Who is dayton hudson

In , the Dayton Hudson Artists Loan Fund was established to make loans to individual artists for artistic and business development. Working to broaden understanding among various cultures. The series was broadcast in 60 cities throughout the country, and used as a teaching tool in high school and college classrooms, as well as in community centers nationwide.

Target was also a founding sponsor of the Arts Incubator Program, a collaboration between Wayne State University's Center for Urban Studies and the Arts League of Michigan, that provides African-American arts organizations with management training and expertise. Bringing the arts into the lives of its customers and employees, and encouraging both groups to support the arts, as well. Target has also worked with prominent artists, including David Hockney, Eiko Ishioka, Annie Liebowitz, Roy Lichtenstein and Frank Stella, to design shopping bags for its department stores.

Encouraging company executives to serve as members of the boards of directors, and employees to provide volunteer services to cultural organizations. Advocate Research Connect Lead. The store was run on strict Presbyterian guidelines: no liquor was sold, the store was closed on Sunday, no business travel or advertising was permitted on the Sabbath, and the Dayton Company refused to advertise in a newspaper that sponsored liquor ads.

This approach did not stifle business; the Dayton Company became extremely successful. A multimillion-dollar business by the s, the Dayton Company decided it was ready to expand, purchasing J. The Dayton Company managed to weather the Great Depression, although its jewelry company operated in the red for its duration. Dayton's son David had died in at age 43, and George turned more and more of the company business over to another son, Nelson.

George Draper Dayton died in He left only a modest personal fortune, having given away millions of dollars to charity. World War II did not hamper business; rather, Dayton's turned the war into an asset. Consumer goods were so scarce that it was no longer necessary to persuade shoppers to buy what merchandise was available. Sales volume increased dramatically thanks to Dayton's managers, who obtained goods to keep the store full.

Nelson Dayton was scrupulous about complying with the government's wartime control of business and when, for instance, the government carried out its drive for scrap metal, he ordered the store's electric sign dismantled and added to the scrap heap.

Until Nelson Dayton's death in , the company was run along the strict moral lines of his father, its founder. In January Dayton's became one of the first stores in the nation to offer to its workers a retirement policy, followed in by a comprehensive insurance policy.

With Nelson Dayton's death in , the Dayton Company embarked on a new era. Instead of one-man rule, the company was led by a team of five Dayton cousins, although one of them, Nelson's son Donald Dayton, assumed the title of president. The prohibition of liquor in the store's dining rooms was dropped, and soon the Dayton Company would be completely secularized, advertising and doing business on Sunday.

The new management of the Dayton Company undertook radical and costly innovations. In the J. Hudson Company, which would eventually merge with Dayton's, opened the world's largest shopping mall in suburban Detroit.

It was a great success, and two years later the Dayton Company decided to build a mall on a acre plot of land outside of Minneapolis. Horrified to learn that Minneapolis had only good shopping days a year, the architect decided to build a mall under cover; Southgate, the first enclosed shopping mall in history, was the result.

The safe, conservative management style favored by George Draper Dayton and his son Nelson passed into history; a younger, more aggressive management pushed for radical expansion and innovation would follow in its wake.

The company established the large discount chain Target in , and in decided to enter the highly competitive market of retail bookselling, opening B.

Dalton Bookstores. In the company, by then known as Dayton Corporation, made its first public stock offering. Hudson to form Dayton Jewelers. Also in the company acquired department stores in Oregon and Arizona. The following year brought the acquisition of J. Caldwell, a Philadelphia-based chain of jewelry stores, and Lechmere, a Boston retailer. The year also saw a major acquisition: the Detroit-based J. Hudson Company, a department store chain that had been in existence since Since , five percent of the Dayton Company's taxable income was donated to the foundation, which continued to be the case after the merger.

Dayton Hudson bought two more jewelers in C. Peacock, Inc. Jessop and Sons of San Diego. Mervyn's, a line of moderate-price department stores, merged with Dayton Hudson in Dayton Hudson bought Ayr-Way, an Indianapolis-based chain of 50 discount stores, in , and converted those units to Target stores. In the company sold Dayton Hudson Jewelers, and in it divested itself of B.

The late s found the company the focus of an unsolicited takeover bid by the Dart Group, which would involve lawsuits by both parties before a stock market crash in October ended the takeover attempt. A second attempt at takeover of the company would be made nine years later, when rival J. Penney Co. The offer, which analysts considered an undervaluation of the company's worth, was rebuffed.

Venerable Marshall Field's was as much a landmark in the Chicago area as Dayton's was in Minneapolis and the Hudson stores were in Detroit; the acquisition would add 24 department stores to the Dayton Hudson group while also doubling its department store retail space.