Target’s Toy Section: Gender Neutral in Word Only

Target needs to remember this saying:

“Actions speak louder than words.”

A few months ago, Target announced a change in the toy section. In response to customer feedback, they promised no more girl or boy sections, just one big gender-neutral section. Cheers and complaints immediately arose from the masses. A new day upon us, people either embraced or fought against the empowering move. Just one problem, Target played lip service but failed to make substantial changes of any kind.

Let me explain.

My husband and I practice what I call “equal opportunity parenting.” We present our little ballerina with a full gamut of toy options, and she chooses what she likes best. We strive to limit her exposure to stereotypes, getting most of her toys online or at stores with a gender neutral toy setup.

Last weekend, my four-year-old and I made an infrequent visit to Target, and she asked to visit the toy section. Sure, it gives something for her to do for a while. Why not? It turns out that a single visit in King County, Washington, Target confirmed every stereotype I work so hard to protect her from.

We started on one side of the toy section. My daughter loved the Barbie section, asking for every doll it had. She loved the cooking toys. She spent a large amount of time going through all the Doc McStuffins. The Disney princesses won her heart, as they always do. She found more dolls and dollhouses, and went through them quicker, starting to tell me what each of them lacked. She barely noticed the Lego Friends display on the other side of the aisle as she looked at the larger preschool dolls. She rounded the corner to the next aisle and everything change.

By this point, we’ve visited about half of the toy section. My four-year-old said the following words as she looked at the aisle full of Lego kits: “I don’t like boy toys.” She didn’t even want to see what the toys were. Sure enough, we crossed the threshold between “girl toys” and “boy toys.” The signs have changed, but that meant very little to a four-year-old just learning to read. The segmentation glared out at her. It clearly segregated the area she “belonged” from the area she “wasn’t allowed.”

My sweet little girl knew exactly what section she was not allowed in, even if I told her otherwise.

Dear Target,

Thanks, Target, for segregating the toy aisles, then saying you made them gender neutral.

I can’t tell you how helpful it is to have four years of parenting undone with the turn of an aisle. Yes, I get that you just reinforce the stereotypes of our culture, but come on, you said, not even two months ago, that you heard the concerns of parents like me and changed your wicked ways. I guess those were just hollow words, words my daughter can’t even read yet.

After convincing my daughter that all toys were for boys and girls, I looked around some and took some pictures while she went to the cars deep in the boy section. You supplied four rows of “girl” toys, four rows of “boy” toys, followed by two rows of “outside” toys, and a back wall of “gender neutral” toys. Sure, you took down the signs, but you did little else. You call this “gender neutral”?

Okay, I admit that you had the giant Elsa doll next to the giant Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle figure. Good job on pushing all your oversized toys together. I’m sure you did that to mix the toys up, not to avoid having two sections of oversized toys.

Before I judge too quickly, perhaps this is not representative of Target on a whole. Maybe, just maybe, other stores act on this change of policy more readily.

I visited a second store in King County, Washington. For this trip, I went after my daughter was in bed, and Target was stocking the store. I have to say, I was surprised by the visit. It did the same, better, and worse than the Target I went to a few miles away, in different ways.

Both Targets had several of the same displays in the store. The Lego Friends display looked very similar to the other Lego Friends. The oversized section had identical product placement. This indicates that Target corporate controls where the toys are placed in a store. More on that later. So here, nothing better or worse, just the same old, same old.

For the better, this Target included one actual mixed aisle! The Lego Friends display sat right next to the Lego Starwars Display on the aisle marking the divide between the two sections. Additionally, they had this wonderful end display of the Lego World I don’t remember seeing at the earlier Target. It included Lego City and Lego Friends, side by side, getting equal billing, as if they could exist in the same world, and as equals. That excited me.

Dear Target,

I love your end cap featuring Lego Friends next to Lego City. Please do more of this kind of display, throughout the toy section, not just on the end caps.

For the worse, this Target had two signs up labeled “Boy Action Figures” and “Girl Build Sets.” Granted these were on the back side of the aisle, against the wall. But still, Target never actually said they would mix toys up. They did say they would remove the sign. The “The Girl Build Sets” sign was on a non-standard aisle–right next to some “traditional boy toys.” This makes me wonder, was the mixed aisle I saw earlier a mistake?

