Get a $2000 Target Gift Card!

Target : Expect More. Pay Less.

Target Corporation is the second-largest discount store retailer in the United States, behind Walmart, and a component of the S&P 500 Index. Founded by George Dayton and headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the company was originally named Goodfellow Dry Goods in June 1902 before being renamed the Dayton's Dry Goods Company in 1903 and later the Dayton Company in 1910. The first Target store opened in Roseville, Minnesota in 1962 while the parent company was renamed the Dayton Corporation in 1967. It became the Dayton-Hudson Corporation after merging with the J.L. Hudson Company in 1969 and held ownership of several department store chains including Dayton's, Hudson's, Marshall Field's, and Mervyn's.

Target established itself as the highest-earning division of the Dayton-Hudson Corporation in the 1970s; it began expanding the store nationwide in the 1980s and introduced new store formats under the Target brand in the 1990s. The company has found success as a cheap-chic player in the industry. The parent company was renamed the Target Corporation in 2000 and divested itself of its last department store chains in 2004. It suffered from a massive and highly publicized security breach of customer credit card data and the failure of its short-lived Canadian subsidiary in the early 2010s but experienced revitalized success with its expansion in urban markets within the United States.

As of 2017, Target operates 1,834 stores throughout the United States. Their retail formats include the discount store Target, the hypermarket SuperTarget, and "flexible format" stores previously named CityTarget and TargetExpress before being consolidated under the Target branding. Target is often recognized for its emphasis on "the needs of its younger, image-conscious shoppers," whereas its rival Walmart more heavily relies on its strategy of "always low prices.

Private label brands:

Target Brands is the company's brand management division that oversees the company's private label products. In addition, Bullseye Dog is a mascot, and the Bullseye Design and 'Target' are registered trademarks of Target Brands.

• Archer Farms, grocery products;
• Market Pantry, grocery products;
• Simply Balanced, grocery products;
• Sutton & Dodge, a premium meat line;
• Embark, an outdoor gear line of camping equipment;
• Room Essentials, a low-end home goods line;
• Boots & Barkley, a pet food and supply line;
• Merona, a clothing brand purchased by Target in 1991;
• Mossimo Supply Co., a clothing line. In partnership with brand owner Iconix Brand Group;
• Threshold, a premium furniture line;
• Cherokee, children's and women's clothing (defunct after Cat & Jack had its debut);
• Circo, toddler's and kids clothing;
• up&up. Target issued a re-launch of the Target brand as up&up to include an expanded product selection and a new design. The up&up brand offers essential commodities including household, healthcare, beauty, baby, and personal care products. The brand claims to offer products of equal quality to national brands at a fraction of the cost, averaging a savings of 30 percent. As of September 2009, up&up offers over 800 products across 40 categories.

Other private labels include ten recently released brands,

• Pillowfort, a children's line of bedding and
• Cat and Jack, a children's line of apparel and accessories.
• Cloud Island, a baby's line of bedding and clothing.
• Project 62, a premium furniture line replacing Threshold.
• Goodfellow & Co., a clothing line for men.
• A New Day, a clothing line for women.
• JoyLab, a fitness clothing line.
• Xhilaration, a women's line of bedding and clothing.
• Universal Thread, a denim lifestyle brand (available February 2018)
• Hearth and Hand, a home & lifestyle brand, in collaboration with Magnolia

Gift cards

The Target GiftCard is the retailing division's stored-value card or gift card. Target sells more gift cards than any other retailer in the United States and is one of the top sellers, by dollars and units, in the world. The unique designs of their cards contribute to their higher sales, as well as Target's policy of no expiration dates or service fees. Past and current designs include lenticular, "scratch and sniff" (such as peppermint during the Christmas season), glow in the dark, LED light-up, a gift card on the side of a bubble blower, a gift card that can function as a CD-ROM, and even a gift card that allows the sender to record a voice message. A current environmentally friendly gift card is made from bioplastic manufactured from corn.[136] Target rolled out a new MP3 player gift card for the 2006 holiday season. It holds 12 songs and must be purchased with an initial value of at least $50.

Beginning in January 2010, Target Stores rolled out Mobile GiftCards, through which one can produce a GiftCard barcode on any web-capable cell phone. This data matrix barcode can be scanned at a Target POS like any physical card barcode, and balances can be stored, retrieved, and gifted with the convenience of a cell phone.

Some of these unique design ideas are patented, and these patents are assigned to the Target Brands subsidiary. For example, some such Target GiftCard designs feature a wooden front side. On May 24, 2005, the United States Patent and Trademark Office granted U.S. patent D505,450 for the "ornamental design for a credit or stored value card with wood layer" to inventors Amy L. Lauer and John D. Mayhew. U.S. patent 7004398, for the "stored-value card assembly including a stored-value card, an edible product, and a wrapper", was granted to Michael R. Francis and Barry C. Brooks on February 28, 2006. Both patents have been assigned by their inventors to Target Brands, Inc.

Target GiftCards are also collectors items. Some of the first gift cards issued are valued at over $300 (even though the card doesn't have any money on it). Every year, Target introduces new Holiday GiftCards. In 2007, Target's Holiday GiftCards featured a wind-up flashlight, a musical gift card, a gift card that lights up, and a scented gift card.