Valuetainment
"Bad Leaders DESTROY Companies" - Target Loses $12B & Stock CRASHES After CEO SHOCKING Exit
23 Aug 2025
Chapter 1: Why did Target's stock plunge after the new CEO announcement?
When you think about what happened with Target, Target stock plunges 7% as the new CEO picks. New CEO pick disappoints Wall Street. There won't be change when change is needed. This is page 16. Rob, I want to combine this with Walmart together, Rob. And then, Tom, I'm going to come to you, and I think you're going to be ready for this one. All right, so let's do this one here.
Target shares up 7% to 98% after naming chief operating officer Michael... Fidelke as CEO effective February 1st, 2026, replacing Brian Cornell, who said there is no one better suited to move Target forward than Michael Fidelke. But investors expecting an external hire were disappointed. Gerald Storch, former Target vice chairman and ex Toys R Us CEO, told The Post.
This guy's apparently got credibility. He's the ex-Toys R Us CEO. The stock price reflects that there won't be change when change is needed. Fidelke, 20-year veteran at Target, responded during an internal meeting saying there are no shortage of critics out there today. The way to prove these critics wrong is with action that leads to results.
Target reported a 1.9% decline in same-store sales for the second quarter, ending August 2nd, 2025, with customer transactions down 1.3%, and average spending per transaction down 0.6%, despite beating Wall Street earnings estimates. Fidelke noted on a post-earning call, now we need to move
More of those examples across the category, but they can give me a ton of confidence that we're on the right path here, citing improvements in home goods like Disney and Marvel. Now, while this is happening, folks, the complete opposite is happening with Walmart. Walmart wins over more shoppers. as tariff push prices higher. Those are two separate stories.
Rob, is this a tariff story or the Target story?
This is Walmart and the tariffs.
Okay. Did you have the Target story as well?
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Chapter 2: What factors contributed to Target's decline compared to Walmart?
You had a clip on Target? Yes. Is this the pastor? This is the pastor. Okay, so CNN does a story on this one pastor. I don't know if you guys remember this or not. And this actually became a very big campaign that this black pastor was driving, saying black Americans spend $12 million a day at Target, but Target doesn't listen to us. Watch this clip. Go for it.
Let's be honest. When you started this, there were naysayers.
There were people who didn't believe the fast would work. Yeah. Where we are right now is the stock has plummeted. The valuation has dropped by $12 billion. Foot traffic is down by 7.9%. The former CEO's salary was slashed by 42%, and now they got a new CEO. What have you learned through this process about the interaction of Target and this community in particular?
Well, this is the most effective and sustainable boycott for black people in 70 years since the Montgomery bus boycott. And so it was not muscle memory. We had to teach a new generation on the sustainability of unity and that you don't see it overnight. But it's a protracted process.
Look, if you didn't know, we, a lot of people, especially black people, love Target. In fact, they gave it a nickname of Tarjay at some point. What was that like trying to convince folks out there to give it up?
Knowledge is power. The Bible says people die from a lack of knowledge. When black people understood that we spend $12 million a day at Target, and I couldn't think or find one black company that earns $12 million a day, people began to have the light bulb go off and say, I can't spend my dollars where I'm not getting dignity.
Tom, thoughts? Well, there's three things here. First, Target in 2023, they go back. They had a CEO that came from the outside world, didn't grow up in Target. He was there 10 years. The first five got kind of rough because, boom, suddenly he's in COVID. But as it came out of COVID in 2023, he went DEI crazy and was putting all of these trans kids bathing suits for six-year-olds. Talk.
Yeah, that contained instructions and said they were tuck-friendly. So tell your six-year-old boy, don't worry about this little extra equipment you came with. We're just going to tuck it in here.
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Chapter 3: How did the DEI backlash impact Target's market value?
Mommy, you're hurting me. And so you had that, and everybody freaked out. And meanwhile, there was also these churches that were looking at it and saying, wait a minute. We don't think this is dignified. And it wasn't a weekend service. This has been multi-year and it's been very effective. It's been over two years that this has been working. And what they do is target fast.
For those of you that don't know what the word means in this category, when they say a fast, it's like you will fast from something, meaning you will abstain from it. Hey, I'm fasting today. except water on Friday, and I'm having a day of reflection and prayer. So you're fasting from food.
So when you see those signs that say Target fast, it says time to fast from Target, meaning abstain from Target. It's been very, very effective. Meanwhile, when all of this went down, what did Walmart do? Hey, remind them that we're from Bentonville, Arkansas. Remind them what we stand for. And Walmart said, guess what?
We are seeing customers switch to other items that are affected or not affected by tariff. But we will continue to absorb some of the cost of tariffs to keep price hikes below national retail averages. In other words, we're going to try... With the tariffs, with all the inflation and everything, we're going to see if we can get our price increases to be lower than the national average.
So we're trying to help the consumer more. And they went back and they doubled down on who they were, which was America's big box retailer. And so Target takes the L. What do they do? They say, hey, we have a great idea. The COO who's been here, who's part of this executive team, we're going to put him in charge. And he's been around forever. It's like, what? What? It's like I have two kids.
