Target pedestrian traffic has dropped for the fourth consecutive month – and “will continue to make snowballs,” says the reputation analysis company

Target’s pedestrian traffic has decreased for the fourth consecutive month since he canceled his efforts of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in January, and a reputation analysis company reports that the reputation of the retailer has also suffered.

For the month of May, pedestrian traffic dropped 1.6%in annual shift, which, although nothing to do with sparkling, was less dark than the previous decline in February (-9%), March (-6.5%) and April (-3.3%), according to. While the correlation – we will say again – is not a causality, the traffic crisis began after Target announced that he was retreating his DEI efforts on January 24, the day after President Trump, he said that he was acting to “abolish all discriminatory diversity, equity and inclusion nonsense … throughout the government and the private sector”.

Costco, who postponed calls to dismantle its DEI program, saw its pedestrian traffic increase by 5.1% in annual sliding in May, after increases for the previous three months when traffic dropped in Target, up 2.2% in February, 7.5% in March and 3.4% in April, byi.

Pedestrian traffic has been down for 16 from the last 18 weeks in Target, passing through a positive territory only for the weeks that started on April 14, while it increased by 0.4% and April 21, up 0.1%. During the same 18 weeks, traffic wasdownIn Costco for only one of them, down 2.5% over the week that started on April 14.

“It’s worrying”: The caliber reputation analysis company, on the other hand, noted that the Target reputation score has dropped over the same period on several measures, according to the data it provided exclusively at Retail Brew.

To the question, “the objective is ethical in the way he carries out his activities”, which Caliber calls for his governance score, the retailer’s score dropped by 15.4%, against 65 (out of 100 possible) in January at 55 in May. During the same period, the average of the first 30 Fortune 500 companies fell 1.6%, going from 64 to 63, which means that the target started slightly above the average and fell well below. The scores are based on how respondents agree or disagree with declarations on a scale of 7 points and, in the statistical language of the caliber, are “standardized at 0-100”.

When respondents weighed on other statements, Target’s reputation score also dropped from January to May:

• “The target behaves responsible for”, which the caliber calls its integrity score, dropped by 10.8%, from 65 to 58.
• “Target demonstrates leadership”, its leadership score, also dropped by 10.8%, from 65 to 58.

The rate of caliber recommendation – based on the responses to the declaration that consumers “recommended the others, if we gave luck” – is calculated differently. It is based on the number of respondents selected 6 or 7, 7 being “strongly agree”, and it went from 49% in January to 37% in May, a drop of 24.5%.

Although these reputation scores are inferior in April to what they were all year round, Shahar Silbershatz, founder and CEO of Caliber, noted that they had tended to increase and drop from one month to the next rather than a regular drop. But with Target, “the rebounds are not so completely rebounded; they are right next to it,” Silbershatz told Brew Retail.

“It’s worrying,” he continued. “There is a negative trend here. It will continue to make snowball, and that’s a problem.”

In response to our request for comments on the decreases in feet and reputation, Brian Harper-Tibaldo, director of corporate media at Target, told us about the passage of the company’s first quarter of the company on May 21 when CEO Brian Cornell recognized the retailer “faced an exceptionally difficult environment that affected our performance with the decline in traffic and sales”. The company has reported a 2.4% drop in online and store transactions, which it calls “traffic”, while data placed. AI only calculate pedestrian traffic in stores regardless of the end of purchases.

On the call, Cornell awarded the decreases to the “Winds,”, namely “five consecutive months of the decrease in consumer confidence, the uncertainty concerning the impact of potential prices and the reaction to updates that we shared on membership in January.” (“Belonging” is a reference to DEI, the company having replaced its page Dei now archived by a “belonging to the Bullseye”.)

Harper-Tibaldo refused to comment on reputation data.

Dems breaks:The loan to the idea that advertising on its change of DEI led to its reputation shift is the contrast between the Democrats and the Republicans.

What Caliber calls his confidence and the score as fell by 5 points, to 70, among the Democrats, and increased by 5 points, to 67, among the Republicans, for the period from January 27 to June 3 compared to the previous 127 days. (January 27 was the first Monday following Target’s announcement that he was returning from Dei.)

During the same period, Target’s integrity score among the Democrats fell 8 points, at 63, while remaining unchanged at 60 for the Republicans; Its rate of recommendation among democrats dropped by 10%, 45%, while remaining unchanged at 37%for Republicans.

Silbershatz noted parallels of political affiliation with Tesla, which caliber also follows, on the links of Elon Musk (now effilossed) to President Trump.

“It was mainly Democrats who bought Teslas, not the Republicans,” said Silbershatz. “Now the Democrats are much more negative about Tesla [and] Republicans are much more positive, but the Republicans do not buy Teslas because they are not interested in electric cars. »»

But Silbershatz noted that the change of target is not as dramatic – at least not yet – like what happened in Tesla, where the Democrats have once evaluated Tesla’s reputation as the Republicans, but now it is the opposite.

“We are not yet at that time with Target, but that’s where it seems to be going,” said Silbershatz. “You might say that it is neutral of the net, but it is not neutral because the Republicans are less likely to buy a Tesla. Same thing with Target: it will not be neutral will not be neutral if the Republicans are less likely to buy from Target.”

This report was initially published by Brew at retail.

This story was initially presented on Fortune.com