‘Go woke, go broke’ — is it working on Target?

Citing “multiple headwinds” that slowed business, Target’s CEO told investors Wednesday that the company’s sales fell 5.4% in the last quarter, with both the number of transactions and the amount each consumer spent declining during the period. And a lawsuit filed Tuesday by a conservative legal group seeks to hold the retailer, the sixth largest in the U.S., responsible for shareholder losses.

Is the conservative battle cry “Go woke, go broke” working on Target like it did on Bud Light?

CEO Brian Cornell seemed to acknowledge as much during an earnings call in which he said that consumers are cutting back overall. But, he added, “Beyond these factors, in the second quarter, many of our store team members face a negative guest reaction to our pride assortment.”

Although Target has featured pride products for more than a decade, the retailer pulled some of those products after pushback in June, which is Pride Month. Many conservatives considered that a victory, similar to the decline in Bud Light sales after a transgender influencer was featured on a Bud Light can.

But in his remarks, Cornell said that the removal of the merchandise was to protect employees and customers “after members of our team began experiencing threats and aggressive actions that affected their sense of safety and well-being while at work.”

“I want to make it clear, we denounce violence and hate of all kinds. And the safety of our team and our guests is our top priority. So, to protect the team in the face of these threatening circumstances, we quickly made changes, including the removal of items through the center of the most significant confrontational behavior.”

It’s unclear what the “aggressive actions” were, but The Washington Post reported in June that a customer brought a pair of scissors into the store to cut up her credit card.

The newspaper reported, “Brandishing her own scissors in front of guest services in a Target store in South Florida, the customer chopped up her store credit card while lambasting the retail chain for carrying Pride Month merchandise. ‘I am never shopping here again,’ she warned.”

The Post also said there were bomb threats to stores in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Utah.

Other news outlets had reported in late May that there was a bomb threat at a Target in Layton, Utah, that triggered an evacuation, but that report was later deemed “not credible.”

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Conservatives have been flexing their muscle in the marketplace this year, in part because of the success of the Bud Light boycott. The Associated Press reported earlier this month that Anheuser-Busch InBev says Bud Light sales are stabilizing, but remain lower than last year.

According to AP: “In the month ending July 22, Bud Light’s U.S. retail sales were down 26% compared to the same period a year ago, according to Nielsen data compiled by Bump Williams Consulting. Its year-over-year sales declines have been in the 25% to 30% range every month since the backlash began, the consulting company said.”

Some analysts are predicting that a downturn of about 15% will be permanent for the brand, which is now being used as a synonym for conservative boycotts — Target, for example, was “Bud Lighted.”

Writing for Deseret earlier this year, Emily Zanotti said the success of the boycotts show that consumers are tired of having social agendas foist on them by corporations.

“Maybe Target wasn’t choosing a side in the culture war or signaling its ‘woke’ bona fides, but was in fact just trying to sell stuff,” Zanotti wrote. “But to this mom and others, the choice of these particular products ... looks and feels like in its quest to be inclusive Target excluded those who’d rather have a more politically and socially neutral place to bring their children to shop. And it seems the opposition is more widespread than Target’s buyers and marketers expected.”

Despite the Target CEO’s suggestion that overall market forces were a large part of the decline in sales, headlines Wednesday said otherwise.

CNN’s headline was “Pride Month backlash hurt Target’s sales. They fell for the first time in six years.” And even The New York Times said, “Target’s Sales Hit by Pride Month Merchandise Backlash,” adding that the retailer cut its earning forecast for the rest of the year.

Target stock was up a little more than 3% at the close of the market Wednesday, however, so “Go woke, go broke” isn’t yet entirely accurate.

There’s a new company about to be Bud Lighted, however, if social media is an indicator. Best Buy is under fire for a minority management program that only accepts applications from people who are Black, Latino, Hispanic, Asian or Pacific Islander. In response, talk show host Mark Levin wrote on X: “Bye-bye, Best Buy.”