target

The multi-billion dollar enterprise known today as Target Corporation has grown into what it is because of the combined efforts of hundreds of thousands of dedicated employees, and over one hundred years of expansion. George Draper Dayton was a man of humble beginnings who had an ambitious dream, and made his dream a reality due to a determined work ethic. Dayton was born in New York in 1857 and relocated to Minnesota in 1883, which is where his success originated. Dayton was not fortunate enough to be able to afford college, so he went into banking. Ten years after moving to Minnesota, the Panic of 1893 struck the United States, and a church that Dayton attended burned to the ground. The recession caused extremely low property values, so Dayton bought the property and erected his first business, the Goodfellow Dry Goods Store. This first store that would later create an empire was opened in 1902, and renamed the Dayton Dry Goods Company in 1903. World War I and the Great Depression offered challenges for the company, but Dayton ran it based on strict ethics and ambition that were inherent to him, which led the company past these obstacles. Also, consumer goods were very scarce, so as long as there was inventory, the store became profitable. This combination was the recipe for Dayton’s future success.
George Draper Dayton died of cancer in 1938, and his son Nelson Dayton took over the business and continued the cautious and strict management style that had been effective with his father. Nelson Dayton continued the businesses expansion, and following his death, the business turned from a sole proprietorship to a partnership, with five Dayton cousins named owners and operators. By 1950, upon this switch of ownership, Dayton Company had grown to a fifty million dollar company. The 1960’s was a decade of further expansion of the company, both in terms of profit and national locations. Dayton Company branched out from Minnesota to Arizona, Massachusetts,