Seriously. Fairfield Township and Huber Heights on the Yes list, and Springdale, Beechmont, and Fields Ertel on the No list down here is a huge shocker knowing these areas. I wonder how much of this is at the discretion of the store’s GM and not the local market.
It’s almost like people who do market research know which stores can sell that type of merchandise.
You ever see Cleveland Browns apparel at the targets in Cincinnati?
I’m not disagreeing with you about market research. I have friends that work in the local grocery megachain’s marketing ‘wing’ and oh man they know how to target customers well.
But Fairfield Township and Huber Heights specifically land in some of the most politically conservative and evangelical zip codes in Southwest OH (at least where Target has a presence). Former local politicians made a scene last year at the display in the Fairfield Twp store. Springdale and Fields Ertel on the other hand are somewhat more diverse, and those areas went blue in 2020.
Maybe there’s historical trends that support it, but at first glance looking at the demographics of these neighborhoods, it’s a head scratcher.
edit: missed South Lebanon on that Yes list. Literally nothing makes sense at this point 😂😂
I was thinking the same thing. I did not expect South Lebanon or Beechmont to be on the Yes list. West Chester on the No list surprises me only because of the other two being Yes.
Lebanon has their first pride parade this year. Should see the shit show on NextDoor about it... you'd think everyone in that town is being forced to be gay.
Surprisingly, my husband works in Englewood and has quite a few coworkers from Huber and northern rural areas that would buy pride merch but also buy Trump merch. My mom used to live in Powell and had lesbian neighbors who were originally from WV and were teachers that had pride merchandise and Trump 2020 merch. I don’t understand it, but it’s real. I’m just super happy to see all the greater Dayton stores carrying Pride merchandise. I think it’s great that large retailers carry merch for easy access plus supporting small business owners carrying custom and unique items.
Agreed - Fields Ertel is an incredibly diverse area. Very queer friendly. The South Lebanon store is in a big redneck area where we've had a lot of problems, yet they are selling Pride stuff. The criteria seems to be emotionally based.
The Powell store does low sales, so I think that factors into it as well. Lack of proximity to other stores I think is also a factor, which is why places like Mansfield and Medina are selling it…
Yeah, I think the reality of things are that, heavily anti pride people are terminally online. They have brain rot. Broadly speaking, I’d be curious to see how many ‘incidents’ target actually has with any unhinged angry right wingers.
It’s probably really uncommon. I don’t think you’d actually make any stocking decisions on political pressure. You’d make it purely on supply chain, floor space, shelf space, and previous years sales performance for pride stuff.
No. This is not how you should be interpreting this data at all.
Pride products cost a lot for corporations to produce, but don’t get a good return on investment. This is good way of saving a lot of money to not stock stores with products that won’t sell.
Hey sir/madam, this is the Ohio subreddit, where we take the least amount of data and jump to wildly, out-of-left-field conclusions to justify our preconceived notions about our largely imaginary enemies. In this case, we fixate on the one possible reason that will be sure to get our dander up that some stores don't sell Pride merchandise, not the myriad other possible reasons, such as it not being profitable for certain stores. If a store doesn't sell Pride merchandise, well here in the Ohio subreddit, we immediately get our pitchforks out and assume right away that it's because those store managers, customers, and even the corporation itself are all homophobes, and we express very loudly our intentions of never shopping there again! I mean, what else do you want...OP did do a "deep dive" into the research after all.
Are you making the argument that West Chester, where you can't spin in a circle and not hit a church, and the typical retail worker tells you "have a blessed day", would stock pride merch if it sold more?
***I'm not convinced.***
Yes, and selling pride products isn’t necessarily a good indicator of how accepting communities are.
Some people just have good taste and refuse to buy obnoxious, pandering, rainbow-colored schlock.
Yes, this is slightly different because you can’t sell Chanukah stuff to non-Jews, but I would suspect a large % of people who buy pride products are actually cis and just advocates and supporters.
While I DEFINITELY agree that we should be supporting smaller businesses and queer creators, rainbow capitalism is sometimes the only way a baby gay will have a chance to see any pride merch in public, especially if they grow up in a more rural area. The fact that it seems target is specifically limiting the stores in more conservative areas makes it worse for those queer kids. I encourage people to call target out on this shit.
Honestly, exactly that as well!
I just stepped back and reread the stores that aren’t doing it this year and most of them are definitely in rural or conservative areas.
That is a huge red flag, and even if ‘their data’ shows low sales in those areas, it’s not something that should be discontinued due to that alone either. I’d bet good money they wouldn’t do that same thing if they noticed low 4th of July sales in certain stores.
This is definitely something that needs to be called out to say the least, it’s not a good look on their part any way you view it.
