Target Corporation

Target Corporation

Target Corp File:TargetLogo.png
Company type	Public (NYSE: TGT)
Industry	Retail
Founded	1962 (Minneapolis, MN)
Headquarters	Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Key people	Robert J. "Bob" Ulrich, CEO & Chairman
Products	Clothing, footwear, bedding, home decor, housewares, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, electronics, sporting goods, and pet products.
Revenue	$52.620 billion USD (2005)
Operating income	3,848,000,000 United States dollar (2022)
Net income	2,780,000,000 United States dollar (2022)
Number of employees	338,000
Website	www.target.com (Online store) www.targetcorp.com (Corporate)

This article is about the United States retail company. For the Australian retail chain, see Target (Australia).

Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT) was founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1962. It is the sixth-largest retailer in the United States behind Wal-Mart, The Home Depot, Kroger, Sears Holdings Corporation and Costco, and is ranked 29th on the 2005 Fortune 500. It sells more gift cards than any other retailer in the United States and is also the third-largest seller of music in the United States.

History

The company's roots were founded when George Dayton founded the Dayton's department store chain. In 1902, George Dayton constructed a six-story building in downtown Minneapolis and convinced R.S. Goodfellow Company to move its Goodfellows department store into it. The store's owner, Reuben Simon Goodfellow, retired and sold his interest in the store to George Dayton. In 1903, the store changed its name to the Dayton Dry Goods Company, and it changed its name again to the Dayton Company in 1910. In 1956, the Dayton Company opened Southdale, the world's first fully-enclosed two-level shopping center in Edina, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. The Dayton Company also became a retail chain by opening its second Dayton's store in Southdale.

Target's original bullseye logo from 1962 to 1968.

In 1962, the Dayton Company entered discount merchandising by opening its first official Target discount store in Roseville, Minnesota, a suburb north of Saint Paul. The name "Target" originated from Dayton's publicity director, Stewart K. Widdess, and was intended to prevent consumers from associating the new discount store chain with the department store. In 1967, the Dayton Corporation was established and it went public with its first offering of common stock. In 1968, Target changed its bullseye logo to the one currently in use. In 1969, it acquired the Lechmere electronics and appliances chain that operated in New England. The Dayton Company also merged with the Detroit-based J.L. Hudson company that year, to become the Dayton-Hudson Corporation consisting of Target and five major department store chains. Some of the other department stores owned and operated by Dayton-Hudson included Lipmans of Portland, Oregon (1950s-1980; ironically, sold the chain to Marshall Field's-owned Frederick & Nelson), and Diamonds of Phoenix, Arizona and John A. Brown of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

In 1971, it acquired sixteen stores from the Arlan's department store chain in Colorado, Iowa, and Oklahoma. That year, two of those units reopened as Target stores, and in 1972 the other fourteen were reopened. In 1978, the company acquired Mervyn's and became the 7th largest retailer in the United States. In 1979, the Target discount chain became the company's top revenue producer.

Former Richway store in College Park, Georgia that was converted to a Target store in 1989, and replaced in 1995 with another Target in Fayetteville, Georgia. Such acquisitions of existing retail property allowed Target to expand into different regions of the United States.

In 1980, it acquired the Ayr-Way discount retail chain of 40 stores and one distribution center from Indianapolis-based L.S. Ayres & Company. These stores were remodeled, and opened in 1981 as Target stores. In 1982, it acquired 33 FedMart stores in Arizona, California, and Texas, which were reopened as Target stores in 1983. In 1984, it sold its Diamond's and John A. Brown department store chains to Dillard Department Stores. In late 1986, the company acquired 50 Gemco stores from Lucky Stores in southern California, which reopened under the Target brand in 1987. In 1989, it acquired 31 more stores from Federated Department Stores's Gold Circle and Richway chains in Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina, which were later reopened as Target stores. It also sold its Lechmere chain that year to a group of investors including Berkshire Partners, a leveraged buy-out firm based in Boston, Massachusetts, eight Lechmere executives, and two local shopping mall executives.

