Freshii And Target Team Up On Tastefully Tasty Shopping

As the push to build retail around the experience of shopping as much as around the act of purchasing, Target and fast casual chain Freshii will be expanding their collaboration in the Chicago area. The push comes as Target is trying to upscale its image with an increased focus on fresh foods and health.

“Why the partnership with Target is interesting is that it’s a mass brand,” said Freshii CEO Matthew Corrin. “It allows us to bring health and wellness to the masses.”

In the past Target’s cafe offerings have tended toward high calorie and low nutrition, providing such perennial favorites as pizza, hot dogs, popcorn and other snacks. All perfectly fine eatables but not in line with the retailer’s new, more health-conscious direction, spokeswoman Katie Boylan told the Chicago Tribune.

The partnership is still in early phases, and neither Boylan nor Corrin were willing to discuss the future possibility of expanding Freshii into Target’s 1,800 or so stores nationwide. But the program is expanding beyond Chicago and testing in Minneapolis as well.

Freshii is a chain with 200 restaurant locations, about half of which are in the U.S. That number is expected to double by the end of next year, mostly through franchise agreements.