May 27, 2025
Butler stated her Black-owned business has seen a 30% decrease in sales in Target.
The founder and CEO of successful Black-owned makeup brand The Lip Bar took to social media to confirm that sales have been down since the start of the Target boycott earlier this year. Melissa Butler stated that her beauty brand’s sales at the big-name retailer have dropped 30% since the boycott started in response to Target rolling back its DEI initiatives.
In a clip reposted on May 25, Butler encouraged people to buy from Black-owned businesses like The Lip Bar through other channels to make up the difference.
Detroit-born Butler began the video, “It is so crazy to me when people ask me, like, how our Target business is doing, and then I tell them that it’s terrible that people are shocked. They’re like, oh my God.”
She continued to reveal how much The Lip Bar’s sales have plummeted at Target.
“I’m like, yeah, our sales are down 30, 40%. Like that’s exactly what we thought was going to happen.”
Butler assured fans of the beauty brand that the drop was not unexpected but an anticipated side effect of supporting the Target boycott.
“And that’s not to say that people should continue or go back to shopping at Target. It’s just to say that we knew that there was going to be a huge impact, and to offset the impact, it requires people to be really intentional about where they are shopping,” Butler said.
She explained, “Meaning you have to go directly to that business, either to that business’s website or shopping them in other channels. But like we knew that that was going to happen.”
As previously reported, earlier this year, patrons began boycotting Target after the company removed all of its related diversity, equity and inclusion programs across the country. The move was made to better align the retailer with President Donald Trump’s current push to remove DEI across federal entities.
According to the company, the boycott and tariffs imposed during Trump’s presidency led to a steep fall in sales last quarter.
Butler concluded in her video, “The question is, can businesses sustain in the event that people don’t go back to Target, period? So, like, where do the dollars come from? It is so crazy.”
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