Will Target's in-store farms be sustainable?
At least one other grocer has pursued such an endeavor in the U.S. In 2013, Whole Foods’ Gowanus, Brooklyn location opened a 20,000-plus square foot rooftop greenhouse in conjunction with the farm startup, Gotham Greens. The garden grows more than 200,000 pounds of leafy greens, herbs and tomatoes yearly.
In an online discussion, many of the industry insiders of the RetailWire BrainTrust were excited at the prospects of Target sourcing produce from an in-house farm. However, some BrainTrust members saw Target’s attempt at agricultural sustainability as being harder to pull off than they might imagine.
“Good for marketing and PR, but the scalability, execution and ultimately the ROI may prove to be a significant challenge,” said Peter Sobotta, founder and CEO of Return Logic. “That said, I like the concept and it is a step in a good direction.”
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