Target CEO Brian Cornell Resigns After Pride Merchandise Boycotts Slash Sales At Nearly 2,000 Stores
Corporate America is finally getting what’s been coming. Big retailers thought they could tell families how to think and what values to accept. But when you mess with parents trying to protect their kids, you’re going to lose that fight every single time.
For over ten years, one of America’s biggest retail chains seemed unstoppable. Nearly 2,000 stores across the country. Millions of families shopping there every week. But then the executives decided they knew better than their customers. Bad move.
Target announced Wednesday that CEO Brian Cornell is stepping down next year after 11 years (that’s a long time to mess things up). His replacement, Michael Fiddelke, gets to inherit a company that’s losing customers from both the left and the right. Sales crashed in early 2025. The executives admit it’s going to get worse before it gets better.
The cultural battles intensified with the release of pride merchandise in 2023, including children’s items and “tuck-friendly” swimsuits, which triggered a conservative-led boycott. That campaign, combined with a resurfaced 2015 advertisement featuring children in a Pride Month promotion, fueled further outrage. The video, which ends with the line, “We’re not born with pride. We take pride in celebrating who we were born to be,” has circulated widely online in recent weeks, renewing criticism from opponents.
Parents voted with their wallets. They chose to drive to other stores rather than expose their kids to this stuff. And guess what? It worked.
Now here’s the funny part. Target tried to fix things by backing off their diversity programs in January. But that just made the other side mad too! The Guardian says Black Americans started boycotting. Some petition got 250,000 signatures (yeah, that’s a lot of angry shoppers) from people promising never to shop there again.
Think about how badly you have to screw up to make both conservatives and progressives hate you at the same time. Cornell’s replacement inherits a company that somehow united America—in refusing to shop at Target. How’s that working out for them?
For over ten years, one of America’s biggest retail chains seemed unstoppable. Nearly 2,000 stores across the country. Millions of families shopping there every week. But then the executives decided they knew better than their customers. Bad move.
Target announced Wednesday that CEO Brian Cornell is stepping down next year after 11 years (that’s a long time to mess things up). His replacement, Michael Fiddelke, gets to inherit a company that’s losing customers from both the left and the right. Sales crashed in early 2025. The executives admit it’s going to get worse before it gets better.
The cultural battles intensified with the release of pride merchandise in 2023, including children’s items and “tuck-friendly” swimsuits, which triggered a conservative-led boycott. That campaign, combined with a resurfaced 2015 advertisement featuring children in a Pride Month promotion, fueled further outrage. The video, which ends with the line, “We’re not born with pride. We take pride in celebrating who we were born to be,” has circulated widely online in recent weeks, renewing criticism from opponents.
Parents voted with their wallets. They chose to drive to other stores rather than expose their kids to this stuff. And guess what? It worked.
Now here’s the funny part. Target tried to fix things by backing off their diversity programs in January. But that just made the other side mad too! The Guardian says Black Americans started boycotting. Some petition got 250,000 signatures (yeah, that’s a lot of angry shoppers) from people promising never to shop there again.
Think about how badly you have to screw up to make both conservatives and progressives hate you at the same time. Cornell’s replacement inherits a company that somehow united America—in refusing to shop at Target. How’s that working out for them?
70-79, M
