Moody's Ratings Changes Albertsons' Outlook To Stable From Positive, Affirms Ba1 Cfr

By Bill Peters

'There's a lot of people who believe boycotts don't work. But they do work,' one advocate says

After Target Corp. last week became the latest major company to announce a rollback in its diversity, equity and inclusion plans, some activists are asking shoppers to boycott the retailer indefinitely starting Saturday.

Those calls come as President Donald Trump, within days of taking office, has taken executive action to purge DEI programs from the federal government and pressure corporations to do the same. The pushback also follows opposition and legal challenges to DEI from right-wing activists over the past several years and conservative-led boycotts in 2023 against Target (TGT) and Bud Light (BUD).

On Thursday, some of those opposed to Target's move away from its DEI goals gathered outside Target's headquarters in Minneapolis to express their opposition.

"We also believe that this decision was not made independently by Target, but was made as a result of the pressure that is coming from the White House and the administration under Donald Trump," Nekima Levy Armstrong, an attorney and the leader of the Racial Justice Network, said at the event.

She said that many regular Target shoppers were "stunned" at the reversal, particularly after the diversity commitments the company announced in the wake of George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis in 2020.

"We thought that they would hold the line," she said. "We thought that they would continue to stand for the values that we all hold dear. But instead, they acted cowardly, and they made the decision to bow down to the Trump administration."

Target did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the boycott, which is set to start on Feb. 1, the first day of Black History Month. Shares of Target were down 0.3% on Friday.

Along with ending its DEI goals, Target last week said it would end an initiative to help Black employees, customers and businesses, a move it said was happening as planned. It also said it would halt all external diversity-focused surveys. And it said it was evaluating corporate partnerships to "ensure they are directly connected to our roadmap for growth."

The company also said it would take steps to make sure its employee resource groups were "fully focused on development and mentorship." And it said it was changing its approach to diversity among its suppliers.

"We remain focused on driving our business by creating a sense of belonging for our team, guests and communities through a commitment to inclusion," the company said last week. "Belonging for all is an essential part of our team and culture, helping fuel consumer relevance and business results."

The labor support group We Are Somebody said on X that it wanted to make 2025 "the year of the boycott." The group was founded by Nina Turner, who held senior roles in the presidential campaigns of Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent.

"We're not going to stop at boycotting Target, we will continue to expand as we organize," the group said in a separate post on the site formerly known as Twitter. "We will boycott corporations that hurt us, the working class."

The boycott effort has set off a debate among Black business owners and others who sell items at Target over whether a boycott would serve only to hurt their sales, as the Washington Post and other outlets reported this week.

But Turner, in another post on X, asked customers to buy from those companies directly. And she said the responsibility for any hit to businesses rested with Target higher-ups who "decide to turn their backs on us."

When conservatives first called for a boycott against Bud Light in 2023 following a brief promotional partnership with a transgender influencer, some observers noted that the impact of prior boycotts had often been limited. But the campaign dented Bud Light's sales for months. And Target that said that a backlash among conservatives over its Pride merchandise that same year had weighed on traffic and sales trends. Meanwhile, Starbucks Corp.'s (SBUX) stance, or lack thereof, on Israel's war in Gaza led some customers to turn away from the coffee chain.

"There's a lot of people who believe boycotts don't work. But they do work," Jaylani Hussein, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations' Minnesota chapter, said at the event in Minneapolis on Thursday. "It has been part of the civil rights movement in this country for far too long."

-Bill Peters

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(19:33 GMT) Walmart Price Target Raised to $113.00/Share From $100.00 by UBS

Consumer stocks were mixed Friday afternoon, with the Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLP) down 0.5% and the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLY) rising 0.6%.

In corporate news, Colgate-Palmolive's Q4 earnings came in ahead of Wall Street's estimates, while revenue posted a decline amid weakness in North America and Latin America. Its shares fell nearly 5%.

Charter Communications on Friday logged stronger-than-forecast Q4 results amid double-digit percentage gains in advertising and residential mobile service revenue. Charter shares gained 2.3%.

Costco plans to increase pay for most of its hourly US store workers to more than $30, Reuters reported. Its shares were rising 0.5%.

Walmart is just scratching the surface of its membership platforms, which UBS analysts say in a research note present a significant growth opportunity for the retailer in the coming years. The analysts estimate that the company's Walmart+ platform has amassed roughly 13 million members, a figure that should equate to about $3.8 billion in revenue in 2024. As the platform continues to add members, the analysts say they think it can grow to contributing about $5.3 billion in annual revenue by 2026. The analysts say this revenue is important since Walmart's membership business is high margin, driving higher earnings and lowering risk. Walmart is scheduled to release its 4Q earnings on Feb. 20. (connor.hart@wsj.com)