Target wants to be a trusted curator.
Clean slate. After cutting artificial dyes from its cereal aisle, Target teamed with Little Spoon to launch a date- and maple syrup-sweetened organic kids cereal brand, Dolphin Divers.
Tag team. A DTC darling, Little Spoon entered Target exclusively in 2025, surpassing $1M in weekly sales within six months while expanding from 23 to 40+ stocked SKUs.
Both prioritizing health-conscious families, Little Spoon and Target have since co-developed products to fill BFY gaps, including fruit snacks, frozen meals, and now breakfast cereals.
Fair trade. Target’s biggest food and bev launch ever, it accelerated Little Spoon’s access and feedback flywheel among busy families before wider retail expansion.
Mutually beneficial, Forbes reports F&B is now Target’s top traffic driver, up $9B since 2019 as it pushes into wellness. Often partnering with upstarts to expand options, it added >3K new products in Q1 2026 — keeping closer pace with Erewhon’s weekly shelf review strategy.
Also platformed by Target, YouTuber Ben Azelart’s newly launched BFY breakfast brand Backflip moved 500K units and became the retailers #2 cereal in two months.
Looking ahead: As both grocers and brands battle for wellness shoppers, partnerships, incubators, and personalized discovery systems could shape which become new classics.
