Had no idea a boycott was happening.
Dear capitalist media… Target is being boycotted for being racist. And no, Target is not the victim.
These headlines ffs…
I used to do nearly all my shopping there because of the policies they got rid of. Cancelled my 360 membership, getting used to buying flour 25# at a time from Costco …
boycotts dont work, guys. keep trying, though! maybe try something a bit more proactive?
just an idea, maybe you could try recording a video of minecraft gameplay where a 1:1 scale recreation of the white house is destroyed in a fire?
If you truly believed this, you’d not be here. You’d come here in 40 days to poke fun, but you’d not bother with us because you know that the effect will be zero. That you’re here tells me that you, or much more likely your masters because you don’t have an original thought in your mind, are afraid that this will actually get momentum and affect Target’s stock price and sales figures. Thanks for the vote of confidence! Let’s get boycotting!
Slashing the profits of a $60bil company doesn’t do anything.
Lol, Lmao
yes, it does literally nothing. even if nobody shopped at target ever again it would change absolutely nothing. they’d go into administration, get bought by some other corporation, and possibly rebrand. wealthy people would likely profit from short selling the stock.
target isn’t the problem. the problem is the system. you can’t change the system by boycotting some random business. i am begging you to do literally any other form of activism. because this aint it.
luigi, now there’s a guy with bolder ideas.
Or maybe you could try having someone proofread your post ideas
do you genuinely think that i’m wrong? do you truly believe in your heart that a 40 day boycott of a single big box store will help people?
we’re literally watching the united states become a fascist dictatorship and you believe that this is an appropriate response?
people are suffering and dying because of us, and we’re congratulating ourselves for buying stuff on amazon instead of target for 40 days? seriously?
i don’t need a proofreader. i need people to wake up and actually do something, not waste everyone’s time and energy with performative bullshit that achieves nothing other than making us feel like we’re not doing nothing.
Why didn’t you wake up and do something then if you feel so impassioned? Instead, I see you’re wasting your time complaining on an obscure reddit alternative.
Are you saying that boycotts are necessarily performative, or just in certain cases?
My wife told me we are boycotting, so lets do this!
I have 3 trans friends and as a super straight middle aged privileged all to hell white dad, fuck these corporate assholes.
My wife lives at Target. She’s already found other places to get the essentials.
40 days.
Fill a target online shopping cart with every day items, stuff you would buy every week or every month, and abandon it. Nothing big or expensive, standard shit.
Do that a few times.
I work at the Target warehouse that supplies the northwest, should be interesting to see if this actually noticeably changes our daily product volume. Gonna hazard a guess at no probably not. I should have some idea within 24 hours thanks to just in time logistics but seasonal product could fuzz the numbers a bit.
Works for me though, I’m mostly here for the tuition benefit and I don’t lose benefits eligibility unless I dip below 20/hr/week average which I can’t imagine happening.
Putting a time limit on a boycott undermines the boycott.
Saw this with the Loblaw’s boycott here in Canada, it was very ineffective because they can just wait it out.
Yes, just don’t shop at Target.
It’s strange that people forget that businesses like Target getting rid of DEI also gets rid of many disability act initiatives. There should be more outrage than just a boycott.But why would people boycott a law blog?
From the point of view of the boycotter, having a time limit helps mentally.
I think more people are ready to think “just buy somewhere else for a bit”. If it becomes “forever” might seem daunting.
My two cents, not sure if this is the real reason.
Instead if 40 days, let’s try 40 months.
Let’s make them the next kmart
I used to pretty regularly shop at target. When they rolled back DEI proactively for trump, I stopped.
I had heard about the boycott, but didn’t realize this was the reason. Target’s on the other side of town from me so I don’t shop there anyway, but yeah definitely not going there at all now. Fuck them.
It’s “funny” how capitalist media will talk about the boycott and cry agonized tears for Target…
But never mention the “why”, especially not in headlines.
Using gift cards is OK if you’re boycotting a place, right? I mean, Target already has the money and you’d just be helping them out if you didn’t buy anything with them.
I’m a school bus driver and I always get a lot of tips (Christmas and end of year) in the form of Target gift cards. BTW yes, I agree that tipping school bus drivers is fucking weird. We already get paid and it’s not like we’re going to drive the kids into a tree if we don’t get tipped.
In my old community the bus driver was part of our community, we knew her and she was amazing. She knew the kids, she welcomed them by name every morning and she made sure they got to school safe AND ok.
The last bit is the most important part. She deserved a “tip” but in reality as someone who was part of my extended “raise my kid family” she “earned” her card and Starbucks gift card (mostly cuz she drank 7-11 coffee and I liked razzing her)
Our current bus driver is a contractor who couldn’t give a fuck about anything except when he has to be at the stop and when he is allowed to leave, exactly where the “nah you’re too far away from the bus stop fuck you’d kid” line is.”
It’s not always weird, but can be.
Those are Christmas gifts. The parents are just showing appreciation for you already not driving their kids into a tree, not bribing you lol.
No, it’s definitely bribes lol
Not really. The explanation is somewhat complex.