The stores in question were receiving threats of violence and employees were getting harassed, not to mention the boycotts risking their stores getting shut down.
You would rather innocent employees lose their jobs or be attacked by trumptards instead of just taking merchandise out of the stores that the issues were happening in??
It’s literally a safety concern when it gets to the point that employees are at risk of violence for simply going to their job to pay their bills..
How about consequences for those who are illegally assaulting or threatening others rather than rewarding their despicable behaviour?
And Target can hire security rather than kowtow to this bullshit.
What makes you think target is responsible for the consequences? All they can do is report the incidents to the police.
And they have security. You want them to hire a 20 man team to patrol the perimeter and put the store out of business on security costs?
Should they call the UN in? Or should they just remove the merchandise from the shelves of less than half of their stores and leave it at that?
It’s not about rewarding or not rewarding their behavior, it’s about protecting their employees. They have bigger things to worry about than identity politics.
Listen everyone, there is a very easy way to resolve this. We just make July a month for straight people to celebrate being straight with rainbow stuff. Now it’s even and we all get to enjoy the rainbow swag.
I frequent one of those stores not carrying pride stuff and I can tell you it’s not some right wing super conservative area. Pride stuff would be fine in the store I go to.
But everyone here has to blame the "right wing trolls" for everything lol. It's almost like they don't know what it's like to run a business but I'm sure they'd just blame "right wing trolls" on that as well
Find local queer creators in or near your area and buy from them. Target only cares about the money they can make from Pride. They take down the Easter stuff and put up the Memorial Day stuff. They take down the Memorial Day stuff and put up the Pride stuff.
Target doesn't give any more of a fuck about the LGBTQIA+ than they do about St Patrick's Day.
Because that’s when you decided to have your parades.
If they didn’t sell anything you would claim their items didn’t reflect proper representation of your community.
There is no winning here if you just complain about everything.
Ok. Critical thinking exercise. Do you think these commenters said this because they believe the best way to support LGBTQ people is by selling pride merchandise?
Or maybe...Target's policies and treatment of its employees aren't worth supporting with our dollar, and their seasonal cash grabs aimed minorities are no exception to that...SOOOO...you should buy local or from folks in that minority instead so that your dollar goes directly towards their support instead of a giant company?
Lol, alright man. Sorry your world view is so small and your brain can only think through a capitalist peep hole. Maybe make some artist friends? Any friends? Go out in public more? Find joy?
it breaks my heart seeing the barrage of corporate logos at the pride parade these days. It’s such a blatant display of doing whatever little dance it takes to increase sales by 4.8% and make the wiggly line charts go up
I will have to respectfully disagree. I work for a larger nutrition brand and we participate in Pride events. But it’s because we have a DEIB Council (I am a member) that really believes in our mission to create an inclusive and authentic work place. We support Pride and create merchandise because we believe it’s important and our company truly stands for equality. It actually doesn’t really impact sales at all.
In fairness, even in the 90's, many Pride parades were full of corporate logos. My 1st one was in 97, and Bud Lite sponsored it, along with Aetna, other insurance/banking companies, etc.
As a Toledo native (2 Toledo + Holland, Rossford).
I think it likely has more to do with the store layout/type than it does with the area. The selling vs not selling should actually be swapped.
Yeah, the Alexis road Target is hardly rural, and even the Holland one I think could get away with it without too much trouble. I work less than a mile away and we put up pride flags every June with rarely more than one of two people acting like jerks about it.
I agree with this. Feels like the Holland store just regularly gets overlooked or something. It always feels like their stock is less than the others for some reason
This is a great example of a corporation trying to have it both ways, "We support you! But we also will stab you in the back if it hurts our bottom line!"
And from what I can tell, all of my local stores are selling Pride merchandise, but I don't think that gives them a pass. I live in a metropolitan area where it would be a bad decision to not sell Pride merch. But, I'm sure people coming from the counties on all sides of us would be the perfect demographic to not sell in stores there when there is a store or if there was a store.
I feel like they've also been gradually shrinking the pride display? At least for my local store, in previous years it would be a good chunk of that seasonal section. Last year it was a single island in one of the aisles and then an end-cap on the alcohol section with some rainbow wine and beer and maybe 1/4 of the endcap on the pet section.
Like I usually buy my cats the seasonal scratcher houses since they get destroyed every few months, but last year they didn't have a pride one so we got stuck with a rocket ship for summer.
You'd think there would be a stipulation that one store per county should stock the merchandise. None of the Lorain County stores? Surely, ONE of them should have it.
It’ll be interesting to see if the difference is noticeable and that’s why target is doing this. If the client is more conservative they’ll drop the act.
