Target has traditionally carried LGBTQ Pride-themed merchandise for the month of June (Pride month), but this year the retailer began receiving backlash and boycotts over its Pride Collection, and the company decided to remove some goods entirely and place some at the back of the store.
Target's stock has fallen about 10% since news broke on May 24, CNBC reported.
Target is offering more than 2,000 products, including clothing, books, music, and home furnishings as part of its Pride Collection, Reuters reported. The items include "gender fluid" mugs, "queer all year" calendars and books for children aged 2-8 titled "Bye Bye, Binary," "Pride 1,2,3," and "I'm not a girl."
"Since introducing this year's collection, we've experienced threats impacting our team members' sense of safety and wellbeing while at work," Target said in a statement.
"Given these volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior," the Minneapolis-based retailer said
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 64% of American adults shop at Target at least occasionally, including 27% who shop at the store at least monthly.
Among adults who shop Target at least occasionally, 35% say this controversy has made them less likely to shop there, while 25% say it has made them more likely to do so. Thirty-seven percent (37%) of regular Target shoppers say the controversy has not made much difference in their shopping habits, according to Rasmussen.
Forty-seven percent (47%) of Republicans, 20% of Democrats, and 42% of unaffiliated voters say the recent Pride-month controversy has made them less likely to shop at Target. Two-thirds (67%) of Republicans believe businesses celebrate Pride month too much, a belief shared by 38% of Democrats, and 43% of the unaffiliated.
Women (32%) are more likely than men (23%) to say they shop at Target at least monthly. More men (38%) than women (32%) say the recent Pride-month controversy has made them less likely to shop at Target. Men are also more likely than women to believe that, in general, businesses do too much to celebrate LGBTQ Pride month.
Women under 40 are most likely to be frequent Target shoppers, and least likely to think businesses go overboard for Pride month.
Married adults are more likely to believe businesses in general do too much in celebrating Pride month.
Americans earning below $50,000 a year are more likely to say the Pride month controversy has made them shop less at Target, according to Rasmussen.
The survey of 1,098 American adults was conducted May 30-June 1, 2023, by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC.
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