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Pride Month backlash hurt Target’s sales

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Pride Month backlash hurt Target’s sales


Target’s quarterly sales fell for the first time in six years as consumers pulled back on home goods, clothing and other discretionary goods. The backlash to Target’s Pride Month clothing collection – and the company’s response – also hit sales.

Sales at stores open for at least one year dropped 5.4% last quarter, including a 10.5% drop online. The company also cut its annual sales forecast.

Still, Target’s profit came in higher than Wall Street’s expectations, and the stock rose 8% in pre-market trading.

Target was one of the strongest-performing retailers during the pandemic as consumers flocked to stores and its website while stuck at home. But Target has slipped as consumers change their spending patterns.

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Americans are spending more on experiences, including concerts and movies, and less on nonessential items.

Target is over-exposed to that kind of merchandise. More than half of Target’s merchandise is discretionary – clothing, home decor, electronics, toys, party supplies, and other non-essentials.

Pride Month backlash
Target has also been embroiled in the political culture wars over gender and sexual orientation.

Beginning in May, Target also faced a homophobic campaign that went viral on social media over its annual Pride Month clothing collection. Fueled by far-right personalities, the anti-LGBTQ campaign spread misleading information about the Pride Month products.

The campaign became hostile, with violent threats levied against Target employees and instances of damaged products and displays in stores. Target said on May 24 that it was removing certain items that caused the most “volatile” reaction from opponents to protect its workers’ safety.

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But Target’s response frustrated supporters of gay and transgender rights, who said the company caved to bigoted pressure.

Target’s foot traffic dropped 4.8% last quarter, “likely a function of a mix that skews too discretionary, as well as the Pride merchandise issues,” Michael Baker, an analyst at DA Davidson, said in a note to clients.

Heading into Wednesday, Target’s stock dropped 27% over the past year.



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Miami, FL

The real game-changing aspect of McLaren’s Miami F1 upgrades

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The real game-changing aspect of McLaren’s Miami F1 upgrades


As the official submission to the FIA about its developments revealed, almost no aerodynamic surface had been left untouched with the full package of changes that had been fitted to Lando Norris’s car.

While the Woking-based squad had teased beforehand about the revisions being part of efforts to address a weakness in low speed, the true motive of these latest developments was obvious: pure downforce.

In F1, though, not all downforce is the same – and the key to real success is in delivering it in as efficient a manner as possible.

Depending on which way you look at it, efficiency is about too much drag, or too little downforce, for a set wing level.

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It is quite easy to bring a barn door rear wing that produces a ton of ‘dirty’ downforce to help you be quick around the corners, but that is no good as soon as a car starts stretching its legs on the straights.

What is critical to understand about McLaren’s Miami upgrades is that it brought a double whammy of gains: more clean downforce to be quicker around the corners, which opened the door to letting it run less wing (so more speed on the straights). It was very much a case of having its cake and eating it.

As McLaren team boss Andrea Stella explained, the focus of its effort was on bringing efficient downforce that did not add drag – which then allowed it to trim things off elsewhere.

So after a recent history of it being slightly on the back foot on the straights, it did not go unnoticed that it was more competitive against its rivals now.

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

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“We had good top speed here,” explained Stella. “One of the reasons is that we on purpose decided to go for a relatively light rear wing.

“We could do that because we added downforce through the package, and this means that we needed to be less demanding from a rear wing point of view, which is never too efficient.

“When you upgrade a car with floors and sidepods, it’s always more efficient than putting downforce on with a rear wing.”

The overall benefits of the package were also complemented by it going a slightly different way to what would be expected on set-up.

So rather than capitalising on the advantage it has over rivals in high-speed corners, it shifted its focus to be better optimised for the slower sections.

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As Stella explained: “We consciously decided to set up the car to maximise low-speed performance.

“The decent performance we had in low-speed is not necessarily because of the characteristic of the package, it’s also because of some conscious decisions as to how we set up the cars to make sure that we were as strong as possible in low-speed.

“If you look at qualifying, we lost quite a lot of time in the high-speed section, but this was kind of a deliberate set-up choice.”

Miami was just the start, and there is more to come too. Stella suggests that upgrades in the pipeline will help further address the problems it has faced in low-speed.

