Target selling Marshall Field’s

Minneapolis-based Target Corp. is selling its Marshall Field's business unit and nine Mervyn's stores in the Twin Cities area to St. Louis-based The May Department Stores Co. for $3.2 billion in cash. The nine Mervyn's locations in the Twin Cities will be closed as of late July. Those stores are the only locations affected, according to a company release.

Mervyn's is a middle-market department store, based in the San Francisco Bay area with 266 stores in 14 states, primarily in the west and south. In 2003, Mervyn's generated $3.6 billion in revenue.

Under the terms of the agreement with May, Target will sell substantially all of the assets directly involved in its Marshall Field's business unit, including 62 Marshall Field's stores, three distribution centers and about $600 million of Marshall Field's credit card receivables.

To be perfectly honest: while I knew that Target owned Mervyn’s, I had no idea they also owned the iconic Marshall Field’s. I thought that The May company already owned them, so it makes sense that they’re snapping them up. May already operates 438 department stores under the names of Lord & Taylor, Famous-Barr, Filene's, Foley's, Hecht's, Robinsons-May, Strawbridge's, and David's Bridal, just to name a few.