Americans Are Abandoning Target—Here’s Why, and What the Retail Chain Is Changing

If social media is to be believed, Target is just as popular as ever, with shopping influencers sharing dupes for high-end clothing brands and entire accounts devoted to the latest and greatest at the big-box chain. But according to new retail data, life outside the screen tells a very different story. Target has taken a major hit this year, with foot traffic down for the sixth consecutive month in July. Here’s why Americans are abandoning Target, and what the store is doing to try to win them back.

RELATED: Americans Are Abandoning Starbucks—Here’s Why, and What the Coffee Chain Is Changing.

Foot traffic has been down at Target stores since January.

According to data from Placer.ai, July foot traffic at Target stores was down 3.9 percent year over year. It’s the sixth straight month of decline, with February standing out as the worst month this year (a 9 percent decline).

Target’s troubles began following the inauguration of President Donald Trump, at which time the company put out an official statement that it would be rolling back its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. Then, in March, Black clergy members organized a 40-day, nationwide boycott of Target.

“Black people spend upwards of $12 million dollars a day, and so we would expect some loyalty, some decency and some camaraderie,” Rev. Jamal Bryant, an influential Atlanta pastor who helmed the boycott, told CNN at the time.

Conversely, Costco, which has kept its DEI program intact, has seen gains this year.

But experts say there are other reasons for the decline.

However, retail experts believe that Target’s lackluster performance is about more than just the March boycott.

Walter Holbrook, a retail industry veteran, told Retail Brew earlier this week that he makes regular visits to a Target store in Jacksonville, Florida, where twice lately, he’s found the shopping cart corral completely empty.

“That’s the fundamentals,” he said. “If you can’t get that right, you can’t get anything right. If you don’t know that carts need to be kept filled on a Sunday afternoon, you’re in the wrong business.”

Likewise, Retail Brew reports that Neil Saunders, retail analyst and managing director at GlobalData, recently shared a slew of photos on LinkedIn that show empty shelves throughout a Target store.

“The first thing customers see walking in is an empty fixture in Bullseye’s Playground,” Saunders wrote on his post. “Fixture after fixture, including lucrative endcaps, are devoid of product. Essentials like kitchen paper are completely out of stock.”

“Target is still training customers to ask: why bother coming to the store?” he added.

Writers for Business Insider recently conducted their own experiment, visiting three Target stores in Madison, Wisconsin, Ventura, California, and Washington, DC.

They found that the Wisconsin store was well-stocked and busy, but the Ventura store was nearly empty despite being well-stocked.

However, they say the Washington, DC location, a small-format store, had everything from socks to toothpaste locked behind glass doors. When they pressed the button to have an employee unlock the doors, they were only helped half the time.

They also found empty shelves in the Apple accessories and kitchen appliance departments, as well as a lack of staff to help with self-checkout and regular checkout.

RELATED: 4 Major Target Changes Coming to Stores, and How They’ll Affect You.

Here’s where Target can win customers back.

A Placer.ai post explains that Target has historically succeeded due to “discovery-led shopping experiences,” meaning customers go to the store for a few essentials but end up perusing and buying things from their assortment of affordable luxury items, such as April’s wildly successful Kate Spade collaboration.

In speaking with Retail Brew, Ethan Chernofsky, CMO of Placer.ai, says he refers to this as the “middle” point of luxury and value.

“The ‘middle’ is, ‘I will spend more on the Disney toy for my kid, I will spend more on my iPhone, but I want to save money on socks,'” he explains. “[Target] nailed that for so long, and that was what set them apart and made their growth so unique and special.”

He believes that this “middle area” shopper is more sensitive to things like empty shelves and poor service. However, he’s also optimistic that Target can fix its issues, especially when Target CEO Brian Cornell’s contract expires later this year.

To Chernofsky’s point, Target is not letting up on its affordable luxury collabs.

They recently launched a partnership with Stanley to sell exclusive colors of the brand’s viral tumblers. And the fall collections from Chip and Joanna Gaines’ Hearth & Hand line and Shea McGee’s Studio McGee line just dropped. Target also has new partnerships with eyewear brand Warby Parker and athleticwear brand Champion.