"In select stores, based on historical sales performance."

May 13, 2024 3:18 PM

Target to Cut LGBTQ Pride Month Products From Some Stores After Backlash (Bloomberg, archive.is)

Target Tries to Opt-Out of This Year's Pride Month Right-Wing Rage-fest. Good Luck With That. (commentary from Parker Molloy, The Present Age)

More reporting on this subject: Advocate, Pink News, NYT, WaPo

posted by box (68 comments total)

A Nation of Children
posted by torokunai at 3:24 PM on May 13 [8 favorites]

"We not only negotiate with terrorists, we capitulate to them!" -Target, 2024
posted by Pope Guilty at 3:29 PM on May 13 [61 favorites]

I wonder how much of the drop in sales is attributable to right-wing backlash, and how much is attributable to Target's steadfast refusal to hire anyone to clean the stores, stock the shelves and staff the registers.
posted by Faint of Butt at 3:31 PM on May 13 [112 favorites]

I would be curious to see Target's market research on which stores get pride month merch and which ones don't because I think it would be a great guide to which spots to avoid when I travel.
posted by Pickman's Next Top Model at 3:31 PM on May 13 [51 favorites]

Here ya go
posted by torokunai at 3:34 PM on May 13 [14 favorites]

Touche.
posted by Pickman's Next Top Model at 3:37 PM on May 13 [1 favorite]

From "E Pluribus Unum" (In God We Trust) to "Non Est Dominus De Me" (You Are Not The Boss of Me) in ~250 years.
posted by ensign_ricky at 3:44 PM on May 13 [2 favorites]

ensign_ricky “E Pluribus Unum” means “Out of many, one” though
posted by SansPoint at 3:55 PM on May 13 [52 favorites]

You know shit is getting grim when the corporations back off from "rainbow washing." "Sorry, queer folks. We love your money, but not enough to put up with boycotts and bomb threats!"
posted by Ursula Hitler at 3:56 PM on May 13 [26 favorites]

Target Stores in Five States Receive Bomb Threats After Removing Some Pride Month Items.

Not normally a tactic I would approve of, but I'm hard pressed to think of a better one.

I really feel for the Target employees caught in the middle though.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 3:56 PM on May 13 [6 favorites]

This is what I was going to ask about - does anyone work at a store that has had problems like this? What is the best way to mitigate harm to the employees while continuing to show support?
posted by Selena777 at 3:57 PM on May 13

Uhhh, Newsmax?
posted by stevil at 3:58 PM on May 13 [16 favorites]

You're right. Sorry everyone.
posted by ensign_ricky at 4:00 PM on May 13 [4 favorites]

Newsman isn't a real news site.

I'm irrationally angry about all things that are moving against Pride this year. I have, however, volunteered to sell drink tokens at the door into the beer garden, so I will get to spend some hours chatting with all kinds of folks and having a reason to be doing so.

I haven't exercised this muscle in quite a while, but I'm sort of that guy who chats up people in line waiting to get into the concert. My life has gotten quite isolated over the past several years and so I'm really looking forward to these couple of volunteer shifts I've signed up for.

Also Spokane JUST THIS WEEKEND had an open house for the new offices for Spokane Aids Network and Spokane Pride, and they encourage people to hang out and it's relatively close to my therapist's office... so after therapy this week I'm going to go hang out there for a while and see what's going on. Alleviating my isolation, volunteering for a cause that is meaningful for me, and maybe even make a local friend [I have shockingly few local friends]... it's a great bundle of possibilities for me!
posted by hippybear at 4:03 PM on May 13 [37 favorites]

With a name like "Target"...
posted by chavenet at 4:03 PM on May 13 [9 favorites]

I mean, also what is complicating about this is the whole Rainbow Capitalism thing to begin with. Yay, we're a season, in June where there are no other real holidays, so we are like Halloween or Christmas or Valentine's Day... And we get packed away when our season is done...

