Business Target holds 'emergency' meeting over LGBTQ merchandise in some stores to avoid ‘Bud Light situation’ - Some southern locations move Pride displays, apparel away from storefronts

https://www.foxnews.com/media/target-holds-emergency-meeting-lgbtq-pride-merchandise-stores-avoid-bud-light-situation

Some southern Target stores were forced by the corporation to move LGBTQ Pride merchandise away from the front of their locations after customer "outrage" to avoid a "Bud Light situation." Many Target locations across the country feature massive June Pride month displays on an annual basis, with items this year ranging from "tuck friendly" bathing suits for transgender people to mugs that say "gender fluid." But the retail juggernaut has been criticized by some conservatives for the displays, with children’s items particularly irking many customers. A Target insider told Fox News Digital that many locations, mostly in rural areas of the south, have relocated Pride sections to avoid the kind of backlash Bud Light has received in recent weeks after using a transgender influencer in a promotional campaign.

A Target insider said there were "emergency" calls on Friday and some managers and district senior directors were told to tamp down the Pride sections immediately. "We were given 36 hours, told to take all of our Pride stuff, the entire section, and move it into a section that’s a third the size. From the front of the store to the back of the store, you can’t have anything on mannequins and no large signage," the Target insider said. "We call our customers ‘guests,’ there is outrage on their part. This year it is just exponentially more than any other year," the Target insider continued. "I think given the current situation with Bud Light, the company is terrified of a Bud Light situation." The insider, who has worked at the retailer for almost two decades, said Target rarely makes such hasty decisions. They said Friday’s call began with roughly 10 minutes on "how to deal with team member safety" because of the amount of backlash the Pride merchandise has generated, noting that Target Asset Protect & Corporate Security teams were present on the call.

"The call was super quick, it was 15 minutes. The first 10 minutes was about how to keep your team safe and not having to advocate for Target. The last five was, ‘Move this to the back, take down the mannequins and remove the signage,’" the insider said, noting that bathing suits have replaced Pride merchandise in front-of-store displays despite Pride month not even starting until June 1. "It’s all under the guise of trying to increase swim sales," the insider said. "Everyone was like, ‘Thank God,’ because we’re all on the front lines dealing with it." Target did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Fox News Digital has confirmed rural Target stores in South Carolina, Arkansas and Georgia are among the locations to move the Pride sections. Most rank-and-file employees were left in the dark, with many not knowing the Pride sections would be moved until they noticed it themselves. Pride merchandise remains prominently displayed at other locations and on the Target website. Target Pride merchandise includes female-style swimsuits that can be used to "tuck" male genitalia. Some products are also labeled as "Thoughtfully fit on multiple body types and gender expressions." Pride merchandise also includes onesies and rompers for newborn babies, a variety of adult clothing with slogans such as "Super Queer," party supplies, home décor, multiple books and a "Grow At Your Own Pace" saucer planter.

Bud Light sales have plummeted since backlash to the infamous partnership with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney continues to haunt the company more than a month since it came to light. The issue began when Mulvaney publicized that the beer company sent packs of Bud Light featuring the influencer’s face as a way to celebrate a full year of "girlhood." Mulvaney is one of many social media influencers Bud Light has tapped to promote the brand. Mulvaney said the cans were her "most prized possession" on Instagram with a post that featured "#budlightpartner." A video then featured Mulvaney in a bathtub drinking a Bud Light beer as part of the campaign. Some consumers mistakenly thought the cans with Mulvaney's face were being sold to the public. "Bud Light learned an important lesson about wading into the culture wars recently. But partnering with Dylan Mulvaney is nothing compared to what Target is doing," conservative pundit and author Bethany Mandel tweeted.

https://archive.is/vrZbI

___________________________________________________
A company....actually kinda reading the room for once?! Consider me shocked.

 

[JULAY]

Bud Light publicly apologized.

Putting out a bland PR statement that says "We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people" is in no way, shape, or form an apology.

For one thing, the LGBTQ community — and, in particular, the “T” in that abbreviation — has become a political target on the right.

Well, this guy is about to get canceled. The forced teaming with LGB is what got the TQ license to fuck up society as much as they have. Noticing that there is a difference of any kind between T and regular gay people is strictly verboten.

