47 Fun Facts About Target

In which city is Target Corporation headquartered?

Minneapolis is where George Dayton opened a dry-goods store in 1902; the company stayed put, launching Target sixty years later and keeping its head office downtown.

What is the name of Target's dog mascot?

Bullseye debuted in the 'Sign of the Times' TV campaign, and viewers liked the dog so much that Target soon put it on gift cards and sold a plush toy version.

Target's canine mascot is what breed of dog?

Target's mascot is a white bull terrier; several look-alike dogs share the role, and the red rings around one eye are applied with non-toxic make-up.

Which Target rival also opened its first discount store in 1962?

Walmart and Kmart, like Target, were 1962 offshoots of older retailers chasing the discount boom: Sam Walton ran five-and-dimes, Kresge was a variety chain, and Target's parent was a department store.

Which TV home-renovation duo created Target's Hearth & Hand with Magnolia homeware line, launched in 2017?

Chip and Joanna Gaines of Fixer Upper founded the Magnolia brand the line is named for; the modern-farmhouse range was Magnolia's first tie-up with any retailer.

Shoppers' joke nickname for Target pronounces its name with a mock accent from which language?

French is the joke: 'Tar-zhay' lends a discount chain some boutique glamour, and it is as old as the stores: Target's founding president recalled hearing it in 1962, the chain's first year.

Which Target menswear brand shares its name with the store the company began as in 1902?

Goodfellow & Co., launched in 2017, revives the name of Goodfellow Dry Goods, the downtown store George Dayton bought into in 1902 and renamed after himself a year later.

What does Target call its customers?

Guests is such fixed company vocabulary that when Target launched its own store credit card in 1995, it named it the Target Guest Card.

Which Italian fashion house's 2011 Target collaboration overwhelmed Target.com on launch day?

Missoni's 400-piece line was meant to last six weeks but mostly sold out within a day, and within hours buyers were relisting pieces on eBay at far above Target's prices.

Which architect designed the Washington Monument's restoration scaffolding and then Target's first designer homeware line?

Michael Graves came to Target through the monument job, which the retailer sponsored; his range, led by a whistling teakettle and a toaster, grew to more than 2,000 products over 13 years.

Target's slogan pairs 'Expect More' with what?

Pay Less rounds off the promise Target unveiled in 1994, and a decade later its food ads bent the line into 'Eat Well. Pay Less.'

What discount did Target's REDcard introduce on every purchase in 2010?

5% came straight off the bill from October 2010, on Target's debit card as well as its credit cards, replacing an older reward of occasional 10%-off shopping days.

Hackers behind Target's 2013 card breach got in using logins stolen from what kind of outside supplier?

An air-conditioning contractor in Pennsylvania had its Target network logins stolen first; the thieves then pushed malware to the chain's cash registers and copied about 40 million card numbers.

Target expanded into which country in 2013, only to close all 133 stores by April 2015?

Target Canada opened its first stores in March 2013 and was gone within two years; the exit cost the parent a pre-tax writedown of about $5.4 billion.

Which coffee chain's counters became a Target fixture through a partnership expanded in 2003?

Starbucks counters in Target are licensed cafés run by the retailer itself, so the baristas behind them are Target employees rather than Starbucks staff.

Which pharmacy chain bought Target's in-store pharmacies and clinics in 2015 for about $1.9bn?

CVS Health paid about $1.9 billion for Target's roughly 1,660 pharmacies and 80 clinics, rebranding them as CVS Pharmacy and MinuteClinic.

What did the first SuperTarget, opened in Omaha in 1995, add to the standard Target store?

A full grocery department, with fresh produce, dairy and meat, was the whole idea: Target built the format so busy shoppers could skip a separate supermarket trip.

Which Target own brand, launched in 2016, sells clothing for children and babies?

Cat & Jack arrived in July 2016 to replace Target's older Circo and Cherokee children's ranges, and real kids helped design the first collection.

Which grocery-delivery start-up did Target acquire in December 2017 for more than half a billion dollars?

Shipt, founded in Birmingham, Alabama, in 2014, cost Target $550 million and was kept running as a wholly owned subsidiary under its own brand.

Target owns the naming rights to the home arena of which NBA team?

Minnesota Timberwolves spent their debut season in the Metrodome, a football stadium, then moved into the new Target Center in 1990; the retailer has been the arena's only naming sponsor since.

In 2021 Target announced its stores would stay closed for good on which holiday?

Thanksgiving openings had kicked off the holiday sales rush until Target shut for the day in 2020 to thin pandemic crowds; a year later the chain made the closure its permanent rule.

In 2018 Target opened its first store in which state, the last without one?

Vermont got its Target in October 2018, and not as a big box: the chain fitted a small-format store into vacated space at a South Burlington mall.

Which department-store chains did Target Corporation sell off in 2004 to focus on its discount stores?

Marshall Field's and Mervyn's both went in 2004, Field's to May Department Stores and Mervyn's to an investment group, leaving the company with nothing but its Target stores.

A 2012 New York Times story revealed Target's data model spotted a customer was what before her father knew?

Target's purchase model flagged the teenager as pregnant; her father complained about the baby-product coupons, then apologised after learning she really was expecting, as Charles Duhigg's 2012 story recounted.

A 2006 Washington Post report revealed Target's unusual sideline in running what?

