Free Roller Skating for Target's SF Opening

To mark the grand opening of San Francisco's first Target store, Target and sportswear manufacturer Champion have installed a rink at Yerba Buena Gardens and are inviting the city for free roller skating on October 13 and 14, 2012.

San Franciscans are welcome to one-hour skate sessions on the rink, 80 feet by 60 feet. A DJ will emcee, and professional skater-dancers will perform.

The Target store's official opening at the Metreon complex, on October 14, has been long anticipated. As a "CityTarget," it is about 30 percent smaller than the usual Target in a suburban shopping mall. But it's still 98,000 square feet sprawling across the Metreon's entire second floor, and employs about 300 people.

The country's first standalone C9 Active Apparel store, a partnership between Target and Champion, occupies another 3,000 square feet on the Metreon's first floor opening onto Mission Street. It carries C9 by Champion, a line of sportswear exclusively made for Target.

CityTarget is stocked with fresh produce and food, wine and beer, a pharmacy and a Starbucks, as well as the underwear, linen, electronics and other household goods and daily essentials one associates with Target. For workers downtown and the growing pool of SoMa condo dwellers, CityTarget is a welcome addition. Food-wise, it gives them an alternative to the only full-service grocery store in the neighborhood, Whole Foods on Fourth near Harrison street.

Other CityTargets in the US are in Chicago, Seattle and Los Angeles (where a second one has just opened).

C9's Roller CityTarget Rink
Oct. 13 & 14, at 11 am-5 pm
Yerba Buena Gardens
750 Howard St.
Free

CityTarget
789 Mission St.
San Francisco, CA 94103
Open Monday-Friday, 7 am-10 pm; Saturday & Sunday, 8 am-9 pm