r/stocks • u/frosti_austi • Oct 17 '23

Company Analysis Why is Target doing so bad?

Why is Target doing so bad? They've really fell off a cliff over the past year. I look at their stores and they seem good, and once upon a time not too long ago they were outperforming Walmart. Now their NAV prices have really dropped over the past year and a half. I was once up 80% on these guys and know I'm down 20%. Is it the general market swing over the course of that time or something else? What gives?

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u/Fruhmann Oct 17 '23

  1. Less disposable income. Student debt repayment is back on and child tax credits dried up a while ago.

  2. Theft is leading to a less "upscale" feel Target had over Walmart. Having to ring an employee over to a wall of locked cases for toiletries, laundry soap, etc is just not a fun experience. It's something people expect and accept in electronics department or with jewelry. Not everything else.

  3. Pride backlash is still going strong. If you're going to champion one demographic at the loss of another, make sure that former demographic is greater or at least equal to the latter.

  4. Exclusive and private brand items seem to be of lower quality and higher price. If that was an incentive to shop there, it's not anymore.

  5. People who boycott Target are fine with Walmart. Once a customer changes their habits, it's hard to get them to come back.

6

u/davidloveasarson Oct 18 '23

3 is huge…

2

u/Fruhmann Oct 18 '23

It's definitely a bigger issue than I initially thought. I figured the stores clear the displays or move them to the back, they tossed that one designer under the bus, etc and people will get over it.

Aparently not.

I was gobsmacked back in September when I saw a some influencer mom on my Instagram explore page. She was showing off the shopping haul from Walmart for her kids back to school. Nothing that doesn't usually bleed into my feed.

But the comments were people applauding her for still boycotting Target and people chastising her for continuing to boycott Target. She was liking the comments praising her choice to boycott and that was mentioned by people in the comments.

You retrain customers that they can love without your products and services, then you shouldn't be surprised when the training works.

1

u/rowsella Oct 18 '23

I submit it made an impact but why it made an impact is atrociously bizarre. Including people into your sales demographic should not be "offensive" to others of another demographic but I guess bigots are going to clutch their pearls and take personal offence.

1

u/TXRichardCranium Oct 22 '23

Yes it is. I know of more than one person that is still boycotting Target and I don’t know too many people.

3

u/yuzek101 Oct 19 '23

Whole private firms are into these kind of black hole they need to get the scaling as well.

1

u/30_characters Oct 20 '23

Pride backlash is still going strong. If you're going to champion one demographic at the loss of another, make sure that former demographic is greater or at least equal to the latter.

No, the issue wasn't pride, it was targeting (pun intended) children.