(HorizonPost.com) – In a recent interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Target CEO Brian Cornell defended his decision to remove this year’s Pride Month collection from the shelves, claiming that the backlash from customers created the worst safety threats against employees that he has seen in his ten years with the retail giant.
Cornell told “Squawk Box” host Becky Quick last Thursday that Target employees were dealing with “very aggressive behavior,” including threats, disruptions, and destruction of merchandise. He said some customers even threatened to set fire to the Pride Month products.
When pressed by Quick about the concerns customers had that the store was selling transgender apparel, including bathing suits for “tucking,” targeted toward children, and had hired a clothing designer who was a “devil worshiper,” Cornell said those claims “weren’t true.”
However, not everyone is buying what Cornell is selling.
Will Hild, the executive director of Consumers’ Research, a group that fights “woke corporations,” told Fox News Digital that Cornell was “flat-out” lying when he said Target’s Pride Month collection wasn’t targeting children, nor was he correct in saying the designer Target hired wasn’t a devil worshiper. Hild said both are “verifiable facts” that have been confirmed by multiple publications.
Hild noted that the tucking bathing suits were placed among the items geared for children, adding that if that isn’t targeting children, “I don’t know what targeting is.”
Hild suggested that Cornell is trying to “distract from the fact” that he made Target stores “unsafe” for people with small children by blaming his customers for making the stores unsafe.
Target’s earnings suffered after the blowback over this year’s Pride collection.
In his interview on “Squawk Box,” Cornell said he believes that the retail giant has weathered the worst of the storm and the blowback is no longer hurting the company financially. At the same time, Cornell conceded that Target is facing the same challenges as other retailers due to the decline in consumer spending.
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