What item was the bridge too far for Target’s customer base that set them off and sparked a massive boycott of Target stores and sell-off of Target stock? According to former Target Vice Chairman Gerald Storch, who appeared on Fox & Friends to discuss the issue, it was the “tuck-friendly” women’s swimsuit.
As a reminder, those swimsuits, designed for male-to-female transgender individuals, were advertised as being “tuck-friendly” and having “extra crotch coverage.” For whatever reason, that was the item that sparked a massive boycott and has had numerous downstream repercussions for the retail giant.
Storch explained the reason on Fox & Friends. According to him, what made the difference is that consumers had seen all the other “Pride” merchandise and just ignored it because they were used to it, but that swimsuit was something that no one had seen or thought of before, and so it drew their attention and got them angry.
Speaking on that, Storch first said that generic, random “Pride” stuff is fine with most Target customers because everyone carries it and so it’s just there rather than seeming like an attack or attempt to push it, saying, “you know, the plates that had different colors in it. Fine. You show the rainbow, you know, a gingerbread house, whatever you are, that’s all you know. Who cares? Everybody carries that stuff.”
But there was “one item” that set Target apart from the other stores and so got consumers both angry and paying attention to what else it had in its stores, neither of which were good news for Target. That item was the “tuck-friendly” swimsuit. Speaking about it, Storch said, “I’ve never seen a case where one item, that tuck swimsuit, that’s really what made the difference versus the competitors. That’s where the big mistake [was] made.”
Storch then noted that Target is suffering some serious economic issues because of the boycott and stock market decline, saying, “Target stock has certainly been performing poorly off 11% year to date. So that’s not good, and certainly, this boycott of the whole issue here isn’t helping. It’s very distracting to have that going on in the business. But there are more fundamental concerns with that, with the environment, with the consumer and with the business here.”
Indeed, between consumers being financially worn out by persistently high inflation and continual layoffs, stock market volatility because of recession fears, and being in the news constantly because of the boycott being organized against it, Target is in rocky shoals and risks being dashed against the rocks.
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Explaining some of the economic issues Target is facing and why Walmart is managing to do a bit better, Storch then tied inflation in with Target’s position as the “upscale discounter,” meaning that it’s more expensive than Walmart but not a boutique business or small, focused store to which people have loyalty. That is, in his words, “a huge problem.” As he put it: “The consumer is feeling very stressed, very stressed by the environment, by inflation, and Target is known as the upscale discounter. So it’s not good to be the upscale discounter at a time when the consumer doesn’t have a lot of money to spend. So they’re migrating more to Wal-Mart, and that’s a huge problem.“