Gregg Steinhafel resigned earlier this week as CEO at Target corporation.
Many observers – many! – thought that was only a matter of time before the Minnesota-based retail giant melted down because their grocery sections carried, and continue to carry, no tabouli mix.
Did a complete lack of tabouli at Target groceries seal Gregg Steinhafel’s corporate doom? Some communities think so. Why does Gregg Steinhafel hate tabouli lovers?
You can scour the grocery section of any Target store, anywhere in the country, and find not a single box of tabouli mix. On Steinhafel’s watch, the chain not only gave away the entire bulgur/vegetable salad market, but told the nation’s millions of tabouli lovers that Target hated them and watned them to die.
Many observers – many, many, many of them – believe this was the turning point in Steinhafel’s doomed regime.
Gregg Steinhafel – the executive who came up one box of tabouli short at the end of the day.
Does it seem like I might be adding a lot more importance to boxed tabouli than the rest of the market does?
And, perhaps, tacking a “many” behind the premise, to make it sound like my opinion is really some sort of groundswell?
Abe Sauer, writing for the Joyce Foundation-supported MinnPost, writes (and I’ll add emphasis):
That same year, Steinhafel and Target blundered into a PR disaster that, in many communities, still sees the brand’s name synonymous with homophobia.
The “PR Disaster” was actually a tornado of PR hype, ginned up in toto by the Alliance for a Better Minnesota, working in conjunction with Big Gay (the Human Rights committee), repeated at full volume by a media that was no less bald-faced in working for a Dayton victory than the DFL was. It’s a Big Lie repeated until the ill-informed figured it must be true, done entirely to stifle dissent from the DFL party line among Minnesota’s big businesses – especially those that the DFL and its cronies wanted to serve as examples, the ones that were “gay friendly” from the beginning. The message to those businesses; “Merely accepting us as employees and isn’t enough. You have to behind everything “we”, the political movement that owns Big Gay, stand for politically, too”.
The public reaction to Target’s 2010 campaign giving to conservative anti-gay candidates supported by the MN Forward fund are not the reason Steinhafel stepped down today. But they certainly should have a been a dire warning that the CEO and his top management circle was in danger of driving the entirety of the Target brand into the ditch in pursuit of a few minor tax cuts. Target (and Steinhafel’s family personally) supported candidates for no other discernible reason than that they claimed to be “pro-business.”
Making political donations to seek a political result most advantageous to the business?
One wonders what criteria Abe Sauer (and the people who pay for his writing) think a CEO’s goal should be – especially when faced with a DFL governor (and, now, legislature) who are turning out to be disastrous for business (although less so for businesses in Target’s weight class)?
What did happen to Target’s business fortunes after the 2010 campaign, anyway? How can we accurately track what the ultimate “many” – the market – thought about Target?
Via its stock value. Blue is Target, red is the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The chart below goes back to the beginning of 2010. Target’s stock seems to have risen steadily from mid-summer (about the time the Alliance for a “Better” Minnesota started its smear campaign), and only fell off after the first of the year, long after the election.
And then it came roaring back, up nearly 50% in two years, before the data breach took the stock back down to size – and even with the breach, Target stock is up over when Steinhafel took over (although not nearly as much as an investor would like).
So did the MNForward flap cause the stock fluctuations?
Or was it perhaps the lack of tabouli mix?
My money says it’s pretty much about the breach.
But there’s politicizing to be done!
Question: liberals with deep pockets paid big bucks to launch the Minnesota Monitor (later the Minnesota “Independent”) in 2006, laid most of the staff off after the 2008 election (to the shock of the staff), and shuttered the whole mess after 2010.
One wonders…
…no, many wonder if the same thing is going on with the MinnPost today.
Heh.
On the other hand, the St. Paul Target has been an excellent environmental steward. You cannot buy a spark plug there, nor anything that runs on one, their Cylinder Index is a perfect zero. Can’t get much greener than that. So why are they still losing market-share to the troglodytes at Wal-Mart where people go to buy labor-saving devices? Total Mystery.
Actually, the unavailability of spark plugs and tabouli at a Target store tells you something about the problems Target actually faces. One of the biggest reasons Walmart has eaten Target’s lunch over the years is that Walmart is astonishingly good at supply chain management. Target has always struggled with it and they’ve long tried to find ways to minimize the problem. One way you can simplify your SCM is to “edit” your assortment, i.e., offer less SKUs. It’s happened over time, but if you could go back in time to a Target store in, say, 1999 or so, you’d see that there used to be a lot more variety in their offering. I don’t know that Target has ever sold tabouli, but they did have a lot larger automotive section in stores back in the day. They aren’t really in that business now. You might also remember that most Targets used to have a grill/fryer restaurant in the store back then. You won’t find that any more, either.
You can buy just about anything from Amazon, which the competitor that’s really kicking Target’s butt these days. You can find a greater assortment of general merchandise at a Mills Fleet Farm these days than you can at a Target. And you surely can’t buy ammo at a Target. Hell, you can’t even buy a target at Target. After a while, if you find you can’t purchase the things you’re looking for from a specific retailer, you stop coming. That’s where Target is now. And it’s a self-inflicted wound.
