Sure, you pretend you’re there for a legitimate reason to pick up toilet paper or trash bags.
Five packs of gum!
Even if you’re doing Target sober, you wind up drunk on stuff.
And in terms of politics, it seems like Target can’t get anything right.
Target can’t decide what it stands for, ideologically.
The result: a Target that can’t keep a, well, target off its back.
“Target’s business relies on people throwing this or that into their cart.”
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If it’s convenience, it’s Amazon.
If it’s price, Walmart wins.
Both efforts have been undertaken “halfheartedly,” said Zhihan Ma, a senior research analyst at Bernstein.
Target’s attempts to fightretail theftmean more merchandise winds up locked up.
Like with other retailers, some locations have problems with inventory shortages orcrowded aisles.
“The business is what the business is to a large extent,” Stambor said.
But there are a lot more negative headlines Target would rather not see.
It does collaborations and deals with designers, big-name brands, and celebrities.
It tries to get higher-end consumers in the door.
“In some ways, they’re victims of their own success,” Baker said.
As recently as 2020, Target was leaning into this identity.
The moves seemed to go over well until 2023, when it stumbled into a series of culture-war woes.
It later saidthe backlash hurt sales.
Target has taken a similar yo-no-one approach when it comes to itsdiversity, equity, and inclusionpolicies.
Target’s DEI efforts and reversals have been met by resistance on several fronts.
On the left, the Atlanta pastor Jamal Bryant has called for a40-day boycott of Targetover its DEI rollback.
Wavering draws more attention to the issue.
It signifies weakness which, in the case of Target’s business, is part of the problem.
It’s not clear how much the political noise will impact Target’s bottom line.
The 2023 Pride backlash did ding sales, but that was a temporary problem.
As a general rule, the vast majority of boycotts don’t work.
Consumers are set in their ways and often prioritize convenience.
“It will have this effect of making Target look bad.
But do I think that it will affect what Target does?
Just because boycotts rarely work doesn’t mean they never work.
Bud Light, for one, really did see a decline in sales.
“It doesn’t help, for sure,” she said.
In terms of the business basics, Target has plans to get back some of that Tarjay sheen.
It’s seeking out more flashy collaborations and partnerships,like with Warby Parker.
It’s scaling Target Plus, its third-party marketplace.
Still, in the retail landscape, Target isn’t in a highly enviable position.
Between price-sensitive consumers and tariff whiplash, the macroeconomic landscape is not stacked in its favor.
Emily Stewartis a senior correspondent at Business Insider, writing about business and the economy.