In 1990, it acquired Marshall Field's. In 1992, it created a short-lived chain of apparel specialty stores called Everyday Hero with two stores in Minneapolis. They attempted to compete against other apparel specialty stores such as GAP by offering private label apparel such as its Merona brand, and in 1997 both of these stores closed. In 1998, it acquired Greenspring Company's multi-catalog direct marketing unit, the Rivertown Trading Company, from Minnesota Communications Group. In 1999, it acquired Fedco and its ten stores in a move to expand its SuperTarget operation into Southern California. It reopened six of these stores under the Target brand and sold the other four locations to Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and the Ontario Police Department. On September 7, 1999, it relaunched its Target.com website as an e-commerce site and as part of its discount retail division. The site initially offered merchandise that differentiated its stores from its competitors, such as its Michael Graves brand.

In January 2000, Dayton Hudson Corporation changed its name to Target Corporation and its ticker symbol to TGT; by then, between 75 percent and 80 percent of the corporation's total sales and earnings came from the Target division while the other four divisions, Dayton's, Hudson's, Marshall Field's, and Mervyn's were used to fuel the growth of the discount chain. It also separated its e-commerce operations from its retailing division, and combined it with its Rivertown Trading unit into a stand-alone subsidiary called target.direct. In 2001, it announced that its Dayton's and Hudson's stores would operate under the Marshall Field's brand. The three brands had been operating as a single unit, the Department Store Division. On March 10, 2004, Target Corporation announced it had hired Goldman Sachs Group to analyze options for selling its Marshall Field's and Mervyn's chains of department stores. Three months later, on June 9, 2004, Target Corporation announced its sale of the Marshall Field's chain and several Mervyn's stores to St. Louis, Missouri-based May Department Stores Company, which became effective July 31, 2004. On July 21, 2004, it announced the sale of Mervyn's to an investment consortium including Sun Capital Partners, Inc., Cerberus Capital Management, L.P., Lubert-Adler/ Klaff and Partners, L.P., which was finalized September 2. In 2005, Federated Department Stores acquired May Department Stores and announced that by Fall of 2006, it will eliminate the Marshall Field's name in favor of the Macy's nameplate.

Subsidiaries

File:11-15-05-07.jpg Target Corporation headquarters in the Nicollet Mall shopping district of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

File:11-15-05-43.jpg Target Corporation headquarters with Target Light System, created by 3M.

Today, Target Corporation has its headquarters on Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis, near the site of the original Goodfellows store. It operates its main retail subsidiary, Target Stores, under the banner of 'Target'. The company owns several other subsidiaries, which include:

• Target Financial Services (TFS): issues Target's credit cards, known as the Target REDcard, consisting of the Target VISA and the Target Card (formerly the Target Guest Card), issued through Target National Bank (formerly Retailers National Bank). Target Financial Services also oversees GiftCard balances (see GiftCards section below).
• Target Sourcing Services / Associated Merchandising Corporation (TSS/AMC): This global sourcing organization locates merchandise from around the world for Target and helps import the merchandise to the United States. Such merchandise include garments, furniture, bedding, and towels. TSS/AMC has 27 full-service offices, 48 quality-control offices, and seven commissionaires located throughout the world. TSS/AMC employs 1,200 people. Its engineers are responsible for evaluating the factories that do business with Target Corporation for quality, as well as labor rights and transshipment issues.
• Target Commercial Interiors: provides design-services and furniture for office space. Currently, Target Commercial Interiors has an unusually high market share of Fortune 500/1000 business customers, and are expanding to attract small to medium sized businesses, as well as home offices. This subsidiary has six showrooms in Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, including a first-of-its-kind retail concept store and showroom in Bloomington, Minnesota that opened on June 23, 2005.
• Target Brands: owns and oversees the company's private label products, including the grocery brands Archer Farms and Market Pantry, Sutton & Dodge, their premium meat line, and the electronics brand Trutech. In addition, Bullseye Dog is a trademark, and the Bullseye Design and 'Target' are registered trademarks of Target Brands.
• target.direct: owns and oversees the company's e-commerce initiatives, such as the Target.com domain. Founded in early 2000, target.direct was formed by separating the company's existing e-commerce operations from its retailing division, and combining it with its Rivertown Trading direct marketing unit into a stand-alone subsidiary. In 2002, target.direct and Amazon.com's subsidiary Amazon Enterprise Solutions created a partnership where Amazon.com would provide order fulfillment and guest services for Target.com in exchange for fixed and variable fees. This electronic commerce relationship between target.direct and Amazon Enterprise Solutions will last until August 2010.

