Retail Brew delivers the latest retail industry news and insights surrounding marketing, DTC, and e-commerce to keep leaders and decision-makers up to date.

Retail Brew

Erin Cabrey

retailbrew.com

Retail executive moves in January

Dollar Tree, Rite Aid, and DSW all announced CEO shakeups.

Retailers see CEO shifts—and create new chief roles—to start the year

Maeve Allsup

Delivery worker riding a bike down a city street

Here’s what’s going on with the employment status of delivery drivers.

Experts say a federal rule defining worker status may change the world of deliveries

Katishi Maake

Earlier this year, Amazon closed retail storefronts, including its bookstores and 4-star concept. 

 Here’s why experts believe Amazon is cutting back its workforce

Pickett signs with fed up pay us more and higher wages text

Labor

Alex Vuocolo

In July, agents from the Department of Homeland Security 

 a popular Asia Food Market outside Buffalo, New York. They seized computers, cell phones, and business records, and detained nine employees, according to immigration attorney Alejandro Gutierrez who represents the workers.

“Officers from several agencies showed up to arrest anybody they found in the place, even people who had valid work permits,” Gutierrez told Retail Brew. He added that out of the nine detained, only two were released from custody as of September 16.

Earlier this year, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller reportedly set a 

 for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to arrest at least 3,000 every day, tripling the previous quota, and the tactics agents have used have drawn criticism for their aggression.

, the US workforce is made up of 8.5 million undocumented workers and around 8% work in retail trade. Raids appearing to target larger businesses with immigrant workforces, like the supermarkets Asia Food Market, are making news.

“Homeland Security might want to make a bigger impact, and that’s why they might be looking at a bigger supermarket…as opposed to a deli in Midtown that may have 15 employees or 20 employees and is not necessarily going to make a big impact for deterrence value,” Vivianna Morales, a partner in Pechman Law Group who represents both employers and employees, but not Asia Food Market or any of the detained workers from the July Buffalo raid, told Retail Brew.

These operations’ impact on retailers and retail workers is still unclear.

The Department of Homeland Security did not provide data about the number of retail-related actions this year when Retail Brew reached out.

While “losing the workers is expensive,” Gutierrez said, the Asia Food Market in Buffalo remains open.

That isn’t always the case in communities targeted by ICE. Yue Wa Market, one of the few remaining markets in Los Angeles’s bustling Chinatown, shuttered in September, and the 

 reported the raids were responsible for an environment of fear dampening demand from locals.

A produce market in nearby downtown LA also saw a decline in foot traffic following 

 earlier this summer, as both workers and customers steered clear out of fear of possible detainment.

One South Florida-based business, PANNA New Latino Food, reported in July that over the previous three months, demand had fallen 20% due to fear surrounding the Trump administration’s 

 of temporary protected status (TPS) for immigrants from Venezuela, the largest population of TPS migrants in the country.

Javier Palomarez, president and CEO of the US Hispanic Business Council, said the impact of these ICE raids is twofold: There are actual removals, and then there is the fear they create. “The fear is leading to lower sales among Hispanics and in brands that we all recognize and use.”

Coca-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive, Constellation Brands, for example, have 

 on a drop-off in demand from Hispanic shoppers.

Palomarez said there have been significant declines in revenue at stores serving immigrant communities such as Pilsen, Illinois, outside of Chicago, and the Rio Grande Valley in south Texas, “because the foot traffic has all but disappeared” in those areas.

However, the direct impact of detaining workers could end up being significant as well. Though industry-level data is lacking, the Pew Research Center found that the number of immigrant workers in the US, including both legal residents and the undocumented, has 

 by 1.2 million between January and July.

 ICE raids on retail outlets spark fear, outrage

Some say the increased fear among immigrant communities is hurting business. 

Andrew Adam Newman

 from Catalyst found that women hold a disproportionate number of the lowest-paying frontline jobs “with limited access to benefits or career progression” in the US, UK, and Canada.

The entire retail workforce is nearly balanced, with women comprising 52%, 

 the Institute for Women’s Policy Research data. But women account for 69% of retail employees who are paid an hourly wage of less than $20 in the US and Canada (and less than £20 in the UK), according to the report.

When it comes to salaried frontline workers, women account for 58% of those who earn less than $40,000/£40,000 a year.

In hospitality, where women outnumber men in the US (56%), Canada (52%), and the UK (53%), women also more dramatically overrepresent in lower paying jobs. In the sector, women accounted for 72% of those making below $20/£20; for salaried employees, women accounted for 67.5% of those making below $40,000/£40,000 a year.

