Retail giant Target’s stock prices have plummeted in the face of the ongoing controversy over its 2023 Pride collection, the Washington Examiner reported.
By Friday, Target’s market value lost a total of 12.6 percent during the first week of its Pride collection appearing in stores, according to Down Jones Market Data Group. The retailer’s total losses are estimated to be $9.3 billion.
Target reported losses for seven consecutive days on Friday, exceeding its previous record of consecutive losses set in December 2022, when it suffered losses for six consecutive days, according to Fox Business.
The retailer has been faced with blowback over its 2023 Pride collection, which included designs from the UK brand Abprallen.
Abprallen is headed by a gay, transgender man who openly embraces Satanism. The website for the designer, known only as Erik, has temporarily shut down after customer outrage.
It was reported last Wednesday that Target was moving its Pride Month collection to the back of some of its stores, primarily in the South, over customer complaints.
According to a long-time Target employee who spoke to Fox News anonymously, during an “emergency” call on May 19, store managers were instructed to immediately relocate their Pride Month displays to avoid the same kind of backlash Bud Light received after partnering with transgender “influencer” Dylan Mulvaney.
According to the employee, who has worked with Target for nearly two decades, the company gave managers 36 hours to move their Pride Month displays to smaller areas in the back and not to include mannequins or “large signage.”
A Target spokesperson told Fox News that the retailer was moving the displays due to “volatile circumstances.”
The spokesperson said that since introducing this year’s Pride Month collection, threats were made against store employees that threatened their “sense of safety and well-being” at work.
