To kick off the festive season we recently attended a special dinner hosted by Target Executive Vice President and Chief Food and Beverage Officer Rick Gomez.  After enjoying a succulent meal prepared by a Michelin-star chef we had a chance to speak exclusively with Gomez about his trailblazing career, and Target’s plans for the holidays and beyond.

Exclusive Target dinner curated by Michelin-star Chef Charlie Mitchell using exclusively decor and grocerty products from Target

The dinner, held at the James Beard House in New York City, was curated by Michelin-star chef Charlie Mitchell of Clover Hill. Chef Mitchell served a three-course feast using Target’s owned and national brands, offering up tips on preparing a delicious meal that won’t break the bank.

Rick Gomez is executive vice president, chief food and beverage officer for Target Corporation. He brings deep retail expertise and more than 20 years of experience managing multi-billion-dollar consumer packaged goods brands to Target’s food and beverage business.  Additionally, Gomez is the executive sponsor of Target in India, a headquarters team that supports and leads critical workstreams across the enterprise.

He joined Target in 2013 as senior vice president of brand and category marketing, where he led marketing efforts across all merchandise categories and seasonal campaigns like holiday and back to school. Gomez was named chief marketing officer in 2017, overseeing all of Target’s marketing and media strategy, creative, guest research, loyalty, and corporate responsibility efforts. In 2019, Rick was named head of Target’s e-commerce business and digital strategy, and later that year assumed leadership of Target’s enterprise strategy team.

HOMBRE: What are Target‘s plans for the holiday season?
Rick Gomez: One of the places where Target really stands out is key seasonal holiday moments. Whether that’s Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas; that’s when we are at our best. Because what we deliver for our guests is what we call “Affordable Joy.”

People are on a budget, the majority of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck and they’re trying to stretch their budget as far as they can, but they still want joy, they still want happiness, they still want to celebrate the holidays and that’s what Target can help them do.
For example, they can have a beautiful Thanksgiving meal for four people for 25 dollars.

H: And yet still provide an elevated experience.
RG: The way you elevate it is not just the meal, it’s the tabletop, the décor; and a part of that is brands like Heart & Hand, and Threshold, two of our own brands. It’s a way to make the holidays special and memorable.

Target – Good and Gather

H: Now that you mention it, why is it so important for Target to have its own in-house brands?
RG: Our own brands are an important part of Target strategy. That’s how we differentiate ourselves from other retailers.
It drives traffic to our stores, to our digital site.
Like Good & Gather, we launched it in 2019, just four years ago and it’s already over a 3 billion dollar brand on a path to 4 billion.
What Good & Gather offers is high quality ingredients, no artificial colors, no artificial flavors, no high- fructose corn syrup. It delivers delicious taste the whole family will love, and it’s affordable.

Target – Goodfellow

H: What can you tell us about brands specifically for men?
RG: Goodfellow is our men’s apparel brand and it’s expanded into grooming. I have to tell you, those are the products that I use. The shampoo, conditioner, face wash, and body wash are amazing.

H: What would you say is the key to your success?
RG: Being open to new opportunities is really important. As my career has played out I’ve been open to opportunities where two things exist.
Number one, I think I can learn and build new skills. And two, I can have an impact.
And if those things exist then I’m willing to take a risk and try new challenges. That’s what’s helped me to get where I am right now.

H: You say, to make an impact?
RG: Yes, I don’t want to go to a job where it was just about learning. I want to make sure I have an impact and drive results because that’s important, that’s your track record.

Rick Gomez, Target Executive Vice President and Chief Food and Beverage Officer

H: What advice can you offer to someone climbing the corporate ladder?
RG: People often ask me, what are the qualities you look for when you’re interviewing someone, and it’s changed. I used to talk a lot about leadership and strategic thinking. But right now I’ll tell you what’s really important is to be agile, to be flexible.
The world is changing, consumers are changing, technology is driving change and you need to be resilient. Things don’t always go like you thought they would, but you have to be able to learn from them, to pick yourself up from it, and keep moving forward. That’s an incredible quality.

H: Is this the career you imagined?
RG: No, I never imagined this. I’ve been very fortunate. And very lucky.
I’ve been able to have great mentors in my career that have helped me get to where I’m at, which I never would have thought of. That’s why I feel after you get to a certain level you pay it forward. You mentor, you coach, and you develop others because people did that for me.

H: Speaking about mentors, what is the best advice your parents gave you?
RG: I come from a tight knit Mexican family and my parents are very involved in our career.
It’s not my career, it’s OUR career (laughs).
And they have lots of ideas and lots of thoughts and I love them for that.
But what they have taught me most is the importance of a work ethic, and being disciplined, and working hard.
My dad would always say if you have the chance to take on more responsibility, take it on. Don’t worry about the money, don’t worry about a title. Focus on delivering great results and the rest will come.

Target – Threshold

H: What are the plans for Target in 2024?
RG: There’s a lot of great stuff. As we look at the year there are two things I’m excited about.
One, we’re going to continue to be really creative about affordability. It’s important for our guests, for most Americans that are on a budget, how we can continue to provide affordable joy.
And two, I’m excited about our ability to continue to innovate. New products, new services. That’s what will keep Target a leading retailer.