Exclusive: Target Boycott Shows Early Signs of Impact, Employees Say

I have some exclusive reporting this evening that suggests the ongoing boycott of Target may be making an impact—at least in its early stages. For background, the Target boycott began this week and is expected to last until April 17th. The boycott was launched by Atlanta-area pastors who are protesting the company’s position toward DEI policies and have launched the protest to coincide with lent.

According to messages I’ve received from several Target employees across the country, including senior managers, stores are feeling the effects of consumer pushback.

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While specific sales data is not yet available, employees report noticeable shifts in customer traffic, purchasing patterns, and even internal discussions within the company. Some store managers have allegedly acknowledged the impact in meetings, though the company has yet to make any public statements regarding the boycott’s influence.

Several employees have reached out to share their firsthand experiences, painting a picture of stores struggling to meet sales goals. A longtime Target employee, who has been with the company for a decade, shared this insight:

“On average, my store makes about $115 million in sales a year. Daily, we are missing sales by $25,000-$40,000. We aren’t meeting sales forecasts or goals, and we haven’t in weeks—almost coming up on months. I’ve never seen it be this bad. Usually, it will be slow as far as hours for hourly, entry-level team members from January through March because of payroll, but they’re telling us to expect even higher payroll cuts throughout the summer.”

Another employee confirmed that while sales projections can be influenced by a range of factors, the boycott may already be disrupting expected trends:

“Wanted to give you some sales info on this Target fast that is happening since I’m currently employed here. So, day one, we made more than our projection, but day two was a huge fall-off—$30,000 less than projected. The thing is, Target’s projected sales are based on what they sold at this time last year. That’s it. It’s an arbitrary metric since a lot of compounding factors can lead to the number being higher or lower than the projection, such as a storm coming in so more people are spending or people not getting back their taxes yet, so they don’t have money to spend. We won’t really know the impact until the next earnings call at the end of the quarter.”

Another Target employee reported that stores are ramping up promotions and employee sales tactics to mitigate losses:

“Hey, I work at Target, and the boycott from day one has already worked! I don’t know if you’ll ever use this information, but my location has lost about $56,000, and if you’ve noticed, Targets have been pushing deals and pushing their card to try to make back that money. Us workers get in trouble if we don’t push.”

What Comes Next?

While it’s still early, these reports indicate that the boycott is not going unnoticed. If the trends described by employees hold, the financial impact could become more apparent when Target releases its next earnings report. Until then, consumer behavior will be the ultimate deciding factor in how significant this boycott turns out to be.

Are you participating in the boycott? Have you noticed any changes at your local Target store? Let me know in the comments or reach out with your thoughts.

Stay tuned—I will continue to investigate and provide updates as more information becomes available.