Shopping at stores can be difficult when the supply doesn’t match the demand.
Whether it’s essential goods or a hot-ticket item, it may seem like the product is never in stock.
One way to beat the system is to shop right after the store restocks.
In the case of Target, you may not be sure when that is.
Here’s everything you need to know about when Target restocks its inventory.
When Does Target Restock?
Target restocks essential goods every day.
They receive a truck daily that brings them perishables.
Those perishables then go on the store’s shelves overnight for buyers to purchase them during the following day.
Other products, like furniture, household goods, or other non-essential supplies receive their restock shipment every other day.
In particular, the truck delivers new items on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
In some cases, the truck may not be able to make the delivery on Wednesday.
In that case, they will deliver on Thursday.
Smaller stores may also not warrant a delivery on Wednesday, but they’ll still receive their restock on Monday and Friday.
Finally, Target restocks its seasonal products, like Christmas and Halloween decorations, when it’s appropriate for the season.
When Does Target Restock Its Essential Goods?
One of the most frustrating points of shopping for consumers is essential goods.
They’re considered essential because almost everyone needs them to survive.
These are basic goods that make life livable or more comfortable.
Some essential goods include:
- Toilet paper
- Food
- Water
- Medications
- First Aid
- Flashlights
These essential goods can save lives and ensure that someone stays healthy.
Since people need those basic products to stay alive and safe, they’re always in high demand.
Food and water, in particular, tend to go quickly.
Because of that, it’s helpful to know when Target restocks them.
It ensures you’re able to arrive at the store at the right time and day to buy them first.
If you arrive too late, then there’s a good chance those essential goods will already be gone.
Target receives daily shipments of its essential goods.
A truck arrives every day, either in the morning or at night, with its shipment of essential goods.
The team then sorts the goods into perishables and other essentials.
Perishables go into the refrigerated section of their inventory.
They’re then sorted into categories where employees can pull them out and stock the shelves with them.
Other essentials go into their appropriate sections on pallets or stocking units.
Employees will then pull them out into the store and stock the shelves.
Most of the stocking happens during Target’s nighttime hours.
When the store closes at 10 PM, their graveyard shift workers come in and start stocking the shelves with the day’s worth of supplies.
It usually takes them until six or eight in the morning to finish stocking the shelves.
Sometimes, if the team is too small, they don’t get the chance to finish stocking the shelves before the store opens.
In this case, the morning and afternoon crews try to finish the job.
If there are low supplies of certain essential items throughout the day, then Target might also assign some of their morning and afternoon workers to restock them.
If they have the team members available and the stock waiting, then Target employees will also stock the shelves while the store is open.
In particular, they’ll restock the perishables.
They sometimes do this to ensure their produce is always fresh, too.
They often restock their perishables before noon, sometimes after noon, and before five in the afternoon.
If time allows and they have the stock available, then Target employees will also restock the perishable shelves after 6 PM.
However, since this is usually one of the busiest times, it doesn’t always occur.
When Does Target Restock Its Non-Essential Products?
Non-essential products like general merchandise have fewer restock days than essential items.
That’s because it allows the employees to prioritize the necessary products.
When they have time, then they can start working on general merchandise.
Non-essential products also don’t come into the store as often as non-essential items.
Whereas essential items receive a daily shipment, in most cases, non-essential items only arrive on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
Some trucks will only deliver to smaller or more remote stores on Mondays and Fridays.
They try to deliver non-essential goods on Friday and again on Monday to restock the items that they sold during the weekend.
Since the weekend is the busiest time for stores in general, they’re always low on stock coming into Monday.
Friday helps ensure that there is a high supply of certain items going into the weekend rush.
If you’re looking to buy a certain non-essential product, then your best opportunity to buy it is either on Monday, Wednesday, or Friday.
As for the time, the morning hours are always your best bet.
When Does Target Restock Its Seasonal Products?
If you plan on buying a lot of Christmas or Halloween decorations, then you’ll be out of luck outside of the season.
Target has to utilize a part of its store for seasonal products.
That means Christmas decorations in the winter, Halloween costumes and candy in the fall, Easter candy in the spring, and supplies for summer activities and necessities in the summer.
Other seasonal holidays occupy the space for a shorter time.
Since that space is often needed throughout the year, Target only restocks its seasonal products when it’s the appropriate season.
You won’t be able to buy Valentine’s Day candy and decorations during the Halloween season, for example.
Since holiday decorations, candy, and other products are in high demand during their respective seasons, Target tries to keep them stocked.
However, seasonal products aren’t considered essential.
As such, they may only assign a team member or two to stock the seasonal area.
The rest of the crew takes care of the essential items before moving to the seasonal area if there’s still time.
Because of that, the seasonal area often isn’t stocked as well as other parts of the store.
It’s also a more difficult place to stock since customers often make a mess of the shelves.
It takes time to organize everything again which means they have even less time to stock the area.
Seasonal products likely come on the truck that carries general merchandise.
However, the suppliers may be slower than other general merchandise vendors.
Because of that, those seasonal products may only be on a few trucks during the week.
For example, the general merchandise truck may arrive on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with products.
However, the seasonal products may only be on trucks on Monday and Friday.
The best time to buy seasonal products is on a Monday in the morning.
It’s also a good idea to buy them earlier in the season than later in the season.
Target only purchases a set number of units from their seasonal vendors.
Once those units are sold out, the store must choose to either order more or prepare for the next season.
If you want to save money, however, and don’t mind what you buy, then you might want to wait until the season is over.
The day after the holiday is the best time to find great deals on Target’s seasonal products.
You can find tons of candy and even leftover decorations.
When Does Target Restock Ammunition?
If you’re preparing for hunting season, then it’s helpful to know when Target restocks its ammo supply.
Ammo is part of Target’s general merchandise.