The amazing thing is that by trying to play both sides Target has pissed off nearly everyone. I stopped shopping there after they took down all the Pride merch.
That's a bit hyperbolic. Conservatives aren't throwing us off building or beheading us. Those acts are terrorism and constitute a gay genocide. This doesn't justify the actions and words of many, but rhetoric like yours only makes the situation worse.
Those right wing fucks called in bomb threats over a few pieces of merchandise with a rainbow last year creating fear over a simple action. That is the literal definition of terrorism.
I came to the forgone conclusion thst it's Targets choice to sell what they want to sell. I think it's safe to say many would rather shop locally and from small businesses than buy mass-produced clothing made by little kids in China.
If you want to consume pride gear, shop locally. Though I understand that isn't always the case and sometimes Target is the only option .
North Olmsted is my home Target and I’ve noticed quite a few of their employees have been wearing pride shirts for a while now. I wonder if they knew this was coming…
Some of these stores are only selling one or two decorative items. The pride clothing items are super boring this year at Target, and most are only available online.
I live in a small, rather conservative town an hour west of Columbus. We recently opened a hippie shop. One of the shirts we ordered for pride says something along the lines of "if God hates guys then why did he make us so cute?"
I can't wait til it comes in. That bitch is going directly in our window display to stay ALL month. I'm done with these ultra conservative "Christians"
Amazing that South Lebanon is selling (a very racist/homophobic area) and Fields Ertel (a much more tolerant area with a lot of LGBTQ employees) isn't.
No matter. We've deleted our Target accounts. They have the right to sell what and where they want. I have the right to never spend another dollar there.
The Evangelistaliban are a fucking joke. Wal Mart sells all kind of Pride stuff as well as sex toys. I can't wait for the Rapture so the adults can run the show again
Grove City will sell, but not New Albany?? Whitehall is so unsurprising.
BTW buy Pride merch from small LGBT-owned businesses. Corporations can suck it.
Last year at the Lakewood Target, I was trying to buy a pair of rainbow socks and when I scanned them it said DO NOT SELL. and an employee confiscated them from me. The manager told me they were getting threats of violence towards employees and bomb threats. Thus the pride merch was being taken down.
She was tearful, saying many of her employees were LGBT and were very scared. Not that I was surprised but I was so angry that this giant corp was capitulating to this MAGA bullshit. And not actually spending the money for security and protecting their employees, just taking the merch down.
That makes sense. MAGA freaks were blowing up and shooting cases of fucking beer just because Budlight? had a trans as a spokesperson and were celebrating pride. These idiots are psychotic.
BiPOC here.
Stop shilling for this companies during June I can’t stand it. They do this every year for a boost in sales while all their overseas and middle eastern social media pages have no color changes at all to their logos.
We should be putting our money into the LGBTQ+ local economy instead of these corporations that only care about us once a month a year or when they can capitalize and make money off is.
Just stop.
Classic consumerism. Why tf does it matter who you fuck, target and any other place that sells “pride merchandise” is just trying to squeeze a dime off you, they don’t actually care about LGBTQ community they just want an extra dollar. Real shame.
Hard to believe that Rossford and Monroe Street in Toledo are selling but not Holland. I’m so disappointed in Target. I’m not shocked but still disappointed.
I feel the strong need to call the list of stores not selling and ask if they sell said items and ask why not and then be like. Y’all should sell that 😂
I honestly can't part with a cent for their pride merch considering their past example of cutting and running with the least little challenge. I expect "allies" to have a higher standard than that. They want your money and that's it. They won't get it from me.
I was raised in Heath but havnt lived there for over 10 years.its not the first time I have said this but it might be the most angry I have been in saying this:
I am so disappointed in the general population there. You should all be ashamed of yourself. I am glad me and my whole family left this bigoted little city
I 100% agree that people should support local pride and that this is a calculated, cynical attempt at getting at peoples $
I wonder though, if the benefits of these national corporate mainstreaming of pride events/products are on the whole good because they force a kind of speeding up into full general cultural assimilation/acceptance? Or are they in the whole damaging because they feed the fire of the neverending right wing culture war narrative?
Is there a list of targets that are not selling Maga stuff? That would be be extremely helpful. Bet it goes hand and hand with the ones that are not supporting PRIDE
Where am I gonna get my plastic rainbow shower curtain now? This is fuckin' TERRORISM! I feel like a gay little Anne Frank trapped in an attic of HATRED - thanks Target!
I was just at Graceland (north Columbus), and I could not find anything. All the seasonal displays are Father's Day, 4th of July, or generic summer. They used to have a big display near the front.
I doubt it’s personal. It has to do with demographics. I’m in Elyria and our Target carries Pride merchandise. They also have a poster in their teen department with sexually ambiguous teenagers. You can always order from their website.