Social media accounts such as Libs of TikTok or Gays Against Groomers — which contributed to the focus on Target — have generated audiences by plucking LGBTQ-related content and outreach from their intended context

Libs of Tiktok literally just reposts shit she finds on Tiktok. Out of their intended context how exactly? She's reposting liberal nutjobs own videos verbatim.

Right-wing voices have suggested that businesses engage in this sort of outreach because they’re being graded on how “woke” they are by nonprofits. This patently ridiculous idea

Yes, the Human Rights Commission doesn't give a 0-100 score on how well companies, in the sole judgment of the HRC, do at accommodating ever-escalating demands from the alphabet mafia. Blackrock doesn't have ESG scores either. Those things don't exist, and if your lying eyes tell you they do, you are a transphobe.

While a plurality of Americans indicated in polling released last year that a company’s support for LGBTQ customers didn’t influence their decision to give the company their patronage, more than a third said that LGBTQ support increased the likelihood they’d buy from that brand. By contrast, less than a fifth said it decreased the likelihood.

Given that most people have seen how even the smallest amount of wrongthink will get you cancelled, why would you think that an opinion survey on this topic would get you accurate results? I'm willing to bet that a significant portion of that plurality of Americans who say they don't care one way or another actually do care, and they are just to afraid to say so, especially to a stranger who knows their real name, address and phone number.

Acquiescing to the pressure, though, increases the likelihood that pressure will be applied by small groups in similar ways in the future.

Well, this is the first thing he's said in this article that's actually true. Ten years ago when this madness began, most people thought there would be no harm in calling a man a woman or vice versa for the sake of "being kind", and now look where that's gotten us.

Christ almighty, even by WaPo "journalistic" standards, this article is complete and utter bullshit. But I must admit, by the standards of its true purpose, which is to create and maintain the woke narrative, it does its job well.

 

[Positron]

The Left love to remind people -- especially you, Christians -- that people are worth more than things. Turns out that if you put some rainbows on things, their evaluation turns up side down.


Oh, speaking of Christians.

 

[A Grey Cat]

Also why is Satanists always such losers? There never is a chad satanist who bench’s 340 and blasts slurs online 24/7

There was only one like that the og Anton levay himself...and recently I'm starting to wonder if even he believed in half the bs he wrote and sold to an entire generation just as srupid and impressionable as the current one.


But all jokes aside Target is already am overpriced version of walmart people only shop at so they can brag "Hey at least its not walmart!" If poor white trash didn't need a reason to go there now they sure as hell have one now.

 

[WelperHelper99]

The Left love to remind people -- especially you, Christians -- that people are worth more than things. Turns out that if you put some rainbows on things, their evaluation turns up side down.
View attachment 5136023

Oh, speaking of Christians.
View attachment 5136046

The Christian lady is either the worst mother ever or FAKE. As for the others, nice calls for violence lol. Truly I've seen your point now

 

[Dysnomia]

I wish they'd hide the Pride displays here too. The Pride displays are right after the $1-$5 bins by the door. So when your kid makes a beeline to the dollar store level toys you are face to face with rainbows and displays featuring ugly genderblobs.

I want to add that this stuff rots on the shelf for the most part. Pride merchandise is really just an advertisement for how much a store "cares" for 30 days out of the year. Much like the pink ribbons for breast cancer awareness month. I's all corpo greed. None of the suits high up in Target give a dilator about your pronouns. This waste of floor space is just for show.

All that cheap sweatshop labor, pollution and waste water that goes to create a bunch of tacky rainbow crap with queer slogans slapped across it. Most of it ends up in a discount bin anyway. There's some Chinese woman who hasn't peed in ten hours getting screamed at by a supervisor to work faster if she wants to get paid that day. She's worked her fingers to the bone since the crack of dawn to sew gay onesies for infants that no one really wants or asked for. What a huge waste of resources.

CONSOOM

 

[clipartfan92]

Opinion: Target’s surrender to MAGA rage shows how anti-wokeness really works
The Washington Post (archive.ph)
By Greg Sargent
2023-05-25 12:49:02GMT

It is sometimes said that corporate America is a battleground in the culture wars. This has taken on ugly new meaning in the case of Target, which just announced that it will pull some LBGTQ-friendly merchandise from shelves after experiencing threats that affected its employees’ “sense of safety.”

