Target CEO Brian Cornell Resigns After Pride Merchandise Boycotts Slash Sales At Nearly 2,000 Stores

You know what? Corporate America is finally getting what’s been coming. Big retailers thought they could tell families how to think and what values to accept. But when you mess with parents trying to protect their kids, you’re going to lose that fight every single time.

For over ten years, one of America’s biggest retail chains seemed unstoppable. Nearly 2,000 stores across the country. Millions of families shopping there every week. But then the executives decided they knew better than their customers. Bad move.

Target announced Wednesday that CEO Brian Cornell is stepping down next year after 11 years (that’s a long time to mess things up). His replacement, Michael Fiddelke, gets to inherit a company that’s losing customers from both the left and the right. Sales crashed in early 2025. The executives admit it’s going to get worse before it gets better.

The Price of Pride

Here’s where things went really wrong. In 2023, Target rolled out Pride Month stuff for kids. We’re talking children’s clothes and “tuck-friendly” swimsuits (I’m not making this up). Parents across America said “absolutely not” and took their money elsewhere.

Then someone dug up this 2015 Target ad with kids in Pride gear. The tagline? “We’re not born with pride. We take pride in celebrating who we were born to be.” Using children to push this message? What were they thinking?

From ‘The Post Millennial’:

The cultural battles intensified with the release of pride merchandise in 2023, including children’s items and “tuck-friendly” swimsuits, which triggered a conservative-led boycott. That campaign, combined with a resurfaced 2015 advertisement featuring children in a Pride Month promotion, fueled further outrage. The video, which ends with the line, “We’re not born with pride. We take pride in celebrating who we were born to be,” has circulated widely online in recent weeks, renewing criticism from opponents.

Parents voted with their wallets. They chose to drive to other stores rather than expose their kids to this stuff. And guess what? It worked.

Playing Both Sides, Losing Both Sides

Now here’s the funny part. Target tried to fix things by backing off their diversity programs in January. But that just made the other side mad too! The Guardian says Black Americans started boycotting. Some petition got 250,000 signatures (yeah, that’s a lot of angry shoppers) from people promising never to shop there again.

Think about how badly you have to screw up to make both conservatives and progressives hate you at the same time. Cornell’s replacement inherits a company that somehow united America—in refusing to shop at Target. How’s that working out for them?

Blaming Everything but the Obvious

Target’s executives want to blame “economic uncertainty and tariffs” for their problems. Really? The timeline doesn’t lie. Their troubles started when they chose activism over customers. Not when the economy shifted. Not when tariffs changed. When they decided to lecture parents about values.

Those 2,000 stores used to be where regular Americans shopped without thinking twice. Now? They’re empty monuments to what happens when you forget who pays your bills.

Cornell was supposed to be this retail genius when he started. Now he’s leaving in defeat. His resignation isn’t just about one CEO failing. It’s proof that no fancy boardroom strategy beats millions of parents protecting their kids. Think other CEOs are paying attention?

Target’s new boss has to figure out how to win back Americans who’ve already found other places to shop. Good luck with that. The lesson here is simple. When you pick fights with your customers’ values, when you use kids to push agendas, the market hits back hard. Those quarterly reports written in red ink? That’s what accountability looks like.

Key Takeaways

• Target CEO resigns after conservative boycotts crushed sales over Pride merchandise targeting kids
• Company lost both conservative and progressive customers by flip-flopping on values
• Nearly 2,000 stores affected as parents chose protecting children over convenience
• Corporate America learning that activism doesn’t pay when Middle America walks away

Sources: The Post Millennial

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