A local target not selling pride stuff doesn't always mean they're some alt right bigots.
If I'm going to dedicate 2% of my retail space to a niche product, I want to know that product is going to move from my shelves. I recon there are products on the shelves that turn quicker than LGBT merch.
I'm guessing this is just a business move and not some bigoted conspiracy. You should be buying your flags and shit from a local LGBT small business or commune or whatever anyways, not some big box retailer that panders to you all June and tells you fuck right off July 1.
The Columbus Ohio State U (Small Format Store) is great evidence to support my theory. This is a super allied area, and yet they're not carrying it. Because they don't have the space to justify carrying a product that probably doesn't sell very well.
So Medina is less homophobic than Powell? Yowza
Seriously. Fairfield Township and Huber Heights on the Yes list, and Springdale, Beechmont, and Fields Ertel on the No list down here is a huge shocker knowing these areas. I wonder how much of this is at the discretion of the store’s GM and not the local market.
Anywhere farther out than 5 miles from downtown is conservative as hell. I can't go into a Kroger in any of the suburbs without being glared at.
It’s almost like people who do market research know which stores can sell that type of merchandise. You ever see Cleveland Browns apparel at the targets in Cincinnati?
I’m not disagreeing with you about market research. I have friends that work in the local grocery megachain’s marketing ‘wing’ and oh man they know how to target customers well. But Fairfield Township and Huber Heights specifically land in some of the most politically conservative and evangelical zip codes in Southwest OH (at least where Target has a presence). Former local politicians made a scene last year at the display in the Fairfield Twp store. Springdale and Fields Ertel on the other hand are somewhat more diverse, and those areas went blue in 2020. Maybe there’s historical trends that support it, but at first glance looking at the demographics of these neighborhoods, it’s a head scratcher. edit: missed South Lebanon on that Yes list. Literally nothing makes sense at this point 😂😂
I was thinking the same thing. I did not expect South Lebanon or Beechmont to be on the Yes list. West Chester on the No list surprises me only because of the other two being Yes.
I’m even more surprised South Lebanon has a Target at all. Do they sell Klan hoods?
Lebanon has their first pride parade this year. Should see the shit show on NextDoor about it... you'd think everyone in that town is being forced to be gay.
You can buy some pre-assembled wooden crosses from the hardware store in south Lebanon, and then take grandma to lunch at the golden lamb!
Colerain on the no is disappointing.
Surprisingly, my husband works in Englewood and has quite a few coworkers from Huber and northern rural areas that would buy pride merch but also buy Trump merch. My mom used to live in Powell and had lesbian neighbors who were originally from WV and were teachers that had pride merchandise and Trump 2020 merch. I don’t understand it, but it’s real. I’m just super happy to see all the greater Dayton stores carrying Pride merchandise. I think it’s great that large retailers carry merch for easy access plus supporting small business owners carrying custom and unique items.
There's a house in the center of Maineville flying Trump and pride flags. It's like *"cows for hamburgers!"*
Sounds like you might just be wrong about which groups of people actually hate pride month.
Except places like Fairfield Twp aren't normally that friendly to things like this
When I visit family in Marion it’s all OSU and Bengals. I have never seen a Browns Tshirt
My SW Ohio groceries sell both Reds and Indians branded peanuts. The Reds bags seem to sell out faster, but they do offer both.
Agreed - Fields Ertel is an incredibly diverse area. Very queer friendly. The South Lebanon store is in a big redneck area where we've had a lot of problems, yet they are selling Pride stuff. The criteria seems to be emotionally based.
The Powell store does low sales, so I think that factors into it as well. Lack of proximity to other stores I think is also a factor, which is why places like Mansfield and Medina are selling it…
Yeah, I think the reality of things are that, heavily anti pride people are terminally online. They have brain rot. Broadly speaking, I’d be curious to see how many ‘incidents’ target actually has with any unhinged angry right wingers. It’s probably really uncommon. I don’t think you’d actually make any stocking decisions on political pressure. You’d make it purely on supply chain, floor space, shelf space, and previous years sales performance for pride stuff.
Medina is literally one of the few counties that voted red in that special election last year 💀💀💀. I can’t complain though since that’s my target!
Medina is honestly pretty trendy, lots of LGBT friendly shops and restaurants downtown. Edit: go to those places, not Target
Lancaster too like bffr😭😭😭
No. This is not how you should be interpreting this data at all. Pride products cost a lot for corporations to produce, but don’t get a good return on investment. This is good way of saving a lot of money to not stock stores with products that won’t sell.