I sort of long for the days when there were gay bookstores in major metropolitan or even medium-sized areas and you could go there and find fabulous gay shirts and shorts and greeting cards and books and a community bulletin board and it felt like a place that the community lived in and fell like it was a part of their lives.

None of that is contained in the Target pop-up Pride shop that exists for 6 weeks a year, if that.
posted by hippybear at 4:11 PM on May 13 [35 favorites]

Uhhh, Newsmax?

Doh. It's something I remembered happening so I just grabbed the first article that popped up.

Here's some local news covering it.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 4:26 PM on May 13 [10 favorites]

I would not be surprised if the bomb threat was a conservative troll.
posted by CynicalKnight at 4:41 PM on May 13 [19 favorites]

Coprophagic anal osculation.
posted by y2karl at 4:48 PM on May 13

Perhaps they can stop admitting blacks in the Southern states next. You know, due to conservative backlash.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 5:03 PM on May 13 [14 favorites]

"We not only negotiate with terrorists, we capitulate to them!" -Target, 2024

Is it capitulation if you give in before there are even any demands?
posted by Dip Flash at 5:36 PM on May 13 [14 favorites]

I hate rainbow capitalism and I hate this even more and I am terrified and resentful. I never actually thought places like Target had my back but it seemed generally positive that Pride stuff was popular and safe enough to be worth selling and it augers pretty badly that this is no longer the case.
posted by an octopus IRL at 6:20 PM on May 13 [29 favorites]

If Books Could Kill: Conservatives vs. Pride Month
posted by Artw at 6:26 PM on May 13 [12 favorites]

Retail will not save us.
posted by mittens at 7:11 PM on May 13 [22 favorites]

It sounds like someone on Target's board had a great yacht party with the NYT editorial staff
posted by treepour at 8:27 PM on May 13 [25 favorites]

I never actually thought places like Target had my back

The terrible thing is they kind of did. They bankroll a lot of the Twin Cities Pride stuff, and, yeah, it's corporate rainbow-washing, but, at the same time, 3M and Wells Fargo sure aren't coughing up the money.
posted by hoyland at 9:28 PM on May 13 [21 favorites]

I don't think Target can afford to stock for the cause. If they were just a local retailer, I'd expect to find them shuttered and bankrupt by the end of the year.

Target stores are 80% empty shelf space right now in every one I've visited for the past year. Every section other than nonperishable constant consumables such as dish soap has failed to be restocked when the items run out, and you have to order and wait slow-time for their logistics network to bring it to that store.

So, I read this as amoral capitalism disregarding a social cause in favor of "only sell products where products sell" when a corp can't afford to stock the shelves they've got. It still sucks, this is not an apology, and maybe they're just hostile to rainbow folk — but they're a corporation, not a person, so it's less likely animosity towards us and more likely that they're half-broke and afraid that a Midwest protest would crash their stock and/or bankrupt them.
posted by Callisto Prime at 10:31 PM on May 13 [4 favorites]

Retail will not save us.

This is more about the canary in the mine effect than it is retail Pride shit actually being useful. Canaries weren't much actual use for anything in mines either, but you still didn't like to see them die...
posted by Dysk at 11:38 PM on May 13 [23 favorites]

Canaries were the original job site boombox.
posted by dr_dank at 3:46 AM on May 14 [3 favorites]

I dunno about the Targets near youse guys, but mine are actually approaching an approximation of their pre-pandemic selves. Yes, their stock isn’t always as plush as it once was, but the shelves feel only a teeny-tiny bit empty. maybe 5% in high turnover areas?

As for the step away from offering Pride merch, it sucks for the workers caught in the middle. Most every place I go online, though, corporate Pride merch is treated as a joke, and it’s possible they may not have felt compelled to keep product on the shelves for the “this is shitty corporate rainbow-washed trash I love to hate” Target Guest.
posted by cupcakeninja at 4:04 AM on May 14 [3 favorites]

Target stores are 80% empty shelf space right now in every one I've visited for the past year. Every section other than nonperishable constant consumables such as dish soap has failed to be restocked when the items run out, and you have to order and wait slow-time for their logistics network to bring it to that store.

