hot chocolate cutout had real steam pumping out from behind it.

Some of these changes are here to stay

The holiday decorations are all fine and dandy, but Target needs more than a booming December quarter to mount a true comeback. Inconsistency in stores has been a frustration for shoppers that the company is working to address.

“Target has to provide a more consistent experience,” Feldman, the analyst, said, adding that customers expect to have a good experience regardless of the location or number of times they go to the store.

For the retail giant, that means cleaning stores, making sure products are in stock, and offering them at a low price, both Feldman and Sylvester told Business Insider.

Target said Tuesday that it would slash prices on thousands of food and beverage items and household goods in time for Thanksgiving. On my own visit, I observed Black Friday sales stickers already posted in the toys section.

Although Target’s new holiday look won’t last forever, this level of execution of its plan is necessary to fully turn things around.

• Although we’re not opposed to the public school system, it wasn’t working for our family.
• Pick-ups and drop-offs were wearing on us; they also weren’t getting the right attention at school.
• We pulled our four kids from public school to homeschool and travel, and we love it.

As parents, we’re not against the public school system. It just wasn’t working for us. From sunup to sundown, every day was a rush, and dinner was always late as we scrambled with the kids to get homework done. Our mornings started at 5:30 a.m. Waking our four children up — now 6, 9, 11, and 14 — an hour before the sun rose was becoming a daunting task. It felt like we were becoming robots.

Morning car rides were silent, and rush hour traffic was unrelenting. We’d arrive at school, kicking kids out and throwing backpacks thoughtlessly. It was gut-wrenching. The real kicker was having to transport our children to two separate schools; let’s just say there were more days than we’d like when they weren’t on time.

We tried to see if before- and after-care would help, but it was nearly $200 each month for the three of our children who were attending school at the time. None of it felt sustainable.

We started homeschooling and don’t plan on going back to public school

It was the beginning of the 2022-2023 academic year. My wife, Lola, was a teacher, and she told me she was ready to resign and teach our own children, as well as to get an RV for us to travel in. I asked her what we would be doing to earn an income, and at first, we were clueless.

It was on a trip to Key West, FL, that we discovered the wonders of work camping. In short, we exchange work hours for wages and an RV site.

I was thrilled with our new arrangement. Our kids weren’t sure about it at first. They were worried about leaving their school friends behind, and though they kept in touch with their school friends the first year, they’ve since made plenty of new connections. Now that we have traveled to 31 states in our RV, our children have friends across the country, as well as in Germany and the United Kingdom.

Homeschooling allows us to give our kids what they need

Initially, we faced backlash from family members for homeschooling our children. However, we felt we knew what was best for our children. In fact, when we introduce ourselves to other families as homeschoolers, we often hear that they’re interested in trying it out, too.

And while I’m not saying we have all the answers to homeschooling, I’m confident in saying that our kids have grown in ways we couldn’t have imagined if they were still in the public school system.

For example, our youngest daughter was diagnosed with ADHD, and in the public school system, she wasn’t getting the support she needed. Teachers didn’t understand why she had trouble staying on task or remaining seated. Now, she is receiving the one-on-one time that she needed. We’ve discovered that she learns best while on the move. It’s as simple as standing or being in different environments so she doesn’t get bored with the same routine.

Homeschooling allows us to focus on each child as an individual. Finding their niche and giving them the kind of attention they need is much more important to us than receiving an A or B on a test.

We approach homeschooling with a hands-on approach

When we first started homeschooling, we knew we wanted it to be different. After an email from the Duval County Public School system in Florida confirming that our children have been assigned to home education, we were all excited for new beginnings. In Florida, we’ve found it fairly easy and convenient to follow the state’s guidelines. After three years of homeschooling, we often ask our kids if they want to return to public school, and for now, they don’t.

At each state we stop in, we explore and visit museums, exhibits, national parks, national monuments, and local libraries; all of these stops offer new learning opportunities. We’ve walked through the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., for example, and taken a nature cruise in Bar Harbor, Maine, to learn about wildlife, such as harbor seals and Atlantic Puffins.

The main challenge of homeschooling is reminding our children that they can’t sleep past 9 am every day. We haven’t encountered any significant challenges yet; however, we know they could come up. For now, we are enjoying not missing the key moments in our children’s lives.