Night owls now have another shopping option if they run out of diapers or work a second shift.
This month, Target Corp. began inching back its closing time by an hour or two at about half of its U.S. stores. So now, roughly 300 stores are staying open until midnight on certain days, marking the retailer's latest hours ever outside of the holiday season, Erika Winkels, a Target spokeswoman, said Monday.
In other instances, Target stores are being kept open until 11 p.m. on certain days of the week. The extended hours are being rolled out to about 900 of Target's 1,700 U.S. stores.
"The data showed us that our guests were looking for some more options in terms of shopping later," Winkels said. "We saw there was an opportunity there."
The later shopping hours come at a time when the Minneapolis-based retailer is trying to drive more traffic back into its stores in order to help revive sluggish sales. It has also stepped up its promotions in order to draw customers back following last year's massive data breach.
A couple of weeks ago, Target cut its second-quarter profit outlook, noting that those discounts had cut into its margins. It also said it will have "essentially flat" comparable store sales in the United States. Target will report its full results for the quarter on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has kept many of its stores open around the clock for years. Three out of four of Wal-Mart's 4,200 U.S. stores are always open.
Brian Nick, a Wal-Mart spokesman, noted that local ordinances in some regions require stores to close by certain times.
