AFT Launches ‘Shop Smart, Not Target’ Campaign for Back-to-School

WASHINGTON—As teachers and families head back to school, the AFT has launched a nationwide campaign to urge them to shop at retailers other than Target for their school supplies. The "Shop Smart, Support Working Families" campaign was created in response to Target’s refusal to condemn the unlawful Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity that continues to roil communities around the country. A new website, ShopSmart.AFT.org, along with an associated digital and print ad initiative, helps educators and families shop for school supplies at local stores and outlets that respect labor rights, instead of at Target.

The AFT’s 1.875 million members spend an average of $895 of their own money on school supplies each year and hold billions in Target stock via their pension accounts. In March, the union passed a resolution demanding the Minneapolis-based business speak up against the ICE atrocities in their own backyard and called for a comprehensive back-to-school campaign if it failed to take meaningful action.

AFT President Randi Weingarten wrote to Target CEO Michael Fiddelke in January and again in March outlining the union’s concerns but did not receive a constructive response. In June, the 15 million-member national AFL-CIO, affiliated with the AFT, passed its own resolution at its constitutional convention in Minneapolis, backing the plan and championing the AFT’s push. 

“We gave Target ample time to stand with the communities in which they operate and help their neighbors, but its silence about federal immigration abuses has been deafening,” said Weingarten. “We wrote letters, passed resolutions and reached out to management in good faith but have yet to see any meaningful movement.

“The issue could not be more pressing: Seven months since the murders of Alex Pretti and Renée Good, masked ICE agents are still in our streets, our schools and our communities, terrorizing families in the name of Donald Trump’s illegal and immoral assault on immigrants striving for their American Dream. That’s why we’re urging our members to avoid Target and patronize more ethical shopping alternatives this back-to-school season.”

The ShopSmart.AFT.org website allows members to submit their ZIP codes to get mapped search results of community-friendly back-to-school shopping alternatives located close to home, including unionized businesses with price points comparable to Target’s.  

Historically, millions of AFT members and parents have relied on Target for classroom and school-related supplies, spending hundreds of millions of dollars at the retailer every year. Additionally, AFT members participate in pension funds with an estimated $4 trillion in assets and hold direct ownership of 6.79 million shares in Target stock, with billions in indirect exposure. Meanwhile, American parents say they expect to spend an average of $922 on back-to-school shopping this year.

“We're disappointed that Target has failed to live up to its promises to be a good neighbor to the families who have shopped there for years,” said Natasha Dockter, Vice President of the teacher chapter of Minneapolis Federation of Teachers. “In this scary time, we all need to come together, from the classrooms to the corner offices, to protect Americans' right to free speech and to ensure our democracy endures. That's why I'm proud to join with my union family to shop local this fall and skip Target until its executives reconsider and join their voices with ours.”

The campaign comes in the wake of Target’s recommitment to diversity in March following months of pressure from the Target Fast movement. Activists won a new commitment from Target to support Black entrepreneurs, historically Black colleges and universities, and internal programs that advance equity and inclusion, after it initially rolled them back after Trump’s return to office. However, Target has maintained a starkly accommodationist stance on ICE’s illegal raids, even as vulnerable communities in Minnesota and far beyond continue to live in a permanent state of fear.