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Enough customers have expressed outrage at the LGBTQ Pride merchandise so Target called an emergency meeting to move certain clothes away from the front of some southern stores. The store has done an annual Pride month in June but this year the backlash from the Bud Light situation has panicked the chain. Some stores, mostly in the rural south, have relocated their Pride section to the back.
Target can be targeted too
Items this year ranged from “tuck friendly” bathing suits to coffee mugs that say “gender fluid”. It’s the children’s items in particular that bother people. There were emergency calls on Friday that told managers to back off on the Pride displays.
A Target insider commented,
“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. We call our customers ‘guests,’ there is outrage on their part. This year, it is just exponentially more than any other year. I think given the current situation with Bud Light, the company is terrified of a Bud Light situation.”
Target doesn’t make quick decisions
The insider explained that the Friday call began with 10 minutes of “how to deal with team member safety” Target Asset Protect & Corporate Security teams were on the call.
Calls might last longer than this because the insider mentioned,
“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.’ It’s all under the guise of trying to increase swim sales. Everyone was like, ‘Thank God,’ because we’re all on the front lines dealing with it.”
Volatile circumstances
A spokesperson said that there have been increasing amounts of threats to employee safety from the LGBTQ merchandise.
“For more than a decade, Target has offered an assortment of products aimed at celebrating Pride Month. Since introducing this year’s collection, we’ve experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and wellbeing while at work. 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. Our focus now is on moving forward with our continuing commitment to the LGBTQIA+ community and standing with them as we celebrate Pride Month and throughout the year.”
Target stores in South Carolina, Arkansas and Georgia were among the states mentioned in which merchandise was moved. Many employees were in the dark as to what needed to be moved til they saw it in a different place.
