WSJ What’s News - Boycotting Target, Part 1: How It Doubled Down on DEI, Then Backed Off

Episode Date: May 18, 2025

Many U.S. shoppers know Target as a place to get everyday items like groceries and paper towels, as well as clothes and homegoods. But recently some shoppers have stopped buying things at Target as part of boycotts over its pullback from policies around diversity, equity and inclusion. In the first episode of this special What’s News series, host Alex Ossola digs into how Target got here: the company’s history and why shoppers are upset with Target in particular at a moment when many other companies are also changing their DEI policies. In your feed, you can find the second episode of this series, looking into the boycotts’ impact on Target’s business and on those of Black entrepreneurs with products on Target’s shelves.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's Sunday, May 18th. I'm Alex Osila for The Wall Street Journal. This is a special episode of What's New Sunday. On a recent Sunday afternoon, I, along with producer Jess Jupiter, visited a Target store in Brooklyn. So we're here in Atlantic Terminal, standing in front of the Target. There are a lot of people coming in and out. It's Sunday, it's nice out, New Yorkers are happy,

and the store is kind of hopping. I'd say it's booming. Yeah. All right. All right. Let's go check it out. Let's go. We took a walk around the store to get a sense of what was going on. People were waiting to try on clothes

and grabbing seasonal items for Easter. Near the registers, we did my favorite thing, looking into people's carts to check out their haul. Organization, cleaning, snacks. It's nice, yeah. Not so many clothes, actually. We talked to a few customers outside the store. What do you buy?

Everything. Uh-huh, go on. Like literally everything. We bought some milk, some diapers for her. I just needed a really cheap hammer. I just wanted Target. I just wanted it. I just needed it.

But we weren't really there to shop. We were there to see how many other people were there to shop. See, a few days into the Trump administration, Target dropped some of its goals for diversity, equity, and inclusion, and ended its program to boost black suppliers. At the time, the company said that it was making the moves with the goal of driving growth and staying in step with the evolving external landscape.

As a result of Target dropping its DEI goals, a number of customers have said they are no longer shopping there. It was all over TikTok. Target, the boycott is forever. Forever. I have rerouted my shopping needs to other places. Target, y'all have messed up so bad that y'all have managed to turn this boycott into

a breakup. It's not just individuals either. A civil rights lawyer out of Minneapolis launched a nationwide boycott right outside Target's main offices. A Baptist pastor at a predominantly black church near Atlanta says that by Easter, he got 200,000 people to commit to stop shopping at Target.

And Nina Turner, a former state senator from Ohio, organized a boycott too. The message is there is power in your purchase, that we will form solidarity one to another and let corporations like Target know that we will not shop where there is not leadership when it comes to diversity, equity, and inclusion. So what's got them so upset? After all, Target was one of many companies that changed its policies and language around DEI in the past year, under pressure from conservative activists and, later, perceived legal threats from the Trump administration.

Last July, farm equipment seller Deere said it would remove socially motivated messages from company training materials and policies. I reached out to Deer for comment, but didn't hear back. In November, Walmart announced that it was winding down its nonprofit center for racial equity. A Walmart spokesman told me that the company's five-year commitment made in 2020 will be fulfilled. But for years, Target had made inclusivity a key part of its story.

How it communicated to customers and how it differentiated itself from competitors. Sarah Nassauer covers Target for the journal. Like a lot of large companies, Target talked about diversity as something that they hope to focus on more. They wanted more diversity, and it wasn't just about like doing good. It was a business imperative. This idea that if you have more diverse viewpoints

on your team, you're gonna come up with better ideas. It's gonna be more equitable in terms of who gets jobs at the company. Retailers are a consumer facing business, right? You're gonna be able to attract a more diverse customer base because you'll have people coming up with ideas that reflect your customer base. That sort of is, in general, how they and lots of other companies

have talked about it over the years. And so while many other companies have retreated from their DEI commitments in recent months, Target's customers say this DEI rollback felt personal. One reason that consumers seem to be more bothered by the fact that Target did a thing that other retailers have also done is that one, Target has been more, quote unquote, progressive in a lot of its, like its brand, its marketing, how it talks about progressive issues, even its own employee base, right?

Target is based in the Twin Cities in Minnesota. It's a more progressive community that tends to vote blue versus Walmart, one of its big competitors, which is in Northwest Arkansas, which tends to vote red. So even its own employees sort of felt probably, and some of its customers, like it was a more jarring change coming from Target than, say, Walmart. Customers from different races all over the country say they felt this deeply. This was a company that actually aligned

with my moral values. So when I heard that, it's almost like it was a gut punch. And then last year it seemed like things just started to get... you know how somebody changed up on you? What you call it? Switch up? That's what I felt. I felt some switching up. You can't lie to our population and expect us to come spend our money with you. You know, it's not fair. We're not doing it. It's time to stand and it's time for everybody to stand for it.

