Target is pushing 50% more new grocery items this year than last, part of a decade-long effort to make food and beverage central to the shopping trip rather than an afterthought.

John Conlin, senior vice president of Merchandising, Food and Beverage for Target, laid out the strategy Tuesday at Groceryshop 2026 in Las Vegas. "We've been working really hard to make our assortment feel on trend," Conlin said, adding that Target wants to become a leading launch destination for founder-led brands.

The push comes as consumers grow more selective about what they eat. Chad Lusk, partner and managing director at Alvarez & Marsal Consumer Retail Group, said many forces reshaping food—healthier eating, functional ingredients, smaller eating occasions and increased scrutiny of value—have been developing for years. What has changed is the speed.

GLP-1 medications, Lusk said, have accelerated an existing movement toward consumers eating less while expecting more from the food they do consume. He compared the impact to the way the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated grocery ecommerce.

The result is a consumer increasingly asking whether a food is "worth having."

"Every bite needs to matter," Lusk said.

The Chobani Sneaker Drop

Target's approach to newness was on display in its partnership with Chobani on a limited-time ube coffee creamer. Chobani approached the introduction like a sneaker drop, using a distinctive flavor and limited-time launch to generate interest.

The tactic worked. Conlin said the Chobani ube creamer became the most-searched item on Target.com for a week—an unusual distinction for a coffee creamer.

"The path to greatness is doing something different," Conlin said.

Emerging brands may have only seconds to capture shoppers' attention, Conlin said, making a clear point of differentiation increasingly important. Target is looking for brands that understand where consumers are headed and can identify areas of unmet demand.

Wellness is an important part of that equation, but Conlin said better-for-you products also have to taste good, be affordable, approachable and fun.

Curated Over Sprawling

Target is also rethinking how it builds its grocery assortment. Rather than attempting to compete on sheer selection, Conlin said the retailer wants to offer a curated combination of owned brands, established national brands and emerging companies.

"We don't have the biggest store," Conlin said. "So our effort is how do we not build the biggest assortment? We want to build the best assortment, the coolest assortment."

Target's guiding principle is "quality for the price," particularly as financially pressured consumers continue to watch spending while expecting quality.

Keeping that assortment current is requiring Target to move faster. Conlin said food trends are increasingly crossing traditional category lines, with influences from wellness, beauty, beverages and fashion. Target uses social listening, internal trend teams and conversations with emerging brands and influencers to identify those shifts.

That speed is changing product development as well. Conlin said timelines that once stretched two or three years are increasingly being compressed to six to nine months.

The goal: avoid being caught behind rapidly changing consumer tastes.

"We're as smart as we can be," Conlin said, "so we don't find ourselves flatfooted as trends change."