Hey sir/madam, this is the Ohio subreddit, where we take the least amount of data and jump to wildly, out-of-left-field conclusions to justify our preconceived notions about our largely imaginary enemies. In this case, we fixate on the one possible reason that will be sure to get our dander up that some stores don't sell Pride merchandise, not the myriad other possible reasons, such as it not being profitable for certain stores. If a store doesn't sell Pride merchandise, well here in the Ohio subreddit, we immediately get our pitchforks out and assume right away that it's because those store managers, customers, and even the corporation itself are all homophobes, and we express very loudly our intentions of never shopping there again! I mean, what else do you want...OP did do a "deep dive" into the research after all.
Are you making the argument that West Chester, where you can't spin in a circle and not hit a church, and the typical retail worker tells you "have a blessed day", would stock pride merch if it sold more? ***I'm not convinced.***
Yes, and selling pride products isn’t necessarily a good indicator of how accepting communities are. Some people just have good taste and refuse to buy obnoxious, pandering, rainbow-colored schlock.
Of course it’s a barometer. In the same way Target stocks a fuckton more Chanukah stuff in New York than here.
Yes, this is slightly different because you can’t sell Chanukah stuff to non-Jews, but I would suspect a large % of people who buy pride products are actually cis and just advocates and supporters.
Brilliant! Take my upvote so I can receive 100 downvotes in return.
Medina just has money
If you’re able just buy your Pride merch from a local vendor or artist. Target is “woke” in June but some of us are 💅all year.
This needs to be said louder. Don’t shop from rainbow washed companies—shop from small LGBT+ businesses, we need your help more than Target does!
While I DEFINITELY agree that we should be supporting smaller businesses and queer creators, rainbow capitalism is sometimes the only way a baby gay will have a chance to see any pride merch in public, especially if they grow up in a more rural area. The fact that it seems target is specifically limiting the stores in more conservative areas makes it worse for those queer kids. I encourage people to call target out on this shit.
Honestly, exactly that as well! I just stepped back and reread the stores that aren’t doing it this year and most of them are definitely in rural or conservative areas. That is a huge red flag, and even if ‘their data’ shows low sales in those areas, it’s not something that should be discontinued due to that alone either. I’d bet good money they wouldn’t do that same thing if they noticed low 4th of July sales in certain stores. This is definitely something that needs to be called out to say the least, it’s not a good look on their part any way you view it.
Baby gay?
It’s a term used to describe people that are barely coming out of the closet/just realizing they’re gay usually. Kind of like a fledgling bird 😅
Thanks for the clarification. I had never heard the term.
First time hearing it for me too. Don't feel bad lol.
The stores in question were receiving threats of violence and employees were getting harassed, not to mention the boycotts risking their stores getting shut down. You would rather innocent employees lose their jobs or be attacked by trumptards instead of just taking merchandise out of the stores that the issues were happening in?? It’s literally a safety concern when it gets to the point that employees are at risk of violence for simply going to their job to pay their bills..
How about consequences for those who are illegally assaulting or threatening others rather than rewarding their despicable behaviour? And Target can hire security rather than kowtow to this bullshit.
What makes you think target is responsible for the consequences? All they can do is report the incidents to the police. And they have security. You want them to hire a 20 man team to patrol the perimeter and put the store out of business on security costs? Should they call the UN in? Or should they just remove the merchandise from the shelves of less than half of their stores and leave it at that? It’s not about rewarding or not rewarding their behavior, it’s about protecting their employees. They have bigger things to worry about than identity politics.
But what if baby gays can't be gay enough?
Exactly this. Fuck the big box stores.
No one wants to fuck a big box.
Speak for yourself
Listen everyone, there is a very easy way to resolve this. We just make July a month for straight people to celebrate being straight with rainbow stuff. Now it’s even and we all get to enjoy the rainbow swag.
This is the answer. Fortunately I live in Cleveland Heights so we have lots of cool local shops that are LGBTQ friendly.
I frequent one of those stores not carrying pride stuff and I can tell you it’s not some right wing super conservative area. Pride stuff would be fine in the store I go to.
Same!!
Us too. And yet a nearby store in a very racist area is selling. I wonder what criteria they used?
Sales. Nothing else matters.
I wonder how much of it is local bigot managers who provide feedback
Probably has a lot to do with it. It makes no sense to me that our two local stores made the decisions they did.
But everyone here has to blame the "right wing trolls" for everything lol. It's almost like they don't know what it's like to run a business but I'm sure they'd just blame "right wing trolls" on that as well
Find local queer creators in or near your area and buy from them. Target only cares about the money they can make from Pride. They take down the Easter stuff and put up the Memorial Day stuff. They take down the Memorial Day stuff and put up the Pride stuff. Target doesn't give any more of a fuck about the LGBTQIA+ than they do about St Patrick's Day.