Sounds like Target Canada. (RIP)
posted by warriorqueen at 4:30 AM on May 14 [6 favorites]

While this is clearly a negative development, if there are places where putting pride merchandise on the shelf puts staff at risk of physical harm or abuse, I don’t think minimum wage retail workers are paid enough to be foot soldiers for the morally correct course of action.

I’m not sure how much of Target’s decision making was swayed by worker safety, but anyway.
posted by chiquitita at 4:43 AM on May 14 [8 favorites]

Target here is booming, they're the only maternity and the cheapest baby stuff supplier around. The Pride display was great because they are The store for new parents here (with Walmart).
posted by subdee at 5:03 AM on May 14 [1 favorite]

According to a friend this is old news, since last year at least. Seems it's getting a boost ahead of pride month, to remind us of the state of the world, I guess.
posted by subdee at 5:07 AM on May 14

While this is clearly a negative development, if there are places where putting pride merchandise on the shelf puts staff at risk of physical harm or abuse, I don’t think minimum wage retail workers are paid enough to be foot soldiers for the morally correct course of action.

What other products do conservatives get to veto the sale of via stochastic violence?
posted by Pope Guilty at 6:04 AM on May 14 [8 favorites]

What they have available online right now is dismal, boring, and not anything I'm going to be spending my gay dollars on this year anyway. I'll be throwing those transmasc bucks elsewhere.
posted by custardfairy at 6:05 AM on May 14 [3 favorites]

I sort of long for the days when there were gay bookstores in major metropolitan or even medium-sized areas and you could go there and find fabulous gay shirts and shorts and greeting cards and books and a community bulletin board and it felt like a place that the community lived in and fell like it was a part of their lives.

I live almost literally around the corner from what was Atlanta's version of this. Corporate gaywashing didn't kill it, the relative mainstream of same-sex relationships didn't kill it, the right wing didn't kill it... Amazon killed it. It's a tapas bar, now. When the bookstore was closing down, they taped a sign to the door: "No bathroom: try Amazon". The crosswalks at that intersection are still painted like a rainbow, so that's nice.
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 6:21 AM on May 14 [20 favorites]

From the Parker Molloy link:

If brands want to have Pride collections, they should. That’s great. But they shouldn’t do this indecisive little dance where they put out a full collection one year, pull it back in response to an astroturfed campaign of right-wing outrage, and try to split the difference the next year out in some false hope that they’ve cracked the bigot code for the acceptable amount of LGBTQ stuff in society. If brands haven’t figured it out just yet, the “acceptable amount” for Fox News types is pretty much zero. Just watch. Once Target rolls out whatever meager, bland “Love is Love” collection it does put out this year, there will still be people outraged over it.

posted by box at 6:36 AM on May 14 [16 favorites]

I’m not sure how much of Target’s decision making was swayed by worker safety, but anyway.

Some I’m sure… but it’s also their standard lie for closing stores, so I wouldn’t trust it completely.
posted by Artw at 6:44 AM on May 14 [3 favorites]

What other products do conservatives get to veto the sale of via stochastic violence?

The morning after pill.
RU-486.

Oh, were we not making a list?
posted by jacquilynne at 6:54 AM on May 14 [18 favorites]

I live almost literally around the corner from what was Atlanta's version of this

