The target is on Target again ...

Feels like corporate suicide

 

Great letter to the editor about the world DeSantis wants to return to, when people that bother you have the courtesy to commit suicide after you express your disgust


DeSantis signs bills on pronouns, gender care and more | May 18

A Citadel of Kindness

Our governor has signed more anti-gay and anti-trans bills into law, boasting he will make Florida a “Citadel of Normalcy.” I could lecture on biological variation due to genetic, chromosomal, developmental or experiential causes in humans or even in mammals in general, but instead I’ll share a personal anecdote from 57 years ago, when I was a freshman in high school. A fellow student, Edmond, had a significant amount of breast tissue and was cruelly teased as “the boy with tits.” He was bullied daily and physically assaulted by grabbing at his chest. Edmond was possibly XXY, a variation found in 1/142 of people born with external male genitalia. When going through puberty, the endocrinal physiology is female, with tissue growing on the breasts and hips. The brain is also subject to typical female hormonal influence. Edmond never returned for his sophomore year. At the time I figured he went to another school because of the cruelty he suffered. Only later did I wonder if the bullying drove him to suicide. XXY individuals should not have to live with shame, guilt or fear of rejection. If they adopt a feminine lifestyle and dress, they can now be arrested if publicly dressing as a woman while around children in the state of Florida. How wonderful it would be to have a “Citadel of Kindness” rather than a “Citadel of Normalcy,” where normalcy is strictly defined as the hateful bigotry of the majority.

Paul Beaver, Tampa

The poor state of public discourse
The poor state of public discourse - Tampa Bay Times

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How come right wingers didn't boycott Reading Rainbow?

 

Market cap loss in 5……..4………3………2…….

Cracker Barrel faces backlash for posting celebratory Pride Month rocking chair: 'Showing true colors'


I made a significant amount of money in their stock back in the late 90s. Today’s investors have so many more mine fields to navigate. CB shares its demographics/clientele with Bud Light. Who thought this was a good idea?

 

CB and Bud Light are just trying to upgrade their customer base....good for them. Less bottom feeders to deal with.

 

Sounds great if you are a social justice warrior….not so great if you are an investor. These type of decisions impact many peoples’ ability to retire. Nice to see that you think 25% of Americans/80% of CB customers are bottom feeders. And the notion that they are trying to gain new customers doesn’t pass the giggle test. For every customer they gain, they lose ten. If that is their marketing strategy, they won’t last through the end of 2022.

 

Meh. Almost every big public facing company does that marketing stuff though. Not all “boycotts” gain traction. The only reason Target went viral on the right is because of the supposed “tuck” bathing suit thing in their merchandise, and probably that Target was in their crosshairs before. Kind of like Bud Light’s freak out was because of the trans “influencer”. They are definitely bigly obsessed with trans people.

Yes there’s a group of fruit loops that probably do try and boycott “black history month” and “pride month”, those who ask “where’s my white history month”. But I doubt they put a dent in any one company. Can’t sustain a boycott campaign against 100 companies.

 

Maybe the point is that some corporations are no longer marketing their product, they are marketing wokeism/social Justice/politics etc. There will never be a net gain of market share with this strategy on a publicly traded company. For Joe’s Gay Boutique in downtown Palatka that may work, and I support all/most small businesses, but if I am an investor, I want all decisions made with the focus on profit.

 

No, you can tell by the marketing tweet that went viral and made the news. I didn’t read anything this month about CB’s hash brown casserole (which is like crack.) If you want to mock this subject, do it with facts.

 

Cracker Barrel sells mediocre food that comes pre-processed, if even canned, and delivered to each restaurant via Sysco Truck. It’s a commodity. The “brand” isn’t actually a product. It’s a commodity service. An ambiance for the people to sit down and enjoy the slightly better than fast food slop being dished onto plates by low paid servers.

For most companies, being “woke” must be seen as a net gain. As Cracker Barrel’s customer base skews older, it may be some risk compared to more hip brands, their base might be more like the Bud Light base. I agree somewhat there, although I still doubt “rainbow chairs” gains much traction to get much of a boycott. At some point the outrage spreads thin.

That’s the issue with creating brands where people “identify” so deeply with that brand. Personally, I think the whole concept is strange. I give no f’s either way as I don’t associate with brands. I just find it all amusing. Same morons who complain about “identity politics” and woke are no doubt among the first to wear goofy slogans on a t-shirt, slap political bumper stickers on their cars, fly political flags, etc. I.e. they are actually VERY into identity politics. I’ve noticed the same phenomenon in sports, they are very quick to go from “shut up and play” to demanding political conformity, depending on the issue of the day.

 

I think we have common Ground and some agreement here. Like you, I don’t give a crap what cracker barrel or any other publicly traded company does, except where it messes with the profit margin. Woke politics is a marketing loser. The country is pretty much evenly divided on the subject, and there are extremest on both sides, who scream, yell and boycott. So no matter what position you take politically on the subject, you are going to alienate half of your potential customer base. Now that might not make a difference where the majority of your customer base leans one way or the other, i.e. Bud Light. Where Bud Light messed up is they alienated the majority of their actual customer base in order to get CEI points…in the hope of gaining customers of a different ideological persuasion. That was idiotic. I care because investors lost money. I don’t give a rat’s ass about social Justice XYZ crap. You be you, leave me alone.

 

Louisiana farmer facing economic hit after social media post touted his Catholic faith, called out Pride month

Not just conservatives boycotting….

 

The problem with this guy is his words seem quite antagonistic to those who do celebrate that pride month. Nobody antagonized him, rather he goes out of his way to call them “enemies”, equated recognizing a non-Catholic holiday as “engaging in a coup”, etc. Seems almost crazy talk. Isn’t this actually the issue with “conservatives” (actually more religious ideologues) in a nutshell on these issues? Somebody else doing something he doesn’t approve of is a personal affront to him. Sorry, but that ain’t how freedom works. At least not his crazy rhetoric about “enemies”. He’s allowed to be a bigot, but naturally he’s going to have issues expressing his bigotry in those extreme terms.

If he really lost 2/3 of his business (not sure I believe that, he may be angling for GoFundMe sympathy), but if he did maybe he insulted a couple of his restauranteur customers. In essence, he should have known his customers (which is the exact argument as to Bud Lights marketing). As he described his business as very small, it’s hard to know if that’s even really a boycott or just a few previous customers going “eh, thanks but no thanks”.

 

Disgusting.

 

I don't have the data but I would make an educated guess that there is a higher % of LGTBQ employees/owners/head chefs in the restaurant business than the national average per business. Wouldn't this be the same as Bud Lt biting the hand that feeds it?