David Pinto — The opening of Target’s latest Express stores in San Francisco earlier this month signals more than the opening shot in a new direction for this general merchandise retailer, one that has suffered through a series of mishaps and setbacks over the past 18 months.  

The opening of Target’s latest Express stores in San Francisco earlier this month signals more than the opening shot in a new direction for this general merchandise retailer, one that has suffered through a series of mishaps and setbacks over the past 18 months.  

Indeed, the fact that Target is now headed by a new chief executive is proof that the Minneapolis-based company had endured all that could reasonably be endured in a period in which damage control became the objective, disappointing holiday sales the result and the chain’s withdrawal from Canada the major fallout.

But that’s all ancient history now, a tribute to both the retailer’s new leadership and its staffers, a group that carried out an ambitious and energetic game plan that resulted in the opening, in early March, of two TargetExpress stores, bringing the total to three.

About the stores, there is much that can and should be said. One opened in downtown San Francisco, a business community with residential fallout. The second opened across the Bay, in the college town of Berkeley. The stores are similar in that they both merchandise to the neighborhood. They are different in their appeal to two vastly different ­neighborhoods.

The San Francisco store is the larger of the two, at 20,000 square feet. It focuses on its twin audiences, people who work in the area and people who live there. Accordingly, there are generous assortments of food and grocery items, much of the assortment consisting of locally grown or manufactured food, along with an emphasis on healthy and organic products.

The store also features a full-service pharmacy, a complete health and beauty aids assortment, an electronic mix that relies heavily on Apple products, a selection of basic apparel, office supplies, and a sprinkling of local merchandise that includes a selection of merchandise tied to local sports teams.

Finally, there are such amenities as a Starbucks coffee bar, an option that allows customers to order merchandise online and collect it at the store, and artwork throughout the store that reflects and highlights the work of local artists.

In short, the TargetExpress unit is a convenience store designed to attract and cater to locals. So, too, is the Berkeley store, though the residents here are mostly college students and those local citizens who support the university.

The Berkeley store is smaller than the unit across the Bay, about 12,500 square feet in size. It offers its customers most of the categories its neighbor does, but the mix within those categories differs sharply from the San Francisco stores. More specifically, the food assortment is designed to appeal to the young people who attend UC Berkeley, as is much of the stationery and school supplies. The H&BA mix is slimmed down. The pharmacy is smaller. The electronics assortment again relies heavily on Apple, while such merchandise as apparel appeals to college-age students.

Even the store hours are different, an acknowledgment that students adhere to a different schedule from business employees and local residents.

What’s most remarkable about these two stores, however, is that Target has been able to open them — while keeping them distinctly separate from each other. Clearly, TargetExpress will be a major undertaking for the company, an attempt to open smaller stores and merchandise and market them to specific neighborhoods in specific cities around the United States. Target has already announced that several more TargetExpress stores will open this year, at least two of them in California. And, of course, the initial TargetExpress is already up and running, having opened late last year in ­Minneapolis.

So, though it’s still very early in the game, Target must be given a huge amount of credit for taking a bold new direction at a time when its other store formats remain productive.