Target’s surrender — which came after concerted attacks from MAGA media personalities — points to a bigger story: The anti-woke right is increasingly wielding heavy-handed tactics — including state power and violent threats — to block corporations from making their own decisions about how to adapt to social change. Though the right is losing this battle at large, it is innovating and having some success.

It’s unclear which items Target will pull. But right-wing figures had claimed Target was selling “tuck-friendly” swimwear — as part of its pride month collection — to kids. As the Daily Beast reports, those figures labeled Target CEO Brian Cornell a “pervert groomer” and even called for Republican attorneys general to investigate him. One Arizona man threatened disruptions at Target stores, warning that LGBTQ people are “not safe.”

The right’s claim appears to be false. As the Associated Press reports, Target sold this swimwear — which allows trans women without gender-affirming operations to conceal genitalia — only to adults. But Target backed down, admitting that the threats were in response to the pride collection and explicitly promising to remove items that triggered “confrontational behavior.”

This is part of a trend. Right-wing activists and Republican politicians have repeatedly sought to make it harder for corporations to embrace liberal social change. Recently, for instance, the right opened fire on Bud Light for prominently sending a personalized beer can to a transgender influencer. The company put the executives behind the move on leave.

On another front, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis openly used government power to retaliate against Disney’s opposition to DeSantis’s “don’t say gay” law restricting classroom discussion of sex and gender. Other Republicans across the country are trying to use government power to limit investors from adopting social considerations in their investment decisions.

It would be overly simplistic to say that in these cases, corporations, executives and investors are simply ministering to majority opinion and that the right represents an angry minority. In the case of Bud Light, the resulting backlash reportedly cut into sales, meaning untold numbers of customers were unhappy with the decision. DeSantis was also reelected by a large majority of Floridians well after his war on Disney began.

Nevertheless, the right’s telling of the story is all wrong. In its reading, woke corporate elites are scheming in boardrooms to push the culture in a more progressive direction against the wishes of disempowered, silent culturally conservative majorities. That’s why right-wing figures have trained their fire on “woke corporations,” often insisting this justifies the use of state power against them.

In reality, corporations are acting in response to the broader culture. They are making self-interested decisions about how to profit off cultural shifts, and while such decisions do reinforce that evolution, they are a reaction to real, on-the-ground change.

The Bud Light gesture toward trans people was deliberately conceived as an effort to reach new customer constituencies. Disney’s opposition to “don’t say gay” was driven in part by discernible movements in public sentiment on LGBTQ issues as well as opinion among rank-and-file employees.

“One thing businesses are very good at is determining the public mood,” Princeton University historian Kevin Kruse told me. “They adjust themselves to that.”

Kruse sees parallels to the 1950s and 1960s, when big companies felt pushed by the civil rights movement’s groundswell for change. They found themselves caught between those forces and reactionaries who didn’t want them to evolve. Similarly, in the 1980s and 1990s, the religious right railed against gay-friendly corporate behavior. But corporations kept changing, reinforcing ongoing evolution.

“Corporations wind up deepening those trends,” Kruse said.

Kyle Edward Williams, author of a forthcoming book on political battles over corporations, notes that these calculations are often complicated. Big corporations want to appear in step with causes of the moment to give them a “personality” and a “moral conscience,” Williams said.

That has made them responsive to broad-based progressive social causes, such as the environmental and Black Lives Matter movements. All this has intensified as people increasingly identify consumer choices with political leanings, creating what Williams calls a corporate “arms race to show that they care about issues.”

This is what the right’s rearguard actions are really arrayed against. The goal is to extract pain from — and in some cases wield state power against — corporations to stop them from making profit-oriented decisions that reinforce cultural evolution already underway.

“That’s a new development within the right,” Williams told me, adding that the right is adopting ever more aggressive efforts to “protect and shore up conservative cultural interests.”

These campaigns are having successes here and there, as seen in Target’s case. But the changes that corporations such as Target are responding to are happening in the real world among ordinary people everywhere, far beyond “woke elite” boardroom suites. No amount of bullying and threats will make them disappear.

