The hard Northern winter shows on the faces of these Target shoppers in this 1966 photo. The Target story began in 1962 when the Dayton Company, a venerable 60-year old Minneapolis-based department store chain, decided to capitalize on the discounting trend by setting up its own discount division. At the time, the company had five full line Dayton’s department stores in Minnesota, including their downtown Minneapolis flagship, plus Fantle’s department store in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, which Dayton had bought out in 1954. By 1962, they had also developed some notable shopping center properties, including the well-known Southdale Shopping Center in Edina and the more recent Brookdale Shopping Center in Brooklyn Center, both Twin Cities suburbs.
The early years of Target appear in retrospect to be marked by fairly slow, cautious growth, especially when compared with the chain’s remarkable expansion in the last few decades. Starting with four stores in 1962 – Duluth, Roseville, Crystal and St. Louis Park, they added a fifth Minnesota store in Bloomington in 1965. The first two stores outside of Dayton’s home state were opened in Denver in 1966.
I think it’s safe to say that during those early years (and for some time afterward) Dayton hadn’t the slightest hint that Target would ultimately become the company’s bread and butter, to say nothing of its future profound influence on mass retailing in general. Remarkably, for many years the Target operation would officially be known within Dayton (and later Dayton-Hudson) as the “Low-Margin Division”, I kid you not. Definitely this was an unglamorous name for a chain that would later become synonymous with affordable chic.
Now, of course, the entire company is known as Target Corporation. The Dayton’s stores (and their erstwhile stepsiblings Hudson’s and Marshall Field’s) were sold off to The May Company a few years back, and then to Federated, where the familiar Macy’s logo with its famous red star now reigns on the former D-H stores.
The checkstands in this photo sport the original Target logo. A year later, in 1967, Target would revamp its logo with thicker rings and a filled-in bullseye, creating an enduring retail icon.
Wow, just look at how skinny the lines are in the target! LOL! Great historical photo, btw.
ReplyDeleteThe circle/target logo reminds me of Gold Circle which was Federated's discount store. I grew up going to them in Ohio and they are great to do a feature on someday, Dave, in case you haven't already thought about it. LOL!
More info and photos here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Circle
did think about it once(I think), but now I'll have to move it up the priority list! :)
ReplyDeleteThe wiki article you ref'd (Thanks)mentioned Richway, which Federated merged in with their Gold Circle division in '86 then sold off along with GC in '88. I moved from Chicago to Atlanta in 1987 and shopped at a couple of Richways during the year I lived there, ironically during the brief period Federated operated them together. I think they are both Target stores now.
Yea, I think that pretty much everything that was Gold Circle and Richway became Target. Although I thought that some GC locations were sold to another chain as well, forgot who. One of those East Coast based long gone discount chains. I want to say Bradley's.
ReplyDeleteFederated also had something called Gold Triangle which had a few stores in either Georgia or Florida or both. They had something to do with Richway. They were the hard goods stores or something. It's late so I am working off memory.
The mystery chain that bought the other Gold Circle stores was Hills.
ReplyDeleteThe rise of Target and as well as Gold Circle/Gold Triangle and Richway is more fascinating than the current Target. Given the low end decor and merchandise of discount stores of the 60's, these upscale discounters were pioneers.
ReplyDeleteIt's strange that the pioneers of "cheap chic" would chose Low Margin Division as the name for their upscale discount division, especially since the low margin chain became their bread and butter and ultimately their successor.
Thank you, Steven. It was completely bugging me. I wrote that so late at night and my brain wanted to say Hills and the other side said "Was that even something that actually existed?"
ReplyDeleteThat first Roseville, Minnesota Target is where my birthday cake would come from every year (from about '65 to '71). I'll betcha dollars to donuts today's Target shopper would be surprised to learn the early stores originally had bakeries!
ReplyDeleteDrew -
ReplyDeleteVery cool, and long before they had grocery sections, I'm sure!
Today, they'd probably market a cake in the shape of a bullseye, and people would buy it since the brand has become such an icon.
Federated attempted to establish Gold Circles in the San Jose and Sacramento areas in the mid-'70s. (JCPenney's discount chain, The Treasury, was entering the same markets around that time as well.) The Gold Circles were all new builds, and co-located with an adjacent Ralphs supermarket, a southern California chain also owned by Federated and making its northern California debut. Neither was successful, nor was Federated's attempt to establish southern California's upscale department store Bullock's in the Bay Area. Many years later, when Ralphs was under Kroger, they made another unsuccessful foray into the northern California market.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous - That's interesting on the Gold Circles. I've always though that the Gold Circle/Richway stores were very much stepchildren in the Federated organization, and that Ralphs was an especially strange fit. Their emphasis always seemed to be much more on Lazarus and their other full line department stores, probably rightfully so.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Actually Target in Crystal did have groceries...they even had a drive up that you could drive up and they would load them in your car.
ReplyDeleteAlso, you could watch them make donuts at the front of the store and get them hot...Oh, I can what I would give to have one of those donuts ~ they were the best!
Anonymous - Thanks, I'll bet they were!
ReplyDeleteYes, I remember Crystal Target having groceries with a drive up to get your groceries loaded...and the donuts, THE BEST! You could watch them bieng made. Gosh they were good!
ReplyDelete