Target Crisis: Lawsuit

If you look up Target's crises on the inter-webz...one thing in particular dominates.

Oh, the beauty of a lawsuit. It's probably a rarity that a fortune 500 company NOT be dealt a lawsuit. Target has been dealt several. One of which you can read about here. Basically, way back in '06 Target was taken to court because disabled people who visited their website claimed it was not easily accessible to blind people for various reasons. Target and the National Federation of the Blind settled the suit-- NFB won.

Target has also dealt with a race-discrimination suit. Yikes. Target settled the suit by paying $510,000 after 4 African-Americans claimed they weren't hired or interviewed because of their race.

Target seems to have improved their website for the most part in response to the NFB suit, but that suit is from '08, so I wouldn't know what the website looked like before compared to now. It's hard to research exactly WHAT Target did in relation to the racial discrimination suit from '07 however, they now have a whole portion of their website dedicated to diversity. So maybe they've made an effort to improve?

If you're a giant fortune 500 company you better have a damn good crisis plan.....just in case!

Investor Relations

Target hearts its investors. And it's investors heart target. Oh look....Target beating Walmart. Tee hee.



It's annual report is not spared from it's snazzy ads or website. It keeps with the theme. See the annual report here.

It's got some nice photos, but overall it's fairly boring. But I suppose with it's few pages of glossy photos, all with headings that been with with the word "Uniquely" it's far from dull, and since I am no fan of economics, and I find these pages appealing, we'll say Target tries for at least a smidge of market appeal with it's purty annual report.




Personally, I don't know what SEC filings even are...but in case you care, Target's are viewable right here.

Target's CEO is Robert Urlrich. He fondly signs his letter to investors with "Bob". See Bob sell. Sell Bob sell!



Bob says, in his latest letter to investors, that they "had a challenging year" but quickly follows it up with "but we did this and this and thiiiiiiis" The end of his letter heavily relies on the past actions of the company- you know, it's good reputation and years of service and blah blah blah. So even though Target's investors may not be too pleased with the 2007 report, Bobby makes sure we know what they DID do, and what they've DONE in the past. And gosh darn it, Bob makes the investors keep on hearting Target.






And, in Target's latest quarterly report, which you can catch a glimpse of here! You'll see that it is sadly and simply just the straight facts and a boiler about the company. Standard press release crap. Facts with a boiler tacted on. Booooring. No CEO quotes, nothing to excite the investor or concern him. If anything, this press release could spare it's readers from boredom comas by adding some quotes, or even telling the reader if the results are good or bad. Thumbs down to this press release, Target. Of all the things you do so well, investor relations may be the fairly weakest area I've come across so far.