Target is Off Target...

I am a regular shopper at Target, stopping by there a couple times a week. I happen to live by one of the nicest stores in the country (the CEO lives nearby, I'm told). I've found they have great prices, and have always liked how the corporation gives to social services, education, and other needed areas in the community. I've also always liked how they hire disabled people, giving them a chance. It has gotten so I purchase almost all of my groceries there, except for the organic items and produce I purchase at the co-op.

With Target's latest leap into the political agenda, my thoughts have changed, however. According to Strong Progressive:

Target earlier this month donated $150,000 to MN Forward, a pro-business group backing Rep. Tom Emmer, the conservative Republican-endorsed gubernatorial candidate.

So Target supports a candidate who:

• wants to abolish the minimum wage for waitpersons, believing that "some servers make over $100,00 a year;"
• is anti-gay rights and a rabid homophobe;
• supports Arizona's racist immigration law;
• believes that the courts should go easy on drunk drivers, probably because Emmer himself has two DWIs on his record;
• was co-author "of a proposed state constitutional amendment that would, to borrow the words of Nigel Tufnel, turn the Tenth Amendment all the way up to 11, with Minnesota preemptively nullifying all federal laws unless a state supermajority consents to them;"
• is just plain stupid;
• and who, just last fall, "proposed another state constitutional amendment that would prohibit any individual or employer mandate to carry health insurance in the state of Minnesota, if one were to eventually pass at the federal or state level (as it did eventually pass at the federal level)."

And oh, yeah: Target CEO Gregg W. Steinhafel personally donated $10,000 to Michelle Bachman's campaign! If that alone isn't reason enough to stop shopping at Target, the donation to MN Forward certainly is.

Seriously, keep up with the social services and educational donations, but stay out of politics...especially toward two people who are an embarrassment to many of us in Minnesota. Yes, it's a convenient store, and yes it has good prices. But, seriously, with this latest venture and with my return to vegetarianism, along with the opening of a new co-op right by my house, I see no reason to shop there anymore. This is a big city with lots of choices. I choose to not support a corporation that throws large sums of money to politicians who don't seem to believe in their own constituents.

I did hear that the CEO recently apologized, but this is after the fact - and it isn't like they are going to take the money back. Admittedly, I still love the dog: Bullseye is a cutie. But, I'm really beginning to wonder if he's the real brains behind the operation.