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The retailer will not open its first full-blown store in the city until next year, but it has been plastering its bull’s-eye logo around the city for years — on a big billboard in Times Square; in a fashion show with models, supported by ropes, walking down the side of a Fifth Avenue skyscraper; and by projecting images of its fashions inside Grand Central Terminal.

“New York is the place you go to get noticed,” said Kathee Tesija, Target’s executive vice president for merchandising.

Target is calling these temporary stores bodegas to convey an egalitarian and very New York shopping experience, said Ms. Tesija. They will be located in vacant storefronts in Midtown, Union Square, SoHo and the East Village, and will open Sept. 12, which is the end of Fashion Week.

“The idea was really generated based on the Target take on Fashion Week,” she added. “This would be a way we could bring affordable design to the masses.”

At the pop-up stores — which will be open for four days from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. — merchandise will be priced on average at $25.

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In a bid to pull hesitant shoppers into their stores, retailers are slashing prices on everything from jeans to dinnerware. But those fat discounts will likely come at a big cost for the companies.

At teen retailer American Eagle Outfitters Inc., shoppers who buy jeans get a second pair at half off. Jewelry chain Zale Corp. is offering an extra 20 percent off on a slew of items like gold earrings that were already slashed up to 70 percent. And Pottery Barn has discounts of up to 75 percent.

“There’s a fine line between aggressive promotions and panic, and we are seeing a little bit of both right now,” said Dan Hess, founder and CEO of research firm Merchant Forecast.

While retailers entered the fall season with inventories well below last year, analysts say many were still a little too hopeful: August sales are turning out to be even weaker than expected, which analysts fear could lead to more piles of marked-down merchandise on the floor. That could in turn hurt third-quarter profits as the industry prepares for the critical holiday season. Major retailers, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., J.C. Penney Co. and Gap Inc., which also operates Banana Republic and Old Navy stores, are slated to announce final August sales results on Thursday.

Hess estimated that discounts are 10 percent deeper at mall-based apparel stores than a year ago, despite a drop of anywhere from 10 percent to 15 percent in inventories.

“Even though retailers are entering the season conservatively, they still have been too optimistic about the consumer,” he added.

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