The Target Corporation, Essay Example

The Target Corporation, formerly known as the Dayton Hudson Corporation, “is the fourth largest retailer in the United States, operating 1,556 stores in 47 stores” (Target Corporation History).  It is the number two retail store in the United States, Wal-Mart being number one.  Unlike its competitors, it offers “upscale, fashion-conscious products at affordable prices” (ibid.).  Target is diversified in that its three stores—Target Stores, Mervyn’s, and Marshall Field’s—each have a somewhat different focus.  Mervyn’s carries moderately family-priced goods.  Target also has Target Greatland stores and Super Target outlets, the latter being combined discount/grocery stores.  Target, a public company employing 306,000 employees, has its headquarters in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (ibid.)  The Company keeps expanding, among other endeavors, purchasing 189 Canadian leaseholds from Zellers, increasing its online presence, and credit cards in the USA and debit cards in Canada. (Reuters, US).

Target stores came about as a result of a 16-year-old boy, George Draper Dayton, the son of a physician who could not afford to send his son to college, going to work in a coal and lumberyard.   He burned out within a year and had to go back home to recuperate.  Undefeated, he became a banker and within ten years he had sufficient funds to purchase the Bank of Worthington in Minnesota.  To help out his Presbyterian church, he purchased their empty lot on which he built a six-story building, the beginning of Target. (Target Corporation History).

Works Cited

Reuters, US Edition. Profile: Target Corp (TGT).  Retrieved on October 07, 2012, from

http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/company.

Target Corporation History.  Retrieved on October 07, 2012, from http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories.