By the end of the day Tuesday, the plummet in Target’s share prices reached the longest losing streak the chain has suffered in almost five years.
Target’s share prices have fallen for eight straight days, plunging another 3.66% on Tuesday reaching $133.88 as the store has lost a staggering $12 billion in market value in the last 14 days to rest at $61.85 billion in the wake of a consumer boycott triggered by its LGBTQ merchandise.
“What you’ve seen in recent days went well beyond discomfort, and it has been gut-wrenching to see what you’ve confronted in our aisles,” Target CEO Brian Cornell stated to employees last week, adding there were “two guiding principles when it came time for us to act: do all we can to keep our team safe, and do all we can to honor our commitment and connection to the LGBTQIA+ community.”
As far back as 2014, Target announced it would no longer divide certain products by gender.
In 2016, Target introduced a gender-neutral line for children and also asserted they would allow transgender people to use whatever bathroom they preferred, prompting criticism. Target then spent $20 million to put private bathrooms in their stores.
The vice president for brand management at Target also serves as treasurer of an LGBT group that has received millions of dollars in donations from Target and urges schools to adopt policies to help trans and nonbinary school students hide their “gender identity” from their parents.
Target made “emergency” calls in Mid-May to managers and senior directors at the store after the company faced backlash for its Pride collection, which included “tuck-friendly” female swimwear and other products, according to a source inside the company.
The calls were to direct some stores to make their Pride products display less prominent in order to avoid a “Bud Light situation,” a Target insider told Fox News.
“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,” the insider reportedly said.
Leif Le Mahieu contributed to this article.