Foot traffic at Target declined for the fourth consecutive month since it rolled back its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts in January, and a reputation analytics company reports that the retailer’s reputation has suffered, too.

For the month of May, foot traffic fell 1.6% YoY, which while nothing to pop the bubbly over was less grim than previous declines in February (-9%), March (-6.5%), and April (-3.3%), according to Placer.ai. While correlation—we’ll say it again—is not causation, the traffic slump began after Target announced it was rolling back its DEI efforts on January 24, the day after President Trump said he was acting to “abolish all discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion nonsense…throughout the government and the private sector.”

Costco, which rebuffed calls to dismantle its DEI program, saw its foot traffic increase 5.1% YoY in May, following increases for the previous three months when traffic fell at Target, up 2.2% in February, 7.5% in March, and 3.4% in April, per Placer.ai.

Foot traffic has been down for 16 of the last 18 weeks at Target, inching into positive territory only for the weeks that began April 14, when it was up 0.4%, and April 21, up 0.1%. For the same 18 weeks, traffic was down at Costco for only one of them, falling 2.5% on the week that began April 14.

“This is concerning”: Reputation analytics firm Caliber, meanwhile, has found that Target’s reputational score fell over the same period on multiple metrics, according to data it provided exclusively to Retail Brew.

Keep reading here.—AAN

French luxury retailer Dior has a new creative director in charge.

With Jonathan Anderson’s appointment, the Northern Irish designer, best known for transforming Loewe with his artful designs and a strong emphasis on craftsmanship, makes history as the first designer after Christian Dior himself to oversee all of Dior’s men’s, women’s, and haute couture collections.

While there is little to cast doubt on Anderson’s ability as a designer, the question is: Why was he the right choice to take on the storied reins at Dior?

“This isn’t just a creative hire; it’s a fundamental restructuring,” Nora Kleinewillinghoefer, partner and North America lead for fashion and luxury in Kearney’s Consumer practice, told Retail Brew via email. “By unifying all lines under Anderson, Dior is leaning toward brand coherence over specialized expertise, which is a smart operational move that could deliver significant efficiencies.”

Keep reading here.—JS

Ohana means family, and family means Spam.

The canned-meat product has long had a place on Hawaiian families’ dinner tables, and when the brand got the opportunity to partner with Disney on the recent live-action remake of Lilo & Stitch, a beloved tale of a Hawaiian girl and her adopted pet alien, it was a seamless fit, according to Dan Kubiak, senior brand manager of Spam at Hormel Foods.

Keep reading here on Marketing Brew.—JN