Target Corporation

Target Corporation is the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart, and is a component of the S&P 500 Index. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the company was founded as Goodfellow Dry Goods in 1902. The first Target store was opened in 1962; it became the largest division of the Dayton-Hudson Corporation and was consequently renamed the Target Corporation in 2000.

As of 2015, Target operates 1,801 locations throughout the United States. Their retail formats include the discount store Target, the hypermarket SuperTarget, and small-format stores previously named CityTarget and TargetExpress before being consolidated under the Target branding. Its Canadian subsidiary was established in March 2013 and operated 133 locations by the time it was shuttered in April 2015.Wesfarmers began operating an Australian version of Target in 1973, although aside from naming rights, the American and Australian companies are unaffiliated.

History

George Draper Dayton started Goodfellow Dry Goods in 1902, changing its name to Dayton's Dry Goods Company in 1903 and shortening the moniker to The Dayton Company eight years later in 1911. Fifty-one years later, in 1962, the organization opened its first Target store, modeled as a discount version of their department stores. In 1969, it expanded department store operations while merging with J.L. Hudson Company, thereafter named Dayton-Hudson Corporation. Following the union, two more retailers were purchased, Mervyn's in 1978 as well as Marshall Field & Company in 1990.