I appreciate Target’s approach to this sensitive but important issue. In this case, Target is responding to the needs of the local community, but making an even bigger statement about their position on racial equality. Whatever your political leanings, I think it’s hard to argue that the steps Target is making are any but positive for all stakeholders involved.

This is a sensible and appropriate response. However thinking about what local communities what, consulting them, and trying to use local services and contractors to undertake work is an approach that should be used everywhere. If you’re asking local people to shop with you, responding to community needs is simply good retailing.

Once again, Target has impressed me. Target’s response to this extremely difficult situation is compassionate, generous and, most of all, aligned to the direct needs of that store’s local community. I applaud them for both their investment and their empathy.

I think this is a positive move – Target realizes that they need to support the community. In turn, customers will appreciate that and take care in ensuring the store will not fall into disrepair like the old location. Additionally, if they worked with community leaders in the rebuild, the buy-in will even be stronger.

Target’s response is admirable even if it should not have taken such a sad event to spark this level of action. That said, Target is again flexing its leadership skills in the face of the retail industry. The approach Target took to remodel this local store should be a model to all retailers on how to properly invest in the local community and create a space that not only invites that community but encourages them to feel good about the brand relationship. Target’s diversity numbers look better than most retailers but what is more important is their commitment to taking them even further. Time will tell how effective Target is at achieving their stated goals, but from what we have seen so far I am optimistic. Now I only wish they would approach every store remodel in the same manner to create unique spaces across the country. To paraphrase what a friend of mine who has been a retail marketing executive at multiple brands once said – retailers spent decades trying to homogenize the in-store… Read more »

Sorry to be, what I’m sure will be, the lone dissenting voice here, but this is a classic example of too little too late. Think of the messaging. Target is saying to the community, “Sorry we opened a third-rate store, but it was a ‘bad neighborhood’ so we didn’t invest. Apparently, you folks weren’t happy, so you burned it down. And now, because the fact that we were at odds with the community has attracted national attention, we are going to make ourselves look good by building you a nice, big, bright shiny store.” Great — but why didn’t you build that great big, nice, shiny store in the first place? Then maybe folks wold not have been inclined to burn down the old, crappy one. I’m not justifying vandalism. It is wrong, and criminal, 100 percent of the time. But if a community feels like you have been exploiting them, why try to solve that problem by further condescension and media exploitation? Oh — and those hiring goals? Same problem. If I don’t have… Read more »

Target is and for the most part has been setting strong examples for the retail community. Looking at the current employee demographics and the future commitments they are putting strong and clear actions behind their words. They are taking the right steps remodeling and reopening the store near its HQ. However it is only one very symbolic store. The difficult part will be to maintain the standards with the rest of the chain. With so many stores it is very easy to let the commitment slip, especially in stores that may not be at the high end of the profitability curve.

Target had a unique opportunity to demonstrate how businesses can respond to issues of racial and social equity. They nailed it. They have demonstrated how to find positivity in a difficult situation. As a resident of the Twin Cities and having been a long time Target exec, I’m not surprised. The killing of George Floyd took place a mile and half from this store. This store is only two miles from Target’s downtown headquarters. This is Target’s home. But in many ways the east end of Lake Street is a long way from Target HQ. The comments that were quoted from Bloomberg are accurate, this is a part of town with economic challenges and the associated social issues. It would have been easy enough for Target to decide to just close up and move on, I suspect other national chains will do so. It would also have been easy to just award the rebuild to the least expensive contractor and not worry about who was doing the work. Instead they took a different path, insuring… Read more »

Target just keeps doing everything right…

The fact that Target got this right speaks to the fact that a healthy share of their corporate leadership team are BIPOC. According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Black professionals held just 3.3 percent of all executive or senior leadership roles in 2018. If other retail chains and businesses aren’t enlisting people of color in leadership and advisory roles, they won’t be able to respond as meaningfully to racial injustices.

Target continues to impress with both its response to handling the virus and to this important issue of racial inequality. Reinvesting in the community while making a commitment to diversity is smart both locally and nationally. When a major player like Target raises the bar, it can move others along and drive real change for many communities. In all cases, it appears to be the right decision at the right time and will reap dividends for all involved if it remains a “pledge” and not a “symbol.”

It is unfortunate that it was looting that led to a fresh, new, remodeled Target store in Minneapolis. But now the past is in the past. Moving forward Target hopefully is evaluating similar situations in other cities. Well-established community sentiment referring to this Target store as “Tar- ghetto” somehow missed moving up the ranks of Target leadership. All retailers of scale can and should tap into public sentiment at the local level of individual stores. Talk to employees, they know. Monitor social media. Walk the stores. Simple steps in a scaled-up retail world.

Target is doing a lot of good by re-opening the store and helping the community in many ways. The truly sad part of the looting on Lake Street was that many of the small businesses were minority-owned. The looting and burning went for miles and damaged or destroyed 500 businesses. By Target re-building its store and helping the local community and businesses, the area will recover more quickly and strongly.

Target is a leader in working with communities. In Minneapolis, they have many stores, are well known and respected. Great leadership by Target to repair physical and emotional damage to the Lake Street community.

Target is taking the right actions with this location and its workforce initiatives. This is definitely a case of matching your efforts and investments to the policies they publicly profess. Unfortunately, that is not true of all companies.

My dad used to draw an imaginary line behind him to suggest that which we did wrong and the wrong done to us needs to be put in back of us and we should move forward in a positive direction. Target seems to be doing that in a comprehensive way, at least in Minneapolis. But the thought process has to be maintained throughout the organization and its stores. Being conscious of and using construction companies that are diverse is a sign that Target knows what is needed to promote equality, at least to some extent. Target should keep up the pressure for itself and the vendors it uses, while delivering services, products, pricing and environments that also promote equality for Target customers and staff.