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Target has been a major US retailer

going back to the 1960s. That first

location in Roseville, Minnesota was

opened by a company called Dayton that

was already a wellestablished owner of

higher-end department stores. But that

lowerpric discount concept combined with

the unique marketing proved to be so

successful over the following decades

that it slowly became their main focus.

In the early 2000s, they renamed the

company Target Corporation shortly

before opening their 1,000th location.

Today, it is ranked among the top 10

retailers in the country with over $100

billion in sales coming from almost

2,000 locations that are spread across

every US state. Clearly, it is still a

massive company that continues to have

an impact on many of our lives. However,

looking back on over 60 years of

history, I would say that this past

decade has been the most eventful and

probably the most concerning. After

reaching its peak valuation in 2021,

shares of Target stock have lost over

65% of their value, representing almost

$90 billion and showing that investors

have lost a lot of confidence. Keep in

mind that this is during a period where

most of the stock market has been

rising. their biggest rival. Walmart,

for example, has just about doubled in

value over that time. So far in 2025,

Target has been among the 20 worst

performing stocks in the S&P 500, losing

over a third of its value since the year

started. Part of this stems from the

fact that sales have been mostly

unchanged over the past few years. In

fact, 2023 marked their first comparable

sales decline compared to the previous

year, going all the way back to 2016.

Most recently, they announced that they

would be laying off 1,800 corporate

employees, representing 8% of their

corporate workforce. I can continue on

showing signs of struggle, including

their CEO of over a decade resigning and

their incoming CEO recognizing that they

are not realizing their full potential.

But I think most people are in agreement

that Target is in a bit of a panic,

maybe for the first time ever. So, I

think it would be interesting to take a

closer look at what has been happening

by outlining what I believe to be four

of the biggest factors behind their

recent struggles. Starting off with

leadership and I realized that the

success or failure of almost any company

could be traced back to the people in

charge of it. But this has been kind of

a unique situation. In 2013, Target was

having a lot of issues, including rising

competition from online retailers, a

failing expansion effort into Canada,

and a massive data breach. right at the

holiday season that leaked the credit

card information of 40 million

customers. All of that sparked a

leadership change where Brian Cornell

was hired as the company's new CEO. And

for a while, he was receiving a lot of

praise. The center of his plan was to

invest billions of dollars into

remodeling locations, starting private

labels, and building an inventory system

where the stores themselves would

essentially function as warehouses to

fulfill online orders. It was a

controversial plan that reinforced their

commitment to physical locations and it

quickly started paying off. Just every

year it seemed like something massive

was happening. In 2018, the opening of

their new location in Vermont meant that

they were officially operating in all 50

states. In 2019, CNN named him business

CEO of the year. In 2020, Target was

actually helped by the pandemic,

particularly from people buying items

for their home since they were spending

so much time there. In 2021, the company

surpassed $100 billion in sales for the

first time ever, the same year as their

peak stock market valuation. That

partially motivated me to make a video

about how successful they were. So, I

recommend that video if you want to hear

more about the positives from before

these recent struggles. In 2022, Target

even ended their policy, saying that

their CEO had to retire at 65 years old

so that 63-year-old Brian Cornell could

sign a three-year extension to his

contract. Well, obviously, those have

not been the best 3 years, considering

some of those strategies have backfired

along with other questionable decisions

that I will talk about more as I go

through the list. But many people have

expressed the opinion that he should be

replaced with someone from outside the

company, which I think makes enough

sense. Somebody with fresh ideas that

was not involved in all the recent

decisions that brought them into this

panic. Well, his replacement was

announced to be Michael Fidelki, who has

served as the chief operating officer,

chief financial officer, and actually

started as an intern with the company

over 20 years ago. Pretty much somebody

that could not be less from outside the

company. The stock price fell the day of

the announcement, reflecting the fact

that investors do not have much faith

that he can reverse these trends. And to

be clear, I'm not saying that the

company is doomed with him in charge.

Only time will tell. But there's been a

lot of doubt surrounding Target's

leadership lately. Next up on my list is

going to be discretionary products,

meaning non-essential items that people

are more likely to buy when they have

more money to spend. Well, over the past

few years, you probably see where this

is going. Economic factors like

inflation and interest rates have led to

lower discretionary spending, which has

been an issue for stores like Target

that continue to rely pretty heavily on

it. Walmart opened their first Super

Center in 1988 that included an expanded

grocery section. And 7 years later,

Target followed their lead when they

opened their first Super Target. Over

the past 30 years, Target has slowly

built up their grocery sales to account

for almost a quarter of their business.