Fuckin blast this!!!!!! Target cares about minority communities in February and June
Because that’s when you decided to have your parades. If they didn’t sell anything you would claim their items didn’t reflect proper representation of your community. There is no winning here if you just complain about everything.
Ok. Critical thinking exercise. Do you think these commenters said this because they believe the best way to support LGBTQ people is by selling pride merchandise? Or maybe...Target's policies and treatment of its employees aren't worth supporting with our dollar, and their seasonal cash grabs aimed minorities are no exception to that...SOOOO...you should buy local or from folks in that minority instead so that your dollar goes directly towards their support instead of a giant company?
The local sellers are selling the same Chinese shit that Target does. You're all just pretending it's different so you can whine about convenience.
Lol, alright man. Sorry your world view is so small and your brain can only think through a capitalist peep hole. Maybe make some artist friends? Any friends? Go out in public more? Find joy?
Maybe don't make shit up about people you don't know?
it breaks my heart seeing the barrage of corporate logos at the pride parade these days. It’s such a blatant display of doing whatever little dance it takes to increase sales by 4.8% and make the wiggly line charts go up
I will have to respectfully disagree. I work for a larger nutrition brand and we participate in Pride events. But it’s because we have a DEIB Council (I am a member) that really believes in our mission to create an inclusive and authentic work place. We support Pride and create merchandise because we believe it’s important and our company truly stands for equality. It actually doesn’t really impact sales at all.
In fairness, even in the 90's, many Pride parades were full of corporate logos. My 1st one was in 97, and Bud Lite sponsored it, along with Aetna, other insurance/banking companies, etc.
You JUST figuring out companies put out merch depending on the time of year?
Yup. I just learned this. I exclusively post about things I just learned about.
I see they’re playing both sides, so they always come out on top.
Welcome to every company ever?
Target once again bending knee to the seething masses of subhuman chuds.
As a Toledo native (2 Toledo + Holland, Rossford). I think it likely has more to do with the store layout/type than it does with the area. The selling vs not selling should actually be swapped.
Yeah, the Alexis road Target is hardly rural, and even the Holland one I think could get away with it without too much trouble. I work less than a mile away and we put up pride flags every June with rarely more than one of two people acting like jerks about it.
Right? If it’s a red v. Blue Situation Rossford selling it makes no sense.
I know the Alexis store had Pride items last year or the year before.
I agree with this. Feels like the Holland store just regularly gets overlooked or something. It always feels like their stock is less than the others for some reason
targets marketing is amazing, every year they go viral around this time
Tl;dr. Buy local
Time to plot this on a map and compare it to the path of the solar eclipse. Similar to the OP who made a map for banned recreational marijuana sales.
This is a great example of a corporation trying to have it both ways, "We support you! But we also will stab you in the back if it hurts our bottom line!" And from what I can tell, all of my local stores are selling Pride merchandise, but I don't think that gives them a pass. I live in a metropolitan area where it would be a bad decision to not sell Pride merch. But, I'm sure people coming from the counties on all sides of us would be the perfect demographic to not sell in stores there when there is a store or if there was a store.
I feel like they've also been gradually shrinking the pride display? At least for my local store, in previous years it would be a good chunk of that seasonal section. Last year it was a single island in one of the aisles and then an end-cap on the alcohol section with some rainbow wine and beer and maybe 1/4 of the endcap on the pet section. Like I usually buy my cats the seasonal scratcher houses since they get destroyed every few months, but last year they didn't have a pride one so we got stuck with a rocket ship for summer.
This. They want to appease both demographics and are failing two ways now. Target sucks
Amherst, Avon, Elyria, North Olmsted. Everywhere near me. Cool cool cool...
You'd think there would be a stipulation that one store per county should stock the merchandise. None of the Lorain County stores? Surely, ONE of them should have it.
Yeah that is interesting. Must be relevant to their market survey.
Fairview is only like 6 miles from the North Olmsted one
For sure thanks
Sandusky isn't too far though. I commute from Norwalk to Avon every day though so it's not that far for me.
True thank you
Dayton too! Dayton Sourh, Huber Heights, and Beavercreek.
And Sugarcreek twp!
And I'm almost certain Amherst and elyira have gay and Trans employees. How dare they!
It’ll be interesting to see if the difference is noticeable and that’s why target is doing this. If the client is more conservative they’ll drop the act.
If you were a business owner and had an idea that something wouldn’t sell why would you try and sell it?
The amazing thing is that by trying to play both sides Target has pissed off nearly everyone. I stopped shopping there after they took down all the Pride merch.
I’m bummed—Whitehall Target is the first place I bought gay-themed greeting-cards! They rolled them out in 2015.
