- Target’s market capitalization has shed more than $8 billion in the past week
- Retailer faced conservative backlash over LGBT collection for Pride Month
- Target this week removed some products in response to hostile customers
Target’s market capitalization has shed more than $8 billion in the past week as investors weigh the impact of conservative backlash to the retailer’s LGBT collection for Pride Month.
On May 17, before the controversy exploded, Target shares closed at $160.96, giving the retailer a market valuation of roughly $74.3 billion.
On Wednesday the stock closed at $143.10, down 11.1 percent from a week earlier, for a market cap of $66.1 billion, down $8.2 billion from a week earlier. The shares dropped a further 2 percent in early trading on Thursday and sat near a 52-week low.
Meanwhile, presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has lashed out at Target over the retailer’s LGBT collection, saying products such as trans-friendly swimwear ‘spit in the face’ of conservative customers.
‘Target just put a target on its back from its base of consumers,’ said Ramaswamy, a longshot candidate for the GOP presidential nomination, in an interview with Fox News Digital on Wednesday.
Target’s market capitalization has shed more than $8 billion in the past week as investors weigh the impact of conservative backlash to the retailer’s LGBT collection
‘Just ask Budweiser how that worked out for them,’ he added, referring to a similar controversy over Bud Light’s marketing partnership with a transgender influencer in April.
This week, Target removed certain Pride Collection products from its stores after facing customer backlash, saying it was acting to protect employee safety.
‘If a company makes a conscious business decision to alienate a significant portion of its customer base, then it’s totally fair game for its customers to respond accordingly,’ Ramaswamy said.
‘That’s not a boycott, that’s just a response to a company that chooses to spit in their face,’ he continued. ‘I have no doubt that many companies do find wokeness to be a good short-term trick.’
Target did not immediately respond to a request for comment from DailyMail.com on Thursday morning.
Target says it has offered an LGBT-themed collection for Pride Month, which falls in June, for more than a decade.
This year it includes more than 2,000 products, including clothing, books, music and home furnishings. But one item that drew particular conservative ire was ‘tuck friendly’ women’s swimwear designed to accommodate biologically male genitalia.