Here are maybe the top-4 reasons why retailers might see a sales decline (no particular order):
1. The just-started tariffs increases (would not have really hit yet)
2. Backlash from STOPPING their DEI policies. (yeah, you alienated your client-base when you were found out - did you just expect them to flock back to you?)
3. Population reduction due to mass deportations, leading to fewer retail shoppers. (I’ll take that trade!)
4. Incompetence of corporate management.
Which do you suppose corporate executives WON’T focus on? (Hint: it would require a mirror.)
What about rampant shoplifting? I don’t go to Target much but I have shopped there and have visited several locations. Once I was looking for batman t shirts and I watched a black kid with a stuffed full backpack on walking straight out the front door. I was in Vancouver WA and watched someone push a full shopping cart out right past the register and straight to a pickup truck. I saw a guy walk out with two of those hand baskets full of food and when I went outside the store there was a group of homeless people eating said food right in front of the store. I have seen other instances of backpacks and shopping carts at different target locations. It is my racism that makes me notice that the perpetrators are mostly black. They make no effort to stop the thieves. At one time the do-gooders who live in the nice neighborhood were trying to get some law enforcement involved but the city council was mad at them for bringing attention to homeless thieves.
They lost a couple of billion expanding and then retreating from Canada in short order too.