I looked at the sign in confusion, and a stock clerk asked if I needed help. So I asked the clerk why the girl sign was there. The clerk said they were in the middle of a “section remodel,” and the signs must be mixed up. The clerk had only worked there about a month, so the clerk didn’t know how often they do remodels. The clerk did mention that the girl build sets sign was on the boy build set aisle. Signage or not, the clerk segregated the toy section into boy and girl toys automatically.

The signs gave me a reason to speak with a higher up. Customer service asked the toy section team lead to talk with me about “signage more complicated than a price check.”

When I mentioned the signs to the lead, in a friendly manner, the lead apologized to me, stating that the team thought they had taken down all the signs a few months ago, in a move to make the toy section more inviting to all children, and that it would be taken care of shortly. What else did they do, I asked, any mixing of products? The lead said not really. The signage change came at the same time as a seasonal change. How major are these changes? Target will have them move one aisle to another aisle, nothing to major. Target controls everything.

(Note: If you see boy/girl signs, please politely ask the Toy Section Team Lead to take care of it, it sounded like they took down and replace a ton of signs, so give them the benefit of the doubt that they merely missed a sign.)

With the confusion of the two stores, and an indication that Target Headquarters controlled the segregation, I asked my fellow GeekMom writers for their experiences.

The results trouble me:

Jennifer Citrolo:
“In the Target in West Nyack, New York, they’ve taken down the gendered aisle labels—but the Friends and Elves LEGO sets are aisles apart from the City, Star Wars, Creator, Super Heroes, and Ninjago sets. Grrr! Also “character dolls” are all girl (e.g., Bratz); “action figures” is where to find Marvel Superheroes, Star Wars, minifigs.”

Jackie:
“I live in New Jersey and was in Target today. So far the aisles are exactly the same as they were: babies, then “girls,” then “boys.” No signs, just a separation of traditional gender toys. The Lego Friends do have a special piece of the Lego aisle, which is still in the “boy” section. There’s also a Disney Junior section in one of the “girl” aisles. I didn’t notice any toys there from Jake and the Neverland Pirates. It was all Doc McStuffins and Sophia the First. Things like PlayDoh were on the back wall, not separated into these aisles.”

Lisa Hollard Parente:
“In the Target in Paramus, New Jersey, they took the colors down but the “boys” and “girls” signs remain. Also, they kept everything where it was…didn’t mix the Lego or dolls with action figures at all. The ONLY difference is the lack of color on the back of the shelves.”

Karen Walsh of West Hartford, Connecticut, supplied the photos below of her store.

Sarah E. White:
“In Fayetteville, Arkansas, the sign just says building toys instead of girl’s building toys on the Lego aisle, but they are still segregated, in the same way, with other Lego on a different aisle.”

Samantha Fisher:
“Same aisles changed signs, that was all. If I go further to the left than the aisle with Lego friends it is all typical ‘girl’ toys and to the right all typical ‘boy’ toys.  Hilliard-Rome Road Target in Hilliard, Ohio.”

Okay, so across the board, the stores still segregate their toy sections without labeling them, but surely the Target website will be better. After all, removing labels on a website forces the toy sections to be gender neutral. I headed over to their website and saw the following screen capture, segregating the toys into boy toys and girl toys:

Maybe they made a bad marketing decision, I will look at their filters, and found the “gender” filter:

Oh, no, never mind.

Listen, everyone, do what Target says, not what they do. I guess I will go back to Fred Meyer. They maintain a smaller toy section, but they mix it up just enough to make my daughter feels invited into the entire section.

Have you seen a difference in the toy section at Target? Please share how your Target has implemented the gender neutral toy section below. What do you think they can do better?

Dear Target,

You disappoint me.

You disappoint me because half effort hurts more than no effort. You disappoint me because I know you can do better. You recognize the need but fell to understand it.

Please fix this. Hire someone into your company that understands the issue, and can guide you to a better path, one that will help all our children find their true interests. Learn how to set up your aisle to without segregation, not just your endcaps. Fix your website.

Let your actions speak loud and clear on this important issue.