Target has real problems with their grocery department. Too often, they have empty spots on their shelves at 4:30 in the afternoon. Things like: frozen Birds Eye Broccoli florets or Tazo Chai Tea, or Better Oats (Malt O Meal) Steel Cut plain instant oatmeal. They haven’t been able to figure out how to keep the products they have chosen to have on the shelf, or to order enough to cover a day’s sales.
reminds me of Control Data in the late 70s-early 80s – they jumped on the MN “social responsibility” bandwagon and instead of finding and nurturing the next Seymour Cray they wasted their executive’s time pretending they were a private welfare agency – worked out really well for them too.
As the chart shows, ‘teh Gayz’ have less to do with Target’s stock price swoon than the data breach (and the slow response acknowledging it and dealing with it) and the costly expansion into Canada (Did Target management have that little grasp on the strength of Canadian Tire and Tim Horton’s in the Great White North? Wonder if they know Canucks call a ‘gyro’ a ‘donair’ and serve beef gravy instead of ketchup with French fries?) that cost Steinhafel his job.
What is interesting to me is that Target has been doing ‘Prog Friendly’ for years (recognizing same sex and unmarried couples for benefit consideration, donating a percentage of profits to charity), yet the moment they give token and laundered support to a ‘pro-business’ candidate (with the same take on Gay marriage as Barack Obama at the time) whom the Prog’s don’t like, they stomp on Target with both Prada Cap Toe Chelsea’s ($690, Barneys New York). Thanks for the loyalty when they decide to do something in their corporate interest.
Me? I still shop at Target. Was there earlier today. Just wish the cashier would not ask me if I want pay with one of their Credit/Debit Cards today while I’m holding the cash out for them to take.
PS: The comment section at MinnPost is in full polish mode – congratulating the author on his insight and grasp of the issue. And encouraging people to donate for this excellent journalism. As Swiftee is likely saying somewhere, “pfffft”….
The local Target gave our local Fire Department (and me; the FD lets me join them at it) the boot from our once-yearly Salvation Army bell ringing gig at Christmastime.
Apparently the religious overtones of the SA must have offended some passing wretch, causing Targets all over to disassociate from we religious rabble. As far as I know, SA does not use religion as a criteria to receive their help. Maybe if we could just wear Druid hoods during that winter seasonal festival, we could go back …
Actually, Cub and Wal-Mart were quite fine with our presence.
Joe, actually Target gave the boot to the Salvation Army for a different reason entirely. They have a strict no solicitation policy on their premises and they don’t let anyone in. There are two reasons:
1) They believe it irritates their customers (“guests”); and
2) If you allow the Salvation Army on your premises, you have to allow other solicitors on your premises, which includes union organizers.
This is also the reason why you don’t see any vending machines in their entrances, like you do at a Cub or a Walmart.
Sef, repeat after me – Quebec is NOT Canada… Again, Quebec is NOT Canada. Just ask any quebecious. You will not find gravy on fries anywhere outside of Quebec. Tell me, did you learn everything about Canada from South Park? Because that would explain it.
JPA – Are you taking pointers from “Emery” on how to show your ass?
“Poutine is a common Canadian dish, originally from Quebec, made with french fries, topped with a light brown gravy-like sauce and cheese curds. This fast food dish can now be found across Canada, and is also found in some places in the northern United States, where it is sometimes required to be described due to its exotic nature.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poutine
FYI -Travelled extensively throughout Canada – East & West – for roughly 5 years. First had gravy on my fries in Edmonton in 2005. The Harvey’s in the Winnipeg Airport also offers it starting at 6 AM if you have a hankering.
Slightly off topic; I noticed on the Minnpost (I think it was the last time I tried to leave a comment lol) that Tom Emmer made an appearance for their fund raiser.
WTF?
It’s crap like this that makes me just want to chuck the whole deal. What part of “These people HATE you, and have done EVERYTHING in their power to smear, demean and besmirch you” does Emmer not get?
To make it look even worse, Mike Brodkorb’s mistress made an appearance. I hear she did a minstrel show in Republican face. Little song, little dance to amuse the moonbats.
Sef, I am Canadian. Grew up in Toronto – it’s in Ontario, Canada. There is no draft up my ass. So spare me your wikipedia quotes, use of which you apparently learned from +/-RickDFL.
Awww, JPA – poor little fellow. If I had known you grew up in a country where people don’t know how to spell color, center or labor, I might not have so quickly come down on your fact free claim that no one serves gravy with fries outside of the Province of Quebec. I’m going to stop wasting my time with this as I could post numerous menus from Canadian restaurants that serve gravy with fries from outside Quebec to prove my point and it still wouldn’t satisfy you.
PS: Mitch – Are you checking the green cards around here? It seems any old Kevin, Colin or JPA can get in here with minimal interference from your authority.
I guess “u” had been removed from your alphabet along with your sense of humour. At least I was taught proper English in school.
Oh, and sorry, I do not have a green card… anymore… Mitch was satisfied with my mug in my US passport.