The CEO of Target is probably secretly wishing it was the middle of the pandemic again, and not because he’d get a chance to hit his couch and watch “Tiger King” all over. No, back then, Target actually made money.
Brian Cornell is the humiliated CEO who probably isn’t showing his face in public after his company disclosed an earnings report that showed profits dropped an incredible 90% in the second quarter.
The company is trying to blame it on customers being beaten down by inflation, which might be part of the problem, but it would not hurt Target to take a little peek in the mirror and analyze things a bit deeper.
Maybe it’s an excellent time to question if they’ve somehow alienated a considerable percentage of former shoppers who want nothing to do with the brand anymore.
To put it mildly, Target is exceptionally politically active, and their social consciousness takes precedence over everything it would appear, including having items on their shelves that are usually there.
The poor company can’t do anything right, it seems. They’ve tried cutting prices to get rid of excess inventory and still ended up with 1.5% more inventory than it had three months ago and 36% more than a year ago.
Here are the numbers that could thin out their C-suite; a year ago, net income for Q2 was $1.8 billion. In 2022, they had to tell Wall Street it was $183 million.
Cornell does not appear to be the type of self-aware executive that would admit this, but earlier this year, shareholders with, shall we say, far less radical political leanings to the left began to boycott corporations that push their agendas in consumers’ faces constantly. Target was on that list.
Probably just a coincidence they had the quarter that they did.
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