Target and Kroger thrive in Utah Idaho

By Brittany Dayes 15/06/2026 3 min read 3 views

Utah and Idaho have become key growth markets for major retailers like Target and Kroger, driven by rapid population and housing growth in the region. From 2024 to 2025, Idaho grew 1.4% in population to just over 2 million people, making it the No. 2 fastest-growing state in the U.S. by percentage growth, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Utah ranked No. 5 with 1% growth to 3.5 million. As a result of this growth, retail chains are opening new stores in the region, in areas they once may have glanced over. Utah saw $79.8 billion in sales at retail real estate properties in 2024, while Idaho saw $50 billion, according to ICSC.

Walmart just opened a new store in Eagle Mountain, Utah, in August 2025, one of its first new stores nationally after several years of focusing on remodels. It has also broken ground in West Haven, Utah, on a new Supercenter set to open in early 2027. Fitness chain Life Time just opened its first location in Idaho, near Boise, in April.

Utah saw $79.8 billion in sales at retail real estate properties in 2024, while Idaho saw $50 billion, according to ICSC. Utah shopping centers, malls and main streets saw $400 million in construction and redevelopment spending that year, according to the ICSC report, and Idaho properties saw $210 million.

Mark Schlag, a vp at commercial real estate brokerage CBRE, has been a retail broker in Boise for around 30 years. He said the restaurant business has also raised itself over the last decade. They get a lot of interest from Seattle restaurateurs, San Francisco restaurateurs, who have seen that they can come here and have success.

Retail inventory in the Boise area has expanded by 4.3 million square feet, or 10.8%, over the past decade, according to CoStar data provided by CBRE. Another 440,000 square feet is underway, which would increase inventory by another 1%. However, construction costs have made it difficult for some franchises or local tenants to open new stores.

Kyle Szanti, real estate manager for Kroger-owned grocery chain Smith’s, said construction costs have delayed the company’s ability to move into markets as quickly as it may have hoped. The average price to fit out a store grew to $155 per square foot nationally in 2025, up 4% year over year, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

Smith’s started opening up new stores in 2024 for the first time since 2019. It opened two in Utah in 2024, another two in 2025 and has one opening this year. Next year, the chain will open three new stores in the state. They are opening stores all across Utah, as they are seeing growth throughout the state.

Another Kroger banner, Fred Meyer, has 11 stores in Idaho — seven of which are in the Boise area — as well as stores in Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Alaska. The chain has one store under construction in Caldwell, a city west of Boise, and has plans to announce a second store in Caldwell later this year.
The new sites they’re looking at are definitely in new, developing residential areas.
They’re going into some areas that have a good existing base but also have a lot of growth potential around them.

Fred Meyer president Todd Kammeyer said, “For us, it’s a favorable market where a lot of new households are growing, and it is a place where we can build stores that we feel will perform well because of that increasing population base.”

As the population of Utah and Idaho continues to grow, it’s likely that retailers will continue to expand into the region.
With population data showing no signs of slowing down, the area is poised for continued growth and development.

The growth of the region is also being driven by the expansion of the tech industry, with companies like Micron building new facilities and creating jobs, which in turn is attracting more people to the area and driving demand for retail services.

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