A Closer Look at Target’s Awful Q2 Reveals That The Financial Results Are Even Worse Than They First Appeared

Ace highlighted Target’s sales collapse in the second quarter of 2023 this past week, but there is more I’d like to highlight about just how punishing the consumer backlash against Target has been. First, here is a link and a quick snippet from the Associated Press about Target’s awful Q2 results.

“Target Q2 Sales Fall on Muted Spending, Pride Month Backlash, and It Cuts Profit Outlook for 2023 [AP – 8/16/2023]

Target reported its first quarterly sales drop in six years, dragged down by shoppers’ inflation worries and a negative reaction by some customers, widely publicized on social media, to its Pride merchandise.

Sales fell nearly 5% to $24.77 billion as shoppers focused more on groceries than discretionary items.

Comparable sales — those from stores or digital channels operating for the past 12 months — fell 5.4% in the latest quarter. In the fiscal first quarter, sales were unchanged.

While a lot of people have fatigue about the coerced celebration of “Pride,” it’s important to note that the backlash is not anti-gay. The backlash is because Target decided to promote gender transition to children during Pride Month.

Look at this impressive bar graph showing Target’s revenue collapse!

Now consider the following, and realize how much worse this really is for Target:

• Target saw a year over year decline in top line sales despite inflation of at least 4%. So in other words, had Target simply sold the identical volume and mix of merchandise in Q2 2023 as it did in Q2 2022, its sales would have increased about 4%, but with the 5.4% drop in top line sales, the actual impact is that Target sold almost 10% less merchandise! That is a staggering decline.

• Q2 started on April 1, but the Pride displays didn’t arrive until sometime in May, at which time the boycott started. The Q2 results include the full month of April and part of May, before the boycott even started, which means that June sales had to be spectacularly awful to pull the whole quarter down so drastically. Further, the boycott had only fully reached its momentum in June, and carried on full steam into July and August, so Target’s Q3 2023 results (July, August, and September) should be absolutely catastrophic compared to Q3 2022.

• Wal Mart just reported outstanding results for the same quarter that Target suffered its decline. It’s funny how those “inflation worries” that are affecting Target customers’ spending aren’t having the same impact on Wal Mart customers’ spending. Of course, there’s no doubt that Wal Mart picked up a lot of business in June from repulsed Target customers.

“Walmart Earnings Smash Expectations After Weaker Second Quarter from Target [Yahoo – 8/17/2023]

In the retail giant's second quarter earnings release, out before the market open on Thursday, Walmart posted same-store sales that rose 6.30%, more than the 4.04% expected, according to data from Bloomberg.

"Our customers and members are resilient," Walmart CEO Doug McMillon told investors on the earnings call. "They're looking for value, and they trust us to be there for them. We see people across income cohorts come to us more frequently looking to save money on everyday needs. That gives us an opportunity to drive conversion in more discretionary categories."

Of note, when Wal mart promotes “conversion” it is talking about consumer spending, not the “conversion” that Target is trying to impose on your children.

Meanwhile, its competitor Target (TGT), which reported Q2 results Wednesday, saw a 5.4% drop in sales and shared a dreary outlook for the rest of the year.

Target’s revenue decrease in Q2 2023 was over a billion dollars, because American consumers are fed up with woke corporations and woke executives. Had the boycott started in early April rather than mid-May, the revenue hit to Target might have exceeded $2 billion.

We consumers have the power to punish woke corporations and make them suffer for promoting ESG and the rest of the left’s diabolical agenda. Our dollars are extremely powerful weapons, and if corporate America doesn’t choose to refrain from political advocacy, we can make them suffer financially.

Let’s keep it up. No Anheuser Busch. No Target. No Disney. No Gillette. No woke capital.

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]

posted by Buck Throckmorton at 12:00 PM

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