Target CEO Brian Cornell slammed claims by Democrat presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday that retailers were hurting consumers by engaging in price gouging.
Harris said last week that her plan to combat inflation that skyrocketed during the Biden-Harris administration was to implement price controls, which most economists oppose.
Cornell was asked during an interview on CNBC: “Have you boosted any of your profits from gouging on prices? And how prevalent and pervasive do you think that was in terms of causing the recent 40-year highs in inflation?
Cornell responded by noting that the retail giant has reduced prices on roughly 5,000 items.
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“I’ll put my retail hat on for a second,” he said. “You two talk to industry leaders in every different sector. Is there a more competitive space than retail?”
“We’re celebrating this morning, the fact that we delivered a margin rate of over 6%,” he said. “You talk to other CEOs who are delivering up income of 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%,” he continued. “So we’re in a penny business.”
“It is a penny business, and it’s a very competitive space, and we provide the value consumers are looking for,” he added.
He also said that raising corporate taxes, which Harris supports, would hurt businesses.
“When the taxes were reduced, we put our capital to work,” he said. “Since 2017 when the corporate taxes were reduced, we spent close to $50 billion of capital building new stores across the country, remodeling over 1,000 stores.”
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“We put the business dollars back into our business,” he continued. “It’s helped us grow since 2017 our top line almost $40 billion, and I think it’s the way America should work.”
WATCH:
Target CEO Brian Cornell rips Kamala Harris’ claim that retailers are “price-gouging”:
“We’re in a penny business. It’s a very competitive space.” pic.twitter.com/BsmZnL8TDI
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) August 22, 2024
