r/Anticonsumption • u/Healthy_Block3036 • 2d 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/Actual__Wizard 2d ago edited 2d ago

their money and TGT is looking like an appealing option at its current price point

The chain of stores that's losing their butts to both boycotts and tariffs?

It's legitimately one of the worst possible options to invest in right now. Massive shrinkage/restructuring is almost guaranteed.

What is appealing about losing money?

It's certainly got a ways to fall down and there's gotta be some good news about their restructuring plan before there's any hope for that company at all.

I would just assume that there's none and it's over.

There's going to be a giant chain of bankruptcies here very shortly. The tarrifs are greater than the margins, so obviously there will be massive corporate failure in the coming years. Marginalized businesses like grocery stores are the absolute most exposed to risk here.

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u/ka-ka-ka-katie1123 2d ago

The true value in the company is their real estate holdings. Target owns a metric shitton of property.

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u/Mandena 2d ago

Real estate holdings sure helped all those companies in 2008 lmao.

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u/Actual__Wizard 2d ago

Value that's tanking sharply because those imported goods stores just lost business viability?

Why would I spend money to travel to a store when Amazon ships it to my door?

The entire business model of Target is totally antiquated...

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u/ka-ka-ka-katie1123 2d ago

The value of the land isn’t tanking because imported goods stores just lost business viability. That’s the value of the retail business and possibly the value of the structures on the land. Not telling anyone to invest in Target (I wouldn’t), just that the main reason it’s been recommended as an investment in recent years is because they own so much land, and not because the store does well.

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u/Actual__Wizard 2d ago

The value of the land isn’t tanking because imported goods stores just lost business viability.

The value of the land is what a buyer is willing to pay. If the viability of the business is going down, then the land is also going down in value.

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u/MechanicalSideburns 2d ago

What? That’s not true at all. The store may be losing income, but 5 acres in a prime spot is always 5 acres.

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u/eiva-01 2d ago

Not every 5 acres is priced the same. You need people who actually want to buy it.

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u/MechanicalSideburns 2d ago

Um duh. Location, location, location.

Do you think Target is in the habit of buying land that is in worthless places that nobody wants? Or would they buy land in a strategic spots to get the most customers from the surrounding neighborhoods? Every Target I know is in a pretty juicy spot. Not to mention that new neighborhoods have often sprouted up around their development.

Say what you want about their cheap imported products and bankrupting small businesses…those fuckers understand real estate.

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u/eiva-01 2d ago

The key point you're glossing over is that if retail businesses become unprofitable then that will have the effect of suppressing the value of retail real estate. Real estate is not immune from the effects of a recession.

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u/MechanicalSideburns 2d ago

Well, of course no asset class is recession proof.

But it doesn’t matter. Target isn’t like us, where our take-home pay drops and we’ve got to sell off that 2nd car. They wouldn’t liquidate real estate, they’d leverage against it to generate cash and retool underperforming parts of the business model.

Shit, I’d bet that even if one of their stores closes because of vast underperformance, they probably still don’t even sell the land. They’d do like a 100 year lease to Buzzuto or whoever, who would then put up a mixed-use apartment/retail complex.

I guess my whole point was that they are in a vastly more advantageous position than most chains to weather a recesssion.

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u/Global_Permission749 2d ago

The chain of stores that's losing their butts to both boycotts and tariffs?

Don't expect boycotts to last very long. Americans have short memories with flexible principles.

IMO the biggest problem with Target is it's basically little more than a giant Dollar General. I'm not a Walmart or Target kind of shopper, but every single time I go into a Target, it looks like the Great Depression incarnate. Entire sections out of stock, unwanted scraps on the bottom shelf or in the aisle. Hooks half attached to the display. Missing price tags everywhere.

And it's not just one Target. It's literally several different Targets that I've been into over the last couple of years.

I worked in retail for years. It's one thing if someone is doing a planogram refresh, but this is a constant thing with Target.

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u/Ouaouaron 2d ago

Seems like a regional thing. Targets around me are nothing like that, though it does seem like every week they've locked another aisle behind behind plexiglass for theft prevention. Though I am in Target's home state, so the stores near me might be less representative of the national trend than the ones near you.

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u/One-Temporary8223 2d ago

do you live in a high crime area or what?

almost nothing is locked behind plexi at mine

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u/iamrlywhite 2d ago

I saw dish soap behind plexiglass in Bellevue of all places which isn’t even usual Seattle level of shoplifting crime

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u/Groovychick1978 2d ago

I can't get socks or underwear at the one I went to in Denver.  Not a bad area or anything. 

