Target Stores, the Minneapolis-based retailer, scuttled its special parking for pregnant women earlier this year when customers voiced mix reviews.

The Dayton Hudson Corporation, the Minneapolis-based diversified retailer, had "good increases at all our companies," the chairman, Kenneth A. Macke, said.

At its peak in 2002, the Minneapolis-based retailer had 763 stores in 46 states and Canada.

In the two previous years, the Minneapolis-based retailer opened 165 stores totaling 14 million square feet of retail space.

The giant Minneapolis-based retailer has shown a willingness to shed divisions in its own style.

The new offer for the Minneapolis-based retailer would be worth $6.62 billion.

"We expected a tough first half," said Kenneth A. Macke, chairman and chief executive officer of the Minneapolis-based retailer.

With a decision to end 22 years of support for Planned Parenthood, the Dayton Hudson Corporation, a large Minneapolis-based retailer, has become the latest battlefield on abortion rights.

C.O.M.B., which stands for close-out merchandise buyers, is a Minneapolis-based retailer of off-price consumer products.

A spokesman for Dayton Hudson, a Minneapolis-based retailer, would not comment other than to say the board would meet "in due course."