Target Drops a Favorite Brand from Stores

Target makes an official change that may upset customers.

Target  (TGT) - Get Free Report has made some questionable retail choices over the years, and when it makes another one, it makes customers wonder what on earth the people at Target corporate are thinking.

Questionable choices like the line of women's clothing in 2022 that was reminiscent of "Little House on the Prairie." Then Target claimed it had inventory it couldn't move. Well, clearly women today do not want to dress like it's the 1800's, so moving on. 

Target changing out its retail aisles isn’t new. Target has been introducing new products and brands routinely, and whenever a new brand comes on, some other brand or product might have to be removed from the shelves. 

The variety retailer works to turn over its products in a timely and efficient manner, and when it sees a slowdown in the process, the well-run retailer notices. While some brand demands continues, other brands and or products start collecting dust on the shelves. When that happens it's time for the retailer to take a good hard look at what its selling and how to turn that inventory and shelf space in a more profitable area. 

Beloved Brand No Longer at Target

The retail giant has worked to keep its inventory fresh and new throughout the years. It even developed its own in-store brands that became top sellers. Target launched its own grocery brand, Archer Farms, in 1995 according to the Target website and it included items like bread, milk, pasta and more. The store brand provided private label quality at store brand pricing.

Archer Farms expanded to include more than its original food and beverage staples. The Target store brand went on to sell cereal, cookies, crackers, ice cream, yogurt, frozen pizza and much more. The Archer Farms store brand made quality products that consumers felt comfortable buying, and it became a top seller next to top label brands in each aisle.

To much surprise, Archer Farms is being discontinued. The store brand that helped break a barrier between buying top label brands and store brands being of lower quality to being on par with top label brands, is going away. Target confirmed that the brand was being phased out and replaced with its new store brand Good and Gather, which has been around since 2019 and has been slowly replacing Archer Farms on Target’s shelves.

Some customer favorites will no longer be offered and what feels like an abrupt change to customers’ ability to get their favorite Target brand products can be disheartening. One customer took to @AskTarget to find where his favorite frozen pizza went. Target replied stating that it was no longer going to be carrying the Archer Farms brand and replacing it with the Good and Gather. The customer replied that this was really sad news, since it was a favorite. 

Dropping Favorite Products Not New to Target

Target has dropped other fan favorite products before. A few years back it dropped its basic store brand Hair and Body Baby Wash and replaced it with scented store brand hair and body baby wash. Scents like lavender and vanilla apricot can be great, but babies have overly sensitive skin and taking away the unscented version is just senseless. The only comparable product still offered without a strong scent was Johnson’s Head to Toe baby wash, but that product is currently $2 higher than the Target store brand Up and Up.

Target doesn't usually abruptly remove any products unless it's dangerous. However, it did start to replace all its products from Archer Farms with the Good and Gather replacements. However, most customers shop by habit, and when seeing that their normal go to Target brand Archer Farms products were nowhere to be found, it definitely raised some eyebrows. The announcement that Archer Farms was being phased out is several years old, but unless consumers are out reading everything to know about Target, the news still came in as quite a shock to them that their favorite Target brand products are no more.