Finding Your Way Around The Target On University Parkway In Winston-Salem
The Target at 2301 W Markham St sits right off University Parkway, just west of the I-40 exit ramp. If you are driving from the north, you come down University, bear slightly left after passing through the intersection with Hanes Mall Blvd, and the parking lot opens up on your right side before you hit the cross-street with Cherry Lane. This is not a small store. It is a full-sized Target with the expanded grocery section they rolled out during the 2018-2019 remodel. That means the pharmacy, the optical center, and the Starbucks all exist under one roof. Some people see that and think it is convenient. It is, up to a point. After that point, you run into the afternoon bottleneck where everyone who works downtown or goes to nearby schools decides this is the one stop before heading home.
Unveiling The Hub Of Education And Innovation Target University Parkway In Winston Salem Nc
The education and innovation angle here is mostly about what surrounds the store rather than the store itself. Wake Forest University is about a ten-minute drive north if you take Hanes Mall Blvd toward the campus. High Point University sits roughly twenty minutes east on US-220. The medical corridor along South Main Street and the Forsyth Medical Center district are a five-minute drive south. People in the area tend to congregate here because it sits between those three population centers. That is why you will see more students during the fall and spring semesters buying dorm essentials, office supplies, and the kind of kitchen gadgets nobody actually uses but feels compelled to purchase anyway. The seasonal aisle near the front tends to get hit hard in August and then again in October when someone decides they need a haunted house decoration they will discard by November 1st.
Navigating The Parking Lot Without Losing Twenty Minutes
The lot has two main entrances. The Markham Street entrance is faster during normal hours. The University Parkway entrance gets clogged because people trying to turn right into the lot from northbound traffic wait for gaps in the flow, and the queue backs up onto the sidewalk near the pharmacy pickup window. I learned this the hard way in late October when I needed prescription pick-up and a few household items. The lot was nearly full by 3:45 PM. I circled the eastern rows for twelve minutes, watching three separate people leave with carts that clearly had only two items in them. Eventually I pulled into the far northwest corner, walked past the electronics department with its permanently confused TV display setup, grabbed what I needed, and checked out at the self-service lane near the back. The wait inside was seven minutes. The total time from pulling in to walking out was twenty-two minutes, which is acceptable for a Target on a weekday afternoon, though not great if you were in a rush.
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The Layout And Where Things Actually Are
Target does not give great maps on their website for individual stores, so here is what you need to know after spending enough time navigating this specific location. Grocery section: The fresh produce area is along the left wall as you enter from the main doors. The refrigerated and frozen sections run along the back wall. This is where the summer lineups form in June and July because the freezers sit next to the coolers and it is roughly sixty-eight degrees Fahrenheit in that aisle regardless of what the thermostat says. Pharmacy: Located near the back right corner. You can use the Target app for prescription wait times, which is useful because the pharmacy here handles approximately four hundred active patients during peak hours. Calls go unanswered between 2 PM and 5 PM on weekdays. If you need something filled, do it in the morning or after 6 PM when the crowd thins.
Starbucks: Inside the store near the front, adjacent to the beverage cooler. Yes, it is inside. The lines get long around 7 AM on weekdays and around noon on Saturdays. The baristas here are generally competent, though they rush you through the payment process during the midday crowd. Cyber/optical center: On the far right wall. This is where eye exams happen and where you pick up glasses. Expect to spend forty-five minutes to an hour for a routine appointment. The optician can be helpful if you ask about lens coatings and frame materials rather than just picking the first frame you like, which is what most people do and then complain about when the cost surprises them.
Dealing With The Inventory Issues
This Target has the standard Target inventory problems but with a local twist. When something is marked as available in the app, check the actual shelf. The app shows inventory based on the system count, not the real count, and the discrepancy here tends to be larger during school supply season because students and parents raid the office supply and craft sections at rates that exceed the restocking schedule. I encountered this last spring when the app showed five units of a specific branded backpack in stock. I drove twenty minutes from home, found exactly one on the shelf, and discovered that three of the listed inventory had been sold at a different Target and the system had not updated yet. A couple weeks later I was there when someone tried to buy the same item using a coupon that had already expired. The system accepted it, the register printed a wrong price, and the associate had to void the transaction and re-scan everything. That took eight minutes of my Saturday morning that I will never get back.
What This Store Does Well And Where It Falls Short
The expanded grocery selection is the main draw. You can buy decent produce, have a working meat counter, and find most of the basic staples without going to a separate supermarket. For a week's worth of groceries for a small household, this store handles it adequately. The clothing section is the weak point. It is not huge, the sizes run thin in the women's section around middle sizes, and the men's casual wear is mostly basic tees and jeans with nothing distinguishing it from any other Target location in the state. If you are shopping for something specific like work boots or formal wear, you will likely leave empty-handed or compromised. The home goods section is actually decent. The Threshold and Universal Thread lines have reasonable quality for the price. I bought a set of sheet pans from the kitchen section last year and they have held up fine after daily use for eight months. That is above average for Target kitchen items, which tend to warp or discolor within a few weeks.
Practical Advice That Nobody Tells You
If you are ordering online and plan to pick up, use the Drive Up service. The designated spots are near the front entrance on the right side when you enter from Markham Street. A team member brings your order to your car in about ten minutes during normal hours. During peak times, it can take twenty. Still faster than parking and walking inside. For returns, the return desk is near the front left. Bring your receipt or the order confirmation from the app. The staff processes most standard returns in under five minutes, though anything that requires a manager override, like opened electronics, will take longer and you may need to provide photo ID. The store is generally open from 8 AM to 10 PM every day. Hours can shift during holidays, and the pharmacy closes at 7 PM on weekdays and 5 PM on Saturdays. Sunday hours for the pharmacy are typically 9 AM to 1 PM, which is shorter than most competitors in the area.
Alternatives Worth Considering
If you live closer to the High Point area, the Target on Pittman Street might serve you better. It is smaller but gets less traffic during weekday afternoons. If you need a larger grocery selection, the Walmart Supercenter on Clarendon Drive is about six minutes away and has a more complete produce and meat department. The Target on University Parkway works fine for what it is. It is a mid-size suburban Target doing mid-size suburban Target things. The parking lot fills up, the inventory tracking has gaps, and the crowd thins noticeably after 8 PM on weeknights. If you time your visits correctly and use the app for inventory checks and Drive Up orders, it saves you time compared to some of the busier locations in the county. If you expect a flawless experience, you will be disappointed, but that is true of every Target, not just this one. The bottom line is that this store exists to serve the people who live in the surrounding neighborhoods and work in the nearby offices and medical facilities. It handles that role adequately, with the usual quirks and occasional frustrations that come with any big-box retail environment. Know the layout, know the peak hours, and you will probably find it less annoying than you expected.