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u/rainzer 2d ago

do you live in a high crime area or what?

seems dependent on city or region. I'm in a neighborhood with one of the lowest rates of crime in my city and some of the retail stores (esp pharmacies) that exist here will still put stuff behind plexiglass even with retail theft being down for 3 years in a row (which wasn't high to begin with, our police precinct reports 30 cases all of last year)

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u/cslack30 2d ago

Really the only reason to shop at Target is so you don’t have to shop with the peasants at Walmart

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u/ManzanitaSuperHero 2d ago

Nope. They grossly miscalculated their best customers. I was one. I specifically chose Target bc it was progressive. I’m gay and knew the company had good protections for LGBT employees. That’s important to me for obvious reasons. They platform artists from different backgrounds and celebrated diversity. I don’t go to Wal-Mart bc they don’t do any of these things. I know I’m not alone in this.

They misread the boycotts by the MAGA crowd. Those aren’t their main customers anyway. So losing them wasn’t really losing much. But this nonsense? They’re pulling one of the things their core demographic appreciated about them. Now they’ve pissed off both the left & right.

And there’s not much you NEED at Target that you can’t get elsewhere. Once people get out of the habit of shopping somewhere, they kind of forget.

They’ve made a big mistake here.

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u/Nilfsama 2d ago

Lmao “don’t expect boycotts to last very long.” Buddy it’s been 8 weeks, what is your definition of long?

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u/Global_Permission749 2d ago

LOL 8 weeks is NOTHING. Let's see a real boycott last until the midterms and let's see that influence Target to help democrats get elected and unseat republicans.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago edited 2d ago

[deleted]

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u/Global_Permission749 2d ago

Uhh, the premise was "is 8 weeks a long time for a boycott"

No, 8 weeks is not a long time for a boycott. 8 weeks is not a long time for anything related to consumer habits.

But yeah, call me dumb even though you think there will be any lasting financial damage to Target over its change to DEI policies.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

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u/Global_Permission749 2d ago

No, nobody was making any new conversations.

There was a claim that 8 weeks is a long time. It's not.

There was the implication that Target is totally gonna be fucked by their decision to end DEI. They won't.

Consumers will slip on their "principles" when they are inconvenienced and Target's traffic and revenue will be right back to where it was.

Let's talk about boycotts when this has gone on for years and it's clear that people have in fact abandoned Target.

It's super "I live on Reddit" behaviour where you can never admit any of the things you said might be slightly off

Says the guy who keeps tripling down on "8 weeks is a long time" lol...

For reference, Occupy Wallstreet lasted about 8 weeks as well. What changed? Not a single fucking thing ;)

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u/CattleIndependent805 2d ago

Here the thing, the boycotts are happening because they pissed off their core demographic and destroyed their trust by removing the one thing that was why customers were willing to put up with their higher prices… Their DEI policies and support for human rights were their only competitive advantage left, considering the fact that their prices continue to go up while their quality continues to go down.

Now their customers see them as no better than Wal-Mart, so if they can't support another company that still upholds their values, they are just going to go to Walmart instead and take advantage of the lower prices.

This isn't a temporary problem, people are changing their shopping habits over this, and it's going to take a LONG time for them to rebuild that brand loyalty…

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u/eryoshi 1d ago

Your comment sounds like you copied /u/ManzanitaSuperHero ‘s comment and just put it through an AI program to re-word. /r/SameCommentButAI 😂

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u/CattleIndependent805 1d ago

I hadn't seen their comment, but it's a pretty well known thing, I'm not surprised other people are saying similar things…

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u/---Cloudberry--- 2d ago

Now they’ve shown their nasty side they’re probably never getting that trust back.

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u/Comfortable_Angle671 2d ago

And who do you believe make up their core customer base?

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u/Imaginary_Fox_3688 2d ago

target is way more expensive than the walmarts and dollar generals.

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u/ToothZealousideal297 2d ago

The overall price difference between Target and Walmart is safely under 10%.

One of many articles about this, which all come to the same conclusion: https://easyfamilybudgeting.com/target-vs-walmart/

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u/CattleIndependent805 2d ago

10% is a lot to many people in this economy, but more importantly, there's no reason to pay 1% extra to go to Target when their corporate ethics were why you were willing to pay extra and they are now the same as Walmart's ethics…

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u/ToothZealousideal297 2d ago

Oh that’s true; I didn’t realize how my comment came off. I just actively avoided going to Target because they’re bastards an hour ago (had to wait on tires and Target would’ve normally been the clear choice to kill time, but not anymore! So I wandered the rest of the strip mall instead). I just saw someone saying the price was way higher there and corrected them on instinct; probably would’ve been better off just leaving that one.

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u/Cachemorecrystal 2d ago

Sounds more like Rite-Aids or Wal-Marts near me. My Target has always been well stocked.

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u/Potential_Today_2819 2d ago

My targets are nothing like this?

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u/Machinedgoodness 2d ago

You don’t know how to invest. Those are beautiful reasons to start building a starter position.