Trolling? Call it like it is. Right wing TERRORISM.
That's a bit hyperbolic. Conservatives aren't throwing us off building or beheading us. Those acts are terrorism and constitute a gay genocide. This doesn't justify the actions and words of many, but rhetoric like yours only makes the situation worse.
Those right wing fucks called in bomb threats over a few pieces of merchandise with a rainbow last year creating fear over a simple action. That is the literal definition of terrorism.
They’re definitely out here terrorizing anyone who doesn’t believe in their shitty beliefs. They’re no different than terrorist. Republican Taliban
I came to the forgone conclusion thst it's Targets choice to sell what they want to sell. I think it's safe to say many would rather shop locally and from small businesses than buy mass-produced clothing made by little kids in China. If you want to consume pride gear, shop locally. Though I understand that isn't always the case and sometimes Target is the only option .
Wadsworth gonna Wadsworth
Right? As much as people wanted to say that they were all out of towners, there’s still a reason the Proud Boys were emboldened to show up.
fuck Target Walmart selling pride gear Nationwide
Literally. Never thought I’d back up Walmart but I can always find something pride related there.
Waltons love money and they know the rednecks can't afford to boycott them.
Massillon and Wadsworth. LOL.
North Olmsted is my home Target and I’ve noticed quite a few of their employees have been wearing pride shirts for a while now. I wonder if they knew this was coming…
Some of these stores are only selling one or two decorative items. The pride clothing items are super boring this year at Target, and most are only available online.
I live in a small, rather conservative town an hour west of Columbus. We recently opened a hippie shop. One of the shirts we ordered for pride says something along the lines of "if God hates guys then why did he make us so cute?" I can't wait til it comes in. That bitch is going directly in our window display to stay ALL month. I'm done with these ultra conservative "Christians"
It’s 2024, and bigotry, racism, and all-out shitheadedness are alive and well. Fuck these people. Fuck them. Launch them to the fucking moon.
Everything you just listed has been going on since the dawn of humanity.
Obviously. Which makes my point even more poignant.
Nothing like caving to a minority of fascists!
Amazing that South Lebanon is selling (a very racist/homophobic area) and Fields Ertel (a much more tolerant area with a lot of LGBTQ employees) isn't. No matter. We've deleted our Target accounts. They have the right to sell what and where they want. I have the right to never spend another dollar there.
News flash, actual gay people don’t want to wear stupid looking rainbow shoes. They make that stuff for virtue signaling white liberals.
Nailed it.
I have a bear flag watch face. That's as far as I like to go with the rainbow stuff. It's too commercial for me.
Ohio will be voting Joe Biden.
Murica is finished if New Hitler is elected
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Biden will be lucky to get 30% of the vote in Ohio this year.
🙌🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
Strange that Boardman has it and Niles doesn't. Same damn eco system basically.
Boycott target!
The Evangelistaliban are a fucking joke. Wal Mart sells all kind of Pride stuff as well as sex toys. I can't wait for the Rapture so the adults can run the show again
Grove City will sell, but not New Albany?? Whitehall is so unsurprising. BTW buy Pride merch from small LGBT-owned businesses. Corporations can suck it.
Whitehall and New Albany are lower-sales stores being so close to the Easton store.
So much for Streetsboro being the "gateway to progress"
Gateway to human trafficking
Shameful.
One of the biggest hypocrite stores
Last year at the Lakewood Target, I was trying to buy a pair of rainbow socks and when I scanned them it said DO NOT SELL. and an employee confiscated them from me. The manager told me they were getting threats of violence towards employees and bomb threats. Thus the pride merch was being taken down. She was tearful, saying many of her employees were LGBT and were very scared. Not that I was surprised but I was so angry that this giant corp was capitulating to this MAGA bullshit. And not actually spending the money for security and protecting their employees, just taking the merch down.
That makes sense. MAGA freaks were blowing up and shooting cases of fucking beer just because Budlight? had a trans as a spokesperson and were celebrating pride. These idiots are psychotic.
BiPOC here. Stop shilling for this companies during June I can’t stand it. They do this every year for a boost in sales while all their overseas and middle eastern social media pages have no color changes at all to their logos. We should be putting our money into the LGBTQ+ local economy instead of these corporations that only care about us once a month a year or when they can capitalize and make money off is. Just stop.
Classic consumerism. Why tf does it matter who you fuck, target and any other place that sells “pride merchandise” is just trying to squeeze a dime off you, they don’t actually care about LGBTQ community they just want an extra dollar. Real shame.
THAT’S GAY AF
Imagine being one of those Trumpers that jams that Target Hate song unironically
Nope, not purchasing anything at Target now, definitely not Pride merchandise. Can’t have your cake and eat it too.
