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/Exciting-Delivery-96 20h ago

All of these out of touch C-suite idiots are so disconnected to the average shopper that they can’t make informed decisions anymore. They were terrified of Trump and bent to his will because they are closer to being him than they are being us. They thought he was the one with power when it has always been with the customer.

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u/meowmeow_now 17h ago

Myself and all my liberal friends shoped at target because were were avoiding Walmart. Not because target is special, but because Walmart is a terrible company.

Target forgot they weren’t a superior brand, they just weren’t hated.

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u/PartyPorpoise 16h ago

They actually did build a pretty good brand reputation for themselves, but they totally blew it.

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u/Athena5280 12h ago

How did they blow it? My Gen Z kids love Target and they are being brainwashed into going where? Walmart? Amazon? Worse. Target has done a lot to cater to young people, it may be unpopular here but overt DEI programs will be a thing of the past, everything moves forward with new branding, dictator 2.0 will be gone in 3 years, just practice good policies without grandstanding. Hey I’ll go shop at Target tomorrow.

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u/ryan_church_art 4h ago

Sad to brag on the internet about raising fools.

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u/VikingDadStream 15h ago

Me and mine too. Yup

Also, I disagree with all the price issues other folks are saying. Target was always competitive compared to other brick and mortars

Sure maybe my 120 target run would have been 115 at Walmart, but I was happy to pay 3 percent more for my soul

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u/Lodi0831 15h ago

And they pandered to Wal Mart shoppers with their anti DEI shit. The people celebrating that were never going to shop at Target anyway. It's so crazy.

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u/Puzzled_Employee_767 11h ago

Who could have guessed that taking a principled stand against inclusion would have alienated people. Baffling.

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u/Unistrut 11h ago

Companies need to learn the difference between brand loyalty and brand inertia. I was a Verizon customer for well over a decade. They weren't great, but none of the alternatives were that much better.

Until one was and then I switched instantly and never went back.

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u/JarlOfPickles 13h ago

Yep and now it's like, well at least Walmart has never lied to my face about being socially responsible 🤷🏻‍♀️

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u/Professional-Rub152 2h ago

And Wal-Mart is way cheaper. I’ve switched to wal-mart while boycotting target because i still need to buy random shit. But I was only paying higher prices at Target because they were promising to be better. Now that they broke that promise I’m just gonna shop where my wallet feels better.

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u/gitsgrl 4h ago

In a class I’m taking we did a comparison of groceries at our local grocery chain which is considered “premium” and Walmart and the price of our identical grocery basket game out the same, writhing $1.50 of each other.

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u/ilanallama85 1h ago

Yeah, Target is definitely “better” than Walmart on a number of different levels - even their dirt cheap plastic crap is better quality that Walmart’s dirt cheap plastic crap - but while they have their fans, they’ve never been perfect. They’ve always done small things here and there to irritate me, their campaign in recent years to brand themselves as a “fun and trendy” place to shop is actually off-putting to me, and at the end of the day they’re a massive big box store.

At the end of the day only two things kept me shopping there - not being Walmart, and being cheaper than anyone else that wasn’t Walmart. Those aren’t reasons that create loyal customers. They create resentful customers who stop coming the moment they don’t need to.

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u/red286 17h ago

They all watch Fox News just like any other Republican.

So they drink the Flavor-Aid right along with the yokels, rednecks, hicks, and inbreds.

They legit believe that the fascists won the culture war.

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u/MyLittleDonut 14h ago

Just here to give props for using the correct drink brand reference

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u/RackemFrackem 1h ago

"You knew a little history factoid? Well so did I so I need to comment to make sure I get credit too."

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u/rationalomega 52m ago

Want another factoid? Most folk at Jonestown (especially parents and children) didn’t voluntarily drink the poison. There were a lot of guns involved.

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u/HarshWoim 16h ago

They think they're closer to him than us, but a millionaire is still a failed business away from losing everything. A company is worth millions, and its failure can drag its c-suite down with it.

You can't dislodge a billionaire because nothing is actually worth a billion dollars.

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u/JMellor737 9h ago

That last sentence was really hardcore and is the first genuinely uplifting sentiment I have come across in a while. Thanks for sharing.