Target, The Police, And the Damage Done

For decades, America’s most upbeat retailer counted on local law enforcement to sweep people and problems from its doorstep. Now it’s being forced to acknowledge the cost

- Peter Waldman and Lauren Etter

Before police Sergeant Alice White assigns officers to work off duty at the East Lake Street Target store in South Minneapolis, they get what Target calls values training. Included are specific instructions for greeting customers with a smile and a friendly hello. It’s an unusual script for Minneapolis cops, who are known for adopting a more intimidating posture. That’s certainly been the case at some Targets. But in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 by a Minneapolis policeman, Target Corp. is trying to recalibrate.

The 127,000-square-foot store on East Lake Street sits about 2 miles from the corner where Floyd was killed, and it was among the first buildings ransacked after the murder sparked an uprising across Minneapolis. The scene that night is etched in the minds of Target executives: people shoving aside red shopping carts and running out with armfuls of merchandise as sirens blared and police fired tear gas into the air. Hours later, across the street, protesters firebombed the 3rd Precinct building of the Minneapolis Police Department.

Four days after Floyd’s death, as the East Lake Street store lay in ruins and the damage at nine other Targets in the Twin Cities area was still being assessed, Brian Cornell, Target’s chairman and chief executive officer, issued a statement saying his team had “wept” that not enough was changing in the face of Floyd’s murder and other recent killings of Black Americans. “As a team we’ve vowed to face pain with purpose,” wrote Cornell, who’s led Target since 2014.