If something seems amiss at the Kirkwood Target these days, there’s good reason.

The store is in the midst of a face-lift to expand its grocery department and update other areas. But while remodeling is under way, shoppers must navigate a store that is experiencing frequent layout changes.

“It’s just disorienting,” said Pat Bush of Glendale after emerging from a shopping trip Tuesday. “The lady who worked there said it was disorienting to her when she came in. She said, ‘Don’t bother learning where everything is because it’s all going to be changed around.’”

Other residents agree.

“It’s crazy,” said Lisa Kratz of Des Peres. “Can’t find a darn thing. Except for the toy clearance – I found that.”

But Bush and Kratz, both regular Target shoppers, said they didn’t mind putting up with the disruptions knowing that good things would come.

“I love my Target,” Bush said. “It’s my favorite store. I’ll love it even more now.”

The remodeling includes an expanded grocery department with an open market layout and 40 percent more food choices, including fresh produce, fresh packaged meat and prepackaged baked goods, said Antoine LaFromboise, a spokesman for the Minneapolis-based discount chain.

Target remodeled 350 of its 1,700 stores last year and plans to upgrade about 400 this year, LaFromboise said. The Kirkwood renovation should be completed by March 27.

Other changes in store for the Kirkwood location include upgrades in the beauty, home, electronic and shoe departments, LaFromboise said.

The beauty department will be redesigned to feel more like a department store with better lighting, interactive displays and a demonstration area, he said. Shelving will be lowered in the home, electronics and shoe departments to improve visibility and customers’ access to the products.

Video games will no longer be locked behind cabinets but will be displayed where customers can handle them and read the backs of boxes.

In the home goods department, items will be grouped by design rather than by type. So matching curtains, pillows and garbage cans will be displayed together, LaFromboise said.

Interactive touch displays will be located in electronics and home goods. More benches and mirrors will be added in the shoe department.

Kratz, for one, is excited about the changes.

“I’m always up to see what Target is doing next,” she said. “I think they are marketing geniuses.”

Then there are those who still pine for the old Target, which 10 years ago stood in downtown Kirkwood where Station Plaza is today.

“Oh how I miss the old Target,” said Christa Stauder of Kirkwood. “We could walk there, get what we needed and get out without a problem. I really hope all the improvements are worth it.”