Here in Minneapolis, the Target Corporation has long been
something of a sacred cow, given that its corporate headquarters are located
here, about three blocks from where I now work. Not only do they employ many
hundreds of people here in downtown, but they have also been notably good
corporate citizens within the community and across the nation. A sizable
amount of philanthropy comes through the Target corporation, both here and
nationally. Most significantly for me is the ongoing contribution to
America’s schools, which totals many millions of dollars a year. The
corporation can be the “target” for some legitimate criticism (we’ll get to
that in a minute), but they are overall a fair employer that offers opportunity
to senior citizens, college students seeking part-time work, employment for
physically disabled workers, etc.
For me and many others, they have also served as something
of an “anti-Walmart” offering the same products, but served up in a more
pleasant atmosphere and finding success with far fairer labor practices, both
domestically and overseas. Yes, you might be able to buy your gargantuan bottle
of laundry soap for 15 cents less at Walmart, but shopping Target lets me feel
that my savings isn’t coming at the expense of old workers denied health insurance,
women denied advancement opportunities, or small children laboring in third
world sweatshops. It’s not that clear-cut, of course, and I’m sure deep probing shows that Target has some questionable ethics, too. Having read a couple of biographies of Sam Walton, though, makes me more than willing to pay a little bit more.
Recently, the rose has started to fade a little for the
Target Corporation. The disaster with credit card information being hacked was
highly embarrassing, of course, though I suspect we will gradually learn that
this kind of thing has been happening to many other (though less prominent)
retailers, as well. Target’s reaction to this has been, I think, ethical and
honest, and I frankly don’t really fault them for this event.
But other small things about Target are starting to bug me.
They’ve tightened the qualifications for offering health insurance to part-time
employees, for example, though people in the know tell me that they are helping
those employees with the costs of insuring under the Affordable Care Act.
Recently I realized that my local Target stores no longer even offer you a
choice between paper and plastic bags—as a cost saving move they now will only
bag your merchandise in cheaper but environmentally questionable plastic. And
the increasingly drone-like business culture of the corporate office has become more obvious. In downtown Minneapolis, the young Target employees
sometimes resemble Stepford wives in their uniform appearance and behavior as
they mill through the streets at lunch time.
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| Seriously? Target thinks this is okay? |
But the real kicker for me has come in the corporation’s
cowardly response to the gun lobby, as rabid gun enthusiasts poke their fingers in the eyes of the rest of
us by carrying their loaded guns into retail Target stores. In a feeble effort to offend no
one whatsoever, the response of Target has been to shiver timidly and
say that they will always comply with whatever the local ordinances allow. They
could, of course, simply say that guns are not allowed on the premises of
Target stores, but because this runs the risk of a possible boycott by gun enthusiasts,
they look the other way and blame governments for whatever policies are in
place.
Guns carried into retail mass merchandise stores seems like
something you’d expect to see in other mass merchandise behemoths, and you now get the feeling that
Target is not longer proudly serving as the anti-Walmart, but instead has
chosen to emulate the corporation from Bentonville, Arkansas. The story is not yet concluded,
fortunately. A recent vote at Target Corporate gave a vote of confidence to the
current board of directors, and that gives me hope that they’ll yet double-down
on their practice of good citizenship. I'll watch closely.
But I have to tell you, the first time I see somebody
wearing a Duck Dynasty ball cap and carrying an assault rifle in my local Target store,
my business goes to Costco once and for all.
