Target Similar Companies, Competitors and Alternatives In 2023

Target Corporation is one of America’s largest department store chains, with its healthy presence throughout the US and Canada. The company started off as Goodfellow Dry Goods way back in 1902. However, the first Target store didn’t see the light of day until about 60 years later. Goodfellow Dry Goods, its parent company, underwent many name changes over the years until the owners finally settled for Target Corporation in 2000.

Did you know that Target struggled to get a foothold in the retail industry early on, just like the solar energy companies that tried and failed to take off in the initial stages? In the 1960s and early 70s, it operated only one store in Roseville, MN. It posted 1975 that the company started expanding its business into other territories. After that, it didn’t take long for Target to become a trustworthy department store nationwide. In this article, we are going to consider the array of popular companies like Target.

Name	Target Corporation
Founded	1902, later in 1962 as Target
Headquarters	Minneapolis, MN
SIC Code	5311
Status	Public, Independent Company
Industry Sector	Retail
Employees	409,000
Trading Symbol	NYSE: TGT

How Target makes Money

The business model of Target is similar to most other retailers in the US. It buys goods from manufacturers and/or wholesalers and sells those to individual customers at a reasonable profit margin. Their products are so affordable and hugely discounted that they easily deserve their tagline, “Expect more. Pay less.” Target Corporation is currently led by Brian Cornell as its chairman and CEO.

Retail

You may have heard time and again how unimaginably vast the retail industry is. And Target is the eighth-largest retailer in the country, which is more than a commendable feat considering that it struggled initially. It offers almost all kinds of merchandise that meet both your daily requirements and long-term goals, right from apparel and beauty products to furniture and electronics, and that too at amazingly discounted prices. No wonder, Target stores are frequented by thousands of customers every single day!

Companies Similar to Target

Presently, Target has 1931 stores spread throughout the US and Canada, ranging from big box department stores to small-scale retail outlets. It is featured in the 37th position in the Fortune 500 list of the country’s biggest corporations by revenue. However, it also experienced its share of downs in recent years, which may have prompted you to look for probable alternatives. The top two competitors to Target are Walmart and Amazon.

Competitors to Target

The biggest rivals to Target are Walmart, Amazon, Kroger, Home Depot, Costco, Best Buy, Kmart, Sam’s Club, Lowe’s, and Aldi. Their offerings may differ from each other, but they compete in the same sector of the retail industry. Let’s discuss Target’s similar companies in more detail.

Walmart

As soon as you decided to leave Target behind for good, the first retail store chain that may have popped into your mind would have been Walmart. Walmart owns and operates a large chain of supermarkets/hypermarkets in and around the US. The first Walmart store (Wal-Mart) focused on providing attractive discounts on its retail products to consumers. And the first full-fledged department stores of Walmart were officially launched in 1969.

Retail

Walmart went public in the retail industry just about three years after its inception. And around two decades later, it became one of the most profitable businesses in the US. Today, Walmart has over 10,500 locations all over the globe, and it boasts of a staggeringly long list of subsidiaries. Did you know that it is the largest company in the world in terms of revenue (nearly $573 billion)?

Annual Revenue	Funding	Headquarters	Employees
$573B	$400M	Bentonville, AR	2,300,000

Amazon

The likes of Target and Walmart are mostly brick-and-mortar department stores that focus on personal interactions with the customer. But in this day and age where technology rules the roost, online shopping is becoming more and more common. Admittedly, Target does have online stores, but they are nowhere near the internet shopping giant, Amazon. Apart from being among the largest IT companies in the US, Amazon is also one of the most valuable brands in the world!

E-commerce / Retail

Amazon primarily operates and manages its business in the virtual world, but it has a number of offline supermarkets and grocery stores as well. And apart from providing a wide variety of general merchandise on its numerous platforms, it also deals in electronics, cloud computing, online transactions, technology, and entertainment sectors. A major part of its income arises from online shopping or e-commerce.

Annual Revenue	Funding	Headquarters	Employees
$469.8B	$108M	Seattle, WA	1,622,000

Kroger

The Kroger Company is a Cincinnati, OH-based firm that has a number of large-scale supermarkets under its wing. It directly competes with Target and Walmart in the US. Bernard Kroger established the company in 1883, making it the oldest department store chain on this list. Its upwards of 2800 stores are currently managed and operated by Rodney McMullen as the company chairman and CEO.

Retail

Kroger is one of the leading horses in the retail industry, be it online or offline. Despite having no international presence, it still generates more revenue than Target. Did you know that when it comes to comparing only supermarket chains, Kroger holds the top spot in terms of revenue? It also ranks 17 in the Fortune 500 list of US-based organizations.

Annual Revenue	Funding	Headquarters	Employees
$132.5B	$550M	Cincinnati, OH	465,000

Home Depot

The Home Depot, Inc. is THE biggest retailer of home improvement merchandise in the US. It offers everything that is required to improve your home, right from kitchen appliances and electrical supplies to building hardware and plumbing tools. Home Depot’s retail niche may be different from that of Target, but its store format is big-box – the same as implemented by Target.

Retail

As mentioned before, Home Depot offers retail products specific to home improvement. Despite focusing on a particular area of the industry, it generates an income of over $23 billion, more than that of Target! Home Depot has more than 2300 locations spread throughout the US, Guam, Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Canada.