Retailing operations

Target Corporation's discount retail chain in the United States has 1,494 stores in all states except for Alaska, Vermont, and Hawaii that operate under the mastheads of Target, Target Greatland, and SuperTarget. The chain was founded by Douglas J. Dayton and John Geisse, and the first Target store opened on May 1, 1962 in Roseville, Minnesota. That store was closed and demolished on January 8, 2005 to make room for a SuperTarget. Target Corporation has aggressive plans to have 2,010 stores open by the year 2010.

Target

The exterior of a typical Target discount department store.

Target is a chain of discount department stores that are about 95,000 to 135,000 square feet (12,000 m²) and carry hardlines ("regular" products and goods), softlines (clothing), and a limited amount of groceries, usually non-perishable. Specifically, Target stores carry clothing, shoes, jewelry, health and beauty products, electronics, compact discs, DVDs, bedding, kitchen supplies, sporting goods, toys, pet supplies, automotive supplies, hardware supplies, and food. They also carry seasonal merchandise such as patio furniture during the summer and Christmas decorations during November and December. Many stores may also have one-hour photo processing, a portrait studio, an optical store, a pharmacy, and a garden center. Stores opened and re-modeled in 2004 or later also include the expanded snack bar that is featured in Target Greatland locations. These generally include a Starbucks Coffee shop, a Pizza Hut Express, and a Taco Bell Express in addition to Target's Food Avenue. It has also been reported that Cold Stone Creamery and Target have signed a deal to test in-store ice cream shops in four stores.

The first few Target stores included leased supermarkets in addition to general merchandise, which during the time was a common practice by discount retailers as they attempted to offer a one-stop shopping experience to customers. Douglas Dayton stated in 1967 that "we believe that the discount-grocery store is a necessary ingredient in what we offer the customer. After all, food sales are about 40% of all department store-type merchandise sales, so the two kinds of stores go hand-in-hand and are what people think of when they think of a discount store." However, by the end of the decade, Target started moving away from this general merchandise and leased supermarket practice. In 1969, Target opened its first store consisting of only general merchandise.

In the past, the one-hour photo processing labs were not owned by Target, but by Qualex, a subsidiary of Eastman Kodak and were staffed by employees of Qualex, not Target. However, in June 2005, Target spokeswoman Brie Heath announced that Target Corporation will replace the Qualex photo labs with their own labs running Kodak equipment, and will staff them with Target employees. Unlike the previous Qualex labs, all photo processing is done "in house", including next-day, digital, and Kodak Perfect Touch processing, although a few labs have been replaced with "send-out" only service with a self-service Kodak Picture Maker kiosk. A select number of "test" stores are running with Fujifilm equipment instead of Kodak. . Target has also partnered with Yahoo! Photos for online photo services, including ordering prints online for one-hour store pickup.

Target Greatland

The exterior of a typical Target Greatland in Mount Laurel, New Jersey. Unlike smaller Target stores, Target Greatlands feature double entrances.

A Target Greatland is a typically 150,000 square feet (14,000 m²) store that carries a larger selection of general merchandise than a basic Target store. Throughout 2005, the company reorganized the sales floor, allowing them to double the grocery space they had before. However, they do not have a full-line of groceries like meat, dairy, and produce. Prominent features include double entrances on single level stores along with an expanded snack bar. The snack bar may include a Pizza Hut Express, Taco Bell Express, and/or a Starbucks. The construction of new Target Greatland stores is being phased out in favor of building SuperTargets.

The first Target Greatland opened in Apple Valley, Minnesota in 1990, and has since been remodeled and expanded, becoming a SuperTarget.

SuperTarget

The exterior of a typical SuperTarget in Salt Lake City, Utah. Shown is the merchandise loading lane between the double entrances on the front of the building.