Asked about how much the upgrades had solved its weakness in this area, Stella said: “Not to the entirety that we would have wished. There’s some more specific work and upgrades that we need to deliver to address low-speed in particular.”

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Even before the well-timed safety car helped Norris on his way to victory, the potential of the new McLaren upgrade was pretty clear to see.

It hadn’t been shown – with that scrappy lap in SQ3 and a Turn 1 exit in the sprint – but when he got clear air in the race, Norris was flying.

As the Briton explained after the race: “I said already on Friday, it felt good. I was confident on Friday and today that kind of feeling came back to me a lot. It was good. A lot of Sundays recently have been strong. Just today we managed to step it up and turn it into something even more.”

Key now though will be in finding out in Imola as to whether the upgrades are a sign that McLaren is now a genuine threat to Red Bull, or if it was simply good fortune in Miami that helped Norris come out on top.

As runner-up Max Verstappen said when asked about whether he thought he could have won without the safety car: “I mean, it’s always if, if, if, right? If my mum had balls, she would be my dad.

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“It’s how it goes to racing. Sometimes it works out for you, sometimes it doesn’t.”

McLaren’s job now is to turn the sometimes into more times.

Additional reporting by Filip Cleeren and Ronald Vording.

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Watch: F1 2024 Miami GP Review – Lando Seizes his Historic Maiden Win



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Miami, FL

Odell to Miami and the Top Five Washed Wide Receivers. Plus, Investigating All 32 Team Names.

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Odell to Miami and the Top Five Washed Wide Receivers. Plus, Investigating All 32 Team Names.


Power hour! Talk of the Miami Dolphins signing Odell Beckham Jr., as well as a handful of other “washed” wide receivers who joined new teams over the last few months (2:23). Later, they go team by team to investigate names, logos, and mascots across the NFL (19:32).

  • Odell Beckham Jr. to the Dolphins (3:11)
  • Chase Claypool to the Bills (5:32)
  • Michael Thomas: Get ready to learn LinkedIn, buddy (7:09)
  • D.J. Chark Jr. to the Chargers (11:15)
  • Michael Gallup to the Raiders (12:57)
  • Dishonorable mentions (14:32)

Check out our 2024 Ringer Fantasy Football Rankings here!

Email us! ringerfantasyfootball@gmail.com

Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck
Social: Kiera Givens and Jack Sanders
Producer: Kai Grady

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Subscribe: Spotify / Apple Podcasts





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2 arrested after men robbed of Rolex watches at gunpoint in Miami

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2 arrested after men robbed of Rolex watches at gunpoint in Miami


MIAMI – Miami police arrested two men Monday who they said robbed two other men of their Rolex watches.

Gelbinson Daniel Lugo, 22, and Oneal Jose Uribe, 30, both of Miami, face armed robbery charges.

Uribe also faces an additional charge of carrying a concealed firearm.

According to the suspects’ arrest reports, the victims were getting into their vehicle just after 3 a.m. on April 7 when they were approached by three Hispanic men, who were armed with guns.

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Police said the robbers demanded the victims’ Rolex watches.

When one victim resisted, one of the robbers struck him with their gun, police said.

According to the arrest reports, the trio ended up taking the other victim’s watch before they fled in a waiting vehicle.

Detectives later discovered that immediately prior to the robbery, the people in the “offending vehicle” had met up with Uribe, who was driving a 2018 white Porsche Macan.

Police said he then followed the vehicle to the scene of the robbery, where they waited for the victims.

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“Both vehicles take up surveillance positions where the vehicle that the victims were getting into was visible to them,” Uribe’s arrest report stated. “The defendant can be seen leaving the scene in his vehicle along with the offending vehicle immediately following the robbery.”

According to Uribe’s arrest report, he was pulled over in the Porsche Monday and was wearing a Rolex that didn’t have a serial number on it. A gun was also located inside the vehicle, authorities said.

Police said Uribe waived his Miranda rights and identified himself in surveillance video shown to him by detectives. Police said he claimed that he purchased the Rolex from “someone in the street” for $6,000.

Police said Lugo also waived his rights and identified himself in the video.

As of Tuesday afternoon, both men were being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center where their bonds had yet to be set.

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Police did not immediately confirm whether they captured the third suspect in the case.

Copyright 2024 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.



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