The Target Corporation.

The Target Corporation is an American retailing company, founded in 1902 and headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, Walmart being the largest.[6][7] The company is ranked 36th on the Fortune 500 as of 2013 and is a component of the Standard & Poor's 500 index. Its bullseye trademark is licensed to Wesfarmers, owners of the separate Target Australia chain which is unrelated to Target Corporation.

The first Target store was opened in 1962 in Roseville, Minnesota. Target grew and eventually became the largest division of Dayton Hudson Corporation, culminating in the company being renamed as Target Corporation in August 2000. In early 2013, Target expanded into Canada and now operates over 100 locations through its Canadian subsidiary. In December 2013, a data breach of Target's systems affected up to 110 million customers.

Dayton's Dry Goods Company was founded in 1902 by George Draper Dayton, a banker who built his wealth by buying farm mortgages in southwest Minnesota and an active member of the Westminster Presbyterian Church in downtown Minneapolis. During the Panic of 1893 which caused a decline in real estate prices, the Westminster Presbyterian Church burned down, and because its insurance wouldn't cover the cost of a new building, the church was looking for revenue. Its congregation appealed to Dayton to buy the empty corner lot next to the demolished building from the church so it could rebuild. Dayton bought it and eventually constructed a six-story building on that corner lot in downtown Minneapolis.[11][12]

In 1902, Dayton, looking for tenants, convinced Reuben Simon Goodfellow Company to move its nearby Goodfellows department store into his newly erected building. Goodfellow retired and sold his interest in the store to Dayton.[12] The store's name was changed to the Dayton Dry Goods Company in 1903, later being changed to the Dayton Company in 1911. Dayton, who had no prior retail experience yet maintained connections as a banker, held tight control of the company and ran it as a family enterprise. The store was run on strict Presbyterian guidelines, which forbade the selling of alcohol and any kind of business activity—opening the store, advertising, and business travel—on Sundays. It refused to advertise in newspapers that sponsored liquor ads. In 1918, Dayton, who gave away most of his money to charity, founded the Dayton Foundation with $1 million.[11]

By the 1920s, the Dayton Company was a multi-million dollar business that filled the entire six-story building. In 1923, Dayton's 43-year-old son David died, prompting George to start transferring parts of the business to another son, Nelson Dayton. Right before the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the company made its first expansion by acquiring the Minneapolis-based jeweler J.B. Hudson & Son. Throughout the Great Depression, its jewelry

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