SuperTarget is a chain of hypermarkets that are about 175,000 square ft. (16,000 m²). Like Target Greatland, SuperTarget features double entrances on one story stores; some also have between the double entrances a merchandise loading lane as a prominent feature of the building. The store logo often spells "Super" in green cursive, but recently, newer ones are signed in red block letters that match the Target font. They carry everything a Target or a Target Greatland does in addition to a grocery store (including meat and poultry, baked goods, delicatessen, frozen foods, dairy products, garden produce and fresh seafood). Many SuperTargets may also feature a Starbucks Coffee shop, a Pizza Hut Express, a Taco Bell Express, Jamba Juice, a pharmacy, a portrait studio, a one-hour photo processing lab, an optical store, or a Wells Fargo Bank. Unlike many other hypermarkets in the United States (such as Wal-Mart Supercenters and Meijer), SuperTargets are not continuously open.

In the past, some SuperTargets featured an E*TRADE trading station instead of a Wells Fargo Bank. However, in June 2003, E*TRADE decided to remove all E*TRADE branches from their SuperTarget locations without advance notice. This sudden move was not initiated by Target Corporation. Mitchell Caplan, E*TRADE's CEO, said that "We were not able to make it into a profitable distribution channel...[w]e're better off exiting." E*TRADE also sent a letter of notification to their customers informing them about this change.

The first SuperTarget opened in Omaha, Nebraska in 1995, and the second SuperTarget opened in Lawrence, Kansas later that same year. Currently, Target operates 162 SuperTarget stores in 21 U.S. states.

Urban stores

The exterior of a two-story urban Target discount department store in Abington, Pennsylvania.

While many Target stores share a fairly common big-box store layout, the company has been known to be flexible with its designs. For example, the urban Target store located on Nicollet Mall opened on October 10, 2001, only two blocks away from the site of the 1902 Goodfellows store, a few blocks away from the Target Center arena, and located within Target's downtown Minneapolis world headquarters complex. This particular Target store features a three-story glass entrance and a design that sets it apart from suburban Target stores. This urban store alone cost Target Corporation $16.3 million USD and the city of Minneapolis $59.9 million USD to develop. More urban locations are found at the Atlantic Terminal Mall Target Store in Brooklyn, New York City, New York and the Van Nuys Boulevard Target Store in the Van Nuys district of Los Angeles. These locations exemplify the need for multi-story stores with small footprints in heavily trafficked areas.

The average urban multi-level Target location is of a fairly simple architecture such as the location in Abington, Pennsylvania (pictured), they may also be attached to a mall such as the location in Springfield in Fairfax County, Virginia (see photo). Where required by law, local custom, or decided by the company to drive visibility and sales, they may have elaborate architecture such as the aforementioned Nicollet Mall location or the Gateway Center in West Hollywood, California. A controversial two story Target store is under construction in Oak Lawn, Illinois, just outside the city limits of Chicago. To face the parking shortage in this area, the store is being built above a parking garage. A multi level Target store is also being considered for Westfield Downtown Plaza in Sacramento, California as part of that shopping center's revitalization effort.

These unique multi-level locations may feature many oddities that set it apart from a standard Target location. Although these locations are not Target Greatland or SuperTarget locations, they still feature multiple entrances, usually on different levels. Checkout lanes may be located in one central area and service two exits and/or there may be satellite locations to serve additional exits. Transferring between levels in the store with shopping carts is accomplished via elevators and a specialized escalator, called a Vermaport. Freight elevators are used to transfer product between floors and stock rooms which may be located on its own floor above or below the store or share floor space with the selling floor on the same level. Stores without parking lots (Atlantic Terminal, West Hollywood) and stores connected to malls feature shopping carts with locking wheels. As the shopping cart exits the store into the mall area or into city sidewalks, one wheel on it will lock and render the cart unusable.

This concept has also been used to convert Target stores from former Montgomery Ward and Younkers stores.

