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Target’s earnings have shown Miss Bazaar several things.
Joe Riddle / Getty Images
A small statement to say that target earnings were a disappointment গুলি these were weak enough to impress other retailers who have not yet reported results. Because they have confirmed the biggest fear of investors about consumers.
Target
(Ticker: TGT) Recent checks are dropping more than 24% after missing a big gain. And that was enough to pull almost the entire sector on Wednesday morning – including retailers who have not yet reported their earnings, e.g.
Kohler
Record (KSS)
Good shopping
(BBY),
Urban outfitters
(URBN), and
Dollar General
(DG).
Of course, it’s not fair to blame Target alone, as it’s rarely the only retailer whose finances were weak in the first quarter. Yesterday
Walmart
(WMT), the world’s largest retailer, crashed after its poor results. These came from e-commerce companies, after a completely poor report from Behemoth.
Amazon.com
From (AMZN)
Etsy
(ETSY).
The problem, however, is that Target has confirmed that no one wants to be true: the retail consumer is in trouble.
Retail sales data show that consumers are still spending-but in a sense they have to, since inflation forced them to spend more to buy the same products and services a year ago. Also, after the Covid-19 has gotten stuck in many activities, spending for the shopping experience has become a priority for many Americans.
Yet the results of the target have shown the market a number of things. First, Walmart’s bad quarters weren’t just the fault of management’s missteps. Second, poor results are not just an e-commerce problem. Third, buyers’ spending on prudent items has declined fairly consistently. Fourth, even high-income consumers are lagging behind in response to inflation.
Target has been a huge winner across the epidemic, so before today’s report, investors were hoping it could give a big beat again, providing evidence that other retailers ’problems were specific to them. Now, however, it is hard to deny that problems such as inflation, supply-chain constraints and high labor and transportation costs are widespread across the industry.
Write to Teresa Rivas at [email protected]
