There's one of these mini Targets in my Chicago neighborhood, anchoring the ground floor of a newish mixed-use development. It always seems fairly busy despite the existence of a traditional big box Target about a mile away. It probably helps that it's on a busy corner that sees a lot of foot traffic with multiple nearby bars and restaurants (including some that are in the same building as the Target). I suspect you need some level of foot traffic beyond just the people who live in the building above the store to make these type of businesses viable.
Personally, I shop at both Targets. I drive to the bigger store if I want something that the smaller store doesn't carry or if I plan to buy more than will comfortably fit in my backpack. Otherwise, I prefer the convenience of walking to the smaller store and not having to deal with traffic or parking.
Sadly, I think in these areas that are urbanizing - but not quite there yet - the allure of driving to the more convenient/cheaper store that benefits from the mega-economies of scale is just too strong. It will take a lot more urbanizing before that equation shifts. My favorite example is Trader Joes in Brookline MA near where my daughter lived. It's an extremely small format, even for a TJs, but it is jammed every day/hour they are open because so many people live close without cars. For these places you mentioned in your article, in the short term the property owner will probably take a hair cut (explicitly or implicitly) to rent them to smaller/down scale retail - extend and pretend as it's called - or leave them empty and hope. Either that or some supply chain economic disruption will make smaller scale possible, but that is a scenario that has a plethora of ancillary problems that I think no one wants to see (but according to some like James Howard Kunstler is inevitable).
There's one of these mini Targets in my Chicago neighborhood, anchoring the ground floor of a newish mixed-use development. It always seems fairly busy despite the existence of a traditional big box Target about a mile away. It probably helps that it's on a busy corner that sees a lot of foot traffic with multiple nearby bars and restaurants (including some that are in the same building as the Target). I suspect you need some level of foot traffic beyond just the people who live in the building above the store to make these type of businesses viable.
Personally, I shop at both Targets. I drive to the bigger store if I want something that the smaller store doesn't carry or if I plan to buy more than will comfortably fit in my backpack. Otherwise, I prefer the convenience of walking to the smaller store and not having to deal with traffic or parking.
Sadly, I think in these areas that are urbanizing - but not quite there yet - the allure of driving to the more convenient/cheaper store that benefits from the mega-economies of scale is just too strong. It will take a lot more urbanizing before that equation shifts. My favorite example is Trader Joes in Brookline MA near where my daughter lived. It's an extremely small format, even for a TJs, but it is jammed every day/hour they are open because so many people live close without cars. For these places you mentioned in your article, in the short term the property owner will probably take a hair cut (explicitly or implicitly) to rent them to smaller/down scale retail - extend and pretend as it's called - or leave them empty and hope. Either that or some supply chain economic disruption will make smaller scale possible, but that is a scenario that has a plethora of ancillary problems that I think no one wants to see (but according to some like James Howard Kunstler is inevitable).