EXCLUSIVE Target's own staff blow whistle on HUGE price hikes across the store: 'Everything's going up'
Target workers say prices are exploding — and shoppers are about to feel it.
Store staff are posting pictures of their early morning price-changes on social media. The images show shelf labels adjusting with giant price bumps.
'I feel bad doing all these price changes when everything goes up,' one Target staffer said in a Reddit post.
Another commenter added: 'I've been doing price change everyday for the past 4 months or so. Seeing everything going up all at once is really making me sad.'
In one post, a Target employee shared a picture of pricing labels for a Paw Patrol toy that sold for $51.99 until May 29. The same item's price ballooned to $101.99 on June 7 — a 96 percent jump.
Another post showed a box of Monster Energy drinks increasing from $15.59 to $24.99 — a nearly 38 percent spike.
The hikes come as retailers grapple with inflationary pressures. Target didn't respond to DailyMail.com's questions about the cause of the price increases.
But the adjustments aren't a huge surprise. At the beginning of the year, multiple executives — including Target's CEO — warned that President Donald Trump's tariffs would push prices higher on a broad range of consumer goods.
Since that announcement, Target has seen a steady stream of employees turning to social media to vent about price changes.
In mid-May, another employee posted a picture of an old and new label for a Heyday brand USB-C cord.
The price increased from $9.99 to $17.99, an 80 percent increase.
Independent analysts say the price adjustments are the result of careful modeling, not sticker shock theater. Retailers like Target rely on data and competitive pricing tools to avoid losing customers over even small increases.
'Price changes are a constant in retail and shouldn't be assumed to be nefarious,' Carol Spieckerman, a retail analyst and president of Spieckerman Retail, told DailyMail.com.
'If Target is over-stepping or gouging, it will feel the pain quickly. Shoppers are smart and do research.'
Still, the price swaps are worrying Target employees, who have increasingly voiced concern over the retailer's direction and profit drops.
And it's not just Target. Other major chains are seeing the same kind of social media blowback from employees tasked with adjusting thousands of prices.
Target has been warning customers that some products will see price increases (stock image)
Walmart staffers are posting screenshots from handheld devices on Reddit, revealing sweeping internal price hikes.
'Lately my section has been getting 5,000 to 9,000 a week,' one Walmart employee claimed, saying it marked a 40 to 50 percent increase from normal.
The wave of price changes is even extending into the automotive world.
At Ford and BMW dealerships, employees have leaked internal bulletins showing MSRP hikes of more than $1,000.
Subaru, Toyota, and Mitsubishi have all said they're raising prices.
Unlike retail chains, carmakers are often more upfront about cost shifts. But transparency comes with risk.
Large corporations that openly tie rising prices to tariffs are drawing fire from the Trump administration.
In May, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon warned that prices would rise in response to sweeping tariffs on Chinese goods — a comment that drew backlash from President Donald Trump.
'Walmart should STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices throughout the chain,' Trump threatened on social media.'
Amazon briefly considered adding a line item for tariff costs on product pages. But White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the potential change a 'hostile and political act. '
Since then, both Walmart and Amazon have silently raised prices — but they've kept quiet on why.
And customers should expect more price hikes.
According to Spieckerman, consumers scanning the toy aisle should prepare for fluctuating prices, like the Paw Patrol toy, because margins are thinner and costs are rising fast.
'They're definitely a tariff-sensitive category that is in high demand for the holidays,' she said.
'I expect prices will rise and fall based on aggressive promotions.'
But for workers on the ground, that just means more price changes — and more customers asking why everything suddenly costs more.
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Reuters
36 minutes ago
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BERLIN, June 21 (Reuters) - At a market stall in Berlin run by charity Topio, volunteers help people who want to purge their phones of the influence of U.S. tech firms. Since Donald Trump's inauguration, the queue for their services has grown. Interest in European-based digital services has jumped in recent months, data from digital market intelligence company Similarweb shows. More people are looking for e-mail, messaging and even search providers outside the United States. The first months of Trump's second presidency have shaken some Europeans' confidence in their long-time ally, after he signalled his country would step back from its role in Europe's security and then launched a trade war. "It's about the concentration of power in U.S. firms," said Topio's founder Michael Wirths, as his colleague installed on a customer's phone a version of the Android operating system without hooks into the Google ecosystem. Wirths said the type of people coming to the stall had changed: "Before, it was people who knew a lot about data privacy. Now it's people who are politically aware and feel exposed." Tesla (TSLA.O), opens new tab chief Elon Musk, who also owns social media company X, was a leading adviser to the U.S. president before the two fell out, while the bosses of Amazon (AMZN.O), opens new tab, Meta (META.O), opens new tab and Google-owner Alphabet (GOOGL.O), opens new tab took prominent spots at Trump's inauguration in January. Days before Trump took office, outgoing president Joe Biden had warned of an oligarchic "tech industrial complex" threatening democracy. Berlin-based search engine Ecosia says it has benefited from some customers' desire to avoid U.S. counterparts like Microsoft's (MSFT.O), opens new tab Bing or Google, which dominates web searches and is also the world's biggest email provider. 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The search for alternative providers accompanies a debate in Europe about "digital sovereignty" - the idea that reliance on companies from an increasingly isolationist United States is a threat to Europe's economy and security. "Ordinary people, the kind of people who would never have thought it was important they were using an American service are saying, 'hang on!'," said UK-based internet regulation expert Maria Farrell. "My hairdresser was asking me what she should switch to." Use in Europe of Swiss-based ProtonMail rose 11.7% year-on-year to March compared to a year ago, according to Similarweb, while use of Alphabet's Gmail, which has some 70% of the global email market, slipped 1.9%. ProtonMail, which offers both free and paid-for services, said it had seen an increase in users from Europe since Trump's re-election, though it declined to give a number. 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