 

[WelperHelper99]

I wish they'd hide the Pride displays here too. The Pride displays are right after the $1-$5 bins by the door. So when your kid makes a beeline to the dollar store level toys you are face to face with rainbows and displays featuring ugly genderblobs.

I want to add that this stuff rots on the shelf for the most part. Pride merchandise is really just an advertisement for how much a store "cares" for 30 days out of the year. Much like the pink ribbons for breast cancer awareness month. I's all corpo greed. None of the suits high up in Target give a dilator about your pronouns. This waste of floor space is just for show.

All that cheap sweatshop labor, pollution and waste water that goes to create a bunch of tacky rainbow crap with queer slogans slapped across it. Most of it ends up in a discount bin anyway. There's some Chinese woman who hasn't peed in ten hours getting screamed at by a supervisor to work faster if she wants to get paid that day. She's worked her fingers to the bone since the crack of dawn to sew gay onesies for infants that no one really wants or asked for. What a huge waste of resources.

CONSOOM

I've never seen that gay stuff sell. It's mass produced junk to where that plastic could have gone to somewhere else. The Chinese woman doesn't even know what's on the oneself, other than its probably gay due to the colors. Then she falls into the loom. This is the price we pay for pride month. Lots of dead and mangled chinese

 

[macrodegenerate]

The ESG shit is largely a joke. Nobody gives a shit about the LGBT stuff or environmental suff in an ESG package. It's mostly stuff like is a companies CEO a Chinese national or do they know a Chinese national. Has this company committed fraud or do they have a reputation for commiting fraud. Does this company operate primarily in an area or country with war crimes or terrorism they may be associated with. People on the right know this because the people making ESG platforms are lobbying them, but are deliberately disingenuous. Most of these data venders offer free api documentation to Developers to make applications for them. These APIs list the datasets you get from an ESG package, and it's not just gay shit. But whatever just keep getting scammed and repeating stupid shit from republicans. Sure that worked out last time with J6 and stop the steal.

 

[AnOminous]

I wish MovieBob would sit in Target's board of directors.

Yet another moronic take from Blob. Does he seriously think there's "shoplifting insurance" and that big box stores have it? Who the fuck would underwrite a nearly predictable loss and not charge more than the expected loss?

Even if they did, the vermin predation would still be passed on to the consumer. Shoplifting literally takes money out of the pockets of the people who actually pay for shit.

How do these morons even exist in reality?

The first time I was ever called a white supremacist was when I disagreed with 'Cash for Clunkers'. I argued that it'd hurt the working man because it would force them into buying an automobile that they couldn't afford (because all the serviceable used cars were being destroyed). But it was Obama behind it, so you couldn't question it.

That was definitely one of the things that Obeme did that sucked and was stupid, and on its face made no economic sense whatsoever. Plus I'm actually a fan of clunkers and utterly sick of modern shitmobiles that no normal person can maintain, so you have to pay out the ear for some retard with a specialized piece of equipment to fix even the simplest thing. Cars are now as impenetrable as iPhones.

But yeah, being able to do math = white supremacy. Knowing the most rudimentary economics = racism.

And the kind of car I'd prefer to buy, you can barely find thanks to that idiocy.

Ironically I actually came to be critical of Obeme from the left of him. He was a center-left milquetoast shitlib when I wanted an Angry Black Man to go to bat.

He was still better than his senile, half-retarded, hair-sniffing VP.

 

[talk talk talk]

These niggerfaggot troons thought Target Corp was their friend and ally? For realsies?

These dipshits call themselves communists, but they're really just consoomists.

 

[Super-Chevy454]

These niggerfaggot troons thought Target Corp was their friend and ally? For realsies?

These dipshits call themselves communists, but they're really just consoomists.

They want communism for the thee but not for me.

Meanwhile, that so-called designer claimed orders surged.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/orders-surge-trans-designer-target-133337941.html

https://archive.ph/loPtQ

LONDON, May 25 (Reuters) - Transgender designer Erik Carnell has seen a surge in demand for his pins, prints, stickers and T-shirts after U.S. retailer Target Corp pulled his products amid a backlash by some customers to its Pride collection, he said on Thursday.
Target's Pride collection included more than 2,000 products from clothes and music to home furnishings, and while several are under review the only ones removed so far from its website and stores are from Carnell's brand Abprallen.