The nonprofit Catalyst has researched and advocated for women’s advancement and inclusion since the 1960s, and its 

 includes the CEOs of JPMorgan Chase (Jamie Dimon), Steelcase (Sara Armbruster), and Procter & Gamble (Jon R. Moeller.)

Among the 8,990 frontline employees and managers it surveyed across seven sectors, 45% were from the US, 33% from the United Kingdom, and 23% from Canada.

The report recommends that companies convert some hourly jobs to salaried positions, be more transparent about promotion criteria, and “track progression by gender to identify and address bottlenecks.”

It also suggests that the progress of gender pay equity should be an element of executives’ performance reviews and bonuses, and that such progress should be publicly reported.

“What we find is that in all industries, even the female-dominated ones, women are not advancing to higher pay in the proportionate numbers, indicating structural barriers that must be dismantled industry by industry,” the report stated.

Bigger blue piggy bank overweighting smaller one on a scale. 

Women overrepresented in lowest-paid frontline retail jobs

The gender disparity is greater for hourly than salaried frontline workers, per Catalyst. 

 on April 3 the retailer would halt plans to expand the number of its store-in-stores in Target, it may have come as a surprise. After all, the partnership between Ulta and Target was 

 as symbiotic when it was first announced in 2020, and when the first shop-in-shops opened in 2021.

Steelman, who was speaking at a JPMorgan retail conference, said that the expansion was on hold—both retailers had set a goal of opening 800 Ulta Beauty at Target mini-stores; they’ve stopped at 610—and that the decision was mutual.

“We’ve made the decision to really lean into the 600-plus stores that are open this next year and really look at, ‘How do we continue to drive efficiencies and leverage the learnings that we’ve had to really unlock value for both of us collectively together?’” Steelman said.

But weeks before the analysts learned that Ulta and Target were hitting pause, some Target employees were reportedly claiming that the partnership had grown contentious—and why.

The 1,000-square-foot stores are situated in Target’s beauty section with distinct Ulta branding. They’re 

 by dedicated employees who are hired by Target and sport black Ulta Beauty at Target aprons.

Many have opinions about the partnership.

“No more Ulta in Target,” a commenter 

 on a subreddit for Target employees, which is not affiliated with the company, on March 20—two weeks before the halting of expansion plans was announced. “My understanding is that any future remodels will not have the separate Ulta section due to the amount of theft they have had so far with the existing locations.”

“The amount of theft is fucking insane,” 

 another commenter who claims to work at an Ulta in Target. “I could be wrong but at least 10k a month in theft.” While many Target locations have locked up products to foil shoplifters, Ulta Beauty in Target’s offerings typically are not, and can be purchased alongside Target inventory at checkout (including self-checkout). Some Reddit and TikTok posts have documented, however, stanchion barricades at some stores that limit consumers moving in and out, presumably to curb theft.

Target has made no secret of its shoplifting 

, but some Redditors said shoplifting was only part of the problem.

“Ulta isn’t very happy with how the partnership is going with Target,” 

 another commenter, who reported a recent store visit by what they called “my regional Ulta manager.” Along with theft, they said the Ulta executive was dismayed by “staffing issues,” namely that Target employees who were supposed to be staffing the stores-in-stores were pulled away by team leaders to cover the beauty department or another department altogether.

 the store they worked at was so short staffed that “we would all get scheduled under Ulta hours and none of us would actually be in there.”

Assessing other employees’ contention that Target was in “

” of its contract with Ulta over staffing requires a look at how store-in-store partnerships work generally, and how the deal between Target and Ulta worked specifically.

When Ulta Beauty in Target was announced in 2020, Ulta’s then-CEO Mary Dillon said the deal would 

 the retailer’s reach to new consumers and grow loyalty program sign-ups. Target, which mostly sells lower-priced mass cosmetic and personal care items, would benefit by offering higher-priced 

Target owns all inventory, Dillon said in 2020, meaning they follow a royalty structure with Ulta receiving royalties from Target. Ulta reports it as “other revenue,” alongside credit card income and loyalty point redemptions in earnings reports; that budget line has declined for the 

Ulta Beauty Rewards members can earn loyalty points on their Ulta Beauty in Target purchases by linking their account to their Target Circle rewards account. A 

 from Target offers shoppers 20% off Ulta Beauty at Target purchases when they sign up for Ulta’s loyalty program and link it to their Target Circle accounts. While Steelman said last August that 4 million shoppers had linked accounts, several Reddit users suggested lagging loyalty sign-ups were a factor in the expansion pause.

