U.S. News

2344 readers

9 users here now

News about and pertaining to the United States and its people.

Please read what's functionally the mission statement before posting for the first time. We have a narrower definition of news than you might be accustomed to.

Guidelines for submissions:

Post the original source of information as the link.
If there is any Nazi imagery in the linked story, mark your post NSFW.
Advocating violence is not allowed on Beehaw in general.
If there is a paywall, provide an archive link in the body.
Post using the original headline; edits for clarity (as in providing crucial info a clickbait hed omits) are fine.
Social media is not a news source.

For World News, see the News community.

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

alyaza@beehaw.org

rs5th@beehaw.org

Powderhorn@beehaw.org

Target suffers eighth week of foot-traffic losses since caving on DEI (www.retailbrew.com)

submitted 1 month ago by alyaza@beehaw.org to c/usnews@beehaw.org

9 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Target saw foot traffic fall for the eighth consecutive week, extending a losing streak that began just a few days after the company announced it would end its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) program in late January.

For the week that began March 17, foot traffic fell 5.7% YoY for Target, according to data from Placer.ai. That's compared to the 7.1% it fell last week, and an average weekly decline over the last eight weeks of 6.2%.

In a March 4 earnings call, when it reported a 3.1% Q4 loss and a non-specified sales decline in February, Target executives were bullish about its Easter assortment boosting business. But if it has so far, it's not reflected in the foot-traffic data. What may have taken the spring out of the Easter Bunny's hop for Target is a 40-plus day boycott coinciding with Lent (so ending on Easter) spearheaded by Black clergy for which more than 150,000 have signed up, exceeding organizers' stated goal of 100,000.

top 9 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] alyaza@beehaw.org 25 points 1 month ago (2 children)

maybe you can be skeptical of the data source--but i think it is fairly reasonable to conclude, at this point, that trying to ditch DEI to placate conservatives has at the very least not helped Target

[–] Powderhorn@beehaw.org 17 points 1 month ago

Target positioned itself in a specific way that set it up for this self-imposed wound. "Come shop here so you don't have to deal with Walmart" only works when your slightly-more-affluent consumer base is racist and sexist as fuck.

As it happens, they're not.

[–] Icarus@beehaw.org 10 points 1 month ago

Except for my medications, which I am now working to move to another pharmacy, I haven't bought anything at target since I learned about the boycott

[–] nick@midwest.social 6 points 1 month ago

Lmaooooooo get rekt.

[–] 52fighters@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 1 month ago

I still know a bunch of conservatives who are still boycotting them over the trans bathroom issue.

[–] don@lemm.ee 3 points 1 month ago

Fuck ‘em.

[–] mvilain@fedia.io 2 points 1 month ago

Yep. I've joined the buycot for Lent. I put off all purchases there until after Easter and Passover are over.

[–] blitzen@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I concerned that the declining traffic is attributed to their anti-DEI move, when overall consumer spending is likely down. I’m Not saying it boycotts haven’t had an effect, but that may be hard to measure.

[–] Powderhorn@beehaw.org 6 points 1 month ago

Inasmuch as polling would be a useless gauge, that's true. But it's rather simple do to a YoY or QoQ compared with peer retailers. Given that both Walmart and Amazon have also abandoned DEI initiatives, that adds noise, but there will definitely be parseable data.

I somehow doubt shareholders will be thrilled with the final numbers.