So US retailer Target Corporation is offering marijuana for sale on its e-commerce website. Is this a pending PR crisis in the blogosphere? Steve Rubel thinks so.
I’d be inclined to agree with Steve. Start with the blogosphere – as in Nathan Weinberg’s post at Inside Google with its headline “Taget [sic] pushes drugs” – and rapidly spread outwards, and outside the US. Now waiting for the similar media headlines in the next 24 hours or so.
Then you have a normal crisis!
Note that if you visit the Target marijuana page, a little text at the foot says “Powered by Amazon.com.”
Just taking a look at the corporate info on Target’s website and I encountered a document in the corporate governance section that is the company’s business conduct guide (PDF), which includes this: “We are committed to ethical and legal business practices and we expect you to share this commitment.”
So how does that reality fit with selling marijuana? Business conduct aside, is this legal in the US? Target, is this really someting you want to be doing?
UPDATE 30 November: See It's about Target's reputation.
Target responds:
http://news.com.com/Target+is+cool+with+rock+n+roll%2C+but+not+sex+and+drugs/2100-1038-5475376.html?part=dht&tag=ntop&tag=nl.e703
Posted by: Christopher Carfi | 03 December 2004 at 22:35