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u/Actual__Wizard 2d ago

You don’t know how to invest.

You mean that you don't? I am fully aware of how the banking system operates...

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u/Machinedgoodness 2d ago

Please enlighten me. That has nothing to do with TRADING

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u/blueskies8484 2d ago

Major investment companies don’t just move money to cash. They move to consumables t that people need regardless of the economy and to bonds, both of which saw a major rise in investment today. They move out of tech and luxury and other things that people can put off buying.

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u/I_Am_Dwight_Snoot 2d ago

Massive shrinkage/restructuring is almost guaranteed.

Yea but with tariffs and boycotts hitting their competition, Target isn't looking as singled out anymore. The past few weeks have been rough for everyone not just Target.

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u/Actual__Wizard 2d ago edited 2d ago

Target isn't looking as singled out anymore.

Homie, we're planting our vegetable garden really soon here... We're not going to target...

It's too expensive when it costs almost nothing to grow the plants...

The sun doesn't charge per hour...

These companies are legitimately run by some of the worst business people to ever live. They think that we're forced to buy their stuff or something and no we absolutely don't have to buy anything from them. I don't need them for anything. Their storefronts are nothing more than a waste of good space to me.

Most of my neighborhood has a garden now. 5 years ago almost nobody did. We're beyond sick and tired of getting destroyed by these absurd prices... It's going to be even worse now...

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u/Forshea 2d ago

I'm not saying that you should buy Target stock, but the idea that we're all going to replace the whole food supply chain with vegetable gardens is hilarious.

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u/BussyPlaster 2d ago

Target hardly counts as a grocery store. It's a massive department store with some grocieries sprinkled in.

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u/Forshea 2d ago

That just makes it even less likely that you're going to replace Target with a vegetable garden?

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u/---Cloudberry--- 2d ago

Well add a coop setup that allows you to keep a backyard flock separate from wild birds, you’ll be good to go.

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u/DazzlingFruit7495 2d ago

We don’t all live in the suburbs

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u/Forshea 2d ago

Yeah, buddy. We all moved to industrialized farming because subsistence farming in our back yard was famously just too easy.

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u/I_Am_Dwight_Snoot 2d ago

I'm not too sure what you mean. I was just commenting on why Target's stock price isn't dropping today...

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u/cure4boneitis 2d ago

too late. He already drove off into the desert to fight Mad Max for gasoline

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u/Actual__Wizard 2d ago

Who knows dude. The company has no future and is going to be the next "K-mart." It won't totally die, but the number of stores is going to massively get cut down.

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u/DO_NOT_AGREE_WITH_U 2d ago

I don't know if that's true. The dying off of K-Mart basically ensured that Target was safe.

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u/Liquid_Senjutsu 2d ago

I want whatever you're smoking.

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u/Actual__Wizard 2d ago

Read the rules of the sub please. I am commenting on social trends from my perspective. If you don't agree that's obviously fine, but that's not a reasonable response to my statement. Everything I said is 100% relevant to the stock price.

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u/idekbruno 2d ago

Their stock price is quite literally half of what it was a year ago, and the lowest it’s been since 5 years ago when it still had upward trajectory. All of the growth it’s had since the beginning of Covid is gone. They’ve alienated the lion’s share of their customers. And they still have to traverse a retail market which is undoubtedly going to face difficulties in consumer spending with the upcoming recession, which will affect Target more than any other major retailer. All of these factors are also combined with higher costs along their supply chain in addition. All of this on top of their most direct 2 competitors beefing up investment in their own companies in their competition for the “King of Retail” title.

How do you see this possibly playing out positively for Target?

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u/Previous-Pickle-6369 2d ago

You dont have to go to Target. Other people still do. Their business isn't really struggling, obviously foot traffic is going to be down over the 8 weeks of the part of the year where consumers shop the least and future fears of the economy are driving consumers to hold on less. It really doesnt have anything to do with their fundamentals.

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u/mblunt1201 2d ago

You missed the part where they said it was down year over year

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u/Previous-Pickle-6369 2d ago

I also spoke to the circumstances unique to the start of this year dampening consumer spending further than normal.

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u/Actual__Wizard 2d ago

Other people still do.

No they don't. It's been proven already.

Their business isn't really struggling, obviously foot traffic is going to be down over the 8 weeks

This is pure lies. You're lying to me. They have claimed themselves that they've lost foot traffic due to the boycotts and you're lying on their behalf.

Why are you lying for them? What?

It's extremely rude to lie to people, so why are you being extremely rude to me?

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u/Lokkdwn 2d ago

The sun isn’t charged per hour… yet…

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u/ItsaPostageStampede 2d ago

More people have said they would boycott Target even if they had to shop Walmart since it’s cheaper anyway and neither appeals to them