“I want to be clear that we’re not satisfied with these results,” Cornell told reporters. Target’s share price has dropped a whopping 37% over the past year and fell further on today’s announcements.
But analysts and industry watchers aren’t convinced that the company’s modifications will turn things around. Neil Saunders of GlobalData Retail wrote in a research note that the changes “do nothing to restore confidence in the company. On the contrary, they are emblematic of a business that has made too many mistakes and has lost its way on several fronts.”
DeAnn Campbell, an independent retail consultant in Atlanta, says she’s concerned that Target has lost a major talent in Hennington, who worked at Target for 21 years and was widely seen as a possible successor to Brian Cornell. “She really spearheaded their DEI program and has been pushing it quite a bit in the company, so to see her departure is not solving the problem,” Campbell told Fortune.
Target, Hennington, and Tu did not respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
However, Campbell and other retail watchers say that while the DEI boycott and Target’s poor handling of it has contributed to the store’s battered reputation, the company had been suffering from a lack of investment in its stores and products for much longer, and that Target’s tired stores have had a bigger impact on its declining financials.
