Target announces Pride month merch will only be available in 'select stores' after last year's backlash
After last year’s backlash against some of Target’s LGBTQIA+ products, the company announced their new Pride collection would only be available in "select stores."
"We’re offering a collection of products including adult apparel and home and food and beverage items, curated based on consumer feedback," Target said on its website Thursday. "The collection will be available on Target.com and in select stores, based on historical sales performance."
Target has had June Pride Month displays with rainbow and LGBTQ+ messaging for years, but the addition of products such as female-style swimsuits that can be used to "tuck" male genitalia outraged many consumers in the spring of 2023. The backlash was so severe that an insider told Fox News Digital at the time that some stores were told to relocate their Pride Month displays to avoid sparking a "Bud Light situation."
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"Target is likely to stock the products in about half of its nearly 2,000 stores in the US, people familiar with the matter said, declining to be identified discussing private information," Bloomberg reported Thursday. "The company has typically sold the Pride assortment in all of its stores in recent years."
2023's Pride items went viral and caused a headache for the chain nationally. A Target spokesperson told Fox News Digital last year that after public outrage, team members had experienced threats, leading some stores to rearrange displays, "including removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior."
An anonymous Target insider had also told Fox News Digital that many locations at the time, mostly in rural areas of the South, had relocated Pride sections to avoid the kind of backlash Bud Light had received that year after using transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney in a promotional campaign.
The insider claimed there were "emergency" calls and that some managers and district senior directors were told to tamp down the Pride sections immediately.
"We call our customers ‘guests,’ there is outrage on their part. This year, it is just exponentially more than any other year," the Target insider said in 2023. "I think given the current situation with Bud Light, the company is terrified of a Bud Light situation."
When reached for comment Friday, a Target spokesperson told Fox News Digital, "We will offer a collection of products for Pride, including adult apparel, home products, food and beverage, which has been curated based on guest insights and consumer research."