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.
He’s definitely made some very questionable business decisions. I’ve been watching some of his moves from the inside, and some of the recent leadership appointments have been real head scratchers.
He’s been cutting things that he should be investing in, and putting a lot of people in charge of things that they really don’t have any experience or instinct in. I’m not going to name names, but let’s just say that there is a reason why Walmart has started to turn the corner post-pandemic, and Target is still struggling. Especially with grocery and tech.
what kind of stuff has he been doing? i’m out of the loop on this. (i’m not asking for any secrets)
I see a lot of executive leaders getting appointed to positions that they have no background in. And since they don’t understand the gig, those people go out and hire VPs, directors, and managers who also don’t understand the space they’re working in. Example: weird stuff like operations or property management folks running large tech and product development devisions.
Target’s leadership team is also super insulated and slow to acquire information from the folks on the ground.
TL;DR, people in big jobs they should not be in, and no one listens to the folks that are close to the action.
classic. this sounds similar to what happened in southwest airlines too
Because walmart is cheaper. I feel like it’s not that deep.
Depends on what you’re buying.
That said, walmart is often better at fuckery that makes you think they’re cheaper. For example, they’ll mark down key staples like milk, eggs, and peanut butter by several cents or more. But other things in the store will actually be more expensive than what Target sells.
Been inside both companies, so I’ve seen the tricks