Let's say I got two 15-year-old sons.
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Chapter 4: How did Walmart manage to thrive during Target's downturn?
They're both delinquents. One of them breaks a bunch of windows in the neighborhood. And then we say, that's OK. This is what I'm going to do. My other son is going to be president of Neighborhood Watch. That'll work. Wait a minute.
He was running with the- That's actually a very good example you're using there. Yeah, to say the same. Let me ask you, though. Would you bring somebody from the outside in this situation? Would you use somebody internally? Because maybe, just maybe, this guy was the problem. Maybe, just maybe, this guy was part of the issue of being too much of DEI. Now, do we know if this guy, Michael Fidelke-
This guy was the other guy's right-hand guy. Is that what we know? That's correct.
He was the COO. And sometimes I think you have to make the move that Starbucks made.
Chapter 5: What role did community boycotts play in Target's struggles?
Hey, we chose the wrong guy. Goodbye. And we're going to bring somebody from the outside because we want the outside guy to address everybody on the outside.
So what if this guy's the interim guy until they find a guy to get the full-time job? Because, Rob, can you pull up the picture I just sent you right now in text? Here's what happened to the stocks. This is by far the best visual to look at what I'm about to show you. Okay. It's going to show you where Target's stock price was a couple years ago compared to where Walmart is now today. Watch this.
Bingo. The red is Target. Look where Target was in 2022, and look where Walmart was. Actually, look at that number. Target was close to $300 a share. Walmart was at $80 a share. Fast forward to today. Walmart's nearly $300 a share. Target is at $60 a share, give or take. One bad leader can destroy a brand. There was a point people were saying Target's a better product than Walmart.
But you know what? The moment you forget who your customer is, who shops at your place, families... Families who can't afford, this is low and middle income families that are coming to your place. Hell, we would go shop at Target. I'm telling you ourselves, we would go shop at Target. And I'm a Sam Walton guy. But you make decisions like this, you lose them.
The thing that this was a double whammy, Tom, this is the part that was a double whammy. Not only did they lose the family guys by going woke with the whole trans, all that stuff. But you lose the black vote? How do you do that? You lost both of them at the same time? That's what you call double dumb, is what you call it, right? That's right.
Ernest Hemingway's school of gun cleaning. Adam, thoughts? Go woke, go broke. I mean, that's a similar theme here. I mean, Target is basically the Disney of retail shopping. You know, don't forget where Target, their headquarters is located. Do you know where it is? Minneapolis, Minnesota. Weird. So interesting, the George Floyd situation there at the tip of the spear.
Meanwhile, you said that Walmart's headquarters is in where? Arkansas? Pretty red state. Somebody call it one of the reddest states in the country. You know, I used to, believe it or not, guys, there's no Walmart in South Beach. So I haven't been to Walmart in years. The only time I actually did spend time at Walmart is when I lived in this beautiful, beautiful town called Addison, Texas.
I went to Walmart after living in Miami my entire life. I was like, oh, my God, everything's free. Everything. Everything. 92 cents, 44 cents, $1.29. You could buy anything you want. It's crazy. Save that money. There is a Target in Miami Beach, in Miami, that I'll go to from time to time. And I understand why he said that certain people call it Target.
It is a classier type of shopping experience. But go woke, go broke. How do you think Target is going to... Do you think they're going to bounce back from this, Pat? I don't see Target going out of business or anything like that.
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Chapter 6: What leadership decisions did Target make that backfired?
Can you ask if Target, did Target ever reach out to Jamal Bryant to have a conversation with him? I'm curious. I'm actually curious. Did Target ever reach out to Jamal Bryant? Let's see here. You're asking what the target was? Yes, there was one meeting with Jamal Bryant, target leadership. According to the Guardian, June of 2025, Brian, okay, that's too late though. That's way too late.
Yeah, that's way too late. More recently, Brian stated he is open to meeting with Target's incoming CEO, to negotiate a resolution. Target did reach out as evidence at the first meeting with Brian Cornell. However, no further communication has taken place. Brian remains hopeful and willing to meet with a new CEO. Yeah, I don't know.
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Next, a lot of you guys were asking about we hadn't done a new series of signing the books, schedule, craziness, call it whatever you want to call it. The team came, sat me down. I signed hundreds of books. And here's what we're doing today, as well as the new signed books with the new Valuetainment Red Hats that we got signed here. Anybody that orders the Valuetainment Red Hats,
You're getting a free keychain. We got two of them right there. One is home team. One is myself. Go ahead and get them. They're signed. Limited edition for these. These are not a lot of them. You can get these signed hats that will be sent over to you. The first five that order the signed copies of either your next five moves or choose your enemies wisely. The sales team will contact you.
You'll be able to tell us what name you want us to write it out to with a special note instead of just a signature. The first five that place an order, it'll be made out to you. Pick and choose. Order the book. We will personalize it to you, but it's the first five orders. So go to vteamrich.com, place your order, and I think when you order the books, you get four... What do you call it?
Bookmarks. Bookmarks.
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