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Target CEO resigns after boycotts and "plummeting" sales [1]
['Rob Beschizza']
Date: 2025-08-20
Target, stagnant for years, set out to please the Trump administration and right-wing activists by ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Unfortunately for Target, the Trump administration and right-wing activists don't shop at Target. Everyday people shop there, many of them black, women and LGBTQ+. Or, rather, they used to. After boycotts, "plummeting" sales and and billions wiped off the company's value, CEO Brian Cornell is resigning.
The decision angered supporters of diversity and inclusion policies, who felt blindsided by Target. Customers online protested Target's decision, and Anne and Lucy Dayton, the daughters of one of Target's co-founders, called the company's actions "a betrayal." Target acknowledged its move hurt its sales. "People re-evaluated and started driving extra miles to go to other places," Rev. Jamal Bryant, who led a boycott against Target, told CNN."We felt like it was a stark betrayal." Target wasn't the only company to roll back DEI policies, but came under more pressure because it had more deeply ingrained diversity and inclusion programs into the core of its business. Target also has a more progressive base of customers than many competitors.
Cited as factors are inflation, Amazon and Wal Mart cutting prices, and other business issues. Target named an insider, Chief Operating Officer Michael Fiddelke, to replace outgoing CEO Brian Cornell. Fiddelke seems to think the problem is that Target isn't stylish enough and the markets aren't pleased to see him get the job.
He laid out three priorities: Reestablishing Target's reputation as a retailer with stylish and unique items, providing a more consistent customer experience, and using technology more effectively to operate an efficient business.
Analysts and many of those covering the news avoid even mentioning the boycotts, but CNBC points out that they were for real.
Store traffic at the big-box retailer has fallen almost every week since late January, according to Placer.ai, an analytics firm that uses anonymized data from mobile devices to estimate overall visits to locations. And shares of the company have tumbled about 60% from their all-time high in late 2021.
If not the main problen, then, certainly more than a final straw. To summarize the strategy: "Pride stuff means we've lost conservative shoppers who just go to whichever place is nearest. Maybe we can get them back by ostentatiously snubbing liberal shoppers who go out of their way to come here." It didn't work out.
You know which big box retailer vigorously defended its DEI programs?
Previously: Target's bleakly invisible Pride Month fashions suggest the wrong kind of closet
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