Didn’t know much about Target, but they have so much of my money.

We buy a ton of stuff from Target. But it dawned on me I know more about Walmart and Sam Walton than I do about the history of Target.

Which is funny. Because I can’t stand shopping at Walmart. The experience drives me crazy. The Walmart nearest to me is dirty, the aisles are cramped in a way that shoppers can’t comfortably cross paths, and the lighting feels like I’m in Tom Hank’s office from Joe versus the Volcano. It’s a lot like this

I found some interesting bits.

Target was originally not Target. It was a company called the Dayton Dry Goods Company which had been around since about 1900 and owned a bunch of your typical department stores. It wasn’t until 1962 when Target was conceived by a guy named:

John F. Geisse

John seems like a pretty interesting innovator with these big store concepts. When he created Target he said:

We will offer high-quality merchandise at low margins, because we are cutting expenses. We would much rather do this than trumpet dramatic price cuts on cheap merchandise.

In 1963, that was pretty radical. If you look around today, it still seems pretty radical. In fact, that’s a concept that seems to fuel interest in startups like [Warby Parker](warbyparker.com) and a bunch of others cutting out middle men and selling high quality things at far discounted prices.

It was interesting to also note that John was the one who invented the wholesale club concept that became Sam’s Club and Costco.

Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a ton about John out there. There’s a book about Target’s history that I’ll have to put on my wish-list.