The East End did not have to wait for Sunday after all. Target unlocked the doors of its new Bridgehampton store Tuesday evening, five days ahead of its long-announced October 11 opening date, and as of Wednesday morning the store at 2102 Montauk Highway is running full hours, 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.

For two years the big box at Bridgehampton Commons sat dark, and for decades before that it held a piece of unlikely retail history: the last full-size Kmart in the continental United States. When that store finally closed in October 2024, it took a whole category of shopping off the South Fork with it. The nearest Walmart, Costco and BJ's all sit up in Riverhead. Since the Kmart went dark, a run for diapers, school supplies and a phone charger has meant a drive into the Riverhead traffic or a delivery window.

That gap is now closed, roughly 90,000 square feet worth.

What is inside

The Bridgehampton store is a full Target, not a scaled-down market format. It carries a complete grocery department alongside the clothing, home, electronics and seasonal floors, and there is a Starbucks cafe at the front of the store. A CVS pharmacy inside the store is coming behind the opening, so prescriptions will eventually move through the same doors.

The store opened with a team of about 130 employees, and it is still hiring, with seasonal positions being added through the holidays. For a year-round community that watches most retail jobs on the South Fork swell in July and vanish by Labor Day, a big-box payroll that peaks in December is a genuinely different shape of employer.

Why this Target is gray

Drive past expecting the familiar red and you will miss it. The Bridgehampton store wears muted gray, the bollards out front are gray instead of Target's trademark red, and the signage is lit from above rather than glowing from within. None of that is Target going minimalist on its own: the design standards at Bridgehampton Commons required the quieter look, and the chain adapted its brand to the shopping center rather than the other way around.

The result is one of the more unusual Targets in the country, a flagship-size store in camouflage. Locals will recognize the pattern. The Hamptons have long made national chains dress for the neighborhood, and the gray bullseye joins a tradition that has kept main streets east of the canal looking like themselves.

From here to Sunday

The early start is a soft opening in everything but name. The official grand opening is still Sunday, October 11, and the point of opening early is practical: it lets the new team run registers, returns and restocking at real volume for a few days before the crowds arrive.

Bridgehampton is one of eight Targets opening across the country this month as the chain pushes a multi-year expansion plan, but it is safe to say none of the other seven inherit a building with this one's backstory. The Kmart here outlasted more than 2,000 of its siblings and drew curiosity seekers in its final years, people who came just to walk the aisles of the last one standing.

What it means for the East End

The practical change is bigger than it sounds. A full grocery department open until 11 p.m. changes the math of a South Fork winter, when many seasonal businesses go dormant and options narrow. A pharmacy, once the CVS opens, adds another year-round anchor. And for the families who watched the old Kmart fade out slowly, there is something satisfying about the lights being back on in that corner of the Commons, whatever color the sign is.

The store is open now, seven days a week. If you want the full grand-opening production, that is Sunday. If you just need laundry detergent tonight, Bridgehampton has you covered for the first time in two years.