As I sit in front of my laptop in St. Paul, Minnesota in the house I grew up in, scouring the wires for news to write up, I started putting together a timeline of Twin Cities retail. Initially, I was trying to get a better grasp of the history of the dearly departed Dayton’s department store chain here.

I was inspired by Minneapolis Star Tribune columnist James Lileks’ piece today titled “Department stores were magic, but I'll keep the mall,” in which he waxes nostalgic about downtown retail and its grand old buildings, only to conclude that suburban malls really are more convenient.

“Downtown Minneapolis had four great stores,” Lileks writes. “Dayton's, Donaldson's, Penney's and Powers. All gone. Each had competed with a variety of smaller stores, from Rothchild's to the Leader to the New England Company to Young Quinlan. All gone.”

So what happened? After a little bit of research, I realized just how incestuous the department store business has always been. I didn’t even realize Herberger’s was a local chain because it had until recently been more of a rural chain. And looking back, it seems like every time a store tries to change its name for more mass appeal, it results in a series of painful closures: evidence Donaldson’s switch to Carson’s and Mervyn’s ill-fated “Mervyn’s California” branding.

My timeline isn’t complete, but it offers a capsule view of more than 100 years of retail in a mid-sized market, and it reveals connections that sprawl from coast to coast. It also shows that consolidations have been happening periodically for as long as department stores have existed. Here’s my timeline so far:

1883: L.S. Donaldson Company is founded in Minneapolis.

1902: Dayton’s founded in downtown Minneapolis by George Draper Dayton.

1927: Herberger’s department store opens in Osakis, Minnesota.

1928: Donaldson’s department store is acquired by Allied Stores.

1956: The word’s first indoor mall, Southdale, opens in the wealthy Minneapolis suburb of Edina. Dayton’s was the developer.

1962: The first Target discount store opens in Roseville, a St. Paul suburb.

1969: Dayton’s merges with Detroit-based J.L. Hudson Company, which operated 21 stores in Michigan. The new company is called Dayton-Hudson.

1978: Dayton-Hudson acquires the Mervyn’s chain.

1985: Donaldson’s acquires local rival Powers. Also, Brooks Brothers opens in the Crystal Court of the IDS Building, the state's tallest skyscraper.

1987: Donaldson’s, after years of losing market share to Dayton’s, is acquired by Carson Pirie Scott, changing all stores to the Carson name. Minnesotans don’t respond well.

1990: Dayton-Hudson acquires Chicago’s iconic Marshall Field’s chain.

1991: Neiman Marcus opens its only Minnesota location in an upscale mall in downtown Minneapolis, which is also anchored by the state’s only Saks Fifth Avenue store.

1992: The nation’s largest mall, the Mall of America, opens in Bloomington, Minnesota with the area’s first Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom stores. Brooks Brothers closes its downtown store and moves to the Mall of America.

1995: Carson’s sells its Twin Cities area doors to Dayton’s, and Dayton’s reopens them all as moderate Mervyn’s stores.

1997: Herberger’s merges with Tennessee-based Profitt’s, which later acquired Saks. Carson Pirie Scott is also part of this group.

2000: After years of making most of its money from Target stores, Dayton-Hudson changes its name to Target Corporation.

2001: The department store division changes the names of all Dayton’s stores and all Hudson’s stores to Marshall Field’s. [Also in 2001: Mark Dayton, the grandson of George Dayton, becomes a U.S. Senator for Minnesota.]

2002: The last local Carson Pirie Scott store is displaced by Herberger’s.

2004: Target Corp. sells off the 60+ door, 8-state Marshall Field’s department store division to May Company. Target also sells Mervyn’s, to a separate group, which closes all Minnesota doors.

2005: Federated Department Stores buys May Company. Also, the downtown Minneapolis Saks Fifth Avenue store closes, leaving only the Off Fifth format.

2006: All Marshall Field’s stores become Macy’s stores.

2007: The large and lavish Polo Ralph Lauren store on Nicollet Mall downtown Minneapolis closes after about 20 years in business. Brooks Brothers announces it will close the Mall of America store and return to downtown Minneapolis after 15 years.

2008: Neiman Marcus renews its downtown Minneapolis lease, ending rumors that it would move to the suburbs. Sarah Palin spends $75,062.63 at the store during the Republican National Convention.

This timeline doesn't include all of the independent retailers that have come, gone and survived here. That's for another blog.