Distribution centers

Target Corporation currently operates 25 distribution centers across the United States. Target opened two new distribution centers in 2006 (Rialto, CA and Dekalb, IL) to support the growth of its stores. With the exception of vendor supplied items, such as greeting cards and soda; these distribution centers ship items directly to Target stores. Also, unlike Wal-Mart, Target's grocery selection does not come from their own distribution centers, but from the companies that Target has partnered up with. For example, the produce carried in SuperTargets comes from Supervalu distribution centers.

The retail chain's first distribution center opened in Fridley, Minnesota in 1969. It included a computerized distribution system and was known as the Northern Distribution Center. During this time, the chain consisted of seventeen stores after having expanded into Oklahoma and Texas.

On August 9, 2004, Target announced to their suppliers that they were going to perform a trial on the effects of radio frequency identification on the efficiency of supply chain management in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. This trial involved one Target distribution center and ten nearby Target stores. Here, RFID tags would be placed on the bar codes of pallets and cartons to track the goods from the suppliers to the distribution center, and from the distribution center to the stores.

Differentiation

Target Corporation competes directly against other discount retailers, mainly Wal-Mart and Kmart. Since its founding in 1962, it has intended to differentiate its stores from its competitors by offering what it believes is more upscale, trend-forward merchandise at low cost, as opposed to the traditional concept of focusing on low-priced goods. Douglas J. Dayton, who founded the retail chain with John Geisse, explained that "We will offer high-quality merchandise at low margins, because we are cutting expenses. We would much rather do this than trumpet dramatic price cuts on cheap merchandise."

As a result, Target stores tend to attract younger and more educated and affluent customers than its competitors. Currently, the median Target shopper is 41 years old, which is the youngest of all major discount retailers that Target competes directly against. The median household income of Target's customer base is roughly $58,000 USD. Roughly eighty percent of Target customers are female, and about 43 percent have children at home. About eighty percent have attended college and 43 percent have completed college.

File:Targetinterior.JPG

Typical interior of a Target store

Target refers to itself as a "discount department store" instead of just a discount store. Target stores do not play ambient music, commonly known as elevator music and often distributed by Muzak. However, several Target stores feature a Starbucks, and those that do play music only in the Starbucks centers. It also does not promote items or services through its public address system. Target designs its stores to be more attractive than Wal-Mart by having wider aisles, drop ceilings, a more attractive presentation of merchandise and generally cleaner fixtures. In addition, special attention is given to the design of the store environment: graphics reinforce Target's advertising imagery and shelves are dressed with contemporary signage, backdrops and liners, often printed on inexpensive material such as paper, corrugated and foam boards. One side effect of Target's store designs is that it may cost Target more to build its stores than its competitors.

Many of Target's biggest fans jokingly refer to a Target store as "Tar-zhay" or Targé (Tar-jé) (IPA: [tɑɹˈʒeɪ]), as though it were a French word, a reference to its more upscale image compared to its competitors. This trend is incorrectly believed to have been started by Oprah Winfrey, when she used the French pronunciation to refer to the store on her television show. This conflicts with the information in Laura Rowley's book, On Target, which traces the pronunciation back to 1962, the year the first Target opened. This pronunciation has also led some people to incorrectly believe that the company is French-owned.

Target calls its customers "guests", its employees "team members", and its supervisors "team leaders." It derived this practice in 1989 from The Walt Disney Company.

Target stores do not sell firearms. In the early 1990s, they stopped selling toy guns that looked realistic and limited its toy gun selection to ones that were brightly colored and oddly shaped. They do not sell tobacco products and have not sold cigarettes since 1996. Unlike Wal-Mart, they sell "explicit" CDs and "racy" magazines such as Maxim and FHM.

Target has many exclusive deals with various designers, including Isaac Mizrahi, Michael Graves, Mossimo Giannulli, Fiorucci, Liz Lange, and Luella Bartley, among others. Target, after hiring architect Michael Graves to design the scaffolding used to renovate the Washington Monument and contributing $6 million USD to the restoration plan, introduced its first designer line of products in 1999, the Michael Graves Collection of housewares and home decor products. Wal-Mart and Kmart have followed Target's lead by signing exclusive designers to their stores as well. Target also partners with well-established national brands to create exclusive collections for its stores. Recently, Sony created a line of electronics under the Sony LIV name geared towards women. The collection included a CD player that resembled a purse, and a CD player that was equipped to be mounted under the kitchen counter. Another example of this is Target having an exclusive deal with Food Network for selling DVDs of TV shows featuring popular chefs such as Rachael Ray, Alton Brown, and Paula Deen. In July 2006, Target started selling exclusive two-tone pink edition Apple iPods. Sometimes manufacturers will create red-colored items, exclusively for Target. In 2002, Nintendo produced a red special edition variant of the Game Boy Advance, which featured the Target logo below the screen.

