Target Went All In on D.E.I.; Its Sudden Pullback Has Black Sellers Reeling

Black-owned brands got a foot in the door through accelerator programs at big retailers like Target and Amazon. Now they worry the door might be closing.

Pernell Cezar’s coffee company, BLK & Bold, was operating out of the back of a brewery with three employees when he got his big break: an audience with a buyer at a Target Black History Month expo. By January 2020, bags of his Rise & GRND roast were on Target shelves.

That was five months before the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis incited nationwide protests for racial justice that reverberated throughout corporate America. Suddenly, big retailers were creating programs to help small businesses — and especially Black-owned businesses — get their foot in the door.

In 2021, Amazon started its Black Business Accelerator. Sephora, which had an existing program, refocused it on Black, Indigenous and other founders of color. Target, which is based in Minneapolis, started Forward Founders, and Mr. Cezar helped the retailer develop a curriculum to educate emerging brands about how to get into major retailers.

So Mr. Cezar was disappointed when, on Jan. 24, Target announced that it was concluding its three-year diversity, equity and inclusion goals. Its Supplier Diversity team would be renamed Supplier Engagement. A new banner on the web page for Forward Founders says the program “is evolving.”

Mr. Cezar, who sells his coffee at 1,500 Target locations, said the retailer did not alert suppliers like him before the announcement and had not communicated what the changes might or might not mean for his company. (Reached for comment, Target said there would be no immediate impact on current supplier relationships.)

“It definitely leaves us in a ‘Where do we go from here?’ ” Mr. Cezar said. “Trust isn’t built overnight.”