The Target Corporation is a retailer based in the United States. Target, the eighth largest retailer in the United States, is a component of the S&P 500 Index. Target was founded in 1962 as the discount division of the Dayton’s Company of Minneapolis, Minnesota. In the 1980s, the company began expanding the chain of stores nationwide (as part of the Dayton-Hudson Corporation), and in the 1990s, it introduced new store formats under the Target brand. As a cheap-chic player in the industry, the company has enjoyed success.
Target Corporation was renamed in 2000, and divested itself of its last department store chain in 2004. Although it suffered a widespread and highly publicized security breach of customer credit card data and the failure of its short-lived Target Canada subsidiary in the early 2010s, it experienced renewed success through its expansion into urban markets within the United States. As of 2019, Target operated 1,844 stores in the United States. The company is ranked 37 on the 2020 Fortune 500 list of the largest American companies by total revenue. Target operates three retail formats: a discount store, a hypermarket, and smaller locations previously called CityTarget and TargetExpress before being rebranded Target.