GiftCards

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 world. The unique designs of their cards contribute to their higher sales. Past and current designs include "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 giftcard that allows the sender to record a voice message. A current environmentally friendly giftcard is made from bioplastic manufactured from corn.

Many of these design ideas are not used by any other retailer in the United States other than by Target Corporation. It is noted that 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. The United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted U.S. patent D505,450 for the "ornamental design for a credit or stored value card with wood layer" to the inventors Amy L. Lauer and John D. Mayhew. U.S. patent 7,004,398 for the "stored-value card assembly including a stored-value card, an edible product, and a wrapper" has also been granted to Michael R. Francis and Barry C. Brooks. Both of these patents have been assigned to Target Brands, Inc.

ClearRx

In 2005, Target introduced a major revision of prescription bottles, which it calls the ClearRx system. The redesigned bottles are flattened-out and turned upside down, providing more room for label. This system, invented by student Deborah Adler, was named one of Time Magazine's Most Amazing Inventions of 2005.

Philanthropy

Target Corporation is consistently ranked as one of the most philanthropic companies in the country. According to a November 2005 Forbes article, it ranked as the highest cash giving company in America in percentage of income given (2.1%). Target donates around five percent of their pre-tax operating profit; it gives over $3 million a week (up from $2 million in years prior) to the communities in which it operates. It also gives a percentage of charges from its Target Visa to schools designated by the cardholders. To date, Target has given over $150 million to schools across the United States through this program. In fact, it is written in Target Corporation's corporate by-laws that it must give 5% of its pre-tax profits to charity.

Further evidence of Target's philanthropy can be found in Memphis, Tennessee's Target House complex, a long-term housing solution for families of patients at the city's St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The corporation led the way for more $27 million in donation which made the 96 fully-furnished apartments possible for families needing to be at St. Jude for 90 days to three years or more.

Target has a standard no-solicitation rule at its properties, as it wishes to provide a "distraction-free shopping experience for its guests." Exemptions to this policy were previously made for the Salvation Army to station its traditional red kettles and bell-ringers outside Target stores during the Christmas season. However, the company decided that it would no longer allow the Salvation Army to solicit on Target Stores' properties in 2004 because they believed it was a distraction to their guests and because an increasing number of other nonprofit groups also wanted to be granted exceptions to the "no solicitation" policy to support charity. Many religious organizations objected to this decision, and called for boycotts of Target; however, this has failed as Target's financials over the last year have been setting company records and Target's same-store sales have been outperforming Wal-Mart. Additionally, when Target ousted the Salvation Army bell ringers, Target Corporation said that they planned on seeking an alternate method to donate to the organization. For example, Target donates annually to the United Way (the Salvation Army is a member of the United Way coalition).

On November 14, 2005, Target Corporation and the Salvation Army announced a partnership called "The Target/Salvation Army Wish List," where online shoppers could donate goods to the organization by buying them directly from Target.com between November 25, 2005 and January 25, 2006. With this partnership, Target guaranteed a minimum of $1 million of merchandise to the Salvation Army, making up the difference if the customers couldn't reach this goal, although the Salvation Army claimed that they typically raised $9 million with the red kettle program in front of Target stores. Annette Bauer, a spokeswoman for the Salvation Army's northern division, said "It is not going to make up the financial difference...but it is a great opportunity to partner with Target that might lead to other opportunities."

During disasters, Target Corporation is a major benefactor for relief efforts. Target provided monetary and product donations during the September 11th terrorist attacks on the U.S.; it also donated money for relief efforts for the tsunami in South Asia. Most recently, Target donated $1.5 million (U.S.) to the American Red Cross in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It also allowed its store properties in the affected area to be used as command centers for relief organizations. It also donated supplies such as water and bug spray. Besides these major disasters, Target also regularly lends its support to disasters that are not as well known or only affect a regional area.

