A couple of major retail players announced their second quarter earnings this morning. The sales arrow went whizzing by the red and white circle stores…

Looks like a big topline miss and a big bottom line beat from TGT..

— Frog Capital (@FrogNews) August 16, 2023

…and the Target corporation’s revised outlook is downright dreary.

The word used for their latest full year prognostications was “slashed.” Going forward, Target sees nothing in their future but declining sales, where they had previously forecast a marginally hopeful rise of a percent later this fall. Not so much now, even going so far as deepening their downside expectations.

…The big-box retailer cut both its full-year sales and profit expectations. Target offered a gloomier outlook even as some top economists have scrapped calls for a recession and government data shows signs inflation is cooling.

The company said it now expects comparable sales to decline by about mid single digits for the full fiscal year and earnings per share to range from $7 to $8. It previously anticipated comparable sales would range from a low single-digit decline to a low single-digit increase, and earnings per share would come in between $7.75 and $8.75.

Target’s struggling shares rose Wednesday despite the soft forecast, as its fiscal second-quarter earnings topped expectations and inventory levels improved. Investors also have had low expectations for the company, reflected in a sharp drop in its share price this year heading into Wednesday.

Comparable sales (sales online and stores open longer than 13 months) were down over 5%. What sales they had were mostly inventory going out the door – those dropped 17%. The problem with being too agressive unloading everything you already have is you have to buy inventory again at some point. Balance is better.

During the earnings call, their CEO Brian Cornell blamed everything from interest rates, to student loan payments resuming, to the fact that, hello – everyday needs had gotten pretty damn pricey…and stayed that way. #Bidenomics

…“As we look at the consumer landscape today, we recognize the consumer is still challenged by the levels of inflation that they’re seeing in food and beverage and household essentials,” he said on a call with reporters. “So that’s absorbing a much bigger portion of their budget.”

Now, they mentioned the brouhaha about transgender Satanists designing baby Pride clothes during the call. Not to forget the blowback after Target’s flirtation with “tuck-it” bathing suits – ever so helpful when one’s still fully intact dangly bits get in the way of making that ultra feminine bikini look smooth and sleek on a male body.

No woman needs to tuck anything. We have vaginas & we are the only ones who do. Oh and we don’t need our kids seeing this sh&% when we walk down the aisle at Target. https://t.co/7cvvG0PVYb

— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) May 20, 2023

But, being woke af Target, they defended it and doubled down, having only removed “some items” in the interest of “employee safety.”

…And Target faced backlash in late May over its collection of merchandise celebrating Pride month, including some items it later pulled after threats to employees. The decision to remove certain items sparked more criticism.

Cornell said “negative reaction” to Target’s Pride collection had a material impact on sales. But he defended the company’s response and said after Target removed some items in June out of concern for employee and customer safety, it “saw things normalize.” He said it will continue to have a collection for Pride month and other heritage months.

We’re gonna keep doing it and “Pride” is a “heritage month.” Take that, cretinous peasants.

YOICKS

Stephen Miller’s foundation, America First Legal, has filed a stockholder’s lawsuit against Target, alleging that the corporation misled investors about risks associated with their DEI and ESG proclivities. A $12B “collapse” in stock value later? They’d like answers.

Today, America First Legal (AFL), with co-counsel Boyden Gray PLLC and Lawson Huck Gonzalez PLLC, sued Target Corporation and its Board of Directors on behalf of Brian Craig, a Target shareholder, for betraying Target’s customers and shareholders with misleading representations about its Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) mandates, and for causing Target shareholders to lose billions of dollars.

In its 2022 and 2023 Proxy Statements, Target assured shareholders and investors that the Board was monitoring for social and political issues and risks arising from the company’s ESG and DEI mandates. However, management only cared whether its leftist “stakeholders” were satisfied, disregarding the possibility that its customers and shareholders might feel differently. Thus, in May 2023, Target embraced the radical transgender agenda with its children-and-family-themed “Pride” marketing and sales campaign – the corporation’s infamous “Pride” collection included clothing for young children with rainbow Mickey Mouse symbols, LGBT-themed bibs and onesies for babies, and “tuck-friendly” bathing suits for “transgender women.” This predictably caused more than a $12 billion collapse in share value, the largest stock price decline in over 20 years.

They might have a point. Target’s stock price fell – or schmaybe threw itself – off a cliff at the end of “Tuck-It for Satan” May.

A retailer really needs to be sensitive to paying customers when they also have so many who don’t pay.

Target is a favorite of the five-finger-discount crowd.

JUST IN: Target, $TGT, says stores have seen a 120% increase in theft involving violence the first 5 months of 2023.

Earlier this year, Target said they expect to lose $1.3 BILLION due to theft in 2023.

This is up $500 million from theft losses in 2022.

Rising retail theft is… pic.twitter.com/Xav6ZxdzY7

— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) August 16, 2023

Oh, well. Enjoy the slide, double down dudes. The learning curve is tough for some people, but it still is a free country.

Especially since the other guys reporting this morning – TJ MAX – don’t seem to have any problems at all. No controversy, no pretensions, cheerful commercials, nice stores (T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods, Sierra, and Homesense in the U.S), no “tuck” bathing suits, leave Satan at the door…and apparently buttloads of customers.

They’re eating your lunch.

Cash-strapped consumers may be pulling back on discretionary purchases at Target, but they’re spending big on name brands and home goods at off-price TJX Companies

The discounter raised its full year outlook on Wednesday after posting an 8% year-over-year sales jump and a 23% rise in profits. It cited high customer traffic and a windfall of premium merchandise that it secured from premium retailers eager to offload their bloated inventories.

It sure is going to be interesting to see how the fall shakes out.