A 40-day Target boycott starts today. It couldn’t come at a worse time for the company
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Target is facing a 40-day consumer boycott starting Wednesday over the company’s shift away from diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies.
“We’re asking people to divest from Target because they have turned their back on our community,” Rev. Jamal Bryant, a prominent Atlanta-area megachurch pastor who started the boycott, said in an interview with CNN.
The boycott, which begins during the start of Lent, comes more than a month after Target made changes to its DEI programs and at a difficult period for the company as it faces an onslaught of tariffs in the middle of a challenging economy.
On January 24, days into Donald Trump’s presidency, Target announced it was eliminating hiring goals for minority employees, ending an executive committee focused on racial justice and making other changes to its diversity initiatives. Target said it had a new strategy called “Belonging at the Bullseye,” which it first introduced last year, and the company remained committed to “creating a sense of belonging for our team, guests and communities.” Target also stressed the need for “staying in step with the evolving external landscape.”
Target is one of dozens of Fortune 500 companies that have backtracked on DEI in response to conservative court decisions, pressure from activists and right-wing legal groups, and, more recently, the Trump administration’s threats to investigate what it characterizes as “illegal DEI,” including potential criminal cases against companies. Companies are caught between pursuing efforts to increase diversity and avoiding a conservative legal crackdown.
But no company has faced as fierce a blowback from DEI supporters as Target. Customers online have protested the decision and Anne and Lucy Dayton, the daughters of one of Target’s co-founders, called the company’s actions “a betrayal.”
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.
Target was a leading advocate for DEI programs in the business world in the years after George Floyd was murdered by police in the company’s home city of Minneapolis in 2020. Target also spent years building a public reputation as a progressive employer on LGBTQ issues.
“Black people spend upwards of $12 million dollars a day, and so we would expect some loyalty, some decency and some camaraderie,” Bryant said.
Melissa Butler, the CEO of the Lip Bar, one of the largest Black-owned makeup companies carried in Target, said on TikTok that she was disappointed about Target’s DEI pullback. But she worries that the boycott could hurt Black-owned businesses.
“We don’t want these minority businesses to suffer or to be impacted negatively,” she said.
Target declined to comment to CNN about the boycott. A spokesperson for Target said the company is still committed to inclusivity and offers a wide range of products and services, including items that are owned by Black and minority vendors.
But there are already signs that the blowback from Target’s move is impacting the company.
Customer visits to Target, Walmart and Costco have slowed over the last four weeks, but they have dropped the most at Target, according to Placer.ai., which uses phone location data to track visits. The slowdown could also be attributed to weather, economic conditions and other variables, Placer.ai cautioned.
The data “shows a clear drop in traffic in late January into mid-February following the company’s step back from DEI,” Joseph Feldman, an analyst at Telsey Advisory Group, said in a note to clients last week.
The boycott also comes as Target faces pressure from tariffs and a consumer pullback. Target said Tuesday its sales declined in February and it expects sales to only grow around 1% this year.
Target CEO Brian Cornell said in an interview with CNBC Tuesday that Trump’s tariffs on Mexico may force the company to raise prices on fruits and vegetables as soon as this week. Target also said that “tariff uncertainty” will impact its profit this quarter.
Cornell said Target relies heavily on Mexican produce imports during the winter. “Those are categories where we’ll try to protect pricing, but the consumer will likely see price increases over the next couple of days,” he said.
CNN’s Ryan Young and Jason Morris contributed to this article.
Correction: A previous version of this article misstated where Melissa Butler, the CEO of the Lip Bar, spoke about the Target boycott. It was posted on TikTok.
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Why are people boycotting Target? Group launches 40-day Targetfast
Protests against major consumer corporations continue to ramp up as a new 40-day boycott against Target started on Wednesday in retaliation against the company rolling back on diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
The boycott was organized by Atlanta Pastor Jamal Bryant, telling the public to halt their spending on this “40-day fast” that coincides with Lent.
“In recent days, we have witnessed a disturbing retreat from Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives by major corporations − companies that once pledged to stand for justice but have since chosen the path of compromise,” reads the website Targetfast.
The protest is also organized along with U.S. Black Chambers, who advocate for black-owned businesses, and the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church.
Those who are organizing the boycott said they are insulted by the store ending its DEI program, where the company is no longer prioritizing the hiring of people from underrepresented communities.
“The greatest insult comes from Target, which pledged to spend over $2 billion with Black-owned businesses by the end of 2025, only to find out that Target stopped the program at the start of the year. Black people spend over $12 million a day at Target,” said the website promoting the boycott.
