Target Messed Around And Found Out, Reports 1st Quarter Sales Slump

Who would’ve thought alienating part of your customer base would result in lower sales? Clearly not Target, whose months-long FAFO moment has resulted in a pronounced dip in first-quarter sales. 

According to AP, Target reported a 2.8% drop in first-quarter sales compared to last year, earning $23.85 billion. While that’s an ungodly sum of money by any estimation, it fell short of the $24.23 billion Wall Street was expecting. The company expects sales to continue to decline in the low single digits for the rest of the fiscal year. Shares in Target fell 3.5 percent during midday trading on Wednesday after investors learned of the decline. 

The slump isn’t entirely surprising, as foot traffic has been down in Target stores throughout the spring. While just about all retailers are experiencing challenges with the Trump administration’s erratic tariff policy, Target’s last 12 months in particular have been one long series of unforced errors. 

Target had spent much of the last decade building a reputation as a progressive brand. In 2020, a full year before Juneteenth was made a federal holiday, they gave employees the option of time and a half to work on Juneteenth or get full pay if they took the day off. Their support of the LGBTQ community and Pride month was so pronounced that conservatives did their own boycott of Target in 2023. 

Yet Target wasted no time flipping and reversing it after the Trump administration unleashed a flurry of executive orders cracking down on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs. Target announced in January that it would end its commitment to programs that helped Black employees advance their careers within the company and would cease the DEI goals they set in three-year cycles. 

Additionally, as a result of the aforementioned conservative boycott, the company pulled back on its support of Pride and LGBTQ inclusivity, which has that community feeling some type of way about the brand as well. 

As a result of these decisions, Target boycotts have been ongoing throughout the year. Dr. Jamal Bryant, who initially called for a 40-day “fast” from Target, recently called on the boycott to continue indefinitely until the company makes an effort to meaningfully re-engage with the Black community. 

Black Children’s book author Fredrick Joseph went so far as to ask readers not to buy his books at Target. Even speaking anecdotally, my mom (a Black woman) was a self-proclaimed Target Queen, but that woman has not stepped into a single Target since they announced their pullback from DEI initiatives. 

Neither have I, just to be clear. Can’t have y’all out here thinking I’m a scrub.

It’s somewhat impressive how effectively Target has alienated the clientele with whom they had built so much brand loyalty.

Making Target look even worse is the fact that in recent months, we’ve seen companies like Apple and Costco stand ten toes down on their DEI initiatives. Costco has always been based, but Apple could’ve easily done away with their DEI initiatives and faced few, if any, consequences given their global reach and dominance in the mobile phone market. 

Even when removing politics and looking at Target’s moves simply on a business level, they make no sense. Conservatives already weren’t messing with Target, and their brand loyalty is clearly with Walmart, as evidenced by the fact that Walmart similarly rolled back its DEI initiatives and actually saw an increase in sales over the last quarter.  

Why drop your day ones to appease a group who wasn’t checking for you anyway? That’s a surefire way to lose money, as Target is very clearly learning. 

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, Black customers have been actively boycotting Target since shortly after they announced a rollback on their DEI policies, causing a drop in sales for the retailer., , Read More, App Feed, Civil Rights & Social Justice, News Archives – Black America Web, [#item_full_content].