Shortly before a road trip in early 2024, Mary Molina realized her view of Target had changed.
Molina, a mother of five and entrepreneur who lives in Westchester, New York, said her weekly trips to Target looked and felt different from her experience before the Covid pandemic. Items such as national brands of laundry detergent or shampoo were often out of stock. She said store employees weren’t as friendly as before, with heads down or eyes glued to a handheld device as they picked orders for an online shopper. And when she browsed for the cute and trendy swimsuits, pajama sets or sandals she had typically found at Target, she said it felt like “a sea of generic.”
“It was a small evolution, and then one day, my husband said, ‘Let’s stop at Target and then we’ll go to Rhode Island,’” she said of preparing for the road trip. “And I said, ‘What for?’”
Molina and customers like her reflect a fading loyalty to Target that’s testing its business model and slowing its sales.
The retailer, which gained a loyal following over decades for its quirky, progressive and chic approach to big-box retail, now appears stuck as it tries to grow again and bounce back from lower store traffic, inventory issues and customer backlash. Shares of Target have fallen about 61% since their all-time high in late 2021. That peak came after Target’s sales rose more than $15 billion in the fiscal year following the start of the Covid pandemic, but its annual revenue has stagnated for the past four years. And Target said in May that it expects sales to fall this year.
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