Target Forensic Services

File:Target Forensic Services.jpg

In 2006, The Washington Post revealed that Target is operating two sophisticated criminal forensics laboratories, one at their headquarters, the other in Las Vegas, NV. Originally, the lab was created as an internal need for the company to investigate instances of theft and fraud and other criminal actions that occurred on its own properties. Eventually, the company began offering pro bono services to law enforcement agencies across the country. Target's Forensic Services has assisted agencies at all levels of government, including Federal agencies such as the Secret Service, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The labs have become such a popular resource for law enforcement that Target has had to restrict the cases it assists in to only violent felonies.

The lab is reported to be sophisticated, and in one case, Target was able to successfully repair a surveillance tape that not even NASA could view.

Criticism

Like many other large businesses and corporations, Target Corporation faces criticism. Much negative publicity was generated from the company's decision to no longer allow the Salvation Army to collect donations at its stores (see Philanthropy section above).

Target allegedly engages in many practices that rival Wal-Mart faces criticism for engaging in; however, because of Target's smaller size in comparison to Wal-Mart, Target often escapes criticism. In addition, many people may overlook Target's practices because of its successful marketing to differentiate itself as being more upscale. Practices that some might deem as questionable include: low hourly wages (lack of a living wage), opposition to labor unions, and its contribution to urban sprawl. Liza Featherstone, author of Selling Women Short: The Landmark Battle for Workers' Rights at Wal-Mart, stated in an interview, "Aesthetically, we all like Target better, but their wages are in many places low or just as low, and they all represent the Wal-Martization of our economy, which is the exchange of low prices for poor work conditions."

In 2002, the company came under criticism for carrying clothing with the number "88" embroidered on the clothing, which is known to be a white supremacist symbol. Target came under fire not necessarily for carrying the merchandise, but for their response. A customer informed the company of the offensive merchandise, but Target only responded with form letters and seemed to dismiss the customer's concerns. Only after the Southern Poverty Law Center and the media got involved, did Target pull the merchandise from its stores.

A 26-year-old Missouri woman was refused emergency contraception when she handed her prescription to a pharmacist at a Target store in Fenton, Missouri, on September 30, 2005. The woman was told by the pharmacist, “I won’t fill it. It’s my right not to fill it.” She was told that she could go to a local Walgreens instead. Target holds a conscience clause that allows employees to refuse to dispense emergency contraceptives based on religious beliefs; however, the employee must ensure that the prescription is filled by another pharmacist in a timely manner. Some defending Target would applaud the company for upholding the employee's freedom of conscience, while others feel this policy fails to uphold the pharmacist's duty of care.

Target has recently come under fire for firing 39-year-old pharmacist Heather Williams, who based on her religious beliefs could not in good conscience refer a customer to one of the other Target Stores that would dispense the Emergency Contraceptives as stated in their conscience clause.

Holiday controversy

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Target's 2005 Christmas logo.

In November 2005, with the unveiling of their 2005 Christmas advertising campaign, it became apparent that Target was using the word "holiday" instead of "Christmas" in their promotions when referring to Christmas decorations, Christmas trees, Christmas stockings, and other items and traditions related to the Christmas holiday.

In late November, the American Family Association, a Mississippi–based Christian company, publicly stated that they believed Christians and all other celebrants of the Christmas holiday should be offended by Target's marketing decisions. When the AFA contacted the CEO of Target, they received no response.

The AFA subsequently initiated a nation–wide boycott of the Target Corporation, resulting in over 700,000 petition signatures, all of which were individually sent to Target customer service. Many Americans also contacted Target via telephone, resulting in over 1 million individual complaints issued to Target regarding their "ban" of the word 'Christmas'. Customer service representatives were said to have been "taken aback" by the outpouring of complaints, and had not seen such backlash about their holiday promotions in any previous year.