But Walmart has been way more aggressive

with it, currently accounting for about

60% of their business. Since people tend

to continue buying groceries even when

money is tight, you can understand how

Target has been comparatively more

affected by inflation. I also want to

mention that recent tariffs have been a

similar factor complicating things

considering Target typically imports a

higher percentage of their merchandise

from foreign countries compared to

Walmarts. And a lot of that difference

is attributed to the fact that groceries

tend to be sourced domestically. So to

summarize here, target customers spend a

lot of money at the store that they do

not need to be spending, and that has

proved to be an issue in the current

economy. Next up on the list would be

DEI initiatives, which stands for

diversity, equity, and inclusion. Right

away, I want to recognize that this can

be an extremely touchy subject, so I'm

going to try to be sensitive without

going into too many details here. In

2020, George Floyd was murdered in

Minneapolis, which happens to be the

location of Target's headquarters. Brian

Cornell said that the event motivated

him to start these DEI initiatives

because it could have been one of his

Target team members. And these were

along the lines of setting hiring goals

for minority employees and carrying more

products for minority owned businesses,

including a promise to spend more than

$2 billion on blackowned businesses by

2025. Well, in early 2025, Target

announced that they would be ending most

of these initiatives. It was only a few

days after Donald Trump was sworn in as

president and very likely a response to

his policies against similar programs.

But then Target was met with massive

backlash for their decision, including

an organized boycott that is still

ongoing. Target has recognized that the

decision has hurt their sales and even

two of the daughters of the co-founder

of the company have come out against the

decision saying that they were shocked

and dismayed by it. I want to be clear

that other major companies including

Walmart have ended similar initiatives

without receiving nearly as much

backlash. And I would guess that smaller

response is likely because Target has a

much more left-leaning customer base and

seem to be more vocal and passionate

about these efforts in the first place.

I also want to mention that there was

some controversy back in 2023 concerning

the LGBTQ themed merchandise that they

were selling during Pride Month. It was

controversial to begin with considering

there were concerns about employee

safety partially fueled by this false

rumor going around on social media that

they were marketing these bathing suits

designed for transgender people toward

children. Ultimately, they got rid of

most of these displays. And as you can

imagine, that upset a lot of people.

Again, these are sensitive and divisive

issues that they might be better off

avoiding altogether, especially if they

are not going to take a clear stance on

them. To me, anyway, it feels like they

are trying to make everybody happy, but

then upsetting everyone in the process.

For my final reason behind their recent

troubles, I'm going to be a little more

general and group together a few

concerns by talking about the customer

experience, which is a little surprising

to me. For as long as I can remember,

Target has always had such a great

reputation for being a fun place to shop

and discover stuff. I mean, people

affectionately refer to it as Tar

because it can feel kind of fancy for a

discount store, but lately people have

been questioning if it still lives up to

that French sounding pronunciation. Of

course, it is all a matter of opinion.

So, please let me know if you have

noticed any differences in your shopping

experiences lately, but just to mention

a few of the more common concerns. Some

people have complained about the

merchandise not being as trendy or

attractive as it used to be, possibly

due to a greater focus on private label

brands and some inventory issues

following the pandemic when people

shifted their spending habits. Some of

the recent attempts to address this

issue include partnerships with Kate

Spade and Champion, both of which seem

to be attracting customers. But then

something that could potentially make

the situation worse would be their

partnership with Ulta ending in August

of 2026. Those two started working

together to establish these tiny Ulta

stores within Target stores, similar to

what Kohl's has been doing with Sephora

during their peak year in 2021 and have

attracted a lot of customers into the

store from it. But they have officially

announced that they will not be renewing

their contract. So that could

potentially hurt sales moving forward.

Other common complaints include messy

stores or even unpleasant employees.

Both of which could be attributed to

that plan where the stores started

functioning as fulfillment hubs for the

online orders. Today 96% of orders are

filled at the stores instead of

warehouses as opposed to Walmart where

it is more like half and half. So you

know Target employees are too busy

filling orders instead of stocking

shelves, helping the customers or

keeping the stores clean. However,

lately they have been experimenting and

trying to figure out which stores are

better built to fill these online orders

with the goal of elevating the guest

experience. So, if all goes according to

plan, they will be able to fill these

orders without sacrificing cleanliness

or availability within the stores. At

the very least, it seems like they are

aware of these customer complaints and

are taking steps to address them. Let me

know in the comments what do you think

about Target and how has your opinion

changed over the past five or even 10

years? And maybe more importantly, what

do you see for the future? With the new

CEO and some of the recent changes, it

feels like an important time for them

where things can either start to make a

recovery or continue to fall beyond

repair. I think the core of the issue

here is that Target is not as well-liked

as it used to be and is giving customers

more reason to switch over to one of the

competitors. So, I guess I should ask,

what do they need to do to fix their

reputation and start that recovery? And

finally, do you agree with my reasons

behind their struggles, or do you think

something should be added or subtracted

from the list? And any other thoughts

you have about Target, leave them in the

comments. I'd like to hear what you have

to say. Thank you for watching.

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