Target: The Ultimate Trading Post
Back in frontier days, the local trading post sold everything you might need, from hard candy to galvanized nails to gingham overalls. For decades, the Gables version was Coulter Discount on the corner of Ponce and Madeira. Here you could buy anything from stamps and shots of coffee to a hammer, canned goods, or an umbrella.
Coulter closed early in the pandemic, never to reopen. But right down the street, in a 22,800 square foot space left vacant by OfficeMax, mega-retailer Target moved in with the equivalent of a 21st-century trading post. It sells literally everything necessary to sustain life as we know it. Want food? They have a grocery section. Want fresh brewed coffee? There is a Starbucks. Want a prescription filled? There is a CVS pharmacy. And on the shelves, you can find everything from vitamins, shampoo, and school supplies, to dresses, garden tools, and computer flash drives.
Part of what makes Target special for the Gables is that you don’t have to drive to a shopping mall in some depressing part of Miami-Dade County for a big-box retailer. And while it is smaller than your usual mega Target outlet, the goods are tailored to the affluent Gables crowd. Want to buy a tube of hard-to-find Moon Charcoal toothpaste and a rare chaser of all-natural clear Listerine? This is the place.