Although target already has the money once a gift card has been purchased, they will not recognise the money as revenue until you use the card.
Suppose my lawn mowing guy charges $50 each time he mows my lawn, and he comes 12 times a year. In January I just transfer him $600 because I don’t want to muck around with smaller payments all the time.
When he calculates his “revenue” for January, should he include the whole $600? It would be more accurate to set aside the $550 he hadn’t really earned yet, and recognise that once he actually does the work.
There’s more geaky accounting stuff I could say, but in summary if you want to send a message to Target management, refrain from using gift cards during the boycott.
I’ll allow it.
We already get paid and it’s not like we’re going to drive the kids into a tree if we don’t get tipped.
You might not do it, I however am always looking for revenue streams. If it’s for profit, it can’t be illegal.
Looks at the health insurance industry
Ooh! I haven’t been to Target in a while. Time for a shopping trip.
What a lazy troll, did your attention seeking behavior get you what you want?
Worthless people buying worthless crap.
“Yes daddy lick those boots. Go buy $11 eggs and a $40 hdmi cable from target. Mmmm the leather tastes so good”
- you probably
Just curious as to why you would want to shop there now because of this boycott? Not judging just curious.
Like it seems you didn’t shop there but now it’s contrarian to do you want to.
Because they only know how to be against something
Conservatives are literally only contrarians. If the left does anything, the right only wants to do the opposite no matter what it is. There is nothing the right will ever do to say “that’s a great idea!” Because that’s considered losing to them.
“Hey let’s give kids free school lunch!” “NO! That makes them only want handouts and the children should work”.
They have the mental capacity of a child and it’s hurting everyone.
I wouldn’t want to generalise everybody but I honestly can’t comprehend how anybody would want to act like that.
Like my views are based on what I believe is right and what a society should be based on my morals and not just the opposite of some other people. I find it odd.
I don’t even know if I believe conservatives to be bad people and more I assume they’ve been lied to and it’s hard to get them to see the truth.
He is just trolling. It’s a MAGA thing.
Hive mind, why are we mad at you target? Did a rich asshole make a shitty decision?
Headlines from capitalist media won’t answer these questions. They’re too busy crying for Target. Gotta look it up.
Yeah. Read the article.
Every time I’ve gone into a target in the last 5 years, they legit looked like they were closing down. Idk why people are boycotting them in particular when Walmart and Amazon are way worse.
i can tell you why - because it’s easy. this is slacktivism. it changes nothing about policy. it exists exclusively to make people feel better about capitulating and doing nothing to prevent their country from becoming a fascist dictatorship
“Hey! That store you don’t shop at? Make sure you continue to not shop there for the next 40 days! That’ll show the elites!”
Every Target I go to is nicer than Walmart and has a more curated feel of products. I agree on the last part but it’s because Target was advertising itself as being more in touch with things such as DEI and then backtracked, where Walmart and Amazon never positioned themselves as much.
Target’s thing has always been to be “Walmart but fancy”. Fun fact, the last “T” is actually silent, and you’re supposed the pronounce it “Tar-jay”
you’re supposed the pronounce it “Tar-jay”
Lmao, no you’re not, that’s just something people started doing to literally make fun of the “Walmart but fancy” image they cultivated for themselves.
Same, I get major K-Mart in its final days vibes: lots of empty shelves, stuff in dented and torn packaging, hostile and surly employees etc. etc.
Browsing through the Target grocery section has always mystified me. Not great selection and everything costs about 50% more than the local grocery stores. I have never understood why anybody would shop there for groceries.
Yeah, Kmart vibes is accurate.
There was a time when Target had a middle class demo they…targeted. But that demo is too small now. They’re either going to need to shrink and market to the top 10%, competing with Whole Foods, or lower their standards and compete with Amazon. Oof, gotta love monopolies. Starting to think this boycott was Bezos’ idea.
The Rite Aid near us actually was 3/4 empty all through the pandemic. They put up a sign saying they were remodeling, but closed a few months ago.
Drug stores are so fucking weird. It’s a business model that apparently supports a store on every corner, yet they often go out of business too. And it’s always Rite Aids going out of business, although I couldn’t say what the difference is between those and the other chains.
Our Target is in pretty good shape, always busy. Wonder what the difference is…locale? Management?
you don’t have to go in my wife orders in the app and they text when it’s ready and bring it out to the car. usually the order is ready within a few minutes.
we are both autistic and do much of our shopping this way it’s soooo much easier I dunno why anyone would go in.
I go in the store to browse. But I’m also NT so it doesn’t stress me out to be in a store. My wife is ND and has to psych herself up for in-store things.
I mean besides the time that doesn’t seem much different from the other 2. Walmart I’ll place my grocery pickup order, select a time (usually right when I’m coming home from work so I know I won’t be doing anything else) and they’ll bring it out to me. Amazon obviously delivers right to my front door. Walmart means I need to order maybe 12 hours in advance and Amazon a couple days, but otherwise is there a difference?
It couldn’t come at a worse time for the company
Neither could their capitulation to Trumps bigoted rhetoric.
