After announcing a rollback of DEI initiatives in January, a boycott of the retailer has led to a decline in sales and foot traffic, impacting the company’s bottom line. 

It looks like the Target boycott is working after all. According to Yahoo Finance, on an earnings call with investors, Target CEO Brian Cornell acknowledged that the store’s first-quarter sales declines were, at least in part, because of consumers’ reactions to their announced rollback of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in January. That “reaction” was a call from various organizations and groups to boycott the retailer. 

According to Cornell, concerns over tariffs, declining consumer confidence in the retailer (that DEI stuff), and inflation, caused a sluggish first quarter in sales. 

“While we believe each of these factors played a role in our first quarter performance, we can’t reliably estimate the impact of each one separately.” 

Target, along with other retailers like Amazon and Wal-Mart announced plans to change course when it comes to DEI, but Target seems to be the company hit the hardest by that decision. Through the first week of March, Target’s foot traffic was down 7 percent compared to a year ago. Costco, on the other hand, doubled down on their commitment to DEI initiatives, and their foot traffic increased by 7 percent year-over-year. 

The boycott of Target, or “Target Fast” was spearheaded by many organizations, and Rev. Dr. Jamal Bryant in particular. The result of the “fast” was Target CEO Cornell calling for a meeting with Rev. Al Sharpton—Rev. Bryant was in the meeting—to figure out what the retailer could do to end the boycott. After the meeting, no call to end the boycott was made, and now the website for the “Target Fast” even sells merchandise.

It’s safe to say there’s no end in sight for the decline in Target’s sales due to “consumer confidence.” 

CFRA research analyst Arun Sundaram told Yahoo Finance, “I don’t think Target gave much assurance that the DEI-related boycotts were limited to this quarter.”

Analysts also think there’s more to the story. Wal-Mart, who again also decided to roll back DEI strategies, hasn’t seen the same result as Target. In fact, Wal-Mart outpaced sales expectations—seeing a 4.5 percent sales jump as opposed to the 3.85 percent increase they expected. 

Roth Capital Partners research analyst said, “Consumers aren’t compelled to use Target in the same way they once were … If you’re not compelled to use Target for a particular reason, it makes a boycott far simpler to execute.” 

Needless to say, while the exact impact of the boycott on Target may not be easy to parse out, the boycott has been successful thus far, leaving the retailer to only hope that those customers who found other outlets suitable decide to come back and that boycott leaders end the movement.