ww.target.com
- Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT),
originally known as the Dayton Dry Goods Co., is an American
retailing company that was founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in
1902. In 1962, the first Target store was opened in Roseville,
Minnesota. It is the fifth largest retailer by sales revenue in
the United States behind Wal-Mart, The Home Depot, Kroger and
Costco. At ww.target.com you can find
gift registry, women's clothing, shoes, jewelry,watches and other
discount merchandise.
Today, Target operates approximately
1,500 stores in 47 states, including more than 175 SuperTarget®
stores that add an upscale grocery shopping experience. In
addition to the photo processing, pharmacy and Food Avenue®
restaurants found in almost every Target, SuperTarget includes an
in-store bakery, deli, meat and produce sections.
Target is ranked 33rd on the 2007 Fortune 500. Target operates its
retailing business exclusively in the United States. It is a rival
and competitor of Kmart and
Wal-Mart. TARGET.CM is
an ad site.
Target was listed in Internet Retailer's list of the top
500 retail web sites in 2007. Formerly traded as Dayton Hudson,
Target is a component of the Standard and Poor's 500 index.
Target is a chain of discount department stores
that are about 95,000 to 135,000 square feet (12,000 m˛) and carry
hardlines ("regular" products and goods), softlines (clothing),
and a limited amount of groceries, mostly 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.
Target.cm 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 or 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. This ended in
September of 2007. Target Photo now partners with Kodak Gallery
and Shutterfly.
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