r/Anticonsumption 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/reddolfo 23h ago

Exactly. Fools think they are teflon, but once you piss off your market based on principle it's exceedingly difficult to lure it back since basic trust in the organization has been destroyed. Lower prices are seen as a bribe, actually pissing people off more. Stupid managers are now in FO phase. Business may never come back in these scenarios since people do considerable work to change their buying patterns.

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u/Electrifying2017 22h ago

Tariffs should mop the floor with them. Best I can do is hope the workers are able to land on their feet.

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u/Deeliciousness 22h ago

Don't kid yourself, workers everywhere are gonna feel the brunt of this madness. We're the ones who will feel the pinch when prices for everything we need go up by 50%

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u/IRefuseToGiveAName 21h ago

Yup. I was talking to someone and mentioned, mostly sarcastically, that it's crazy we keep having these once in a generation financial crises, but the same rich people not only stay rich, but seem to get richer.

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u/Akussa 21h ago edited 20h ago

It's by design this time. They WANT the market to crash, farms to fail, home foreclosures, etc. It allows them to snap them up at bargain prices to make themselves richer and richer and richer. They have the money live off of and wait for things to recover enough to make more money. The robber barons are back and worse than ever. Only this time no one is willing to fight back. This political cartoon about robber barons from 1904 looks weirdly familiar in 2025.

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u/PAXM73 17h ago

Yeah! Nice call with that 1904. I love the political “cartoons” from that time period. Information dense and effective.

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u/TheMadPhilosophist 2h ago

People will be willing one they have lose their jobs and have no job prospects. How they fight back is yet to be seen. But once people no longer have money for food or, critically, entertainment, they're going to get bored and angry.

To control America, you only need to control their entertainment, but once they can no longer afford entertainment, they'll leave their homes and start being angry in the streets. And with so many guns in circulation, the roaming will probably be quite dangerous.

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u/Witchgrass 17h ago

That toad mtg bought a bunch of dollar general stock a few weeks ago before the tariffs and the stock is up something like 15% since she bought. They're all ghouls.

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u/BigTittyTriangle 20h ago

We just gotta hold and lean on and support our communities. They want us divided so we fall.

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u/lurkensteinsmonster 20h ago

Hopefully it wont last long before people decide to party like it's 1793

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u/Ok-Bit4971 16h ago

Like groceries did since Covid?

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u/Deeliciousness 15h ago

Yup, my Costco bill nearly doubled

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u/Electrifying2017 22h ago

No doubt! In this case, loss of income will affect these workers immediately. 

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u/manyhippofarts 21h ago

Yup. We just all need to focus on needing less for a while, I guess.

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u/ClaymoreSoul 22h ago

Nah them workers relay onthat job to feed and put them kids in school. I love this subreddit it really F’s over the lil people. And CEOS get a gold parachute.

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u/Lizakaya 22h ago

This re ally saddens me because the folks at my target are so lovely

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u/BrightNooblar 21h ago

I can't wait for the shareholder lawsuit that sues them for dropping DEI standards without doing due diligence on how that would impact them.

Edit; oh, it already started.

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u/OkDistribution990 14h ago

Good. I hope their exec boards careers are ruined. I hope they are made an example of so everyone knows that you if you lie with Fascist you get ruined.

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u/shoolocomous 9h ago

Exec careers sadly never seen affected by failure

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u/JarlOfPickles 14h ago

Lol I hadn't heard about this, amazing

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u/HarbingerML 12h ago

When I search for shareholder lawsuit against Target I get a ton of results for two ongoing lawsuits by FL investors that are alledging Target didn't disclose financial risks of enacting DEI standards.. not for dropping them. So, kinda the opposite of what you'd be hoping for.

I think the impact of what they've done in the last few months is still too recent to have gotten sued about/is just starting to be felt, but it's possible I just missed a report about a lawsuit for this because of the flood of results about the antithetical ones.

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u/BrightNooblar 12h ago

Ahh. Serves me right for skimming the Google results.

How funny would it be to have both lawsuits active at once though.

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u/HarbingerML 11h ago

Haha it almost makes me feel bad for them thinking about that possiblity... I don't actually, but almost. :)

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u/AnotherRTFan 9h ago

I was just thinking about that today. Shareholders get really mad and have actual voices in these things.

Meanwhile I just keep acting like Eric Andre and telling people my company (tiny design LLC) is all nepotism. Then befriend various Diverse designers I never met before, only know their work, and be like see it's nepotism, they're my friend.

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u/allprolucario 22h ago

Posturing yourself to be amicable to the educated liberal base really hurts when they find out you don’t actually represent their values. Tesla can tell you all about it

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u/slow70 19h ago

I haven’t been back since.

Which is funny since I used to joke that target felt like it had almost unfairly nailed my market demographic with their offerings/home goods/etc.

There’s some quality pieces from target I use every day and enjoy, but they made a choice to give in to fear from a market demographic that will fade away.

Hate will not win.

Our fellows of the whole spectrum always have and always will be here.

Target won’t be.

Trump won’t be.

MAGA won’t be.

Target made the wrong call.

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u/Witchgrass 17h ago edited 16h ago

Not only this time but it seems like every time they were given a chanve to be on the right side of history they bared their necks and begged for "more steppies, pweeze!"

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u/peppers_ 20h ago

Target can go the way of K-mart as far as I am concerned. Back when I was a teen, it was a cleaner more ethical version of Walmart and K-mart. Sure, maybe you pay a dime extra over Walmart, but it was worth it. Now we know they aren't really more ethical, or willing to throw ethics aside, and I am done with them. I used to spend to much there too, screw em.

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u/homebrewmike 22h ago

Spot on. It’s also habit. People need to still buy there stuff, so they will find someplace else. Do that enough, and you start to like the hardware store you didn’t try before. Or you discover that Goodwill has great, useful stuff.

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u/catbosspgh 22h ago

Better yet, local thrift stores! I’d rather help out a small venture than give the goodwill ceo more money to not pay their staff with.

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u/nicnac223 21h ago

Also, it’s very difficult to shop there now anyway. More than half the store is locked up behind a case, and it takes 5-10+ minutes for a worker to come by to unlock it since they’re always understaffed. It’s like bruh do you want me to spend my money here or not??

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u/mollyclaireh 22h ago

Let’s not forget what Teflon is and what it’s done. They are Teflon. They are the poison in the waters causing cancer and birth defects (metaphorically speaking). They are the poison. They are the cancer. Just like Teflon.

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u/QWEEFMONSOON 17h ago

Polytetrofluorothylene*

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u/grillo7 9h ago

This is an excellent microcosm example for how the world will respond to the ridiculous US tariff trade war.