Within a week of initiating the boycott, the AFA received an official letter from Target, of which partially stated: "Over the course of the next few weeks, our advertising, marketing and merchandising will become more specific to the holiday that is approaching – referring directly to holidays like Christmas and Hanukkah. For example, you will see reference to Christmas in select television commercials, circulars and in-store signage.". The AFA immediately dropped the boycott, stating "since Target has responded positively, we see no reason to continue the boycott. We are expecting a different approach next year from Target".

In a recent development, Target has officially initiated their 2006 Christmas advertising campaign, and as of October 2006 is offering a major section entitled "Christmas Décor — Deck the halls faster than ever", with subsections for "Christmas trees", "Christmas entertaining", "Nativity scenes", "Christmas stockings", "Christmas Wrap", and more. It should be noted, however, that Target is also using the term "holiday" rather than "Christmas" in some instances. Examples include reference to "hot holiday decor" and "holiday hardware" in a Christmas–themed section of their "New Arrivals" page.

Target Australia

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Main article: Target (Australia)

There is also a Target operating as a department store under a nearly identical logo and a similar style in Australia with over 250 stores. The brand in Australia is owned by Coles Myer, which holds the rights from Target Corporation to use the Target name in Australia. Target Corporation has never operated stores outside of the United States.

The Target Australia logo is nearly identical to the U.S. Target logo, the difference being the lack of capitalization of the letters and a period at the end. They may also add their slogan "100% Happy" below it.

Diversity

Target defines diversity inclusively as individuality. They state this individuality may include a wide spectrum of attributes such as personal style, age, race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, language, physical ability, religion, family, citizenship status, socio-economic circumstances, education and life experiences.

The Target employee diversity program is called "The Power of One". It specifically seeks to work with vendors and contractors that are minority-owned or owned by women.

It is has long extended domestic partner benefits to straight, gay, and lesbian employees. It has received an 86 on the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index Score. In addition, Target Corporation was named one of the "100 Best Companies for Working Mothers" in 2004 by Working Mother magazine.

Despite Target's stated commitment to diversity, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has repeatedly given Target failing grades on its annual Economic Reciprocity Initiative report card, a measure of the company's "commitment to the African-American citizenry". In 2003 and 2005, the NAACP has rated Target an "F" on this report; in 2004, Target was rated a "D-". In contrast, Wal-Mart, which scored higher than all of the other retailers on the report for 2003 and 2004, was given a "C+" for both of those years. In 2006 when Target was asked why they didn't participate in the survey again, a representative explained "Target views diversity as being inclusive of all people from all different backgrounds, not just one group."

Major sponsorships

File:Target indycar.jpg

The Target Chip Ganassi Racing IndyCar visiting Purdue University.

Target owns the naming rights to the Target Center in Minneapolis. It also sponsors the NASCAR and IndyCar racing teams of Chip Ganassi Racing. In the 2005 NASCAR season, the #41 Chip Ganassi Target car was driven by Casey Mears; for the 2006 season, rookie Reed Sorensen took over the #41 when Mears moved to a different Chip Ganassi car on the same team.

Target Corporation is also a major sponsor of the annual Minneapolis Aquatennial. It hosts the Target Fireworks Show, which is the largest annual fireworks show west of the Mississippi River, and the fourth largest annual fireworks show in the United States.

Target also sponsors the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan, New York. It hosts Target Free Friday Nights, providing to all visitors free admission to the museum during Fridays after 4 p.m. A similar Target-sponsored program at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art called "Free after Five" provides free admission in the evening throughout the week. In its hometown of Minneapolis, Target sponsors the Target Free Thursday Nights at the Walker Art Center, where admission is free after 4 p.m.

Trivia

• Some Target stores have a bullseye painted on the roof as can be seen from a satellite, such as in this image.
• The film Career Opportunities prominently features a Target store. A Target janitor Frank Whaley is locked overnight in the store with a shoplifter played by Jennifer Connelly. In many respects the film shows many of the aspects of the store. Also one of the many criticisms of the store is prominently shown—locking flow employees and janitors overnight in the store. The film however does not show the overnight flow team.

See also

• Bullseye
• National Federation of the Blind v. Target Corporation

External links

• Target Corporation Official Website
• Target e-commerce Website