☢️ :jhg_s: :jhg_n: :jhg_e: :jhg_e: :jhg_d: :denton_laugh: on Nostr: As most of you already know I've spent most of my adult life in one form of retail or ...
As most of you already know I've spent most of my adult life in one form of retail or another. I'm paying particular attention to the ongoing Bud Light fiasco, and now this new thing with Target minimizing it's "Pride" displays in certain southern and rural stores. Companies like Target don't make changes like this as rapidly as they do without cause. Store sets like this are planned well in advance, and product is ordered months ahead of a season. They spend millions trying to get the psychology of shoppers so that they can one up their competition.
They like to believe that they have all of this figured out, but as the Bud Light thing has shown that isn't true. Tastes can turn on a dime. No one would have accused someone holding a blue Bud Light can of being a faggot or troon 6 months ago. We live in an age where things can change in an instant, and Target is the latest victim of this, and deservedly so.
A company making major changes to floor sets after only a couple of days suggests actual panic. They didn't want to be eaten by a social media crocodile so they abandoned plans they spent quite a lot of time and money setting up. At the store level this mostly consists of pissed off workers that now have yet more to do ahead of a big holiday weekend. But at the corporate level this leads to deeper questions. "Do we abandon this kind of marketing all together in fear of a backlash?" "Do we split our marketing up by region so that urban areas get one set and rural areas another?" "Do we try to avoid controversy at all costs, or do we go all in on this tiny niche market?"
This thing is going to lead to a lot of sleepless nights in American corporate capitalism, and I'm here for it.
They like to believe that they have all of this figured out, but as the Bud Light thing has shown that isn't true. Tastes can turn on a dime. No one would have accused someone holding a blue Bud Light can of being a faggot or troon 6 months ago. We live in an age where things can change in an instant, and Target is the latest victim of this, and deservedly so.
A company making major changes to floor sets after only a couple of days suggests actual panic. They didn't want to be eaten by a social media crocodile so they abandoned plans they spent quite a lot of time and money setting up. At the store level this mostly consists of pissed off workers that now have yet more to do ahead of a big holiday weekend. But at the corporate level this leads to deeper questions. "Do we abandon this kind of marketing all together in fear of a backlash?" "Do we split our marketing up by region so that urban areas get one set and rural areas another?" "Do we try to avoid controversy at all costs, or do we go all in on this tiny niche market?"
This thing is going to lead to a lot of sleepless nights in American corporate capitalism, and I'm here for it.