Charis is still around and is very avowedly queer-centered (fortunately). every book I've purchase for the past few years has been from them or direct from a press and when I had a libro.fm subscription I made sure to have them set as the bookstore who'd get a cut of the revenue

when I chatted up one of the owners of Matter, a similarly leftist-focused bookstore in Denver, she was very vocal about how impactful individual customers can be. if you have the cash and care about this sort of thing, I'd go out of my way to order form there

for me, at least, cities are defined by the communities they're able to support. cities without these third spaces where communities can organize are flashes in the pan, existing for a gentrified moment in time with no sustainable future when the next economic shockwave rolls through. that's why places like Target feel so dead to me - an existence solely mediated by a contractual obligation to consume. maybe it's reflective of the consumer mass and their sentiment but mostly I wouldn't trust a corporation to know its own culture or care much about where it's heading

corporate DEI at its best erects the kind of phamarcy-town that Atwood wrote about in Oryx and Crake. ideal little communities for the middle-to-upper-middle class, fenced and walled from the uncaring pleeblands but even then existing only to squeeze productive labor from its workers. the fact that Target would pull Pride goods feels indicative of that disconnect between corporate and retail - certainly the corporate Target worker gets health insurance coverage with some procedures and medications covered. certainly they have their own internal Pride events and ERGs. but retail Target? enjoy your chickie nobs and PFAS and you can have Pride merch if we think the market merits it
posted by paimapi at 7:10 AM on May 14 [7 favorites]

I live almost literally around the corner from what was Atlanta's version of this. Corporate gaywashing didn't kill it, the relative mainstream of same-sex relationships didn't kill it, the right wing didn't kill it... Amazon killed it. It's a tapas bar, now. When the bookstore was closing down, they taped a sign to the door: "No bathroom: try Amazon". The crosswalks at that intersection are still painted like a rainbow, so that's nice.

Midtown Atlanta--esp 10th and Piedmont--was such a wonderful gay village back in the day. Last time I went back to Atlanta (my home of a decade before relocating to Canada), it was all shiny and techy and fast casual chain-y and it made me sad. I got married in Piedmont Park in 2009 and there was a nearby furry convention that everyone in my wedding party was very curious about because for the older attendees the idea of "furries" was not something they had encountered.
posted by Kitteh at 7:14 AM on May 14 [4 favorites]

Midtown Atlanta--esp 10th and Piedmont--was such a wonderful gay village back in the day. Last time I went back to Atlanta (my home of a decade before relocating to Canada), it was all shiny and techy and fast casual chain-y and it made me sad.

I've lived in Atlanta since 1994, and what I really miss is Shitty Cheap Atlanta. I get it, it's a desirable place to live, so it's idiotic to think it wouldn't change, but the population of the metro area has more than doubled and this has made everything corporate. There's still a ton of gay people in Midtown—my building is well over half gay people—but it's pretty much only bougie gay people who can afford to live here now. I'm 103% heterovanilla, but self-aware enough to recognize it as a kink, so I like the density of queer people but really miss the days when I could rent a shabby 1BR for $600 a month.
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 7:38 AM on May 14 [5 favorites]

I've been keeping a "blog" and one of the most recent entries is a history of all my cheap Atlanta apartments. Aside from the last one off of Highland Avenue before North, not a one exceeded $600 a month. My Atlanta was from 1999 to 2009, and the Atlanta I see now when I return is not really my Atlanta. I still can't get over how fuggin built up Memorial Drive is.

/apologies for the ATL derail, y'all
posted by Kitteh at 8:28 AM on May 14 [7 favorites]

I’m enjoying it, worked examples are great.

(Miss you, Bailey/Coy.)
posted by clew at 8:32 AM on May 14 [3 favorites]

Idk where all y'all with sad Targets are, but here in Cincinnati they are absolutely fine, back to pre-pandemic stock. Now, that said, the Targets in the majority Black areas of town are consistently understaffed and while not dirty, they're often unkempt (due to lack of staff). The Targets in the majority white parts of town always have staff standing around not being needed. Is the reason systemic racism? I would argue yes. As always.
posted by cooker girl at 8:36 AM on May 14 [9 favorites]

They basically over expanded, got stuck with a bunch of underperforming small stores and started bigging up “crime” as a reason to close them all when that didn’t work.
posted by Artw at 8:45 AM on May 14 [9 favorites]

amoral capitalism disregarding a social cause in favor of "only sell products where products sell"