“Loyalty metrics are ridiculous,” one poster said. “We have to stop people from exiting and use a MCO [MyCheckout] device which annoys guests. Apparently our MCO usage was extremely low but most days ONE person is balancing beauty and Ulta.”

If customers can’t connect their loyalty accounts at Target’s standard checkout, that’s “a big miss,” as Ulta loses out on that shopper data, Liza Amlani, principal and founder of Retail Strategy Group, told Retail Brew. Amlani formerly worked as a merchant for Ralph Lauren, including working on the brand’s shop-in-shops at retailers across the UK, Ireland, and Europe.

“I don’t think all customers are that savvy or will take that time to go online and link their loyalty programs,” she said. “That’s a lot of work for the customer.”

Several Redditors also noted that some Ulta Beauty in Target stores were very close to standalone Ulta stores, even in the same shopping centers. For example, the Ulta Beauty in Target at 200 Passaic Avenue in Kearny, New Jersey is just a five-minute walk from the standalone Ulta store at 175 Passaic Avenue. This could be cannibalizing sales at Ulta standalones, a factor Placer.ai reported last month. As Ulta’s foot traffic has 

, Placer.ai found that Ulta visitors who also visited Target rose from 86.9% in 2022 to 90.1% in 2024, which could mean the shop-in-shops at Target are drawing shoppers away from Ulta stores.

Retail Brew sent both Ulta and Target detailed questions about our findings. Ulta declined to comment, while Brian Harper-Tibaldo, director of corporate media relations at Target who 

 as its senior manager of crisis communications, sent a statement that didn’t respond to any of our questions directly.

“Our plans for stores and remodels evolve over time, and we’re working in close partnership with Ulta Beauty on future plans,” Harper-Tibaldo said.

Staffing issues plagued a similar shop-in-shop partnership between Sephora and JCPenney, leading to a 

 and ending in an amended agreement as Sephora eventually pursued its 

“Target has 99 problems…and one of Target’s biggest problems is just staffing in general,” Glenn McMahon, founder and managing partner of Mac McMahon Advisory Consultants, told Retail Brew, adding that having too few employees in stores also is at the heart of its shoplifting problem.

Although Target locks up many less expensive beauty and personal care products elsewhere in its stores, McMahon lauded Ulta for apparently insisting that Target not put Ulta products in locked display cases, “because that’s bad customer experience.”

However, the “flip side of that is…huge shrink because there is no staff, there’s no sales associates on the floor in Target,” McMahon said, echoing numerous Target employees on Reddit who said they get pulled out of Ultas within Target to cover in other departments.

For customers, the contrast between the two shopping experiences can be as dramatic as a 

, where customers at a regular Ulta store can hunker down with a beauty advisor for a makeover, or simply ask for help swatching foundation shades, but at an Ulta Beauty at Target, they’re lucky to 

“If you don’t have staff to help customers, especially with beauty, you’re gonna have a hard time selling beauty,” Amlani said. “It is a high-touch category, unless you know exactly what you want and you’re just buying repeats.”

McMahon added that US retailers are increasingly emulating their 

 counterparts, where within department stores branded shop-in-shops are essentially consignment businesses, with the brands entirely staffing and managing their sections, and those brands paying the retailers a royalty—in other words, the inverse of the Target-Ulta deal.

Ulta deferring to Target to hire and staff their shops-in-shops “is a red flag right there,” McMahon said. “That is one of the reasons that [the partnership is] probably not successful.”

In Ulta’s defense, though, McMahon pointed out that the deal was inked when Target seemingly could do no wrong in 2021, when its stock was at a 

“Target’s not a desirable place to work anymore,” said McMahon. “It used to be, but it’s not anymore, and Ulta is feeling the effects of that.”

Shopper in Ulta Beauty in Target shop-in-shop

Before Ulta Beauty halted its Target expansion, Target employees saw problems first

Target’s high shoplifting rates and failure to adequately staff its Ultas may be contributing factors.

Target CEO Brian Cornell was unequivocal about the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) in 2021.

