Thursday, February 9, 2017

Retailer Target Abruptly Shuts Expansion Projects amid Boycott

Retail giant Target has abruptly shuttered two high priority projects which were intended to guarantee the company’s future, amid the public boycott provoked by the company’s insistence on transgender-friendly, mixed-sex, dressing rooms.

Target announced the end of two projects as the stock price hit $64.77 at market close on Feb. 8. That’s down from $83 when the boycott began once the company made its transgender policy change on April 19. The stock price drop has slashed roughly $10 billion from the company’s value on Wall Street.
Target announced it was shutting down a project billed as the “Store of the Future.” The project was aimed at developing a new outlet design that would consist of a smaller upfront retail store fronting a warehouse with robots picking items for the customers up front, recode.com reported. The closure was so sudden that it caught the project’s manager by surprise.

This project was expected to incorporate its Internet-based e-commerce offerings and was also set to offer space for customers to attend classes or have “meet-ups.”

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