The sale of Marshall Field's to May, which closed earlier this month, and the recently announced sale of its Mervyn's division for $1.65 billion to a group of private investors, is part of the discounter's plan to focus on the Target discount chain. May Department Stores bought the Marshall Field's stores, which are mostly in the Chicago, Detroit and Twin Cities, and nine Meryvn's locations in the Twin Cities in a $3.24 billion deal.

The deal included 11 Marshall Field's stores in Minnesota -- anchors ot Rosedale and Southdale as well as Downtown stores in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Rochester and St. Cloud -- and gives May an dominant position in the Twin Cities regional mall market. May also bought nine Mervyn's stores in the Twin Cities, which are in the process of being closed. May has yet to announce its plans for the store locations, although it said it was likely that some of them could be converted to Marshall Field's stores.

The sale of the nine stores will likely close in the third quarter and is not expected to affect Target's earnings. The retailer had 1,272 Target stores at the end of the quarter.