“As CEOs, we have to be the company’s head of diversity and inclusion,” Cornell 

. “We have to be the role models that drive change and our voice is important.”

 on January 24 that it was pulling back on some DE&I efforts, like 

 have as President Donald Trump rails against diversity, it struck some as a 

But Target’s own press releases about issues of racial and social equity tell a different story. The company has a unique trajectory when it comes to DE&I. It 

 enthusiastically after police killed George Floyd in its hometown of Minneapolis in 2020. But after the company faced a 

 over its Pride Month displays in 2023, its use of diversity terminology has been increasingly rare.

After using neither term in press releases in 2019, Target used the term “social justice” 11 times and “racial justice” 10 times in 2020, then used both terms eight times each in 2021, and one time each in 2022. But the company did not issue a press release with either term even once in 2023, 2024, or so far in 2025, according to a Retail Brew analysis of press releases archived on Target.com.

Other diversity-related terms follow a similar pattern:

The term “diversity, equity, and inclusion” itself was not used in press releases at all in 2019, was used seven times in both 2020 and 2021, peaked at 13 times in 2022, then dwindled to being used just four times in 2023, twice in 2024, and once so far in 2025.

“Representation” also was not used in 2019, but appeared in press releases six times in 2020, 11 times in 2021, 10 times in 2022, twice in 2023 and not once since then.

We shared our findings with Target, and asked why it saw fit to use DE&I terminology so frequently beginning in 2020, but less frequently or not at all beginning in 2023. The company did not respond to our repeated requests for comment.

As Retail Brew reported recently, when Target 

 a video on Instagram and Facebook on February 2 promoting its Black History Month merchandise, it was slammed by many who noted the company’s reduction of its DE&I efforts, with commenters calling it “hypocrisy,” “performative,” and “gaslighting.”

We shared our findings with Drew Kerr, founder of The Four Corners Group, once a traditional public-relations shop that today is what he calls a “crisis prevention agency” that trains executives to improve their communications strategies. Kerr said he was struck both by how freely Target embraced diversity terminology beginning in 2020 and by how it started avoiding the terminology in 2023.

“What I’m seeing here is brand DNA whiplash,” Kerr told Retail Brew about Target’s PR approach. “It’s like, make up your mind. Where are you with this?”

As opposed to Target just changing their “refund policy,” the issue of identity and representation “goes to the very core” of many Target customers, Kerr said. “And I do think they’re playing with fire.”

 for being steadfast in defending DE&I programs rather than equivocating.

“Even though the wind is blowing in this anti-DE&I direction, especially with the change of administration, there are companies that are absolutely not budging,” Kerr said. “And it’s not like they’re going out of business.”

While our findings come from the press releases 

 on the Target website, it appears that Target may be in the process of removing some diversity-related press releases from that archive.

 in our sibling publication HR Brew recently, one Target press release from 2016, which revealed the company would allow “

 team members and guests to use the restroom or fitting room facility that corresponds with their gender identity,” is now available only via the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. And the Wayback Machine’s most recent capture of the press release was on January 24, the same day Target 

In that same January 24 announcement, Target said it would no longer participate in the survey on which the Human Rights Campaign bases its annual 

 ratings that measure commitment to diversity.

 on its website, Target notes that in 2009, it got a perfect score on the Equality Index. We asked Target if it still considers this a milestone, and if so, why it’s not participating going forward.

Target stopped championing ‘racial justice’ in press releases two years ago

Long before curtailing DE&I last month, the company started shying away from diversity terms.

Target once championed ‘racial justice’ frequently in press releases. It stopped two years ago.

End-of-year bonuses are a mixed bag, seeing as it’s great to get a bump in December, until it settles in that you’ve not had more than a cost-of-living raise for years. And when it comes to the retail sector, here’s some mixed-bag data about 2024’s end-of-year bonuses: They were bigger than the year before, but a smaller percentage of the workforce got them.

The average December bonus for retail employees in 2024 was $1,601, up from $1,487 in 2023, an increase of 8%, according to 

, a payroll and benefits platform. However, the portion of employees who collected the bonus was slightly lower, from 17.63% of the workforce in 2024 to 17.4% in 2023. (If you’re wondering about how that breaks down from someone working the register to someone gallivanting at retail conferences, 71% of those bonus earners were hourly workers and 29% were salaried.)

Ditto for Gusto’s food and beverage category, which according to the company is composed overwhelmingly (97%) of a combination of restaurants, bars, and snack bars, with the remainder (3%) being food manufacturers.

