Two daughters of men who helped build targets for the national retail powerhouse criticize the company's decision to abolish its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies after President Donald Trump's election did.
Anne and Lucy Dayton have expanded their family-run Minneapolis-based department store with their father Bruce Dayton and his four brothers, turning it into what is known today as Target, writing letters to both editors. I wrote Los Angeles Times and Financial Times We will condemn the change on Thursday.
“As members of the Dayton Family, we are shocked and discouraged by the targeted racial equity action and rollback of our change and supplier diversity program,” wrote the Dayton Daughter.
Daytons, who has zero influence on the way the company operates, writes that his father and uncle “turned the family department store into the domestic retailer of today.”
“They were excellence, the mantra of 'customers always right' and their commitment to community well-being,” they wrote.
The two sisters wrote, “I am worried about how quickly the business community has been handed over to the retaliatory threat of the current administration.”
“It is not “illegal” for businesses to create business models based on what they believe to be important ethical and business standards,” they write.
Daytons, accusing him of being “cowering,” writes that the target “undermines the very principles that have made the company successful.”
The post was asked for comment from the target.
Last month, Target said it had “concluded three-year diversity, equity and comprehensive targets,” and said it would halt reporting its human rights campaign to the Corporate Equality Index, according to an internal memo obtained by the Post. .
The Minneapolis-based retailer said it has ended a program promoting products for black and minority shareholder companies.
The company, which has gained a reputation for the company's “Wokeness” in recent years, is shrinking its LGBTQ pride collection after a backlash from furious customers, where gay-themed children's clothing hurt sales.
Target was established in May 1962 as the discount retail division of Dayton Company. It was a Minneapolis-based department store chain that began decades ago by George Draper Dayton.
After Dayton's death in 1938, his son, George Nelson Dayton, served as leadership roles in the company until his death in 1950.
George Nelson Dayton's five sons – Bruce, Donald, Wallace, Kenneth and Douglas, took control of the company. Under their stewardship, they created Target, the discount retail division of the Dayton company.
Seven years later, the Dayton Company merged with Hudson Corporation, a Detroit-based department store, to form the retail conglomerate that dominated the Midwest.
The Dayton Company played a key role in shaping the early success of the Target, but the company's impact gradually declined as the company grew and moved to a publicly traded company.
By the time Dayton Hudson Corporation rebranded as Target Corporation in 2000, the family was already out of executive leadership.
Some members of the Dayton family may still hold target stakes, but have not had a major impact on the company's decision-making.
Today, institutional investors such as Vanguard, BlackRock and State Street are the largest stakeholders in the company.
The Dayton family remains a well-known name in Minnesota, primarily due to its charity and business heritage, but it has nothing to do with the leadership or decision-making process of the target.
Mark Dayton, brother of Anne and Lucy Dayton, served as Minnesota's 40th Governor from 2011 to 2019. Before becoming governor, he was also a US Senator in Minnesota from 2001 to 2007.
Bruce Dayton passed away in 2015. He was 97 years old.