Because of that, it’s usually sent over on trucks that deliver goods on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Since employees stock shelves between midnight and six in the morning, ammo will be at its highest stock Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings.
Since Target only puts out a few boxes of ammo at a time, it can be easy to think that they’re out.
However, if you need ammo, it’s worth speaking to the team member assigned to the hunting and fishing kiosk.
They can search in the back to see if there are more boxes of ammo there.
Otherwise, your best chance to stock up on ammo is to visit Target at eight in the morning on Tuesday, Thursday, or Saturday.
If the truck is early on Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, then there’s a chance that the workers might be able to put the ammo out before the night shift.
However, it’s unlikely.
Visiting the store on the day after a truck delivers its goods is the best time to find items in stock.
When Does Target Restock Furniture?
Nothing is more frustrating than finding the perfect piece of furniture at a Target store only to discover it’s out of stock.
The store can’t always sell display items either.
You may wonder when Target restocks its furniture to ensure you’re able to pick out the piece you want before it’s sold out again.
Furniture falls under the general merchandise category at Target.
However, it’s also large.
That makes restocking take more time.
At Target, essential goods take priority.
Then general merchandise like household goods, toys, and other products get their turn.
Furniture also comes with general merchandise on trucks, but not as often.
Whereas general merchandise may arrive on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, furniture may only arrive on Monday and Wednesday or Monday and Friday
That’s because it costs extra to ship furniture.
It’s larger and takes up more space.
That’s space that Target could have used to carry several smaller products.
It’s a risk of losing revenue.
It also costs more to ship it because of the weight.
Since furniture is heavier, it creates more drag on a truck.
That means higher fuel costs.
Since it’s more expensive to ship furniture, Target has to take on a higher cost to import it.
That means they only have so many pieces of furniture available at a time.
They also don’t have that much space to store it in the back.
They need that space to store other products.
Since there’s a small number available, their furniture pieces often go out of stock.
Since most shopping happens on the weekends, it’s a good estimate that the truck on Friday and Monday carries essential items mostly.
They need to restock the store after the weekend rush.
Because of that, furniture likely comes on Wednesday’s trucks at the very least.
They might also come on a Monday truck.
If Target knows they have a furniture piece that is in high demand, then they might also request it on the Friday truck for the weekend rush.
Because of that, it’s a good idea to shop at Target on Tuesdays and Thursdays at eight in the morning to get first pick at the furniture.
It’s also worth asking a worker or general manager at your local Target to find out when their trucks deliver furniture to their store specifically.
When Does Target Restock Online Items?
If you’re shopping on their online store and notice something is out of stock, then you may wonder when they’ll order a replacement.
Online stores move a little slower than brick-and-mortar stores.
At a brick-and-mortar store, they have their logistics and inventory system down to a science.
They know what products tend to move quickly based on their location and local customer base.
That allows them to prepare their inventories accordingly.
Online stores don’t have that luxury.
There could be a customer who lives miles away from them ordering something from them.
Because of that, they only ever have a limited number of products available at a given time.
That’s to help cut down warehouse costs.
It costs money to keep things in a warehouse.
The more products you have waiting in a warehouse, the more money you’re losing.
That said, Target doesn’t specify how quickly their items restock on their online store.
It depends on when the manufacturers can produce the item and ship it to them.
Then they can ship it to the customer.
Based on reviews, however, many Target customers noticed that it takes between a week and two weeks for the item to come back into stock.
It’s also worth noting if Target no longer carries or sells that particular item.
If they don’t, then it’s never going to be back in stock.
Luckily, there is a way to receive a notification about a restocked item on Target’s store.
You can sign up for their newsletter and other notification programs.
The notification will tell when the item you’re interested in is back in stock.
That allows you to immediately jump online and buy it.
Although their website is a little more difficult to predict, you can expect to wait at least a week or two for items to restock.
How To Buy Products At Target Before They’re Sold Out
Buying certain products before they’re sold out can be difficult, especially if it’s an essential item.
Here are a few tips you can use to buy items before they’re sold out.
1. Use Target Restock
Target is aware that it’s difficult for some people to buy essential items.
Since the best time to buy products is at eight in the morning, not everyone can shop at that time.
That’s why the store launched its Target Restock program.
It’s a service that delivers essential products right to your door.
Those who are Target REDcard members don’t have to pay anything for the service.
For everyone else, there’s a $2.99 fee attached to your delivery order.
You don’t have to be a member of Target or their REDcard membership to use the service.
That means no monthly membership fees.
You only need to pay $2.99 on top of your grocery expenses.
To use the program, you go to their Target Restock website and order your groceries.
Then a team member will pack up the items and deliver them to your door the next day.
Since this service is specifically for essential products, you’re more likely to have the first pick as soon as the store opens.
2. Receive Notifications From The Target Store
One of the best ways to know when an item is back in stock is to sign up for notifications from Target.
Otherwise, you have to check the store every day.
Since you don’t know when they’re receiving a truck with that item on it, you’ll have to check practically every minute of every day.
You can save yourself the trouble by signing up for notifications.
As soon as the item is back in stock, you’ll receive an email or text message telling you so.
Then you can quickly go on their website and buy the product.
3. Shop Early
Finally, if you prefer to shop in person, then the best time to stop at Target and find the items that you want is either on Saturday morning or Tuesday morning.
This is when the store sees most, if not all, of its products back on its shelves.
For certain items, shopping on Thursday morning is your best bet.
Since essential items are restocked daily, you only need to worry about arriving there early.
As soon as Target opens its doors, you’ll want to be there to buy your essential products.
Conclusion
Target restocks their essential items every day of the week.
Their general merchandise items, however, only restock a few days of the week.
You can use the tips above to make shopping at Target more successful and less of a waste of time.
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