Turnaround of Target: Will it Bring Back Lost Momentum?

The history of Target dates back to 1902 when George Dayton opened his first store called Goodfellows in Minneapolis. In 1903, he changed the corporate name to The Dayton Dry Goods Company and in 1910 he changed it to The Dayton Company (Dayton). By the 1940s, George Dayton had a thriving family business on his hands that operated department stores called Dayton’s in the upper Midwest region of the US.

John Giesse (Giesse), who was a vice-president at Dayton, was extremely interested in the discount retail format and was even contemplating leaving Dayton to open his own discount stores. Executives at Dayton, who knew about Geisse’s ambitions, pointed out to him that he would need capital for the project. Dayton had the capital, they said, and asked Geisse to submit a report on his observations and ideas for a chain of discount stores. Geisse, who had studied the existing discount stores, was of the opinion that there was a place for an upscale discount store. Dayton decided to launch a discount store chain as a subsidiary and named it Target.