Target’s fitting rooms are finally reopening in San Diego

Target is opening its fitting rooms in San Diego — and across the U.S. — this week after more than 14 months of closure.

The retailer was an outlier among its competitors for keeping its fitting rooms closed throughout the entirety of 2020 and half of 2021. Retailers including Nordstrom, Old Navy, and Macy’s allowed customers to try on clothes in stores during most of the pandemic.

Some Target locations, including the Mission Valley store on Camino Del Rio North, opened their fitting rooms on Friday, while other stores opened Tuesday. Nearly all stores opened their fitting rooms by June 1.

“Fitting rooms are open at all Target stores, except for a small number of fitting rooms being used for vaccinations,” wrote a Target spokesperson in an email. “We’ll continue to frequently disinfect and clean our stores throughout the day, as we have throughout the pandemic, and have team members dedicated to high touch areas like fitting rooms.”

The company did not respond to a request for comment on why they chose to remain closed longer than most retailers.

The closures haven’t affected Target’s sales performance. The retail giant grew sales by $15 billion in 2020, more than in the last 11 years combined. For the entire fiscal year, which ended Jan. 30, Target’s sales grew nearly 20 percent to $92.4 billion.

Sales of apparel and accessories grew from $14.3 billion in 2019 to $14.8 billion in 2020. Interestingly, apparel and accessories made up 16 percent of total sales for Target in 2020, down from 18.6 percent in 2019.