-By Warner Todd Huston
Target’s unpopular decision to force its customer base of mothers and children into mixed-sex bathrooms and changing rooms is creating a huge economic opportunity for other firms — but none have announced plans to exploit the opportunity, according to a survey of press aides and marketing experts.
Still, as retail giant Target continues to stand behind its transgender-friendly bathroom policy allowing shoppers and employees who claim to be transgender choose whatever bathroom they want to use at any given time, few other large retailers are standing with Target and announcing their own such policies.
Some few have announced their own transgender bathroom policies if perhaps informally, including Barnes & Noble booksellers, Hudson’s Bay Co. department stores (owner of Lord & Taylor and Saks Fifth Avenue), and perhaps unsurprisingly the liberal Starbucks coffee company.
As USA Today reported, Starbucks spokeswoman Jaime Riley said the coffee giant is “looking into additional opportunities to have more gender-neutral signage in our restrooms where jurisdictions allow it.”
Hudson’s Bay and Barnes & Noble also noted they support the ability of transgender people to choose their own bathrooms.
But the paper was unable to find any other retailer willing to confirm a particular policy one way or another.
Breitbart asked retailers such as Walmart, Sears, and K-Mart if they had any specific transgender bathroom policies but none replied to queries left with their public relations departments.
Of course, many corporations have LGBT polices, such as those Target celebrates.
Hormel foods, for instance, has celebrated itself for its LGBT policies, crowning itself the “best place to work for LGBT equality.”
Fitness gym operator Planet Fitness has also in the past announced its own LGBT-friendly policies by insisting that men can use the women’s locker rooms. The company has already acted on its policy, as well.
As The Federalist notes, in 2015 the fitness giant actually revoked the membership of a woman who complained about a man who insisted on using the women’s locker room.
But, with so few others standing up with Target, it appears that most American retailers are hoping the whole discussion just fades away so that they don’t have to take a too public stance.
“Target could lose millions of customers if other retail chains take advantage of the boycott,” says Chris Stone, a former brand-manager who now runs Faith Based Consumer, which grades companies on their respect for Christian consumers.
Indeed, as of late last week, Target Corp’s stock was down five percent, representing roughly $2.5 billion in company value.
“If Walmart comes out and proactively states they welcome these disenfranchised consumers [and] they’ll provide proof of performance, there will be a migration of consumers from Target to Walmart,” Stone told Breitbart.
In fact, any company which “reaches out to that consumer, and says ‘You’re welcome here,” can benefit, Stone said. Target’s managers, he added, “have taken a position that is so polarizing, so it will be very easy for the consumer to pick and choose among the competitors who they like better.”
Target has done itself a lot of harm in the highly competitive retail sector, Stone insisted. More than one million people have signed the petition against the mixed-sex bathroom and changing-room policy — and another 10 million Americans may know about and disagree with the company policy.
“If ten million people switched from Target to another company just once, they could cost the company $600 million in revenues, assuming an average purchase of $60,” he said. “That lost revenue will have an even greater impact on company profits and stock prices.”
“What is really going to be important is to see if [another retail] brand comes out and openly welcomes all these disenchanted Target customers. Someone is going to have to say ‘We welcome you. If you’re not happy at Target, come over and because we welcome you here,’” Stone averred.
“If someone does that, they will be able to secure those customers” the activist added.
Companies need to bolster their revenues, Stone concluded, because the retail sector is already very competitive and is losing customers to the online shopping.
Just for instance, the Sports Authority chain is failing. And in California, Walmart, Macy’s, Sears, Kmart, JCPenney, and The Gap are closing stories in 2016, according to a retail industry website.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing news, opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that wrote articles on U.S. history for several American history magazines. Huston is a featured writer for Andrew Breitbart’s Breitbart News, and he appears on such sites as RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, Federalist Papers, and many, many others. Huston has also appeared on Fox News, Fox Business Network, CNN, and many local TV shows as well as numerous talk radio shows throughout the country.
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