Target is not the only company slashing their DEI programs. Companies such as Google, Meta, Ford and more scaling back on DEI after President Donald Trump cut federal DEI programs within his first days in office.
The organizations list the demands on their website:
Other prominent activist organization like the NAACP tell consumers to instead shop at black-owned businesses to prioritize people over profit.
The Targetfast website said they will review the data after the 40-day boycott, and may proceed to a “Phase 2” of protests. The group hopes Target meets their demands by the company’s June 12 shareholders meeting.
The Target boycott follows a 24-hour economic blackout that was organized to protest many corporations such as Walmart and Target over stopped DEI initiative programs.
While the first quarter sales reports are not out for Target yet, Forbes found that the store’s web traffic was down on the day of the economic blackout, compared to previous weeks.
USA Today using research from Placer.ai, a firm that makes estimations for in-store visits to locations across the country by using a panel of tens of millions of devices and utilizes machine learning, reported foot traffic at Target, Walmart, Best Buy, McDonalds and Starbucks decreased in Febraury from January’s numbers.
Costco, which stood by its DEI initiatives, experienced an increase of 22% web traffic since the start of the month, according to Forbes.
2-minute read
Did the last DEI protest work?
Target Loses Web Traffic As Costco Gains On Feb. 28 Economic Blackout Day
Target’s online traffic dropped during The People’s Union USA Economic Blackout on Feb. 28, according to data from website analytics platform Similarweb. And while the boycott was not explicitly targeting brands that rolled back diversity, equity and inclusion policies, Costco’s uptick in online traffic on the same day, brings the conversation back to the forefront.
On Feb. 28 blackout day, Target website visitors dropped 9% compared to Friday, Feb. 14, from 5.2 … [+]
On blackout day, Target website visitors dropped 9% compared to Friday, Feb. 14, from 5.2 million to 4.7 million.
Target app user traffic, representing the most loyal Target customers, was off even more, down 14%, from 4.2 million to 3.5 million.
By comparison, Costco experienced a 22% rise in Feb. 28 web traffic, from 2.4 million Feb. 14 to 2.9 million and Costco app user visits rose 3%, from 1.3 million to 1.34 million.
On blackout day, the nation’s number one retailer, Walmart, experienced a 5% slump in web traffic, down from 11.7 million on Feb. 14 to 11.2 million and number two Amazon dropped by 2%, from 67.1 million to 65.9 million.
However, Amazon app traffic rose 1% to 51.4 million visitors while Walmart’s dropped 2% to 13.6 million.
Ever since Target announced at the end of January that it had concluded its three-year diversity, equity and inclusion goals, calls for boycotts against Target have been growing, most recently with Black faith and civil rights leaders advocating for a 40-day “Target Fast” over Lent starting this Ash Wednesday. About the same time as Target was dialing back DEI, Costco affirmed its strong DEI commitment after striking down a proxy vote to evaluate its current policy’s risks in light of rising anti-DEI political and legal pressure. While website traffic can rise and fall sharply on any given day for any number of reasons, it would appear that Target is beginning to experience pullback from its most loyal app-user customer base.
Target reports full-year 2024 earnings tomorrow at 9 a.m. ET and its fourth quarter will only include results covering a week or so after the DEI pushback began. So we’ll have to wait for next quarter to see impact from the boycott calls. However, Target gave a sneak peek at holiday results and reported a 2.8% net sales increase over November and December, including a nearly 9% increase in digital sales compared to prior year.
PROMOTED
Blackrock, the world’s largest investment firm and one of the leading advocates for strong DEI and environmental, social and governance policies, has been “walking back” its ESG/DEI positions, the Wall Street Journal reported. Last Friday, it told employees it was ending “aspirational workforce representation goals” as a result of “significant changes to the U.S. legal and policy environment.”
“In recent days, we have witnessed a disturbing retreat from Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives by major corporations—companies that once pledged to stand for justice but have since chosen the path of compromise. These rollbacks represent more than just corporate decisions; they reflect a deeper erosion of the moral and ethical commitments necessary to build a just society. As people of faith, we cannot be silent. We are called to resist systems that perpetuate exclusion and inequity,” states the TargetFast.org website.
BlackRock’s ‘Woke’ Era Is Over (Wall Street Journal, 2/2/2025)
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Pam Danziger covers retail with an emphasis on luxury brands and affluent consumers. As a market researcher, she is a… Read More
Pam Danziger covers retail with an emphasis on luxury brands and affluent consumers. As a market researcher, she is a
