- Target and Costco have responded in different ways to the changing politics around DEI.
- A recent survey indicates some customer foot traffic and market share has shifted from Target to Costco.
- Meanwhile Walmart — which hasn't made DEI a big part of its brand — has performed consistently.
The backlash to the backlash over DEI is starting to show up at Target and Costco.
While both retailers have long made so-called corporate social responsibility a big part of their brand identities, they responded in remarkably different ways regarding DEI policies in the face of a second Donald Trump presidency.
In January, Target said it was scrapping some of its DEI-related programs, while Costco's shareholders successfully defended theirs against an activist shareholder proposal.
Now, a new survey from consumer analytics firm Numerator finds customer foot traffic and market share have shifted from Target to Costco, particularly among shoppers who say DEI is important.
In terms of year-over-year visits, the firm said Target has seen nearly 5 million fewer shopping trips during the four weeks ending on February 9. By contrast, Costco saw nearly 7.7 million more visits during the same period.
Neither company immediately responded to a request for comment from Business Insider.
While Numerator said the changes "may be linked" to the companies' respective DEI stances, a number of other factors, such as persistently high consumer prices and the availability of eggs, may have contributed to the shifting market share between the two retailers.
Still, the shifts were most pronounced among Black and Hispanic/Latino households — and especially during the first week of February. In particular, Numerator said that Hispanic or Latino households drove more than a third of Costco's gains, nearly twice the rate that would be expected based on demographic representation alone.
Meanwhile, Walmart — which never made DEI a big part of its brand identity — saw relatively consistent performance during the same four-week window, even though it scaled back some of its DEI efforts late last year.
Additionally, Numerator found that frequent Walmart shoppers are generally less concerned with DEI and social justice issues than frequent Target shoppers.
The numbers suggest that being known for one position and then changing course could push some customers away.
"That kind of seesawing back and forth and saying one thing and doing another, that's what gets brands like Target in trouble," Collage Group's chief insights officer, David Albert, recently told Business Insider.
"We've seen here, especially with Target, is that they've eroded that trust because they're not doing what they say and they don't say what they do," Albert said.
