Target has recently come under fire for its efforts to pander to the transgender community. Target stores nationwide recently unveiled their “Pride collection,” featuring a range of merchandise and clothing with trans-friendly slogans and books pushing radical leftist gender ideology. What makes this particularly troubling is the clothes, merchandise, and books are not exclusively aimed at adults but also young children and babies. They aren’t tucked away in a hard to find section either; these displays are prominently showcased at the front of Target stores.
Target, you may know already, has been pandering to the LGBTQ community for years. However, in the aftermath of the Bud Light controversy, Target started receiving enough backlash that the company held an emergency meeting last week. Several store locations, primarily in rural southern areas, have now been instructed to relocate and downsize their Pride sections—specifically to avoid a “Bud Light situation.”
“I think given the current situation with Bud Light, the company is terrified of a Bud Light situation,” a Target insider told Fox News Digital.
If you thought Target might be capitulating, I’m sorry to say that isn’t the case. Despite backlash, the CEO of Target, Brian Cornell, thinks going woke is good for the company.
“I think those are just good business decisions, and it’s the right thing for society, and it’s the great thing for our brand,” Cornell said. “The things we’ve done from a DE&I [diversity, equity, and inclusion] standpoint, it’s adding value.”
He added, “It’s helping us drive sales, it’s building greater engagement with both our teams and our guests, and those are just the right things for our business today.”
Are they really? Target sales were flat in the first quarter of 2023. Call me crazy, but that seems like evidence that the pandering to the LGBT community hasn’t been a boon for Target. Sure, the sales numbers are likely more a reflection of external economic factors, like like high inflation and gas prices, but alienating customers with this crap can’t be a good business decision.
I guess Cornell thinks it is because, according to them, the company’s “focus on diversity and inclusion and equity has fueled much of our growth over the last nine years.”
If Cornell thinks that this is good business for Target, the company will not stop until consumers prove to them that what they are doing is hurting business. There may have been an emergency meeting, but all that came of it was a having the displays moved and reduced in a few select stores in conservative markets. If you don’t live in one of those rural southern areas, you will still have to see this ridiculous pride collection when you walk in stores. If you are even still shopping at Target.
It’s clear that the Bud Light boycott has empowered those who oppose radical transgender ideology, and Target is clearly responding to that, but there’s no reason to believe they’ve have a spiritual awakening the way Anheuser-Busch did. Target hasn’t felt the same financial pain, and they’re not going to give up their wokeness unless consumers make it clear that their efforts to groom kids aren’t welcome.