An Open Letter to Gregg Steinhafel, CEO of Target Corp.: You've Lost a Customer

To Gregg Steinhafel, CEO of Target

Dear Mr. Steinhafel:

I wanted you to know that Target's move to support the far-right candidate for governor of Minnesota through a PAC has cost you a life-time customer.

Ever since I was a little kid, we went shopping at Target, first in the Columbia Mall up in Grand Forks, where I grew up, and then in several other places where I lived. When I moved to Minneapolis two years ago, I was really glad to see a Target downtown, because it was in a place I would be passing often, and indeed I have spent thousands of dollars there in the last couple of years buying everything from food to furnishings for my home. In fact, I've probably shopped at that Target on Nicollet Mall an average of twice a week for the last two years.

But Target's thinly-veiled support of Tom Emmer has ended my relationship with your store, probably for good.

It is not without a good deal of grief that I must end this relationship. Although your spokeswoman related that this move was purely for financial considerations, in order to elect the officials who were best for Target's business interests, you must know that any retail business earns most of its money from its customers.

We count.

And this action has told me that I, as a gay man, do not count anymore as far as Target is concerned. I, as a person, do not count more than your precious bottom line.

You, personally, have worked hard to make Target more than a corporation. You have stressed the "Gospel of Target," which has tried to encourage the "good news" that might be possible through yours sales philosophy, rather than supporting rapacious acquisition as so many retail companies do in their pursuit of the "bottom line."

Here's my bottom line, Mr. Steinhafel: You've lost me as a customer, and I hope that your action in supporting Tom Emmer has lost you hundreds, if not thousands of customers. Whether you care at all, or just laugh at our Quixotic antics, such decisions affect more than your bottom line. And eventually that bottom line will show it.

Sincerely,

Chris _____________