Written by: Beck

Some of you might recall my call to boycott Target a few weeks back in reaction to the news that they had banned Salvation Army bell ringers from their stores this Christmas. I'm far from the only blogger to call for people to put pressure on Target. Hugh Hewitt has been sticking doggedly with the story. Now he links an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution showing that Target is indeed suffering this Christmas--while other retailers are thriving.

America's Research Group, a shopping-behavior tracker and marketing firm in Charleston, S.C., phoned 800 households nationwide and determined that Target was the only major retailer with fewer customers last weekend compared with the same holiday-shopping weekend in 2003.

The survey indicated 55 percent of U.S. consumers visited stores over the weekend, with 12 percent patronizing Target. A year ago, 43 percent went shopping, and 30 percent of those shoppers included Target in their rounds.

"That's a significant decline," said ARG Chairman Britt Beemer, who noted 16 interviewees offered without prompting that they avoided Target. "There is getting to be a significant amount of backlash."

Had this whole story occurred five years ago, it would have been a non-issue. Once the mainstream press had spent its day or two covering the issue, it would have vanished into the ether, never to be heard from again. The persistent work of bloggers like Hewitt, however, has kept the story alive & brought it to a wide audience.

Corporations, from their marketing departments to their board rooms, need to take heed and pay attention to this phenomenon. The times, they are a changin'.

(Hat tip: GOPbloggers)