We've reached out to Target for a comment and they responded with a written statement. We are absolutely dedicated to fostering inclusivity for everyone. Our team members, our guests and our supply partners. To do that, we're focusing on what we do best, providing the best retail experience for the more than 2000 communities we're proud to serve. On this two episode series, we're zooming in on Target. With the company due to report its first quarter earnings this week,

we dive into what impact the ongoing boycotts could have on its bottom line. At a moment when so much of corporate America is drawing back from DEI, why does there seem to be a bullseye on Target? How is this affecting the company's business and the black entrepreneurs relying on sales from Target's shelves? And for the customers who have been put off by Target's shift, what can the company do to win them back?

More after the break. Before we get into the boycott, let's talk about how we got here. At Target, we're serious about defending your budget. Doing whatever it takes to reject high prices. Target. Expect more, pay less. Target was founded in 1962, an offshoot of Dayton's, a Minneapolis-based department

store. Target's positioning in the market was for discount goods. Even now, with almost 2,000 U.S. stores and more than 400,000 employees, it still shares some of that early DNA. Joe Feldman is a senior managing director at brokerage firm Telsey Advisory Group, where he analyzes big box retailers. Target comes to market by leading with its discretionary assortment, specifically apparel and the home area.

They have a very high proportion of private branded goods. And so they are very good at being on trend and being fast followers of trend and bringing that into the store at discounted prices. That core middle to upper income consumer is their core traditional shopper. I think it's a very diverse shopper as well. They're very broad based and I think they capture a broad range of customers. Target also distinguished itself from other discount retailers by focusing on inclusivity. In 1977, when the company's mission statement was first published,

respecting the people who shop at Target stores and being a good neighbor were some of the values it listed. I thought Target was smart and early on going after a more diverse customer base. And, you know, you saw it with their inclusivity of different size mannequins. Their core customer was across different ethnicities. And I think they were trying to provide apparel and home furnishings that would support those customers.

So it made sense that they were trying to lean in on this DEI effort through the years. And they've always had that in their DNA. Starting in 2020, Target put even more emphasis on inclusivity. And if you look at the makeup of their customers, it makes sense. A profile of Target shoppers by consumer insight company Numerator shows that people who shop at Target are 1% more likely to be Black, 11% more likely to be Black, 11% more likely to be Hispanic,

and 15% more likely to be Asian than the general U.S. population. Its staff, too, is more diverse than the country as a whole. Target's 2023 Diversity Report showed that 56% of its workers are people of color, with 15% of its staff identifying as Black. The company said it wanted to boost representation of people of color, with 15% of its staff identifying as black. The company said it wanted to boost representation of people of color among both its customers and its staff. Implementing new policies around diversity,

equity, and inclusion, or DEI, was one way to go about it. The term DEI gained national attention after the protests following George Floyd's murder pushed institutions to reckon publicly with racial inequality. Overnight, Minneapolis on fire. Protesters leaving an auto parts store in flames. Others seen looting a local Target. Tonight was a different night of protesting.

WSJ reporter Sarah Nassauer recalls that Target in particular got extra attention during this time. Target was really a company in the spotlight after George Floyd's murder in 2020 because that event happened in their hometown where their headquarter and you know one of their oldest stores is on Lake Street in South Minneapolis you know know, was damaged in the riots afterwards. And they rebuilt that store and did a lot of press around it. Analyst Joe Feldman said he wasn't surprised that Target made this DEI push. I didn't feel like 2020 was some big shift for Target.

I feel like they had always been, you know, really leaning into a more diverse customer base and trying to appeal to everybody and not be discriminatory in any way. And that also came at a time when inclusivity across all various forms was really starting to pick up a lot of momentum in the U.S. broadly speaking. So Target was there and really did lean in. For years, organizations including governments, universities and companies have been looking to increase the participation and representation of people in minority groups. There was affirmative action, equal opportunities and pushes for race blindness. DEI was intended to build on those racial equity efforts.

But more recently, the Trump administration has described DEI initiatives as discriminatory and a waste of money. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Target linked its business to inclusion efforts in part because themed merchandise collections for events such as Pride or Black History Month sold well. In an earnings call on August 19, 2020, Target CEO Brian Cornell spoke about how the company was rising to the moment. Our team is passionately demanding equity and justice for our Black colleagues and guests.

We are united in that passion and committed to supporting our team while playing an active role in addressing the persistent racial injustices that have sparked protests around the world. Target also committed to taking steps to be more inclusive. One early promise, creating a task force focused on racial equity. We've also formed a committee called REACH, consisting of senior leaders

who have come together based on their experience and expertise. Together, they represent a broad enterprise view, and their work is focused on advancing racial equity for our Black team members and guests across all areas of Target's business. Some of Target's other promises included dedicating millions of dollars towards national social justice initiatives, launching an accelerator program for black entrepreneurs, increasing representation of black employees by 20%, and investing more than $2 billion

in black-owned businesses by the end of 2025. Target's competitors also made commitments to racial justice in the aftermath of George Floyd's killing. Walmart pledged $100 million to create a center for racial equity to, quote, address the root causes of gaps in outcomes experienced by Black people. And in a message to employees, Costco's CEO at the time said the company remained committed to building a diverse workforce. The company also committed $25 million to

