What caused them to miss the target? Apparently the answer is two-fold. Firstly, Target’s credit division is experiencing a serious struggle as financially squeezed customers have not been making their monthly credit card payments. Sales are down too, with customers focusing their expenditures more on core necessities (food, toiletries, etc) and less on high-end items.

Competiter Walmart (NYSE: WMT) actually saw a 17 percent rise in earnings for the second quarter. Analysts say that Walmart’s focus on low prices, essentials, and food are all elements that led to their success.

However, numbers can be misleading. Walmart is an international company, and they acknowledge that same-store sales in US stores show slower growth. But, you can’t argue with the fact that growth is better than no growth, and Target’s same-store earnings fell 0.4 percent.

Target did have one area that showed growth: overall sales. New stores helped increase overall sales by 5.7 percent.

It seems that if Target wants to keep up in today’s tight economy, that we’ll have to see them revamp their credit services division and start having more focus on the less exciting, but necessary, things in life: toilet paper, anyone?