AFA to Target: When are ya gonna listen?

A retail giant that angered customers over a transgender-friendly policy has abruptly dropped ambitious plans for future projects.

Target announced last year it was planning a “Store of the Future” with robots serving customers, and a second project was under way to create a website linking Target with outside sellers.

Technology website Recode, citing sources within the corporation, reported Feb. 2 that both projects were unexpectedly yanked by Target executives, stunning employees who were working on them.

Recode’s story was picked up by right-wing website Breitbart, which noted that the corporation’s drop in stock price has “slashed” approximately $10 billion from the company’s value on Wall Street.

A look at the New York Stock Exchange shows Target stock was valued at $83.98 in April, 10 months ago. A month later, when AFA launched its boycott, the stock plummeted to $68 and to date has peaked at $78.61 last November.

Target stock closed at $66.41 on Thursday, Feb. 9, and the Recode story says a shareholders meeting is set for Feb. 28, where CEO Brian Cornell is expected to answer some “tough questions” from shareholders.

Target is suffering financially because of its “ill-advised, dumb decision” to publicize a store policy that caters to transgenders, says Tim Wildmon, president of the Mississippi-based American Family Association.

Target, known for its left-wing activism, announced last April that its retail stores allow people who identify as the opposite sex to use the restroom and changing room of their choice. The policy was already in place but Target publicized it due to ongoing controversy in North Carolina over that state’s “bathroom bill,” which was opposed by homosexual activists.

Enter the AFA, which had backed away from boycotts in recent years but announced last May it was going after Target. AFA asked Target to change a store policy that endangers women and girls by allowing straight men to take advantage of the ask-no-questions policy.

AFA also launched an online petition asking people to pledge the boycott Target stores. The petition reached one million signatures in under a week, drawing more national headlines over Target’s liberal policy.

Youtube videos also went viral, showing store employees admitting they were not permitted to confront men who entered women’s restrooms.

“Just to make sure that I’m right,” a man identified as “Coach Dave” asks a Target employee, “I could in fact go use the women’s restroom right now?”

“If you identify yourself as a woman, yes,” the employee replied.

Then came the news reports of men preying on women and girls at Target stores in Texas, Oregon, Idaho, and elsewhere, taking advantage of the we-don’t-judge store policy just as AFA had warned.

Target alarmed customers after a 2013 data breach, paying approximately $39 million in a settlement with several banks two years later. That same year Target announced it was dropping “boys” and “girls,” and the use of pink and blue, from its toy aisles to “help strike a better balance.”

Wildmon travelled to Target’s Minnesota headquarters last May, where he delivered the petitions to corporate executives.

The corporate leaders were polite and respectful, he reported, but they seemed oblivious that Target was endangering customers in order to remain a corporate ally with homosexual activists.

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