Importance Of Target
Of course, target purchases are more than just a shopping trip. They're also a chance to limit the amount of accidents and injuries in your home. Not only will they help you keep your house safe, they'll also help you save money in the long run by preventing costly emergencies and repairs. And don't forget all that free health care! You can't get much better than this, so why wait? Get out there and buy some targets today!
A Target is an establishment with various items available for purchase. A Target store is usually placed along a major highway or at a busy intersection.
Marks of Distinction: The Target Shopping Mall; The Target (Internet Service Provider)
Target was a popular clothing brand established in 1941.
"This site is sponsored by: Target.com"
The target is the face of the bull and has to be perfect. If it isn't then they can't use it. One of their targets is used as a place to put freebees and coupons.
Target was founded in 1902 by J. W. Tuttle in St Paul, Minnesota, as a small haberdashery named Tuttle & Co. It eventually expanded into greater Minnesota, however its operation was not successful until its expansion into Kansas City and adjoining states from 1957 onward with stores closing in Utah, New Mexico, and Montana during the mid-1960s due to poor economic times for the company and the competition from Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.. After the purchase of The Kresge Corporation, Target made its first expansion out of state. The company's first store opened in St. Louis, Missouri in 1962. In 1963 the slogan "Save Money. Live Better." was introduced, and the following year it shortened its name from "Tuttle" to "Target Stores".
In 1983, Safeway acquired 17 percent of Target's stock for $150 million, then sold it back to the company in 1985 for $775 million. Safeway also sold its other outlets: Jewel-Osco (1986) and Vons (1989).
In 1989, Robert Ulrich assumed leadership of Target as CEO. He was previously at Dayton Hudson, where he presided over an $11 billion business. He had also recently overseen the launching of Marshall Field's and Mervyn's into Target stores.
In 1990, Target became the first general merchandise retailer to sell products via America Online. Ten years later, Target began selling on eBay. In 1999 it launched its online store to sell clothing and other items but was routed through Amazon until 2002 when Target opened its own e-commerce website.
In 1997, rival Kmart acquired the approximate one-third of Target's shares in which it had been historically underrepresented. In 1999, Target ranked 13th among all retailers in the amount of business it did on the Internet.
In 2001, Target became notorious for asking customers to sign up for its "club" (now known as the "member discount program"). Sign-ups were required before the customer could receive member discounts on purchases; however, some customers posted their experiences at various Web sites. One Target store reportedly required a minimum purchase of $1,000 worth of merchandise in order to qualify for an employee discount. In 2003, Target reversed this policy.
In 2002, Target opened a two-story concept store in the Wedge area of downtown Minneapolis. It was named "TargetExpress". It was closed in January 2008 and converted to a CityTarget store.
On October 14, 2005, Target announced that Robert J. Ulrich would step down as CEO effective May 1, 2006, but continue as chairman until 2007. On February 1, 2006, Gregg Steinhafel was named the new CEO of Target Corporation; he took over on May 1 and served until his resignation effective December 2, 2014 [2]. In July 2006, former Wertkauf GmbH & Co executive Douglas A. Scovanner was named chief merchandising officer.
On November 14, 2005, Target Corporation said that it would restate its earnings going back to 2002 because of accounting irregularities in its insurance reserves. In 2005 alone, the shortfall amounted to $600 million. As a result of these irregularities, Target reported a drop in earnings for the fourth quarter of 2005 and projected that earnings for 2006 would be approximately $1 per share lower than previously expected.
Also in October 2006, Minneapolis billionaire Douglas Baker filed suit against The Target Corporation, citing breach of contract and fraud stemming from a failed attempt to purchase the company [3].
In March 2007, Target announced the expansion of its online presence in Canada by opening a warehouse and fulfillment center in Canada, shipping to all areas of the country.
In April 2008, The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that Target is planning to expand further north within Minnesota—particularly in Twin Cities suburbs such as Brooklyn Park and Lakeville—at the end of 2009. This was made necessary because Duluth has developed more quickly than expected, with stores now located further northeast than originally planned.Target had previously set a market penetration goal of one store per 100,000 people in both Duluth and Rochester.
On October 6, 2008, Target announced the closure of 27 under-performing stores in California, Florida and Texas.
Target opened its first CityTarget store, a smaller-sized store tailored for urban areas such as city centers and close suburbs, in Chicago on March 22, 2011. This is part of Target Corporation's strategy to target urban markets as well as cross-town rivals such as WalMart or Kohl's. The second CityTarget store opened in Downtown Minneapolis on February 14, 2012 while the third location was scheduled to open in Lakeview East on January 31, 2014 but opened a week ahead of schedule on January 21.
On September 4, 2012, the company announced that it was pulling the plug on Target Canada due to poor sales. The 133 stores were closed in early 2013. The Canadian expansion was a colossal failure that cost the company over $7 billion and lost millions of dollars per day.
On December 12, 2013, Target's CIO Beth Jacob resigned after it was discovered that 40 million credit and debit card accounts had been breached prior to December 6th. This information was revealed during testimony by former federal prosecutor and head of the Secret Service Mark Sullivan before the Senate Judiciary Committee on November 19th regarding the need for a national standard for reporting data breaches.
Conclusion
Target Corporation is a publicly traded company headquartered in Minneapolis. It operates 1,810 stores in the United States, including 1,412 Target stores, 256 SuperTarget stores, 133 Target Canada stores and 21 CityTarget stores. It also operates 327 stores in adjacent Canada but plans to sell these by mid-2013 as it is closing down the Canadian operations by 2013.
In addition to its retail operations, the company owns an interest in (and operate or have operated) various other companies such as Mervyn's and Marshall Field's.
References
This article incorporates public domain material from the Library of Congress Country Studies website http://lcweb2.loc.