Annual Revenue	Funding	Headquarters	Employees
$151B	$16.2M	Atlanta, GA	490,600

Costco

When it comes to big-box retail stores, Costco has to be featured in the top 10! The Costco Wholesale Corporation generates revenue much higher than the likes of Target and Kroger. It was founded in 1983 by Jim Sinegal and Jeffrey Brotman as a warehouse store in Seattle, WA. Today, the company operates in 14 different countries on the planet, with the potential and intent for further expansion.

Retail

Costco operates in a special niche of retail called warehouse clubs. It means that its chain of stores usually sells its merchandise in bulk amounts at wholesale or heavily discounted rates. Thus, most of Costco’s customers are small to medium-sized business owners, but individual consumers are also offered a membership. You can find many of Costco’s competitors in Target’s list of alternatives.

Annual Revenue	Funding	Headquarters	Employees
$166.8B	Undisclosed	Issaquah, WA	273,000

Best Buy

The Best Buy company falls in the same category as Target, but it primarily focuses on selling consumer electronics. It started off in 1966 as a stereo system retailer named Sound of Music. After 17 years of making a reasonable amount of profits, Sound of Music began offering other electronic equipment like VCRs, which prompted the owners to change its name to Best Buy.

Retail

Best Buy is a superstore that deals in consumer electronics and home appliances. It is a publicly-traded company that has 1144 locations in several parts of the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico. Apart from selling electronic products, it also repairs any defective gadgets. Its subsidiaries include Best Buy Mobile, Pacific Sales, and Magnolia Home Theater.

Annual Revenue	Funding	Headquarters	Employees
$51.76B	$1.9M	Richfield, MN	105,000

Kmart

Kmart is an Illinois-based corporation that owns and operates a considerable number of big-box department stores. It is not to be confused with Kmart Australia, an entirely different brand of retail stores based in Australia. Incidentally, both these entities operate in similar sectors of the industry, with the one in Australia being the larger organization. But Kmart US isn’t far too down the ranks among its competitors.

Retail

Being a big box department store like Target, the company provides a whole host of products in its outlets, ranging from apparel and footwear to healthcare and hardware. Did you know that Kmart was one of the worst-hit companies by the COVID-19 pandemic? It happened soon after the acquisition by Transformco which has a total income of $9.4 million.

Annual Revenue	Funding	Headquarters	Employees
$25B (2015)	$17.5M	Hoffman Estates, IL	17,000

Sam’s Club

The Sam’s Club company is a chain of warehouse clubs founded by Sam Walton in 1983. Yes, it’s the same guy who established Walmart! In fact, Sam’s Club is owned and operated by Walmart today. So why have we listed it as a separate competitor? The thing is, Sam’s Club has managed to carve its own niche over the years since it is a membership-only warehouse club, with a business model different from Target or Walmart.

Retail

Since Sam’s Club is a chain of warehouse clubs, it directly competes with Costco. And since warehouse clubs fall in the same category as retail, it also indirectly competes with Target. Today, Sam’s Club has over 600 different stores in various parts of the US, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, along with additional outlets in Mexico, Brazil, and China.

Annual Revenue	Funding	Headquarters	Employees
$73.6B	Undisclosed	Bentonville, Arkansas	40,000

Lowe’s

Since Lowe’s primarily retails in home improvement products, it is a direct competitor of Home Depot and an indirect one of Target. Lowe’s Companies, Inc. was founded in 1921 by its namesake, Lucius Smith Lowe. Its stores cover many parts of the US and Canada, and it deals in almost all kinds of home improvement merchandise.

Retail

Did you know that Lowe’s is the second-largest hardware company, not only in the US but also in the entire world? Its primary rival, Home Depot, holds the top spot. Marvin Ellison is the reigning CEO of Lowe’s, and he is responsible for handling its 2000+ stores and subsidiaries like Rona and Central Wholesalers.

Annual Revenue	Funding	Headquarters	Employees
$72B	$5B	Mooresville, NC	300,000

Aldi

Aldi is one of the few outside-the-US-based supermarket chains that can go head-to-head with Target. With dual headquarters in Essen and Mülheim, two cities in Germany, Aldi is a chain of hypermarket stores with outlets in over 20 different countries, including the US. In fact, the company’s 1600 locations out of the total 11,000 are situated in the States. Aldi was founded in 1946 by two brothers, Karl, and Theo Albrecht.

Retail

Since Aldi was established by two brothers, it was eventually divided into two companies, Aldi Nord and Aldi Sud. The core operations and business models of the two companies remain the same, only the locations differ. Even their revenue of over $121 billion is shown as a cumulative figure. And here’s a bit of good news for those who love to shop at Aldi: the company is planning to merge the two firms sometime in 2022!

Annual Revenue	Funding	Headquarters	Employees
$121B	Undisclosed	Essen and Mulheim, Germany	12,000

Conclusion:

Target’s biggest competitor is Walmart. When it comes to department store chains, there is no other company that comes even remotely close to Walmart. Target is a few hundred billion dollars below Walmart in terms of revenue, so it has a lot of catching up to do. However, considering the rate at which the Target Corporation is growing, it can definitely cover the huge gap in the near future.