Too bad Archive.is didn't saved the comments because one of them was interesting to read a bit.

Joe
I suspect that "surging" sales is probably in the hundreds. Target, on the other hand, likely lost millions over the past week and is likely to lose hundreds of millions (or more) before this is all over for them. Companies need to quit mixing business and politics. You can't win--on either side.

 

[A Grey Cat]

Keep huffing that copium washing post, it'll do you nogood when it becomes law to publicly shame groomers and drag queens.


You know I'm willing to bet the little Chinese orphan boys and girls who are worked like slaves to make these clothes DO understand what they say and that for ever couple hundred onsies and baby tees that end up into recycled fabric someday. For the few that DO end up purchased by loony LGBTQBBQ2S parents they probably think,

"we may not have parents but at least we're not forced to wear these awful outfits and sit on the laps of fat sweaty bearded men in dresses every summer eh mai?"
.

"yes min suddenly my life has a faint glimmer of joy knowing those rotten American children suffer worse than we ever will."

 

[Meat Target]

The anti-woke right is increasingly wielding heavy-handed tactics

the right opened fire

That’s why right-wing figures have trained their fire

beyond “woke elite” boardroom suites.

Ahh, dismissive snark-quotes and loaded, sensationalist, "Republicans POUNCE!" words.

“That’s a new development within the right,” Williams told me, adding that the right is adopting ever more aggressive efforts to “protect and shore up conservative cultural interests.”

Remember when shitlibs would say that conservatives "vote against their interests"? Well, now that they are voting and acting for their own interests, "it's racist! It's homophobic!"

Cope all you want, Greg Sargent. Even if the "white Right" is bound for the dustbin of history, we intend on making globohomo's quest for absolute power as difficult as possible.

Hot damn, I love to annoy the Antichrist's little minions.

 

[Cpt. Stud Beefpile]

Oh what I wouldn't give for a few manager's .PST files...there's gotta be some INTERESTING conversations going on right now.

 

[clipartfan92]

Target on the defensive after removing LGBTQ+-themed products
Associated Press (archive.ph)
By Dee-Ann Durbin and Anne D'innocenzio
2023-05-25 15:31:07GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Target once distinguished itself as being boldly supportive of the LGBTQ+ community.

Now that status is tarnished after it removed some LGBTQ+-themed products and relocated Pride Month displays to the back of stores in certain Southern locations in response to online complaints and in-store confrontations that it says threatened employees’ well-being.

Target faces a second backlash from customers upset by the discount retailer’s reaction to aggressive, anti-LGBTQ+ activism, which has also been sweeping through Republican state legislatures. Civil rights groups chided the company on Wednesday for caving to anti-LGBTQ+ customers who tipped over displays and expressed outrage over gender-fluid bathing suits.

“Target should put the products back on the shelves and ensure their Pride displays are visible on the floors, not pushed into the proverbial closet,” Human Rights Campaign president Kelley Robinson said in a statement. “That’s what the bullies want.”

The uproar over Target’s Pride Month marketing — and its response to critics — is just the latest example of how companies are struggling to cater to different groups of customers at a time of extreme cultural divides, particularly around transgender rights.

Bud Light is still dealing with the fallout from when it sent transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney a beer can with her face on it, which Mulvaney then displayed in an Instagram post, igniting backlash. Bud Light’s parent company is tripling its U.S. marketing spending this summer as it tries to restore lost sales.

In Florida, Disney has been engaged in a legal battle with Gov. Ron DeSantis since expressing opposition to the state’s classroom limits on discussing gender identity and sexual orientation.

Allen Adamson, the co-founder and managing partner of the marketing firm Metaforce, said Target should have thought through the potential for backlash and taken steps to avoid it, like varying the products it sells by region.

“The country is far less homogenous than it ever was,” he said. “For any brand, it’s not ‘one size fits all’ anymore.”

Shares of Target, which is based in Minneapolis, extended their fall on Thursday, declining 2.6% in morning trading. On Wednesday, the stock closed down 3%.

According to a 2021 Gallup poll, 21% of people in Generation Z identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, compared with 3% of Baby Boomers. Gallup has also found that younger consumers are most likely to want brands to promote diversity and take a stand on social issues.

