Target has recently announced a plan to expand its selection of fresh and frozen grocery items for its Drive Up curbside pickup program. What will an expanded selection of fresh, refrigerated and frozen foods mean for Target’s Drive Up business and its grocery operations overall?

Even with the odds seemingly favoring employers at the present time, Target announced that it is raising its starting minimum wage from $13 to $15 an hour beginning on July 5. How will Target’s higher minimum wage and other steps it has taken affect its associate recruiting and retention efforts and worker performance?

Sephora has committed to growing its current roster of nine black-owned brands to include others that will eventually occupy at least 15 percent of the space on its store shelves. How would you go about reaching the 15 percent goal of black-owned brands if you were Sephora or another retailer?

“We are a community in pain. That pain is not unique to the Twin Cities — it extends across America,” wrote Target CEO Brian Cornell Friday in an open letter. What is your reaction to how retailers and brands have reacted to nationwide protests following the death of George Floyd?

Amazon is looking to get its once vaunted distribution system back into its pre-pandemic shape and doing so will require pushing its annual Prime Day event from July to September. Will Amazon’s 2020 results be helped or hurt if it moves Prime Day September, and will the decision affect its results beyond this year?

Target has announced that it will extend a temporary $2 an hour wage hike, double-overtime pay and other benefits to its associates in recognition of their efforts during the novel coronavirus outbreak through July 4. What is your take on Target’s first-quarter results and what do you expect of the retailer over the next year?

The ability to have customers return merchandise, try on clothes in fitting rooms and even touch merchandise has been clouded by concerns over the transmission of COVID-19. How should retailers manage returns, fitting rooms and other product-related contamination risks?

The initial batch of ads arriving since the pandemic have largely embraced similar phrases, set-ups and emphatic tones. Is the American public ready for advertising messages from brands that move on past reassurance and empathy?

In a financial update last week, Target detailed how its online sales accelerated and in-store sales softened as the coronavirus pandemic raced across the country. What lessons might be drawn from how Target is managing through the COVID-19 crises?

Retailers are starting to open drive-thru COVID-19 testing sites to the public for the first time. Are they ready? What challenges do you expect retailers to face rolling out COVID-19 testing?

Minnesota and Vermont last week officially designated grocery clerks as emergency personnel, similar to paramedics and nurses, to give them access to free childcare. Do frontline grocery workers deserve special protections and compensation amid the coronavirus pandemic on par with first responders?

CVS has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Schnuck Markets’ retail and specialty pharmacy businesses. Is the acquisition of pharmacies operating inside of big box chain stores a growth model that you expect CVS to continue to pursue?

A few years ago, Target launched a store specifically to showcase its connected home offerings. Now, it has converted the IoT-focused Target Open House into a new concept store specifically for techies of a different type — the next generation of video game fanatics. Does it make sense for Target to launch a video gaming-oriented concept in the Open House location?

A bill called the Shop Safe Act of 2020 currently being considered by Congress aims to curb the perennial problem of counterfeit goods being sold through e-commerce marketplaces. How would Amazon and others have to retool their operations if the Shop Safe Act of 2020 becomes law?

Target’s push to open smaller locations in recent years has been one of the chain’s success stories. Now the retailer is thinking of developing even smaller stores to enable it to have locations almost anywhere. Has Target’s experience operating stores between 12,000- and 30,000-square-feet prepared it to succeed with even smaller locations?

Walmart came up short for the Christmas selling season. The world’s largest retailer posted sales and earnings that were below Wall Street’s expectations. What do you make of Walmart’s good, not great, 2019 holiday sales performance?

How could a “Minnesota Badgers” onesie find its way to four stars in Minneapolis from a retail chain with its headquarters in The Gopher State? Target issued a statement to all the “Uff da” responses it was getting to this merchandising mishap. What are typical best practice responses for retailers and brands when mistakes like Target’s Minnesota Badgers onesie mishaps occur?

Shipt, the same-day delivery service founded in 2014 and acquired by Target in 2017, has ditched its rocket ship imagery and rolled out a new green shopping bag graphic as part of a broader refresh for the brand. What is your take on the timing and direction of Shipt’s brand refresh and marketing campaign?

At the NRF Big Show, the CIOs of Lowe’s and Target talked up the benefits of bringing software development in-house to move quicker and be more responsive to meeting customers’ needs. Has the internal development of software become more important with digital’s increasing prevalence across retail and the fast-changing technological landscape?

On Christmas Eve, Target prepared nearly five times the number of products for curbside pickup of online orders than it did the year prior. Does BOPIS now offer a sizable advantage for retailers with physical stores over online players in reaching last-minute holiday shoppers?

Target reported that same-store sales were up 1.4 percent for the season, below the chain’s forecast of three to four percent growth and well below 2018’s 5.7 percent comp performance.  What do you make of Target’s sales miss during the 2019 holiday selling season?

At a session Sunday at the NRF Big Show, Rick Gomez, EVP, chief marketing and digital officer, Target, explained why he decided against using points as the incentive when launching Target’s loyalty program last year. Does Target’s Circle program seem positioned to drive more loyalty than a typical points-based program?

The past year was a good one for a number of retailers and executives who earned accolades from the press and, in some cases, investors. Which companies would be on your list of candidates to earn the distinction of top retailer of the year for 2019?

Walmart over the last year has quietly introduced “SWAT teams” of remodeling specialists as it steps up its upgrades to 500 U.S. locations annually. Do retailers need a better (i.e., faster) plan for executing remodels given the demands of the marketplace?

