Target, Inc.

Target has awarded its 2010 Partner Award of Excellence to Munchkin, a designer and manufacturer of clever infant and toddler products. Target presents the award to select companies across various companies. Munchkin took home the top honor in the newborn/infant/toddler category.

An increase promotional efforts in April contributed to Target’s 13.1% monthly same store sales gain, according to new data from the promotional intelligence firm Market Track.

New York City -- Target Corp. and United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1500 have settled a dispute regarding which workers may cast ballots in a union election at the retailer's Valley Stream, N.Y., store, paving the way for the National Labor Relations Board to schedule the vote, Crain’s New York reported.

The election next month will apparently be the first at a Target store since 1990, when a union drive failed at a Detroit store.

Brooksville, Fla. -- Jacksonville, Fla.-based Regency Centers said it has leased retail space to two new tenants in Brooksville, Fla., at Suncoast Crossing.

Sprint has leased 1,750 sq. ft., and Gia’s Cakes & Goodies has leased 1,400 sq. ft.

Both are slated to open this summer.

The 260,000-sq.-ft. shopping center is anchored by a 142,000-sq.-ft. Target and a 98,000-sq.-ft. Kohl’s alongside national retailers such as Supercuts and McDonald’s.
 

Newport Beach, Calif. -- Grubb & Ellis Co. said that Cole Real Estate Investments has selected members of the company’s Retail Group to lease Whittwood Town Center, a 686,211-sq.-ft. shopping center in Whittier, Calif.

Whittwood Town Center is approximately 97% leased, with national tenants including J.C. Penney, Target, Vons, Kohl’s, PetSmart, 24 Hour Fitness and Panera Bread.

New York City -- Target Corp. is setting up three distribution centers in Canada in preparation for its debut north of the border, according to a report in The Globe and Mail.

Although the retailer could have supplied the stores from its U.S. warehouses, it chose to set up a network specifically for its Canadian operations, the report said, with DCs planned for Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver.

SAN FRANCISCO and DULUTH, Minn. — DemandTec, an optimization network for retailers and consumer products companies, announced that it has partnered with the Labovitz School of Business & Economics at the University of Minnesota Duluth to support the university's new program training students with skills for careers in the retail and consumer products industries.

Although revenues at Target last year increased 3.1% to nearly $67.4 billion, other big companies grew faster, and Target slipped three spots to 33rd from 30th in Fortune’s annual ranking of America’s 500 largest companies.