Built on embers

At the start of the century, George Dayton saw an opportunity out of ashes when he purchased some property in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The place had previously been the Westminster Presbyterian Church. The church caught fire and burnt down in the 1890s. Mr Dayton used this place and built a commercial building which has six storeys. There was a need for a store in that area and he had Goodfellows Dry Goods to move there. Their growing retail business got the family to open the Target franchise in the early 1960s.

They love their women customers

They have so much data with us that they can sort it out to arrive at whether their customer is pregnant. They know what their customers buy, by going through the record of transactions they can understand things, which are related to trimesters. For eg calcium and zinc supplements, or stretch marks lotions etc. The company can then\ estimate the due dates and ship out coupons to suit their customers needs. In fact there was a father of a teenage girl who kept getting coupons related to babies and had called to complain. Little did he know that his daughter was pregnant.

They also allow their customers who are mothers to breastfeed their babies anywhere on their premises. No department is barred. Electronics, sporting goods, housewares – the moms can choose any spot.

A Washington monument repaired by Target

The company offered $1 million and offered assistance to repair a worn down Washington monument to the National Park Service. Usually organisations do indulge in such kind of work, Target also got the help of a famous designer who could give ideas to improve the structure when it was being restored. In fact he later on went on to create his own line of branded products at the store