Target’s first quarterly miss in 6 years follows boycotts over pro-trans and pro-Satan merchandise.
Target missed the target this year on “pride month.”
The retail giant reported Wednesday that it missed its second-quarter revenue goals, after the company’s pro-transgender apparel provoked a consumer backlash. Target’s controversial merchandise included “pride” apparel for babies, “tuck-friendly“ swimwear, and products designed by a self-professed Satanist and transgender activist.
Target stock tanked from a peak of nearly $170 per share in April to just more than $126 per share by mid-June, where shares remain. Target’s stock lost nearly $14 billion in the last two weeks of May, as the controversial clothing collections made headlines.
The company’s quarterly earnings report revealed the true scale of Target’s losses. The retail chain documented a 5.4 percent decline in comparable sales, the first such drop in six years.
“Total revenue of $24.8 billion was 4.9 percent lower than last year, reflecting a total sales decline of 4.9 percent partially offset by a 1.3 percent increase in other revenue,” Target reported.
NEW: Target had its first quarterly revenue miss in six years.
As it turns out, working with satanists to push transgenderism on children was not a wise business strategy.
Selling “tuck friendly” swimwear marketed to children wasn’t either.
pic.twitter.com/FLw2UvMXuT — Michael Seifert (@realmichaelseif) August 16, 2023
According to National Review, Target Chief Growth Officer Christina Hennington told reporters on a call that the company will recalibrate the chain’s pride merchandise next year.
“You will see us celebrate Pride, you will see us celebrate these heritage moments, but with these modifications,” she said.
Other corporate brands suffered similar stock carnage as a result of their LGBT campaigns this year — including Anheuser-Busch, the beer company behind Bud Light. The marketing team’s decision to use transgender-identified influencer Dylan Mulvaney to promote their product effectively rebranded the beer as the unofficial beverage of transgenderism, resulting in a wide-reaching boycott from which the company has yet to recover. Stores in the Midwest even struggled to offload built-up inventory of the beverage by effectively giving away the drink for free, offering customers a rebate equal to the beer’s purchase price.
“Bud Light sales are still stale,” headlined coverage from Yahoo Finance on Tuesday.
The corporate backlash coincides with a series of surveys published this summer that found Americans moving to the right on culture war issues like abortion and transgenderism.
A Gallup poll conducted in May found social conservatism at its highest level since 2012.
Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist and the author of Social Justice Redux, a conservative newsletter on culture, health, and wellness. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at [email protected]. Sign up for Tristan’s email newsletter here.
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