According to Brian Cornell, Chairman and Chief Executive officer of the Target Corp feels, the COVID-19 pandemic will create a heightened propensity towards online shopping amongst US consumers besides increasing their demand for curbside pickup or home delivery, curbing their desire to visit stores.
In addition, Cornell believes there will also be an even greater focus on safety in the future, and retailers need to offer more contact-free options for their customers. And with growing economic challenges, consumers will increasingly focus on the value of their purchases.
In the past few months, though Target has benefited by being deemed an essential business, it has also been hurt by the rioting surrounding the killing of George Floyd that was centered in its home town on Minneapolis. To further accelerate its initiatives to understand the psyche of its Black associates and start to drive change, the company donated $10 million to organizations that work against racism and pledged 10,000 hours of consulting to minority-owned small businesses. It also vowed to rebuild and reopen its Minneapolis-area stores that were damaged during the looting that was on the fringes of the otherwise generally peaceful protests.
