Wah.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/...nyone-141019006.html

Target triggered a nationwide boycott last year with a single blog post — and it turns out the message was as big of a shock to the company's CEO as it was to some shoppers.

The blog post, published in April 2016, publicized a policy that said transgender customers were welcome to use the bathroom or fitting room that matched their gender identity.

"Everyone deserves to feel like they belong," the post said. "And you'll always be accepted, respected and welcomed at Target."

Target CEO Brian Cornell never approved the post and found out about it only after it was published, according to The Wall Street Journal.

He later told colleagues that he wouldn't have approved the decision to "flaunt" the policy and that the backlash was "self-inflicted," The Journal reported.

The boycott cost the company millions in lost sales and added expenses. Shopper traffic and same-store sales started sliding for the first time in years after the blog post, and the company was forced to spend $20 million installing single-occupancy bathrooms in all its stores to give critics of the policy more privacy.

Critics of the policy said it opened the door for sexual predators to victimize women and children inside the retailer's bathrooms, and more than 1.4 million people signed a pledge to stop shopping at Target unless it reversed the policy.

Sales fell nearly 6% in the three quarters after the post compared with the same period last year, and same-store sales have dropped every quarter since the post.

Cornell didn't approve the post, according to The Journal, but he supported the policy in interviews after it was published.

"We took a stance, and we are going to continue to embrace our belief of diversity and inclusion," Cornell said in an interview with CNBC in May.

In the past, even the most widespread calls for company boycotts have tended to blow over within a matter of weeks or months.

Chick-fil-A, for example, faced a nationwide boycott in 2012 after Dan Cathy, the son of Chick-fil-A's founder, S. Truett Cathy, set off a fury among supporters of equal rights for gay people when he told Baptist Press that the company was "guilty as charged" for backing "the biblical definition of the family unit."

Reports then emerged detailing Chick-fil-A's many charitable donations to organizations opposed to same-sex marriage.

Despite the backlash, Chick-fil-A's sales increased 14% in 2012.

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In other news, I've self identified as a 70 year old retiree (I'm 50-ish) and am petitioning the Social Security Administration to receive full benefits. I'll let you know how it works out.

There is a quiet, civilized, and very real conservative backlash going on in this country. These libs are starting to realize that many people don't automatically lap up their PC BS, and there is often a price to pay.

Contrast the conservative reactions with the liberal ones. Conservatives express ourselves with our wallets. We flocked to Chik Fila to show our support. We dropped Target to show our disapproval.

Liberals, in similar situations, block roadways and attack people.

I believe there are more of us than there are of them.

I guess Target should have figured out who their target customers were in the first place.

^^^exactly. And guess what mr. Ceo, the shit is your fault whether you made the decision or not. Directly or indirectly.

quote:

Originally posted by Deqlyn:
^^^exactly. And guess what mr. Ceo, the shit is your fault whether you made the decision or not. Directly or indirectly.

+1
.

My faith in this country is being restored.

quote:

Cornell didn't approve the post, according to The Journal, but he supported the policy in interviews after it was published.

So does this mean we are not going to hear about the person in the blogging department that was fired for causing a >6% drop in sales and a $20M expense. I guess he isn't really running the place now is he.

quote:

Originally posted by 2012BOSS302:

quote:

Cornell didn't approve the post, according to The Journal, but he supported the policy in interviews after it was published.

So does this mean we are not going to hear about the person in the blogging department that was fired for causing a >6% drop in sales and a $20M expense. I guess he isn't really running the place now is he.

Seems like a lame excuse. What percentage of blog posts did he approve prior to this? I suspect it's 0 or darn near 0.

Ya know sumptin....

It's not so much the transgender folks going to the restroom of their choice that bothers me. It's the crossdressers.

As far as I'm concerned? Obama and places like Target created this "problem". F'em.

I can go elsewhere.

CW

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:

quote:

Originally posted by 2012BOSS302:

quote:

Cornell didn't approve the post, according to The Journal, but he supported the policy in interviews after it was published.

So does this mean we are not going to hear about the person in the blogging department that was fired for causing a >6% drop in sales and a $20M expense. I guess he isn't really running the place now is he.

Seems like a lame excuse. What percentage of blog posts did he approve prior to this? I suspect it's 0 or darn near 0.

I've worked at Target Corporate among other Forbes 50 companies, and I know of no CEO who approves social or blog posts. It is complete nonsense that he'd say such a thing.

Trying to sit on both sides of the fence to save his job. Eventually CEO's will figure out that even if all of the 3% if the alphabet soup spent all of their money there they will still face a reduction in business

It is math a CEO should be good at. If we are lucky a large institutional stock holder will file a class action lawsuit. It is the CEO's fiduciary responsibility to make the best decisions for the company. This clown admitted he wouldn't.

Countless merchants sell the same crap that Target sells - generally for less.

We keep hearing 'elections have consequences'

Well I elect to shop elsewhere for my stuff.

Mike

Walmart is calling.

Pushing back.

Whenever, wherever you can.

It is cumulative.

Target is too far away from me so I never shopped there anyways but my daughter, who is a mom, lives very close to it and she has not shopped there since this came up. She told me her circle of friends have boycotted as well.

Just a few people I guess but if you take it nationwide, it has to hurt.

Trouble is that Lefties refuse to learn. They would rather fall on their sword than reverse their pointy-headed policies. Target's policy did not bother me enough to avoid shopping there if doing so were convenient. But Mrs DF Will. Not. Go. There. Any. More. Ever. Since she won't go, I won't go. I suspect we are not alone in this decision. Let Target evaporate.

The Left in this country became emboldened enough during our long struggle with Stampy Feet. So much so that they shrugged off their moderate camouflage and proudly saluted whatever destructive Lefty ideal that slithered by. Now we know who they are. Seems Target is an unfortunate name after all.

Maybe the mighty dinosaurs were history's "leftists", ever refusing to learn...

And who "progressed" and survived?

Lefties don't boycott, they riot. The rightous don't boycott they just don't go.

So if the ceo has his scouts out searching anti-social media, looking for shriekers whatever, he gets a report that all's a-OK. But to para-phraase yogi , if people don't want to go out to target, nobody can stop them.

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
I guess Target should have figured out who their target customers were in the first place.

BULLSEYE!!

My wife is a higher level manager for TGT. Part of her compensation is TGT stock. We just LOVE the fact that our pretty sizeable amount of TGT stock has nosedived in the past year due to some idiot leftist loser posting something stupid.

Wal-Mart stays out of politics and refuses to comment on matters such as this, which is EXACTLY what every publicly traded corporation should do.

I sure hope TGT and Starbucks and others have learned their lesson. Conservatives have deep pockets, and their purchases matter.