Target, Walmart, and Amazon watched their LGBTQ+ customer base walk out the door because apparently spending decisions can be tied to whether a corporation pretends to care about you in June. The Human Rights Campaign surveyed consumers and found they're shifting dollars toward companies that support DEI initiatives and away from those backing off. Revolutionary stuff. People buy from companies they don't hate.
The retail giants spent years slapping rainbow flags on everything that wasn't nailed down. Then some conservatives got mad. Then the companies flinched. Now the LGBTQ+ customers they courted are taking their money elsewhere. Turns out you can't have it both ways when both ways are publicly documented purchasing data.
This creates a fascinating technical setup for the "we stand for nothing" sector. Walmart's chart looks exactly like you'd expect from a company that tried to thread a needle with a forklift. Target's stock has been a disaster since they pulled Pride merchandise faster than a portfolio manager dumps meme stocks in a bear market. Amazon doesn't care because they sell everything to everyone and Jeff Bezos is too busy measuring his yacht against other yachts to notice.
The survey confirms what anyone with a calculator already knew. Consumers have preferences. They spend accordingly. Shocking development in capitalism. Brands tried to optimize for maximum revenue by appealing to everyone and somehow managed to piss off multiple demographics simultaneously. That's not a strategy. That's a f*cking accident with a marketing budget.
Retail traders will see this headline and think it's a buying opportunity because they think every piece of news is a signal. It's not. It's just confirmation that corporations are run by people who panic when criticized and LGBTQ+ consumers noticed the panic. The only thing getting squeezed here is the window between "we support you" and "we support our quarterly earnings."
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