an investment fund designed to improve economic opportunity for Black Americans. According to several analysts I spoke with, Target's investment in DEI didn't change much for investors at the time. They thought it was on-brand for the company or didn't stand out against the broader landscape of other companies making such commitments. Financially, committing to underrepresented groups didn't seem like it would make a big difference to the company's bottom line. Until it did. Americas Reid is a professor of marketing at the Wharton School and also counsels companies on the benefits and risks of putting forth an ideology. The general consensus in the research is that you either have to stay out of it completely

or you have to be all in no matter what. And I think the big mistake for Target really was kind of going in and presenting itself, hey, we are advocates of DEI and the policies that are associated with it, and then pulling back and saying, okay, well, wait a minute, maybe we're not. So Target, like many other companies,

set new goals to increase diversity. But that didn't go as smoothly as the company had hoped. More after the break. So in 2020, Target had made public promises to boost inclusivity. By the summer of 2023, that commitment got put to the test. Here's WSJ's Sarah Nassauer again. There was an incident where they put out their annual Pride merchandise collection that June, and there was backlash from conservative activists and shoppers about that collection. Starting in May of that year, Target released a variety of Pride-themed merchandise, as

it had for a number of years before. One product in particular, a transgender-friendly swimsuit, sparked criticism among social media commenters who thought it was for children. Target said the swimsuit was only available in adult sizes. Customers, offended by these products, knocked down displays, threatened store employees, and put posts on social media with video from inside stores. And then Target made an announcement

that they were going to pull back on that collection. Pulling back meant removing some items from stores and moving merchandise from the front to the back. Target leadership said that they made those decisions out of concerns for the safety of its staff. And then that had its own backlash from people that felt that that was a betrayal of their support of the LGBTQ community. Target was under pressure. In its effort to appease conservative shoppers offended by the collection, it created distrust among LGBT customers. Here's marketing professor, Americas Reed again. It points to the importance of you spend so much time

and effort trying to create that brand and how it can so easily be undermined if you make some mistakes. It's sort of like this idea that trust is formed in droplets, but can be lost in bucketfuls. John Zalaitis, an analyst and president and founder of investment advisory firm, Covey Discapital, follows the discount retail space.

He says that investors felt the impact in the short term. Investors are gonna be a bit agnostic about the values and the messaging, but they're going to be quite reactive to actual changes in fundamental performance on the business. And that happened. There were four quarters that were negatively impacted

by the reaction to the Pride collection. But Michael Baker, Managing Director and Head of Consumer Research at investment firm D.A. Davidson, says that in the long term, the episode around the Pride merchandise didn't change much for investors. They, like a lot of retailers, we think are in a little bit of a tricky situation where they're trying to appease and please

many different constituents. But they did make a pivot. And so we think they sort of adapted well to that issue. And so that in and of itself, their focus on DEI or other kinds of initiatives didn't really change our view of the company for the longer term. Fast forward to January 2025, when Target's DEI efforts were put to another test. Anti-DEI activist Robbie Starbuck had made the company a focus in the months before. The day Donald Trump was sworn in as president,

he signed an executive order ending government DEI programs. A few days later, on January 24th, Target announced a, quote, evolution of its inclusivity strategy. Target said that throughout 2025, it would be ending its workforce diversity programs, it's stopping its supplier diversity programs, and it's concluding its racial equity action and change initiatives.

Here's WSJ reporter Sarah Nassauer again. And it went beyond that, right? There was also a reversal of their engagement with the Human Rights Commission, which is an LGBTQ organization. And that mirrors things that have happened at many large companies over the last year or so. At the time, the company said that it was on track to meet the goals set out in the 2020 pledge and that some of its diversity initiatives had already been scheduled to conclude this year.

It also said that it will complete its $2 billion commitment to invest in Black-owned brands and businesses in 2025 as planned. But to some consumers, it felt like a betrayal. Here's marketing professor, Americas Reed. If it turns out that you're not going to stand up when it's time to be pressure tested around, well, is this really your mission and vision? So to backtrack this basically saying that you're a liar and it's probably going to emotionally hit a lot of consumers in a way that says, you know what?

I'm gonna potentially boycott this brand. And boycott they did. Less than a week after Target's announcement, activists in Minneapolis, where Target is based, announced a national boycott. At the same time Target's announcement, activists in Minneapolis, where Target is based, announced a national boycott. At the same time, Nina Turner, a former Ohio State Senator and founder

of the pro-labor nonprofit We Are Somebody, also called for shoppers to boycott Target. We Are Somebody is calling for a total boycott of Target stores nationwide, starting February 1st until Target reinstates the programs or replaces them with initiatives ensuring black and other minority brands will not disappear from their shelves. Then, towards the end of February, a pastor outside Atlanta announced a Target boycott during Lent, the Christian time

of repentance. I am calling the conscientious Christian community all over this country, the conscientious Christian community all over this country. I am calling for a 40-day fast from Target. So Target spent decades showing its diverse customer base that it gets them. Then, according to some, rolling back DEI showed that it really didn't. Stick around for the next episode, where we'll dive further into the boycotts, the black-owned businesses affected by them, and how all of this might be having an impact on Target's business, now and potentially into the future. is affected by them and how all of this might be having an impact on Target's business

now and potentially into the future. Episode two is in your feed now.