There’s a reason so many people save their shopping for the weekends.
When you work full-time, it’s hard to find the hours to pick up groceries or make a pitstop to restock shampoo. So a lot of people naturally do the bulk of their shopping on Saturdays and Sundays.
Unfortunately, that can lead to very crowded stores.
Ask anyone who shops at Costco on a regular basis, and they’ll tell you that doing a Saturday or Sunday trip is nothing short of a nightmare.
But while some retailers may have lines snaking out the doors on weekends, Target seems to be struggling to draw shoppers in. And that’s not surprising given the company’s recent woes.
Target’s numbers haven’t looked great lately. During the company’s most recent quarter, Target reported a 3.8% year over year drop in comparable sales and a whopping 18.9% reduction in operating income.
Meanwhile, on an annual basis, foot traffic at Target declined during every month in the second half of 2025 except for October, and fourth-quarter visits fell 2%, according to Supermarket News, citing data from Placer.ai
Related: Target policy makes some shoppers uncomfortable
But what’s really surprising is that weekend store visits for Target declined 6.1% year over year in 2025.
You’d think shoppers would be more inclined to visit on weekends, given that Target runs, by nature, don’t tend to be short shopping trips.
A short trip is when you run into your local supermarket to grab a gallon of milk. Big-box stores like Target tend to attract shoppers looking for items in multiple retail categories.
It’s hard to fit those longer trips in during the week. But the fact that weekend foot traffic declined at Target could be an indication that customers are increasingly not making those longer trips. And for good reason.
Target has seen its share of bad press over the past few years. Many consumers were angered when the company rolled back its DEI policies roughly a year ago.
But Target’s decline in foot traffic may not be political. It could be a symptom of the fact that the shopping experience has changed for the worse.
Related: Dollar Tree quietly adds more higher-priced items
“The shopping experience has really gone downhill,” said one user on a Reddit thread slamming the store. “Things aren’t stocked and the checkout is really slow. Executives will do anything to improve sales, except hire enough people to run the store properly.”
“If you market yourself as the ‘upscale’ Walmart you’d better actually be the upscale Walmart,” said another.
