Britannica Money (2024)

Target Corporation, American mass-market retail company operating large-scale food and general-merchandise discount stores. It is one of the largest discount retailers in the United States, and its red bull’s-eye logo is familiar throughout the country. Corporate headquarters are in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Banker and real estate investor George Draper Dayton incorporated Target in 1902 as Goodfellow Dry Goods. The following year the name was changed to Dayton Dry Goods Company and shortened to Dayton Company in 1911. On May 1, 1962, Dayton Company opened its first Target store, designed as a discount version of Dayton’s department stores. In 1969 Dayton expanded its department store operations and merged with the J.L. Hudson Company to become the Dayton-Hudson Corporation. Dayton-Hudson later acquired two more retailers: the California-based Mervyn’s in 1978 and Marshall Field and Company in 1990.

By 1975 Target had become Dayton-Hudson’s leading revenue producer, and by 1979 Target’s annual sales had reached $1 billion. The first Target Greatland store, which offered a wider selection of merchandise than a standard Target store, opened in 1990. Five years later, in Omaha, Nebraska, the company opened its first SuperTarget store, which included a full-service grocery, a photography studio, a pharmacy, and restaurants. To reflect a new focus on its Target stores, Dayton-Hudson changed its name in 2000 to Target Corporation and sold Mervyn’s and Marshall Field and Company in 2004. By the end of the 20th century, Target had distinguished itself from its competitors by offering upscale stylish products at affordable prices; limited-edition clothing lines created through partnerships with notable fashion designers, such as Isaac Mizrahi, Zac Posen, and Jason Wu, proved especially popular with customers. In 2012 Target opened its first CityTarget, which catered to urban customers in a stores two-thirds smaller than its typical locations.