Super Saturday’s sales this year reached $34.4 billion, becoming the biggest single day in U.S. retail history and surpassing Black Friday’s haul of $31.2 billion by 10 percent, according to Customer Growth Partners. Has Super Saturday become a more critical day for retailers than Black Friday?

This week’s RetailWire Christmas Commercial pits rivals Target and Walmart against each other. What are your critiques of the Christmas spots from Target and Walmart?

Finding seasonal temps is a tough challenge for retailers in a market with a historically-low unemployment rate, but quickly onboarding them to support a variety of omnichannel tasks represents a whole new learning curve. Where do you see the biggest challenges onboarding holiday temps to support omnichannel functions?

All signs point to a strong holiday season as Target continues to make gains in apparel and online sales, while improving its inventory management and profitability in the process. What major retailers have the most to lose from Target’s gains?

With fewer calendar days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, Target, like its major retailing rivals, is looking to get a quick start to the 2019 holiday selling season with a special “HoliDeals” campaign beginning with a Black Friday Preview Sale. How does Target stack up against its retail competitors?

The holiday selling season is six days shorter and will include one less weekend this year. With only 26 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, compared to 32 days in 2018, some retailers are making adjustments. What sort of adjustments (if any) should retailers make this year for the shorter traditional holiday season?

CNN reports that it has interviewed 23 current and former employees of Target in recent months who said they actually are bringing home less than they did before the retailer began raising its hourly pay. Do hourly associates have a legitimate grievance in connecting fewer shift hours with recent pay increases or are there other factors at work?

Bed Bath & Beyond has announced that Mark Tritton, chief merchandising officer at Target, will become its new president and chief executive officer on Nov. 4. What do you see as the biggest challenges and opportunities facing Mark Tritton as CEO of Bed Bath & Beyond?

Yesterday, the mass merchandiser and Tru Kid Brands, parent company of Toys “R” US, announced that Target is providing product, digital capabilities and fulfillment for orders that originate on toysrus.com. What do you think Target will get out of working with Tru Kids to relaunch toysrus.com?

Earlier this week it was reported that Target’s checkouts, website and mobile app went down as a result of a technical glitch. It was the third such outage for the retail chain in as many months. What do you see as the most common reasons for IT outages and brownouts within retail and consumer-direct brand organizations?

Walmart is all about saving consumers money, and the retailer’s new private label credit card program with Capital One is designed to reinforce its low-price image. How will Walmart’s two new cash-back cards affect how holders interact with the chain?

Walmart announced today that it is expanding its grocery delivery subscription program, Delivery Unlimited, to 1,400 stores across the country. What will Delivery Unlimited mean for Walmart’s grocery business?

Target announced yesterday that it would roll out its new Target Circle rewards program nationwide following an 18-month test that produced “overwhelmingly positive” results. How do you think the launch of Target Circle will affect the retailer’s business going into the Christmas holiday and beyond?

Target has sent a letter to suppliers insisting they absorb any costs related to increased tariffs on Chinese-made product. Is Target making a wise move in insisting that suppliers absorb costs tied to the tariff war?

Target reached an agreement to introduce in-store Disney shops. The partnership also includes a Disney-themed online microsite and a Target store opening inside Walt Disney World. Do you see the hook-up between Target and Disney as an equal win for both companies?

Target is partnering with local artists in its new small-format stores to support community building. The executions range from murals behind registers to installations in parking lots. How important is partnering with local artists to the success of Target’s small-market locations?

Grocery is among the key categories on which Target has focused since Brian Cornell became CEO in 2014. Now the chain is taking another run at grocery success with the introduction of a new private label line. How much progress do you think Target has made at improving its grocery business in recent years?

Target has sold Levi Strauss’ value-priced Denizen brand jeans in its stores for years. Now the retailer is adding Levi’s premium red tab 505 and 511 jeans at 50 stores located near college campuses and urban centers. What does the agreement to sell Levi’s red tab jeans say about the strategies of both the retailer and the manufacturer?

For 20 years, Target has been launching limited-edition designer partnerships that have drawn throngs of shoppers to the chain’s stores and large numbers to its website. How do you think Target’s “best of” promotion will come off this time?

Once bustling retail hubs are now harboring thousands of square feet in unused space up for the taking. Who is vying for this real estate? Companies prioritizing (and expanding) e-commerce. Do you see a significantly greater role for stores to be used as fulfillment centers?

This fall, Target will open three additional smaller format stores to bring its total count across college campuses to 23. Have college campuses emerged into a more viable growth opportunity for larger chains?

There was a time not too long ago when the only thing a person could hope to get delivered in 30 minutes was a pizza. Is delivering grocery products consistently in 30 minutes something customers can expect? Do you think Kroger can deliver on this promise?

On Saturday, “an internal technology issue” caused long lines at Target stores and customers wasted no time going on social media to post their unhappiness. Will the checkout outages at Target over the weekend have any lasting effects on how customers view the retailer?

Target wants to give its customers more financial flexibility when it comes to receiving same-day delivery of items purchased online. How do you assess Target’s overall digital sales progress compared with competitors such as Amazon.com and Walmart?

Nike earned wide praise last week for installing its first plus-size mannequin in one of its stores. The mannequins are featured on a special floor dedicated to women at its refurbished flagship in London. Why has it taken so long for plus-sized mannequins to make it to retail selling floors?

Move over Amazon.com and Walmart — Target wants a bigger piece of the retail advertising pie. Will owning advertising businesses become a major competitive advantage for large retailers such as Amazon, Target and Walmart?