Target Corporation is an American retail corporation and discount department store chain headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Target operates small-format and large-format retail stores and hypermarkets. It is the eighth-largest retailer in the U.S. and a component of the S&P 500 Index. The first Target retail store was co-founded as a discount retailer by John Geisse and Douglas Dayton in 1962 for department store Dayton's in Roseville, Minnesota. Dayton's was renamed Target Corporation in 2000. Target focuses on upscale, trending merchandise at lower costs. Its stores typically sell general merchandise. Target's logo refers to the center of a shooting target, and its canine mascot is named Bullseye. The corporation also operates two criminal forensics laboratories. Despite the identical logo and name and similar type of outlets, Target Corporation has never had a direct relation or affiliation to Target Australia. As of 2024, Target is ranked No. 32 on the 2022 Fortune 500 list of the largest American corporations by total revenue. As of 2025, it operates more than 2,000 stores.