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Comment by jedberg | Hacker News Reader

I feel like this is just correlation at best. How are other similar retail stores like WalMart doing? Or what about regionally? Is the drop bigger in more left-leaning areas? Is it actually up in right-leaning areas?

Is this just economic jitters or are they really getting punished for dropping DEI?

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While all the major retailers are down (due to economic "uncertainty"), Target is certainly hurting the most.

Costco, who pushed back against the calls to end DEI is doing the best.

> Target lost 9% of its foot traffic year over year in February and 6.5% in March, according to Placer.ai research. It even lost traffic during Target Circle Week. That’s more than Walmart, which lost 5.7% of traffic February and another 3.8% in March. In contrast, Costco gained 2.2% in traffic in February and 7.5% in March.

https://www.startribune.com/target-walmart-foot-traffic-decl...

The comparison with Costco is right there at the top of the article.

As the article mentions a couple times, costco is doing great. Sales increasing every week for months, stock at an all time high.

Costco is a membership store with a very different much higher income clientele who is less sensitive to economic jitters.

Am I tripping, did your comment not specifically wonder about costco a few minutes ago? Did you edit it?

I mentioned Costco when I first wrote it and then edited it about 20 seconds later, so no, you aren't tripping. :)

Kinda weird then to act like I was bringing up costco out of nowhere and to dismiss it as too different to compare but ok I guess.

Sorry, I didn't realize you replied when I still mentioned Costco. I specifically took it out when I realized it wasn't a fair comparison (and since it was already in the article).

Is that because of DEI, or because Costco offers better deals and people are stocking up because of economic uncertainty? I know people who ahve stopped shopping at Target including me, but anecdotes don't prove anything.

Target also lost more than Walmart and basically all other retailers. There's a general downturn but Target's is steeper than others so it's likely the boycott is having an additive effect.

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