What the Target Boycott Says About the Power of Consumers

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 28 May 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Retailers are now facing a lot of headwinds, including tariffs and a drop in consumer confidence. But for Target, once affectionately known by customers as Tar-jay, a consumer boycott in response to the company’s decision to drop some DEI initiatives has been an added drag. In its most recent earnings call, the retailer reported a 3.8% drop in sales and lowered its earnings targets for the year. Consumers have long channeled their buying power to express political beliefs, whether it’s selling their Teslas, avoiding a certain retailer, or goods from a particular country. We look at the power of the consumer boycott, and why this one seems to be working. Guests: Amanda Mull, columnist, Bloomberg; Wrote the column “Buying Power” on American consumerism. Alex Ossola, host/producer, Wall Street Journal; Ossola's most recent podcast is called "Boycotting Target". Americus Reed II, professor of marketing, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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1:00.6	From KQED. From Kikwiti in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal. We're talking about Target today.
1:03.1	The retailer recently reported its earnings, and while competitors are at least treading
1:07.5	water, Target's numbers were not great.
1:10.8	Though company executives
1:11.8	cited a variety of factors, one major one was the boycott that some of its customers
1:16.9	began in response to target dropping some diversity, equity, and inclusion measures. We'll look
1:22.7	at the underlying factors of the target boycott, why this one seems to be working, and talk about the power
1:28.6	of consumers in today's economy.
1:30.9	That's all coming up next, right after this news. Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal. In the days of the civil rights movement, boycotts were seen as a pretty effective tactic for driving change in the behavior of local businesses. But as the economy globalized and corporations scaled up,
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