Do that in Australia and the usual suspects smell Woke and take a pop at you (the products in question were Chinese-made flag-themed Australia Day inflatables and tchotchkes).
posted by flabdablet at 10:24 AM on May 14

I guess different regions really see different standards of store upkeep. The Targets here in suburban MD and VA (including Richmond) are always clean and well stocked and the employees are usually very helpful and easy to find. I do see more inclusive merchandise in the more affluent neighborhoods in MD though.
posted by numaner at 10:26 AM on May 14

The odd part of this to me is we aren’t hearing anything about Walmart’s Pride merchandise causing an uproar. Is it because the “I 3> Gay People” fanny pack is black and silver instead of rainbow print? Or is it because of their conservative reputation doing a lot of the heavy lifting?
posted by JakeEXTREME at 10:32 AM on May 14 [6 favorites]

“I’m not sure how much of Target’s decision making was swayed by worker safety, but anyway.”

Not even the liability issue if an employee were hurt on their property for defending their policy?
posted by Selena777 at 10:38 AM on May 14

Yeah, they are full of shit.

They put a target on the first floor of a mixed-use building down in Ballard. Was a small store, but you would think it would have had decent sales given all the condos within walking distance. Parking sucked, but whatever.

Then they pulled out the "organized shoplifting rings" and security stuff and have or are in the process of closing it. And they had the security theater guard when you went in and all. And it was not in a "bad area" where you see gangs of thieves roaming the streets looking to steal stuff. So, don't trust much of what target may be saying.
posted by Windopaene at 10:48 AM on May 14 [3 favorites]

Possibly the danger to employees was the fuck off big street between it and the part of Ballard people actually shop in.
posted by Artw at 10:57 AM on May 14 [2 favorites]

Was in a Target a couple of weeks ago, and some high-pressure sales person followed me around trying to sell me a cell plan (as in: didn't stop until I escalated to "no, seriously, fuck off. Bye." Not a problem I'm used to having.)
On my way out I heard him harassing someone else, and stopped at the returns desk to mention it to the staff... and I was informed that it was some sort of deal brokered by corporate.

I haven't been back since.
posted by Orb2069 at 12:27 PM on May 14 [3 favorites]

Can he open the cabinets with the locked up goods?
posted by Artw at 12:29 PM on May 14 [5 favorites]

On one hand, it kind of feels like we're headed toward having red and blue versions of retail stores, restaurants and product lines so that boomer MAGA fuckwits don't get the vapors from seeing a rainbow while shopping. OTOH that assumes that those complaining about rainbow gear are actually bothered by it in some way and not just being bigots and bullies because they feel entitled to be horrible to other people.

My money is on the current MAGA zero sum theory of happiness where if someone different from me is happy, I must be unhappy. But if I bully those people, the zero sum transaction changes so that I can be happy again.
posted by ensign_ricky at 1:52 PM on May 14 [11 favorites]

I'm also simply not convinced that the "anti" crowd that strongly objects to Pride-branded items is really all that large. Loud, and threatening, so I understand why a store might legitimately be concerned for its staff, but this just isn't anything close to a majority who object that strongly. (Like, it's a majority of Americans who think gay marriage is ok; it's not like the pro-gay marriage people are also anti-Pride merchandise.) I hate seeing these business cave into pressure like this.
posted by Dip Flash at 2:24 PM on May 14 [5 favorites]

> headed toward having red and blue versions of retail stores, restaurants and product lines

On the one hand, that's already over with:

Discount housewares: Woke or 'Murcan?

Fried chicken: Closed on Sunday, or reference to the Devil?

Non-chicken dining: Performatively masculine, or hum-and-strum plant-based?

Recreational vehicles: Planning to visit Fury Road, or Madison County?

Parking: Blue-state style with green garnish and lowercase letters, or red-state style with big flags?