“Pulling back is the worst thing that they could have done,” said Jake Bjorseth, who runs trndsttrs, an agency helping brands understand and reach Gen Z customers. “Not to expect potential backlash is to not understand what (LGBTQ+) members go through on a daily basis.”

“Once they fold to the more extreme edges of the issue, then they’ve lost their footing,” Adamson added. “If you can change a big brand just by knocking over a display, then they are on the defense, and you never win on the defense.”

Target has long been seen as a trailblazer among retailers in the way it embraced LGBTQ+ rights and customers. It was among the first to showcase themed merchandise to honor Pride Month, which takes place in June, and it has been out front in developing relationships with LGBTQ+ suppliers.

It has also faced backlash. In 2016, when a national debate exploded over transgender rights, the company declared that “inclusivity is a core belief at Target” and said it supported transgender employees and customers using whichever restroom or fitting room “corresponds with their gender identity.”

But even after being threatened with boycotts by some customers, Target announced months later that more stores would make available a single-toilet bathroom with a door that could be locked.

As recently as last year, law enforcement agencies were brought in to monitor a social media threat from a young Arizona man who said he was “leading the war” against Target for its Pride Month merchandise, and he encouraged others to take action.

But the company is operating in an even more politicized environment now.

There are close to 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills that have gone before state legislatures since the start of this year, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. At least 17 states have enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors, though judges have temporarily blocked their enforcement in some states.

Target declined on Wednesday to say which items it was pulling from its stores. But “tuck friendly” women’s swimsuits, which allow trans women who have not had gender-affirming operations to conceal their private parts, were among Target’s Pride items that garnered the most attention. Designs by Abprallen, a London-based company that designs and sells occult- and satanic-themed LGBTQ+ clothing and accessories, have also created backlash.

The controversy at Target has been exacerbated by several misleading videos circulating online. In some, people falsely claimed the retailer was selling “tuck-friendly” bathing suits for kids.

”Given these volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior,” Target said in a statement Tuesday.

The company pledged its continued support for the LGBTQ+ community and noted it is “standing with them as we celebrate Pride Month and throughout the year.”

Indeed, it was business as usual at many Target locations on Wednesday.

At the Target in Topeka, Kansas, the Pride display remained up front, visible as shoppers passed a corral of shopping carts right after the entrance. It included Pride-themed clothing for kids, as well as T-shirts and women’s bathing suits for adults.

“I like that our local stores here have it front and center, when you walk in,” said Shay Hibler, a Topeka self-employed small business owner who was shopping with her 13-year-old daughter and supports LGBTQ+ rights.

Megan Rusch, a Kansas City-area resident who is studying criminal justice at Washburn University in Topeka, was shopping at the same store and said while other locations might worry about their image, “This is a pretty diverse area.”

She said she believes it’s good for the stores to have the Pride displays so that LGBTQ+ customers feel included.

Her shopping companion, Blake Ferguson, a Colorado resident who is studying accounting and finance student at Ottawa University, added simply: “Love is love.”

 

[A Grey Cat]

discount retailer’

Maybe it's just me and where I live...but calying target a discount anything is like calling Wal-Mart a Bloomingdales

 

[Jet Fuel Johnny]

So when libs and black people go into stores and tear down shit they don't agree with, it's "Speaking to power!" but when the right does it, it's terrorism.

Gotcha.

 

[Screamer_2]

One of those articles mentioned the tuck underwear was only for adults. I am pretty sure I saw a video where it had kids swim wear. Was that real or was I just not paying attention?

 

[Positron]

One of those articles mentioned the tuck underwear was only for adults. I am pretty sure I saw a video where it had kids swim wear. Was that real or was I just not paying attention?

This one? Although the respondants on LibsOfTikTok claim that tuck-friendly swimsuit is for adults, because Target supposedly put pride merch in one section.

 

[Zbk3VmLfujjzjxBd43tL]

One of those articles mentioned the tuck underwear was only for adults. I am pretty sure I saw a video where it had kids swim wear. Was that real or was I just not paying attention?

If it's not real yet, then it will be. Target will sell that for Pride Month 2024.