Target Corporation, the once much-loved red bullseye in the sky of upper-middle class aisle meanderings, has had a rough year. Their once bullet-proof stock has done the Electric Slide from lofty heights into “just hangin’ in there” territory, with no appreciable recovery bounces at any time in the past year.

And according to Target CEO Brian Cornell, there are no bounces anticipated in the near future. The message to shareholders is, basically, buckle up – it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

In a CNBC interview, it seemed he was, for the most part, placing the blame on #Bidenomics for the pullback in consumer spending. And Target consumers are pulling back in places the corporation hadn’t really expected to see. Not just in the impulse buy quirky geegaws and household goods Target is known for, but they’re losing sales in comestibles, too.

Target CEO Brian Cornell says shoppers are pulling back, even on groceries, as they feel stressed about their budgets.

In an interview with CNBC’s Becky Quick that aired Thursday morning, he emphasized that the retailer has posted seven consecutive quarters of declining sales of discretionary items, such as apparel and toys, in terms of both dollars and units.

“But even in food and beverage categories, over the last few quarters, the units, the number of items they’re buying, has been declining,” he said in the interview.

CEO Cornell talks about “leaning into” big seasonal inventory, “playing to win,” and knowing how people look to his company for unique but affordable things to purchase during the holidays for either decorating or gifts.

I found this sentence to be particularly entertaining.

…Cornell said the company has faced a turnabout from previous holiday seasons. During the height of the pandemic, it didn’t have enough merchandise because of pandemic-related supply chain bottlenecks. Then, a year ago, it coped with too much of the wrong inventory.

What exactly compromises “too much of the WRONG inventory” for Target?

Did they order too many Satanist designed Pride themed baby clothes? Even allowing for the fact that sane people were never supposed to notice either the clothes or who they’d been designed by, did they go too far? Get a little heavy with the order pen?

As I posted in May, it didn’t help the merchandise was crap.

…Satan may respect pronouns, but – judging by the 1 and 2 star reviews – even the Prince of Darkness won’t tolerate shoddy merchandise….

…Because virtue signaling, uber woke Target executives think anyone who specializes in dark, demonic and satanic imagery is PERFECT FOR TARGET CHILDREN’S RAINBOWS AND UNICORN SHIRTS!

Brilliant.

Wouldn’t it be funny if all Hell broke loose?

All Hell did break loose, not just because of the Satanic dweeb’s miserable merchandise, but because Target had also upped their in-your-face Pride month celebration with trans affirming gear for tots.

No woman needs to tuck anything. We have vaginas & we are the only ones who do. Oh and we don’t need our kids seeing this sh&% when we walk down the aisle at Target. https://t.co/7cvvG0PVYb

— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) May 20, 2023

It all pushed parents and, again, sane people right over the edge, and Target sales off a cliff like they were Wile. E. Coyote.

Poof! went the little Target profits dust cloud.

As there’s been no recovery, both confirmed by their stock price and the CEOs affirmation of seven quarters of “decling sales of discretionary items,” it makes one wonder where Target goes from this ghastly year. Have they learned anything? Are they adjusting course?

Cornell’s been in that chair for 10 years.

Fortunately, the CEO’s interview was available with a section specifically regarding the “backlash” to the pride gear. I listened to a couple of minutes, and swiftly realized he hadn’t learned a thing. His woke thought processes were as strong as ever. He believes Target is the victim here.

The woke tells were pretty simple. A few examples.

“…some of the violence that took place after George Floyd’s murder…”

“…what happened back in May was the first time since I”ve been in this job where I had store members telling me ‘It’s not safe to come to work’…I knew this wasn’t going to be well received [pulling merchandise] We had to prioritize the safety of the team”

“…We’ve been celebrating heritage moments like Pride for over a decade now…We’ve never seen that kind of response…”

In other words, he has no idea where all the bigots came from nor why they picked on Target.

But the humdinger comes in the middle of the segment, when Becky Quick asks him flat out about the very things that tanked their little Pride month celebration and profits. The DOCUMENTED cases.

Becky Quick: “Well, lemme just, lemme just tell you from the outside…people said, look. There are bathing suits that are transgender bathing suits that are being targeted and marketed to kids. Um, there is a guy who, you’re working with a designer who, I dunno, is a devil worshipper or something. What did you find What would you say back to some of those criticisms?”

Cornell: “Well, I think you and I both know THOSE WEREN’T TRUE…”

Except...they were. And shame on Quick for not calling him out on it right then and there. God knows there enough proof – the innerwebs are forever, Cornell. Tons tweets of moms with “tuck” suits like above, and I have screencaps of the “devil worshipper’s” designs I took from Target’s own website. Even the AP got in on the story trying to play clean-up for the woke corporation when it blew up on them.

“Target isn’t selling Satan-worshipping gear” they fact checked. Which wasn’t the objection to begin with.

…But the company, whose name means “ricochet” in German, has stressed that none of its merchandise with satanic references was included in Target’s Pride collection. Those products are sold separately through the brand’s own website.

Erik Carnell, the brand’s creator, in a statement posted on Instagram last week, said only three items were sold through Target.

One was a sweatshirt featuring an image of a serpent wrapped around a winged staff — a typical symbol of the medical community — along with the slogan “Cure Transphobia, Not Trans People.”

Another was a messenger bag with a UFO image and the phrase “Too Queer for Here,” and the third was a tote bag with images of planets and the line “We Belong Everywhere.”

Nice try at parsing, Cornell, and a flat-out lie.

Target sure as hell WAS marketing alphabet soup sex gear to kids designed by a Satan worshipper, and consumers rightly exploded on the chain for it.

https://t.co/tRbvHFz9pH

— Darrell B. Harrison (@D_B_Harrison) November 2, 2023

Whatever softening in your heart for the little red bullseye store might have been happening had you, like myself, not stepped a toe over the threshold for almost a year should be firming right back up after that interview. Cornell is a woke weasel word wizard who obviously won’t hesitate to lie at the drop of a wrong pronoun.

There are better places to spend what money I have.

Sadly, it looks are if this woke thing is well nigh incurable in some people.