Hudson Products history

By 1953, the store reportedly had 12,000 employees and racked up an average of 100,000 sales a day.

The first suburban store was at Southfield’s Northland Center, which, when it opened in March 1954, was the largest shopping center in the nation and was a subsidiary of the Hudson Corporation.

In 1956 Dayton opened Southdale, marking the origins of the mall concept—Southdale was the world's first completely enclosed two-tier shopping center.

In 1960 the downtown store hired its first African American bus girl, a high school student named Diana Ross who would later make musical history.

The store grew to a 25-story structure that was the world’s tallest department store until 1961.

In 1962, the business boasted two, one million-dollar sales days.

Also in 1968 the company acquired department stores in Oregon and Arizona.

In 1969, the Dayton Co. purchased Hudson’s, becoming the Dayton-Hudson Corporation.

Hung for the final time on Flag Day in 1976, the flag was donated to the Smithsonian Institution who later gave it to the American Flag Foundation in Houston.

Mervyn’s, a line of moderate-price department stores, merged with Dayton Hudson in 1978.

In 1979 the Hudson’s Bay Company was bought by companies owned by the family of the late Roy Herbert Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson.

Dayton Hudson bought Ayr-Way, an Indianapolis-based chain of 50 discount stores, in 1980, and converted those units to Target stores.

In 1982 revenues reached the $5 billion mark.

In 1984, meantime, the operations of the company's two full-service department stores were combined into a new unit called the Dayton Hudson Department Store Company, though the Dayton's and Hudson's units themselves retained their separate identities.

Revenues topped the $10 billion mark in 1987.

In 1989 the corporation received the America's Corporate Conscience Award for its magnanimity, and Target contributes more than $2 million each week to the communities in which its stores are located.

Meanwhile, Dayton Hudson continued its acquisitions, purchasing Marshall Field & Company from BATUS Inc., the United States subsidiary of B.A.T. Industries PLC, in 1990 for about $1 billion.

Despite dropping out of the fur trade in 1991, at the beginning of the 21st century it remained one of the largest business firms of Canada and continued to own many department stores in Canada.

In 1994 Target executive Robert J. Ulrich was named chairman and CEO of Dayton Hudson.

Also introduced in 1995 was the Target Guest Card, the first store credit card in the discount retail industry.

By the close of 1996 the foundation had donated over $352 million to social and arts-based programs.

During 1997, as part of its drive to turn around the Mervyn's chain, Dayton Hudson sold off or closed 35 Mervyn's outlets, including all of that chain's stores in Florida and Georgia.

dayton hudson home page, 13 july 1998. available at http://www.dhc.com.

For example, in early 1999 the chain began selling top-end Calphalon cookware and also launched a line of stylish small appliances and household goods designed by architect Michael Graves--the latter line becoming so popular that it quickly grew to include more than 500 items.

The growing predominance of the discount chain led the corporation to rename itself Target Corporation in January 2000.

In January 2001 the corporation announced that it would change the names of its Dayton's and Hudson's department stores to Marshall Field's.

The 1,225 Target stores, which are located in 47 states, generated 84 percent of Target's fiscal 2002 revenues.

Later in 2008, Hudson becomes a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dufry AG. Joe DiDomizio is appointed as President & Chief Executive Officer.

Hudson takes the Company public on the New York Stock Exchange in February 2018.