Target was introduced to America in 1962 in Roseville, Minnesota, a child of the department store Dayton. The idea for Target was born when American's started demanding that stores sell goods in a more efficient manner. Their claim to fame is that they were the "first retail store to offer well-known national brands at discounted prices." .
By the 1970's Target was adding electronic cash registers to track sales and stock and to assist in customer service. Each year annual shopping events were held to benefit people with disabilities and senior citizens. .
The 80's proved to be a decade where Target continuously expanded and added services such as electronic scanning throughout the nation which helped pave their way into the 90's. .
In the 90's Target launched its own, personal credit card, Target Greenland Store, guest registry, national bridal registry and introduced it's first SuperTarget store; a Target store that combined the finer points of the Greenland Store with a grocery store and other special service, it also has it's own on-line store, Target.com, which enables it to meet the needs and demands of a vaster market. Target is competing with the likes of JC Penny's, Wal-mart, Kohl's, Kauffman's and K-Mart. Now here we are in the 2002 with Target operating over 1,107 stores in 47 states and employing approximately 192,000 people. How's that for growth?.
II. Environmental Analysis.
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Our local Target store has three major competitors, with each competitor being on a different level economically than Target, but yet catering to the same class of people. These three major competitors would be K-mart, at a lower level, Wal-mart at a slightly lower level the Target and then JC Penny's at a higher level and the Kauffman's at a higher level. Target falls right in between Wal-mart and JC Penny's in their quality and cost. Each department store carries similar items such as clothing apparel, furniture, gadgets, hardware, and household items.
