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Target holds ’emergency meeting’, reportedly ‘terrified’ of being ‘Bud Lighted’

May 23, 2023 | | Print Article

Reportedly fearful of a “Bud Light situation,” Target has instructed some stores to move LGBTQ Pride merchandise away from the front of their locations after customer “outrage” over a transgender-friendly line of clothing, according to an insider.

“Many Target locations across the country feature massive June Pride month displays on an annual basis, with items this year ranging from ‘tuck friendly’ bathing suits for transgender people to mugs that say ‘gender fluid.’ But the retail juggernaut has been criticized by some conservatives for the displays, with children’s items particularly irking many customers,” Fox News reported.

Target’s “tuck-friendly” ladies’ swimsuits that touted “extra crotch coverage,” was a key factor in driving the outrage.

“No woman needs to tuck anything. We have vaginas & we are the only ones who do. Oh and we don’t need our kids seeing this sh&% when we walk down the aisle at Target,” Kelly tweeted.

“This is what you will find in the kid’s section of @Target. We urge you to take your business elsewhere. They are indoctrinating and grooming them with LGBTQ ideology,” Gays Against Groomers tweeted. “It is highly inappropriate and disturbing. We hope there are enough parents out there that understand how wrong this is and show them that this garbage will not sell. The only thing these people understand is money. Target deserves the Bud Light treatment. We will work to put the pressure on them.”

A Target insider told Fox News that the retailer held an “emergency call” and their solution to the controversy was to instruct managers to move the merchandise to the back of the store and downplay Pride sections immediately.

“We were given 36 hours, told to take all of our Pride stuff, the entire section, and move it into a section that’s a third the size. From the front of the store to the back of the store, you can’t have anything on mannequins and no large signage,” the insider said.

“We call our customers ‘guests,’ there is outrage on their part. This year it is just exponentially more than any other year,” the source continued. “I think given the current situation with Bud Light, the company is terrified of a Bud Light situation.”

The call was said to be about 15 minutes long and also covered keeping teams safe.

“The call was super quick, it was 15 minutes. The first 10 minutes was about how to keep your team safe and not having to advocate for Target. The last five was, ‘Move this to the back, take down the mannequins and remove the signage,’” the insider said.

“It’s all under the guise of trying to increase swim sales,” the person added. “Everyone was like, ‘Thank God,’ because we’re all on the front lines dealing with it.”

Fox News confirmed rural Target stores in South Carolina, Arkansas and Georgia are among the locations to move the Pride sections.

Even more troubling, in celebration of Pride month Target made the potentially fatal marketing blunder of partnering with UK-based satanic clothing brand Abprallen, which offers designs proclaiming “Satan loves you” and “Satan respects pronouns.”

The designer, whose name is “Erik” and identifies as a “gay, trans man,” mixes satanic messages with pro-LGBT activism.

Target CEO Brian Cornell defended the company’s “woke” capitalism efforts last week on Fortune’s “Leadership Next” podcast.

“I think those are just good business decisions, and it’s the right thing for society, and it’s the great thing for our brand,” Cornell said.

But simply relocating pro-transgender merchandise to the back of stores was not enough for many and there were renewed calls Tuesday to effect a crippling boycott on the retail giant.

Here’s a quick sampling of responses to the story from Twitter:

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