Target’s stock has lost a whopping $12.7 billion over the past two weeks, hitting its lowest levels in nearly three years as the “cheap chic” discount retailer continues to face backlash over LGBTQ-friendly kids clothing.
Shares of the embattled chain were off 0.3% at $133.42 in early Wednesday trades after dropping for eight straight sessions — the stock’s longest losing streak since November 2018 — giving the company a market capitalization of $61.6 billion.
That’s off 17% from two weeks earlier on May 18, when the stock was trading at $160.96 on the eve of the crisis.
It’s also the lowest levels Target shares have seen since the company was recovering from the depths of the pandemic in mid-2020.
The ongoing losses are a result of an ongoing 14-day boycott that was triggered by Target’s release of “PRIDE,” an LGBTQ-friendly line that includes clothing for children and “tuck-friendly” women’s swimwear with “extra crotch coverage.”
Other items in the line include a onesie for infants that say “Bien Proud,” a children’s book titled “‘Twas the Night Before Pride” and a handful of T-shirts donning LGBTQ-friendly slogans, like “live laugh lesbian.”
The Post has reached out to Target for comment.
Customers have accused Target of grooming children with the items — most recently alt-right rapper Forgiato Blow who’s topping iTunes chart with his new rap song, “Boycott Target.”
The song’s lyrics address an LGBTQ “agenda” that the rapper sings has gone “too far.”
“Attention all shoppers, there’s a clean up on every aisle. Target is targeting your kids,” Blow says in the track’s opening line.
As a result of the incessant backlash, the retailer said it would remove items from the “PRIDE” collection — citing “volatile circumstances” and “significant confrontational behavior” — but did not specify which ones.
Among the ones that garnered the most attention were “tuck-friendly” women’s swimsuits that allow trans women who have not had gender-affirming operations to conceal their genitalia, as well as rainbow-themed children’s clothing.
Target has also announced that would move its Pride section to the back of its stores in some Southern outposts after displays were knocked over by protestors who also confronted workers.
Target reported a $10 billion loss in market valuation earlier this week, just 10 days into the Pride line-induced boycott.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, however, has said that he doubts the backlash against Target would be as impactful as that of Bud Light.
Sales of America’s once-most-popular beer suffered a 25.7% fall on Tuesday, its worst week ever.
Cruz said on his podcast on Friday that while multiple alternatives exist to replace Anheuser-Busch’s brands, the same is not so for Target, which boasts more than 2,000 locations nationwide.
Before Target’s share price nosedived, CEO Brian Cornell defended the retailer’s “PRIDE” line, saying on a podcast earlier this month that putting out an LGBTQ-friendly line ahead of Pride Month in June is a “good business decision.”
He added: “It’s the right thing for society, and it’s the great thing for our brand.”
This story originally appeared on NYPost
