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In
letters to the editor published Thursday in The Financial Times
and the Los Angeles Times, Anne and Lucy Dayton said their
father, Bruce Dayton, along with his four other brothers,
expanded the Minneapolis department store into a massive brand
that became Target that was built on two principles: a focus on
the customer and the well-being of the community.
Bruce Dayton died in 2015 at 97.
“We are alarmed how quickly the business community has given in
to the current administration’s retaliatory threats," the
daughters wrote. “It is not ‘illegal’ for a company to create a
business model based on what it believes to be important ethical
and business standards.”
They added that, “By cowering, Target and others are undermining
the very principles that have made their companies a success.”
Target declined to comment.
In late January, Target said the changes to its “Belonging at
the Bullseye” strategy would include ending a program it
established to help Black employees build meaningful careers,
improve the experience of Black shoppers and to promote
Black-owned businesses following the police killing of George
Floyd in 2020.
Target, which operates nearly 2,000 stores nationwide and
employs more than 400,000 people, said it already had planned to
end the racial program this year. The company also said that it
would conclude the diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI,
goals it previously set in three-year cycles.
Walmart, McDonald’s, Ford, Goldman Sachs, and John Deere are
among the well-known consumer brands that reduced or phased out
their DEI commitments in recent months.
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