Target's Grocery Leader to Leave

Indicative of Target’s continuing struggle to improve its grocery business, the senior vice president of merchandising for the division is parting ways with the mass merchant.After a short 18-month turn at the helm, Anne Dament’s last day with the chain will be Nov. 18, the Star Tribune reports. Target did not give a specific reason for her departure.One of chief executive officer Brian Cornell’s first major hires, Dament’s assignment was to overhaul the grocery department, which accounts for some 20% of the retailer’s sales. Yet grocery never turned into the imagined trip-driving powerhouse, despite the additions of hundreds of gluten-free, organic and local SKUs, new fixtures, and grocery directors with their own dedicated teams.Following a 2.2% drop in traffic and a 1.1% slide in comparable quarterly sales blamed in part on the grocery business and the transition of Target pharmacies to CVS, Cornell emphasized that Target was never looking to become a full-service grocer but indicated that he remains optimistic and believes the changes will need time to translate into improved sales.Aaron Alt, who has worked closely with Dament since January, when he was appointed senior vice president of grocery transformation in charge of long-term and operational planning, will continue in that role for now.Dament exits Target on the heels of two other executives. Chief marketing officer Jeff Jones left in August and chief digital officer Jason Goldberger bailed the previous month.Chief merchandising officer Mark Tritton will fill the void in the interim as the retailer evaluates both internal and external candidates for a permanent replacement.Her successor will not have an easy task. As chief operating officer John Mulligan accurately described a few months ago, “We sit in the middle. We’re not really special and we’re not a full grocery. And so we’re sitting in the middle of no man’s land.”

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