Target, facing a boycott over its policy of allowing transgender customers and employees to use the bathroom of their choice, says it will spend $20 million to expand bathroom options at all of its USA stores.
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“It’s clear that some of our guests like and some dislike our inclusive bathroom policy”, Target Chief Financial Officer Cathy Smith told reporters in a media briefing, Fortune magazine reported Wednesday.
Bathroom debate over transgender bathroom access. The petition said Target’s policy was “a danger to wives and daughters” and called on Target to offer single-occupancy bathrooms.
That bathroom can be used by any customer who needs some privacy, including parents with small children of a different gender or those who are uncomfortable with a public bathroom in which a transgender person is allowed.
The majority of Target stores actually already have single-stall bathrooms, but the company plans to add more in November, and again after the holiday season as not to disrupt sales. “We want everyone to feel comfortable in our stores”. The remaining stores will be outfitted by early 2017.
“The impact to the business is not material at this time”, she added.
While a good number of other chains support the same policy, including Barnes & Noble and Macy’s, Target made itself a target by posting the announcement publicly to its blog, writing that “inclusivity is a core belief at Target”.
Target on Wednesday reported its first decline in same-store sales in two years and warned that sales could fall in each of the next two quarters, as it struggles with lower shopper traffic to its stores.
But boycott leaders, who have collected 1.4 million signatures online, have claimed their efforts to pressure Target is taking a bite out of sales.
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Target has a big bulls-eye on it thanks to boycotters raising a ruckus over the retailer’s policy which states people can “use the restroom or fitting room facility that corresponds with their gender identity”.