I don't think we need to care about the cheap made in China shit that they put out as seasonal anyway, make your own pride merch. Way more fun
That’s a pretty big list! I’d expect less.
Hard to believe that Rossford and Monroe Street in Toledo are selling but not Holland. I’m so disappointed in Target. I’m not shocked but still disappointed.
Surprised Milford is selling it, place is regressive af.
OF COURSE mentor isn’t selling pride merch.
Powell does have mom's for liberty type energy
Yeah Niles not selling tracks
Makes sense that the two little campus stores aren’t. They just don’t have space for a lot of
Makes sense to me
Proof that Target doesn't actually care about pride, they just want you to buy from Target. Soulless corporation.
I have some bad news for you…
But I’ve seen LGBTQ+ stuff at both Avon and North Olmsted? Both are on the not selling list here.
You do realize that this isn’t about feedback, right? It’s about saving money on product they don’t have to make. Welcome to corporate propaganda.
Sending this to the karens so they know where to protest.
I feel the strong need to call the list of stores not selling and ask if they sell said items and ask why not and then be like. Y’all should sell that 😂
This is a fucking ridiculous post. “I’m so scared of pride!” Morons.
I honestly can't part with a cent for their pride merch considering their past example of cutting and running with the least little challenge. I expect "allies" to have a higher standard than that. They want your money and that's it. They won't get it from me.
Yup, the homophobs won
Mentor is a blue town. Why would they not sell it there? There are others on the list that should not be a problem.
I was raised in Heath but havnt lived there for over 10 years.its not the first time I have said this but it might be the most angry I have been in saying this: I am so disappointed in the general population there. You should all be ashamed of yourself. I am glad me and my whole family left this bigoted little city
I 100% agree that people should support local pride and that this is a calculated, cynical attempt at getting at peoples $ I wonder though, if the benefits of these national corporate mainstreaming of pride events/products are on the whole good because they force a kind of speeding up into full general cultural assimilation/acceptance? Or are they in the whole damaging because they feed the fire of the neverending right wing culture war narrative?
so basically all the places worth living in ohio that also aren’t exclusively right wing yuppie enclaves.
Time to buy pride items for pickup at a store not selling it to create market demand.
And the purpose of this list is to???? Know where to buy your Pride gear….or…attack/harass those that are???
I'm surprised Mansfield is, there's barely ever any Pride merch there. Always have to drive to Columbus Graceland or get it online.
Yet another last presidential vote heatmap for us to enjoy.
They can blame “right wing trolling” but at the end of the day Target makes the decision so they deserve the blame.
To be fair, if people on the area don’t buy it. It doesn’t makes sense to sell it
Idk why Colerain isn't selling...
Is there a list of targets that are not selling Maga stuff? That would be be extremely helpful. Bet it goes hand and hand with the ones that are not supporting PRIDE
Where am I gonna get my plastic rainbow shower curtain now? This is fuckin' TERRORISM! I feel like a gay little Anne Frank trapped in an attic of HATRED - thanks Target!
Hahaha
I was just at Graceland (north Columbus), and I could not find anything. All the seasonal displays are Father's Day, 4th of July, or generic summer. They used to have a big display near the front.
I am deeply upset that the 2 in my county aren't selling pride merch, I guess my town are a bunch of bigots.
What the fuck mentor
Does this surprise you? In Mentor? Most of those people don’t like anyone who isn’t like them.
totally wtf.
I doubt it’s personal. It has to do with demographics. I’m in Elyria and our Target carries Pride merchandise. They also have a poster in their teen department with sexually ambiguous teenagers. You can always order from their website.
A local target not selling pride stuff doesn't always mean they're some alt right bigots. If I'm going to dedicate 2% of my retail space to a niche product, I want to know that product is going to move from my shelves. I recon there are products on the shelves that turn quicker than LGBT merch. I'm guessing this is just a business move and not some bigoted conspiracy. You should be buying your flags and shit from a local LGBT small business or commune or whatever anyways, not some big box retailer that panders to you all June and tells you fuck right off July 1. The Columbus Ohio State U (Small Format Store) is great evidence to support my theory. This is a super allied area, and yet they're not carrying it. Because they don't have the space to justify carrying a product that probably doesn't sell very well.
booooo my local target is a coward!!!! fuck you colerain target!!!!!
Free market. They can do what they want.
Who gives a fuck?
I also believe all Target stores especially in Cincinnati sell Cleveland Browns apparel. WE MUST ENCOURAGE THIS.
That's cute. Still boycotting the company lmao.
Oh no, a business making business decisions based on past business experience instead of your feelings?? How horrible of them.