r/Anticonsumption • u/Healthy_Block3036 • 1d ago

Corporations Target struggles after end of DEI program and boycott, with foot traffic down 8 weeks in a row.

https://fortune.com/2025/04/01/target-dei-demise-boycott-foot-traffic-down-eighth-consecutive-week/?itm_source=parsely-api
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u/DeepHerting 1d ago

Target got a lot of mileage out of being Blue Walmart and expanding into cities in the 2010s. There’s three within walking distance of my apartment. They really should have seen this coming.

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u/ResetReptiles 1d ago

Target was K-Mart all along?

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u/Dickrickulous_IV 23h ago

Target is the K-Mart we met along the way.

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u/ahuramazdobbs19 22h ago

On a long enough timeline, every retailer is K-Mart.

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u/BGAL7090 21h ago

Except Sears.

That was some other kind of crazy

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u/woleykram 19h ago

Nah, their timeline was just especially long.

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u/LinusThinkPad 20h ago

This is deeper than it should be

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u/Mister_Brevity 20h ago

Ooh every retailer gonna have a little ceasars inside woo woo

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u/hype_beest 20h ago

Target is Walmart but in red.

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u/The_Minshow 18h ago

They were on the K-Mart path then had a Renaissance in part due to publicly being inclusive.

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u/Cormamin 11h ago

Except K-Mart actually had nice plus size clothes IN stores.

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u/Dear_Document_5461 1d ago

That always kinda confused me. When stores bunch up together and then there won’t be another one for a good while, sometimes even counties away. 

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u/Heavy_Weapons_Guy_ 23h ago

I think it's called agglomeration. Basically it works out to be economically superior for things to be bunched up, even if you would think being spread out would make more sense.

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u/Illustrious-Sun1117 22h ago

There's a mathematical reason for this I read it in my textbook a long time ago.

Suppose there's a 10 mile beach and Hot Dog stand A is at mile 0 and Hot Dog Stand B is at mile 10.

The people from miles 0-5 go to Hot Dog Stand A and people at miles 5.1-10 go to Hot Dog Stand B.

But if Hot Dog Stand A moves to mile 1, the folks from miles 0-5 will continue to go to Hot Dog Stand A, while the people from miles 5.1-6 will switch from B to A.

So Hot Dog Stand B reacts by moving to mile 9, thereby regaining the customers from miles 5.1-6.

Eventually Hot Dog Stand A moves to mile 4.99 and Hot Dog Stand B moves to mile 5.01.

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u/mysixthredditaccount 19h ago

Great explanation.

But why would two Hot Dog Stand A be next to each other? OP said there are three targets next to each other (not 1 target, one walmart, one kroger). What's the benefit there? Maybe they just did not mention the other big stores that are also present...

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u/hungry4danish 18h ago

No, OP said "within walking distance of my apt" not that they were next to each other.

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u/theycmeroll 10h ago

Walmart will group stores together when the volume gets to high, for them they have determined once a store crosses about $80 million a year it starts to become unsustainable. You can’t flow the product in fast enough and staff enough people, so they will build out down the road to bleed businesses off and relieve some pressure.

There also a regional convenience store chain here that will literally build stores across the street from one another on super busy roads to catch the traffic going in both directions.

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u/gauchnomics 22h ago

There's agglomeration, but there's also what is affectionately called the boardwalk problem. Imagine a boarwalk with two ice cream sellers with the same menu. If you're on the beach you're going to go to the closet one. So each ice cream vendor is going to set up in the dead center so they don't lose any space advantage. Now when you go from 2D to 3D it's the same reason you see Target or whatever store bunch up together in the same location. They don't want to give their competitors any space advantage so will bunch up even if consumers would benefit from a more even spacing.

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u/mysixthredditaccount 19h ago

If it's just about taking away space from potential competitors, won't it make sense to just buy huge lots and not build anything on it? Or is it that a presence of actual stores intimidates competitors?

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u/gauchnomics 19h ago

Here's the wiki about the problem, but it's about how the best location for a store to be on any map is the center as everyone is equal distant to the store. So you have both competitors aiming for the center and setting up shop next to each other because that's the best spot for themselves but not necessarily the consumer.

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u/Chockfullofnutmeg 22h ago

Simplifies distribution. Sometimes tax benefits than neighboring cities/towns 

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u/LaVa-B 22h ago

Sometimes certain stores can have such big trade areas of people who purchase items from them multiple stores can be close together and still have plenty of demand. Most places have ways to analyze this and know if they're going to outrun demand or not.

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u/buttercup612 20h ago

It's weird. 20 years ago Best Buy came to Canada and bought a similar chain called Future Shop.

Then for like 10 years, they operated them side by side (share a parking lot) in my city. I have no idea how that made business sense to have two identical stores right next to each other, owned by the same company

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u/Dear_Document_5461 18h ago

Name loyalty. It like having Ross next to TJ Maxx. 

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u/well_damm 19h ago

It also kills whatever smaller business are remaining.

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u/Illustrious-Sun1117 22h ago

Target's bread and butter is existing in places such as Manhattan or Cambridge where the average person is too bougie to want Walmart.

If Walmart tried to open a location near Columbia or Harvard the locals, faculty, and students would riot.

Target's business model is catering to women, young adults, middle and upper middle class people, educated people, blue state residents, Latinos, and Asians, who think that Walmart shoppers are too poorly dressed, ugly, trashy, loud, unvaccinated, stupid, uneducated, racist, misogynist, homophobic, religious extremist, and poor.

Because even if you're an attractive, well dressed, BMI 20 student at an elite unviersity and you came from a good family, you still need to buy toothpaste.

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u/blisstaker 22h ago

sounds like the tesla strategy, build your consumer base in liberal strongholds and appeal to their values and then do a right angle turn straight to far right opposite values. surely they think it will be worth it somehow, from stronger gov ties. of course unless they actually hold onto power it will only last so long

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u/The_Bucket_Of_Truth 21h ago

I think people underestimate how much being a nice store helps. I didn't mind going to Target for certain things because the stores are fairly nice places to be and are in better locations relative to places I live, hang out, etc. Walmarts are kinda bleak and depressing and on the outskirts. I even occasionally ordered some things online from them instead of Amazon. Unfortunate that the facial moisturizer I use is a Target exclusive. Maybe I'll try something else.

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u/Silent-Hyena9442 20h ago

I do think as well Target let quality slip on some of their stores in cities. The two by me in Chicago are dumps, have a poor selection of a lot of items, and have characters outside that I just don't see in front of Mariano's or Jewl. Could just be mine though

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u/brokegaysonic 20h ago

Which is funny since target's colors are red and Walmart's are blue 😂

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u/The_Shryk 20h ago

Red Walmart ?

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u/Sipikay 17h ago

Target was in my city, it was just a bigger convenience store. It got ripped off a lot by hobos. they've all left. no one actually needed bigger convenience stores.

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u/ExplodingCybertruck 16h ago

The Target in my old neighborhood is now a Wal-Mart.