I got a lot of flak and eye rolls from my liberal friends a few years ago when I, as a queer woman, would criticize their Rainbow Capitalism. But Target is not an ally, they never were. They are simply a corporation that got some easy publicity in liberal spaces by showing the bare minimum decency.
Fair weather allies, aren’t.
Just to build on this. No publicly traded company is an ally to any group but its shareholders.
That’s why it’s our responsibility as consumers to align their shareholder interests to doing the right fucking thing. Boycotts and other consumer action are part of their calculations on what the shareholder interests are, so a large population of informed consumers who vote their conscience with their wallet will provide pressure to do the right thing.
So we must become the shareholders?
Target is under more pressure than companies like Walmart, John Deere or Tractor Supply, because Target went further in its DEI efforts, and it has a more progressive base of customers than those competitors.
This is wild move for a company on its arse anyway.
Why are people boycotting a company that tried and took a step back due to backlash instead of supporting them when they tried?
I shopped there nearly exclusively because of what they had been doing. Now that they’re embracing fascism, I’m not.
The article certainly outlines a few reasons:
- Target “embraced” the idea of rolling back DEI policies more than many companies, furthering its weird cultish “belonging to the bullseye” internal culture.
- Target’s customers are more progressive than Walmart, John Deere, or Ford, so more of them actually care about what the company is doing.
- Target previous embraced DEI more than other companies. Them previously doing so and then promptly shedding it seems that their corporate culture is one of quarterly gains rather than giving a shit about anybody. While that’s true for pretty much all publicly traded corporations, see point 2.
Target throwing themselves at
Rainbow Capitalismis one pile of evidence that points at their movement being on the whim of the dollar as opposed to strong corporate ethics
Can we add bigger offenders like Wal-Mart and Amazon?
That is the part that pisses me off so much about this. Yes. Target capitulated. Yes, Target needs to be told that’s not good.
BUT WALTONS FUND THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION!
This can’t be said enough, yet we can’t get a days boycott on them for fucks sake!
People need awareness, motivation and organization. If you can help with that, go for it.
Right? And why not just boycott all pubkically traded companies forever? 40 days doesn’t do much
Because if you propose that, no one is actually going to do it.
Doing something is always more impactful than shooting for everything and ending up doing nothing. This is a great example of a smartly thought out mass movement; it has a specific goal, and a clearly defined set of terms. Remember, you can always expand or extend. It’s far better to get a small thing moving than try to build a big thing that you never finish.
Also, 40 days is long enough that some people are going to change their shopping habits on a more permanent basis. Creating even a longer impact on Target.
I don’t get why anyone complains about fixed term boycotts anyway. You can just add another 40 days if Target doesn’t get the message. It’s not like you’re signing a contract or something. Boycotts are a negotiation, and in negotiation you always leave yourself wiggle room.
People love to get into this “Only the biggest possible action and nothing else” mindset, and then never actually take any action at all.
Further, a lot of dirt poor people literally rely on Walmart because Walmart was successful at gutting every other business out of their already dirt poor areas. That was literally Walmart’s business model to undersell the competition until they were the only game in town, it’s how they got so huge so fast. Large swathes of the South are like that. There’s a reason they teach their employees how to sign up for food stamps.
100%, perfect is the enemy of good. But it makes little logical sense to give any of these corporations any money or data
If you’re on the highway, need a coffee, and Starbucks is the only thing around, buy the Starbucks.
If Amazon is the only place you can buy that thing you need, buy it from Amazon.
There are plenty of times when the bad option is the only good option. If we teach people that boycotts have to be all or nothing - if we get into this mindset that a single latte means you’re an evil monster who supports genocide - we just engineer a state of despair.
But if we encourage people to reduce rather than cut out, we set an easily achievable goal. And that means it’s a goal that a lot more people will strive for.
If you want to cut out every big corporation entirely from your life, that’s an admirable personal goal, but not one that seems easy or achievable to most people.
I’m definitely with you on that in spirit. I would starve if I actually practiced that across the board. I figure if we start from the top down, maybe we can get the co-ops to come back. Our neighborhood co-op grocery closed down not too long ago, and all that’s left are national chains.
I think it’s fair to commit to reducing your purchasing from these large entities significantly. By design, these companies have made it basically impossible to get certain products except from them, so do what you need to do in those cases. But you can get a lot still from alternatives.
I’m a huge advocate of what I call “soft boycotting.” You don’t have to all or nothing this stuff. If a million people reduce their spending on a company by only ten percent, that’s just as much damage as ten thousand people dropping them entirely. And it’s a lot easier to get a million people to reduce their spending by a little than it is to get ten thousand people to go cold turkey.
Remember, perfect is the enemy of good. A small action taken is worth far more than a big action only imagined.
Yeah co-ops are amazing, I’m always astounded when I find cities that don’t have any
Better than these one day protests that LITERALLY do nothing. At least a 40 day boycott would hit a fiscal month, vs a single day outlier protest.
Join me, I’ve been boycotting them for years.
There is supposed to be a weeklong boycott of Amazon this month, I forget the exact date.
March 7-14
