Target Corporation is an American retail corporation that operates a chain of discount department stores and hypermarkets, headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the seventh-largest retailer in the United States, and a component of the S&P 500 Index. The company is one of the largest American-owned private employers in the United States. The original Target retail store was co-founded by John Geisse and Douglas Dayton, the CEO of the Dayton corporation at that time. The Dayton corporation, now known as the Target Corporation, was the company John Geisse worked for when he founded the Target stores and was founded in Minneapolis by businessman George Dayton in 1902, and developed through the years via expansion and acquisitions. Target, the company's first discount store and eventual namesake, was opened and founded by American business man John F. Geisse in 1962. The company became the Dayton-Hudson Corporation after merging with the J.L. Hudson Company in 1969 and formerly held ownership of several department store chains including Dayton's, Hudson's, Marshall Field's, and Mervyn's. The parent company was renamed the Target Corporation in 2000. Wikipedia