I kind of agree with the general sentiment that maybe they should have selected an outsider. The DEI bullshit wasn’t just a “whoopsie” and Target has been declining for years, even if there was a lag in the official numbers.
It’s been a long time since I looked at Target and saw a strategy other than “let’s wait and see what Walmart’s doing and then just do that”. Generally speaking, people who shop at Walmart expect (and in some perverse way demand) an ever shittier experience and drop in quality. I just don’t foresee a continuation of Target’s strategy from the past decade or so being a realistic long term strategy. Walmart, Amazon, and Dollar General will be the way of retail at this pace.
Granted, I’m not Target’s target audience. I used to buy a lot of clothes there, then the quality on that dropped while prices shot up, so I just stopped. And I used to use their e-commerce site more often when they didn’t have third party sellers, but once they added those, there was no longer any differentiating or compelling reason to go there other than to buy something I could get $2 cheaper at Walmart, $4 cheaper on Amazon, or $8 cheaper on Temu.
Shopping at Target used to be a culture. It was seen as the upscale version of Walmart. Guests bragged about finding things at target and joked about getting lost in it for hours while browsing.
I never understood this phenomena myself. Even during its prime. The entire b&m model was so outdated to me. I used to prefer shopping online via Amazon.
Then they enshittified the platform, quality of goods dropped tremendously. Then the stories of poor treatment of warehouse workers and last mile delivery workers was the last straw to me.
Now my retail shopping consists of preferring local groceries and trying to buy direct from brands that I like. I don’t even care about the free shipping anymore. It’s all a farce these days and it’s just an added cost to items now (even if you don’t return the item).
I kind of agree with the general sentiment that maybe they should have selected an outsider. The DEI bullshit wasn’t just a “whoopsie” and Target has been declining for years, even if there was a lag in the official numbers.
It’s been a long time since I looked at Target and saw a strategy other than “let’s wait and see what Walmart’s doing and then just do that”. Generally speaking, people who shop at Walmart expect (and in some perverse way demand) an ever shittier experience and drop in quality. I just don’t foresee a continuation of Target’s strategy from the past decade or so being a realistic long term strategy. Walmart, Amazon, and Dollar General will be the way of retail at this pace.
Granted, I’m not Target’s target audience. I used to buy a lot of clothes there, then the quality on that dropped while prices shot up, so I just stopped. And I used to use their e-commerce site more often when they didn’t have third party sellers, but once they added those, there was no longer any differentiating or compelling reason to go there other than to buy something I could get $2 cheaper at Walmart, $4 cheaper on Amazon, or $8 cheaper on Temu.
Shopping at Target used to be a culture. It was seen as the upscale version of Walmart. Guests bragged about finding things at target and joked about getting lost in it for hours while browsing.
I never understood this phenomena myself. Even during its prime. The entire b&m model was so outdated to me. I used to prefer shopping online via Amazon.
Then they enshittified the platform, quality of goods dropped tremendously. Then the stories of poor treatment of warehouse workers and last mile delivery workers was the last straw to me.
Now my retail shopping consists of preferring local groceries and trying to buy direct from brands that I like. I don’t even care about the free shipping anymore. It’s all a farce these days and it’s just an added cost to items now (even if you don’t return the item).
I love a physical store. Get some exercise. Walk around. Browse new products. Hold them. Try things on. Online will never replace shopping for me.
Outsider won’t do much. Probably bring on the same MBA asshole like the Starbucks CEO that “super commutes”