Forensics laboratories at Target began as a way to investigate theft in its own stores, then took on free police work; its experts restored a damaged tape for Houston arson investigators after NASA could not.

Which online retailer ran Target.com's fulfilment and customer service until 2011?

Amazon ran Target.com's technology, orders and customer service from the early 2000s; in 2009 Target said it wanted full control of its own platform, and the two parted in 2011.

Which Saturday Night Live star played the over-eager cashier known as Target Lady?

Kristen Wiig put the character on her audition tape for the show in 2005, and in 2024 Target hired her to play the cashier in its own national ads.

A design student's thesis, adopted by Target in 2005, reinvented which everyday object?

The pill bottle got its makeover after design student Deborah Adler's grandmother swallowed her husband's tablets by mistake; Target's version paired an easy-to-read label with a personal color ring for each family member.

Which retailer offered to buy Target's parent company for $6.82 billion in the 1990s and was rebuffed?

J. C. Penney's unsolicited 1996 bid was the fifth-largest US retailer trying to swallow the fourth; Dayton-Hudson's board turned it down unanimously, saying it preferred to stay independent.

Target's parent gained the 'Hudson' half of its 1969 name by merging with a department store from which city?

Detroit's J. L. Hudson Company merged with the Dayton Company in 1969; its downtown flagship, once the world's tallest department store, was brought down by implosion in 1998.

Target's smaller urban formats launched in 2012 were originally branded as what?

CityTarget, launched in 2012 in downtown Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle, and the even smaller TargetExpress stores were all renamed simply 'Target' in 2015.

Taylor Swift's Eras Tour book went on sale only at Target on which day in 2024?

Black Friday was launch day for the official Eras Tour book, and with Target its only US seller it still moved nearly a million copies in its first week.

Target's cars won four straight CART titles and the 2000 Indianapolis 500 for which team owner?

Chip Ganassi ran Target-backed cars from 1990, and in 2000 his became the first major CART team to cross the sport's split and enter Indianapolis, where Juan Pablo Montoya led 167 laps.

Which fast-food chain's counters, alongside the coffee bar, are common in Target's in-store snack areas?

Pizza Hut Express counters sit beside the coffee bar in the Target Café snack area, where the chain sells personal pan pizzas and breadsticks to shoppers.

Target House provides free long-term housing for families of patients at which hospital?

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital charges patients nothing for care, and Target House in Memphis, built with Target's funding, does the same for housing: free furnished apartments for long-stay families.

Which luxury department store shared a 2012 holiday collection with Target, both selling the same designer pieces?

Neiman Marcus and Target stocked the same range by 24 American designers from December 1, in every store of both chains, and marked the tie-up with a $1 million gift to the designers' council.

Which bankrupt toy chain relaunched its website in 2019 with Target handling every sale?

Toys "R" Us came back online as a showroom: new owner Tru Kids ran the site, but each buy button sent shoppers to the same toy's page on Target.com to pay.

In 2021, Target began opening 'mini shops' for which tech company inside its stores?

Apple shops with dedicated Target staff trained by Apple opened inside 17 Target stores in February 2021, the first of a planned roll-out to more locations.

Which pop star cancelled an exclusive album edition with Target in 2011 over a political donation?

Lady Gaga dropped the Target-exclusive edition of Born This Way in March 2011 after Target's 2010 donation to a group backing a candidate who opposed same-sex marriage.

Which Target food and drink brand replaced Archer Farms and Simply Balanced?

Good & Gather was Target's biggest own-brand launch, growing past 2,000 products, and every one had to drop artificial flavors, synthetic colors and high-fructose corn syrup.

What does Target call its service, launched in 2017, that brings app orders out to your parked car?

Drive Up has shoppers tap 'I'm on my way' in the Target app and pull into a marked bay where staff load the order, and the same stop later began taking returns as well.

Which entertainment giant began opening mini stores under its own name inside Target in 2019?

Disney opened its first 25 shops inside Target in October 2019 and planned more than 160 by the end of 2021, the same year it closed dozens of its own stores across North America.

Target's parent opened America's first fully enclosed, climate-controlled shopping mall in 1956 under what name?

Southdale Center, built by Target's parent company in Edina, Minnesota, and designed by Austrian-born architect Victor Gruen, opened in 1956 as the first fully enclosed, climate-controlled shopping mall in the United States.

In 2026 Target named which fashion designer, creator of a hit 2000s line for the chain, its first creative director at large?

Isaac Mizrahi came back almost a quarter-century after his first Target range, this time not to sell a line of his own but to mentor the chain's in-house designers and advise on products.

Which mall bookstore chain did Target's parent company found in 1966 and later sell to Barnes & Noble?

B. Dalton, launched by the Dayton family in 1966, followed shoppers into suburban malls and had grown to nearly 800 bookstores by the time Barnes & Noble bought it in the 1980s.

What is the name of the loyalty programme Target launched nationwide in 2019?

Target Circle launched nationwide in October 2019 after a pilot, absorbing the Cartwheel savings app and giving members 1% back on purchases plus personalised offers.

Who succeeded Brian Cornell as Target's chief executive on February 1, 2026?

Michael Fiddelke, a 20-year insider who had run both finance and operations, got the job after what the board called an extensive outside search; Cornell stayed on as executive chair.