Those food handlers, who may soon be exempt from taxes on their 

, collected an average bonus of $480 in 2024, just $8 more than 2023’s $472, a 2% increase. But here, as they say in Cajun restaurants, is the dry rub: 6.7% of those workers collected a bonus in December, compared to 7.2% the previous year.

On a personal note (admit it: you’re obsessed with me), while the percentage of communications workers who got bonuses this year was slightly down, the haul was way up, climbing from $4,206 in 2023 to $5,134 in 2024. So drinks are on 

Pile of US 100 dollar banknotes with bow on dollar background.

Bonuses were bigger this year for retail workers

Bad news: Fewer got them. 

Good news: Bonuses were bigger this year for retail workers

In the early days of e-commerce, some legacy retailers were hesitant to launch e-commerce stores, fearing that online sales would “

” sales from their brick-and-mortar locations.

Even just eight years ago, in January 2017, after Target announced that for the then-just-passed holiday season store sales were down 3% YoY while online sales were up 30%, Jim Cramer 

 that for Target, it was “a total cannibalization of itself.”

These days, retail rhetoric is less likely to pit in-store against e-commerce, favoring instead the buzzword “

 in the recent NRF Big Show program). Since many shoppers choose to shop online one day and in-store the next, omnichannel’s adherents urge retailers to make either choice seamless.

Here’s one way Endear, a customer relationship management (CRM) firm, is flying the omnichannel flag: Encouraging retailers to direct in-store associates to reach out to e-commerce customers, and to pay those associates commission for resulting online sales.

“If you let your salespeople email and text with customers and make recommendations for what they should buy online, you’re going to increase your sales online,” Leigh Sevin, co-founder of Endear, told Retail Brew.

 puts it more pointedly: “The in-store-only commission structure should be a relic of the past.”

Sevin enumerated several ways that retailers on the platform can encourage in-store associates to spur online sales, including emailing or texting online-only customers far from brick-and-mortar locations to highlight new arrivals they might like based on their order history, and following up with shoppers who’ve purchased either online or in-store to recommend other items they’re apt to like.

Sevin estimated that 15% of Endear’s retail partners are paying in-store workers for online sales they facilitate, and that she expects that portion to grow. Endear’s proprietary software enables the platform to attribute sales to specific associates irrespective of whether the customers they helped purchase online or in-stores.

Endear also allows customizing what Sevin called the “window of attribution,” meaning retailers can set the time limit (or have no limit at all) for how many days or weeks after sales associates help customers that those customers’ purchases earn them a commission.

Boll & Branch, the upscale DTC bedding brand, has eight brick-and-mortar stores, with plans to double that number in 2025, according to Anna Esrov, its VP of customer experience and loyalty.

Rather than stock every fabric, color, and size, the stores have a “curated inventory,” Ezrov said. So if a store associate all but sells a customer on a Summit Supima sheet set, which retails for $729 for the queen size, but it turns out that the color the customer wants, Bluestone, is not in stock, that could spell a lost commission for the associate if the customer went home and ordered it online. Worse, if the customer got online at home and ended up ordering from a competing brand, it could spell a lost sale for Boll & Branch.

But the retailer uses Endear to safeguard against those scenarios. If some or all of what in-store customers seek is not in stock, store employees order it online to be home-delivered, essentially an e-commerce transaction, and yet they still earn a commission.

Far from an isolated scenario, on average about half of the order value of in-store purchases end up being shipped to customers, Esrov said.

This year, Boll & Branch has cooked up another omnichannel strategy, said Esrov, who tends to shorten the term to “omni.”

“In 2025, one of the big focuses for incentivizing the store managers is incentivizing their sales based on total omni sales of a 20-mile radius of the store,” Esrov said.

While the brand is still ironing out the exact commission structure, the store managers’ sales goals will combine in-store sales and regional online sales, and if they hit the goals commission, bonuses will be shared among store employees.

“Andy, you may decide to go into our store in Greenwich, Connecticut, and purchase $3,000 worth of bedding,” Esrov explained, apparently mistaking me for someone in a higher tax bracket. If I lived within 20 miles of the store “and two weeks later, you go online and complete a purchase of $7,000, that would still fall within the radius, helping to attribute to this omni sales goal.”

Far from cannibalizing in-store sales, or making store associates ambivalent about online sales for which they earn no commission, employees will be rewarded for helping sell consumers on the brand irrespective of where those consumers ultimately complete their purchase.

“We’re still working out the kinks, but I think this is going to be a big unlock,” Esrov said. “We are just truly focused on giving the customer the best experience and meeting them where they are.”

