Target Trivia
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47 free Target trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
40 free Target trivia questions with answers. Target is the discount store people pretend is a boutique, and there is a real history behind the joke: a Minneapolis dry-goods company started beside a burned-down church, a discount spin-off deliberately named to hide its parentage, a mascot played by a rotating cast of female bull terriers, and a run of designer collaborations that made 'cheap chic' a thing. This quiz covers the founding and the Dayton family, the logo and the dog, the store formats from SuperTarget to CityTarget, the REDcard, the Starbucks counters, the 2013 data breach, the two-year Canadian disaster, the sports naming rights and the odder corners like Target's forensic labs. About a third of the questions are easy for anyone who shops there; the rest suit a retail buff. Every answer has been checked against a primary source, mostly Wikipedia's Target articles, and each question shows its citation.
30 of 47 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which city is Target Corporation headquartered?
Minneapolis
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.
Q 02What is the name of Target's dog mascot?
Bullseye
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.
Q 03Target's canine mascot is what breed of dog?
Bull terrier
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.
Q 04Which Target rival also opened its first discount store in 1962?
Walmart
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.
Q 05Which TV home-renovation duo created Target's Hearth & Hand with Magnolia homeware line, launched in 2017?
Chip and Joanna Gaines
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.
Q 06Shoppers' joke nickname for Target pronounces its name with a mock accent from which language?
French
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.
Q 07Which Target menswear brand shares its name with the store the company began as in 1902?
Goodfellow & Co.
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.
Q 08What does Target call its customers?
Guests
Guests is such fixed company vocabulary that when Target launched its own store credit card in 1995, it named it the Target Guest Card.
Q 09Which Italian fashion house's 2011 Target collaboration overwhelmed Target.com on launch day?
Missoni
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.
Q 10Which architect designed the Washington Monument's restoration scaffolding and then Target's first designer homeware line?
Michael Graves
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.
Q 11Target's slogan pairs 'Expect More' with what?
Pay Less
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.'
Q 12What discount did Target's REDcard introduce on every purchase in 2010?
5%
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.
Q 13Hackers behind Target's 2013 card breach got in using logins stolen from what kind of outside supplier?
An air-conditioning contractor
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.
Q 21In 2021 Target announced its stores would stay closed for good on which holiday?
Thanksgiving
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.
Q 22In 2018 Target opened its first store in which state, the last without one?
Vermont
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.
Q 23Which department-store chains did Target Corporation sell off in 2004 to focus on its discount stores?
Marshall Field's and Mervyn's
Q 14Target expanded into which country in 2013, only to close all 133 stores by April 2015?
Canada
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.
Q 15Which coffee chain's counters became a Target fixture through a partnership expanded in 2003?
Starbucks
Starbucks counters in Target are licensed cafés run by the retailer itself, so the baristas behind them are Target employees rather than Starbucks staff.
Q 16Which pharmacy chain bought Target's in-store pharmacies and clinics in 2015 for about $1.9bn?
CVS Health
CVS Health paid about $1.9 billion for Target's roughly 1,660 pharmacies and 80 clinics, rebranding them as CVS Pharmacy and MinuteClinic.
Q 17What did the first SuperTarget, opened in Omaha in 1995, add to the standard Target store?
A full grocery department
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.
Q 18Which Target own brand, launched in 2016, sells clothing for children and babies?
Cat & Jack
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.
Q 19Which grocery-delivery start-up did Target acquire in December 2017 for more than half a billion dollars?
Shipt
Shipt, founded in Birmingham, Alabama, in 2014, cost Target $550 million and was kept running as a wholly owned subsidiary under its own brand.
Q 20Target owns the naming rights to the home arena of which NBA team?
Minnesota Timberwolves
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.
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.
Q 24A 2012 New York Times story revealed Target's data model spotted a customer was what before her father knew?
Pregnant
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.
Q 25A 2006 Washington Post report revealed Target's unusual sideline in running what?
Forensics laboratories
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.
Q 26Which online retailer ran Target.com's fulfilment and customer service until 2011?
Amazon
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.
Q 27Which Saturday Night Live star played the over-eager cashier known as Target Lady?
Kristen Wiig
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.
Q 28A design student's thesis, adopted by Target in 2005, reinvented which everyday object?
The pill bottle
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.
Q 29Which retailer offered to buy Target's parent company for $6.82 billion in the 1990s and was rebuffed?
J. C. Penney
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.
Q 30Target's parent gained the 'Hudson' half of its 1969 name by merging with a department store from which city?
Detroit
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.