Target plans $5 billion store overhaul, 30 new locations in 2026

Target’s $5 billion plan for 2026 is not just a real-estate story. More than 130 remodels, 30 new stores and a wave of tech and supply chain upgrades will change how cashiers, fulfillment teams and department leads move through the day, from redesigned checkout areas to expanded grocery sections and cleaner handoff zones for Drive Up and Order Pickup.

The company said the work will also touch restrooms and nursing areas, while some locations get broader grocery assortments and layouts built to move customers faster. Target’s newest prototype in Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina, is a 148,000-square-foot, food-forward store with a food and beverage department 30% larger than the chain average, 24 Drive Up pickup lanes and same-day services designed to speed online orders. Target said 92% of shoppers at that format are highly satisfied overall, a number that helps explain why it keeps spending heavily on the physical store.

For Dollar General employees, the bigger message is not about Target’s footprint alone. It is about how modern retailers are trying to win the same shopper by making stores easier to shop, easier to pick up from and harder to leave empty-handed. When a competitor puts money into traffic flow, checkout design and order fulfillment, the pressure shifts to the floor: more zoning, more replenishment discipline, more training on digital pickups and returns, and more attention to whether a store feels fast or frustrating at the peak of a shift.

That matters in a chain like Dollar General, where the company has already been reshaping its own base. Dollar General said in 2025 that it would close 96 Dollar General stores and 45 pOpshelf stores, convert six more pOpshelf locations and take $232 million in charges tied mainly to closures and impairment costs. It also completed 668 Project Elevate remodels and 559 Project Renovate remodels in the first quarter of fiscal 2025, then 1,175 remodels in the third quarter alone, according to Zacks’ summary of company disclosures.

Dollar General’s fiscal 2026 real-estate plan calls for about 90% of projects to be remodels, with roughly 2,000 Project Renovate remodels, 2,250 Project Elevate remodels and 450 new U.S. stores. Todd Vasos has said the macro environment was not expected to improve for the chain’s core customer and that many shoppers had money for only basic essentials. In that kind of market, the store that works better, moves faster and stays stocked can still beat the store that is cheapest on paper.