Illustration of a store front, phone, and laptop displayed on a slot machine with coins coming out.

Why some retailers are paying commission for online sales

Store associates selling to e-commerce shoppers is the essence of an omnichannel strategy.

In 2022, the National Retail Federation made it plain that it was championing diversity, equity, and inclusion.

 in advance of that year’s “Big Show” conference, which is now accessible only through the Internet Archive, promised that the gathering would “highlight [the] importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion.” Multiple panels would be part of its “DE&I Stage and Showcase,” highlighting retail’s “recommitment to the important work that remains in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

I covered that conference, and in an article recapping the show published in January 2022 wrote that DE&I “

But that’s unlikely to be anyone’s takeaway for this year’s Big Show, which begins Sunday.

Retail Brew compared this year’s Big Show programming schedule with archived versions from 

. We discovered that in three years NRF went from using DE&I terminology liberally to using it rarely or not at all:

The words “inclusive,” “inclusion,” or “inclusivity” appeared 13 times in the 2022 program but only twice in 2025.

The words “equity” or “equitable” appeared four times on both the 2022 and 2023 schedules, but not at all in 2024 or 2025.

The word “equality” appeared 26 times in the program in 2022 (when some panels were held on an “Equality Lounge” stage) but not once in the 2025 agenda.

When it comes to speakers at the conference, “diversity” appeared in their titles six times in 

, according to this year’s online list of speakers and archived versions from the three previous years. Similarly, the word “equity” appeared in speakers’ titles twice in 2022 and four times in 2023 (although in one case it was someone in the non-DE&I-related equity financing profession) but not once in 2024 or 2025.

A case for “retail vertical diversity”: 

In a statement responding to our findings, Stephanie Martz, NRF’s chief administrative officer and general counsel, said in an email that retail “is an industry of diversity, as reflected in its employees, the communities it serves, the goods it sells and the consumers that shop its brands, in stores and online.”

Martz highlighted that Tracee Ellis Ross, actor and founder of Pattern Beauty, was speaking at a keynote session at the conference. (The 

 of her talk says that Ross would be “highlighting the importance of representation and inclusivity in the beauty industry.”) She also pointed to Sephora US President and CEO Artemis Patrick appearing at the conference, and the program 

 reveals one topic she’ll address is “how Sephora continues to cultivate a community where beauty enthusiasts of all backgrounds are celebrated.”

Martz also wrote that Tommy Hilfiger, who “revolutionized global retail through his commitment to inclusivity,” was being presented with NRF’s The Visionary 2025 award during an onstage interview at the conference. 

Finally, she argued for a more expansive view of diversity. “In addition to gender and racial diversity,” she wrote, “NRF 2025 offers retail vertical diversity (soft goods, hard goods, beauty, grocery, etc.) and age and generational representation in our speakers.”

We shared NRF’s response with Kimberly Lee Minor, CEO of the Women of Color Retail Alliance, and we asked if she thought it was a stretch to characterize Hilfiger as a standard-bearer for inclusivity and whether being from different sectors of the retail industry constitutes diversity.

“Yes, it’s a stretch,” Lee Minor responded in an interview with Retail Brew. She characterized NRF’s statement overall as “a little disappointing” and “kind of status quo.”

 at The Lead Summit conference in New York in July criticized Tractor Supply for reversing most of its DE&I efforts following a campaign by conservative activists, said NRF was not alone in deemphasizing DE&I, which 

 including Target, Molson Coors, and Lowe’s have done as well.

Diversity has “been weaponized and politicized,” Lee Minor told Retail Brew, but added that companies who reject it do so at their peril.

“Why would you leave money on the table?” she asked. “Why would you not want to support those who shop you? Why would you not want your brand to reflect your customer, unless you no longer want a diverse customer base?”

Lee Minor is attending the conference and stressed that NRF has been a valuable “partner” to the WOC Alliance. Still, she prefers the way NRF championed inclusivity in 2022 over the more subdued approach of this year’s conference.

“There’s opportunity as they think about their influence in the industry to facilitate more conversations about culture and inclusivity that maybe they’ve stepped away from,” she said.

An earlier version of this story inaccurately stated that NRF made no reference to the designer Tommy Hilfiger’s commitment to inclusivity in the program for its 2025 Big Show conference.

Panelists on stage at an NRF Big Show panel in 2022, “The Achievable How: Implementing DE&I learnings inside your business.”