On the other, it's interesting that so far, Target has threaded the needle. But maybe now is the reckoning, when all the Third-Way-so-far brands have to pick a side? Or at least, the ones that aren't so "luxury" that's they're somehow above it, like Apple, or Airstream.
posted by Rat Spatula at 3:01 PM on May 14 [7 favorites]

This is very weird, in the sense that rainbow washing is bad (at least annoying) and we'd be fine with less of it, except when the reason for less of it is pressure from conservative wingnuts, which somehow changes the calculus to be something like "keep doing the rainbow washing even though I don't particularly like it just because the conservatives absolutely hate it." Which, OK, I'm down for pissing off some conservatives any day of the week and twice on Sunday, but the real utopia would be a world without rainbow washing AND with pissed off conservatives. How do?
posted by axiom at 3:05 PM on May 14 [2 favorites]

How do?

By continuing to sell the rainbow merch and also vociferously and generously supporting policies that help queer people while equally vociferously denouncing policies that hurt them.
posted by Faint of Butt at 3:56 PM on May 14 [5 favorites]

My grandfather sold his Pickwick bookshop chain in 1968 to what is now TGT. The year before (18 months before Stonewall) he cohosted an event with Christine Jorgensen in Los Angeles which seems to have gone off without incident. Newspapers.com only turns up the ad which I'm having trouble reposting and the ONE archives at USC never responded to my email asking if there were contemporary accounts.


I discovered this last year when the Abprallen products ( none of which SPECIFICALLY designed for Target displayed Satan/Baphomet or images that would frighten small children) were pulled.

At the shareholders meeting last year I told the CEO that if grampa could sell trans created and affirming products over 50 years ago, there was no reason why TGT should not do so today and showed him a picture of the ad. He told me then what he has recently stated: that employees were being threatened , which was documented at the time.

These same people are the ones attacking libraries, drag story hours and pride fests.
posted by brujita at 4:36 PM on May 14 [9 favorites]

they had a really cute pink romper last year

i do wonder if Target is going through being sucked dry by a vulture capitalist and won't be around in 5yrs
posted by kokaku at 11:48 PM on May 14 [2 favorites]

rainbow washing is bad (at least annoying) and we'd be fine with less of it, except when the reason for less of it is pressure from conservative wingnuts, which somehow changes the calculus

Virtue signalling is obviously no substitute for virtuous action, but to my way of thinking it's always and everywhere better than failing even to virtue signal, especially when that failure is due to fear of backlash.

The more accepted and expected the virtue signalling becomes on any given issue, the easier it is to see just which attitudes and values the community at large genuinely counts as virtuous.

The only people from whom I will ever accept criticism over my own virtue signalling are those on the same side of the issue as I am. Criticism of virtue signalling performed by an opponent is simply never done in good faith and the specific content of it, as opposed to the fact and volume of it, is therefore best ignored.
posted by flabdablet at 12:35 AM on May 15 [7 favorites]

i do wonder if Target is going through being sucked dry by a vulture capitalist and won't be around in 5yrs

I suspect they're still reeling from failing at one of the largest business expansion failures in history.
posted by ensign_ricky at 7:34 AM on May 15 [1 favorite]

fwiw this was done under the previous CEO's( the one who gave money in tgt's name to anti gay candidates in MN) watch.

from what I've observed, the current CEO seems to be a decent person.
posted by brujita at 11:18 AM on May 15

Target Stores in Five States Receive Bomb Threats After Removing Some Pride Month Items.

Surely if pride supporters were behind it they would have been bombs of the more frightening glitter variety.
posted by srboisvert at 3:33 PM on May 17

I think setting the precedent that you can change corporate behavior with bomb threats is bad! At the point where shithead bigots have done that, obviously it's fair game for other people to do the same?
posted by adrienneleigh at 5:56 PM on May 17 [1 favorite]

I think setting the precedent that you can change corporate behavior with bomb threats is bad! At the point where shithead bigots have done that, obviously it's fair game for other people to do the same?

Bombs and bomb threats is a tactic with a shared political ancestry; both the left and right have dabbled in that. I agree with the verdict of "bad."
posted by Dip Flash at 6:09 PM on May 17