It’s not your imagination: You can’t find these items at Target—and for good reason
9 Things Target Will Never Sell Again
Is there anything you can’t find at Target? From top-tier groceries to stylish clothing and trendy home furnishings, it’s hard to shop at Target without coming home with, let’s admit, way more than you initially stepped foot inside the store for. We’re all guilty of running in for one thing and coming out with a cartful of other stuff, and that’s exactly the point: Target has all sorts of ways to get you to spend more money. But even for the store that has everything, some items at Target just don’t make the cut.
Reader’s Digest scoured the shelves to find out which products Target doesn’t sell anymore. Whether they were controversial, dangerous or just not on-target, here are nine once-popular products that have gotten the boot. That’s right: You’ll never find these items at Target ever again.
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1. CloudPets
Lots of smart tech products have been subject to data breaches. That’s just the world we live in now. But after more than 800,000 of these cuddly connected stuffed animals were brought online in 2017, data from these toys was housed in an unexposed server that was easily hacked—exposing usernames, passwords, kids’ names, audio recordings and other sensitive information.
Even worse, it was easy for strangers to access and send messages to a CloudPet—leaving kids open to getting some scary or upsetting messages from their toys. Target and Walmart quickly dumped the toys from their shelves, and the company that created them has since gone out of business.
2. Sandblasted jeans
Fashionistas love denim with a lived-in look—and for decades sandblasting was a common method used to achieve the style. But research has shown that the use of high-pressure sand machines to distress jeans and other clothing left workers with an incurable and deadly lung disease called silicosis, especially if they weren’t provided with proper personal protective gear.
As a result, Target and other retailers banned the jeans from their shelves. Today, many clothing manufacturers use safer techniques to soften and distress their denim offerings.
3. Humanist pillows
Ethicists around the country went crazy for these charming cross-stitched pillows when they suddenly appeared on Target store shelves in 2019, and many scooped up and showed off the lumbar pillows on social media. But just as quickly as they arrived, these Target items mysteriously disappeared from stores and online, with dozens of orders inexplicably canceled.
When disappointed humanists contacted customer service to find out more, they were only told that “customer feedback” led to these pillows being pulled from the company’s product line. The reason behind this disappearing item at Target remains a mystery.
4. Separate boys’ or girls’ toys
Target used to separate toys using pink and blue signage and other gendered means. (Where did they put the Legos?) But today, you can peruse the toy aisles at your local Target and just see kids’ toys, not boys’ or girls’ sections. This might sound like a no-brainer now, but before Target made the change in 2015, gender-specific delineations were standard.
The change came about when parents took to social media to point out the ridiculousness of having “building sets” separated from “girls’ building sets.” Target realized that separating toys this way discouraged kids from picking toys that they might enjoy, and combined the sections together.
5. Guns and realistic toy guns
Target stopped selling real guns very early in its existence—way back in the 1980s. But the retailer still sold toy guns that looked real until the 1990s, when there were two separate incidents of police shooting children who were playing with toy weapons. After that, the only guns you could buy at Target were colorful water guns and Nerf guns—and that’s still true today.
6. Archer Farms products
Do you remember this one? Target officially phased out its in-store food and beverage brand, Archer Farms, back in 2020. Nowadays we’re all used to Good & Gather, which was launched to streamline and simplify their product offerings, according to a Target press release at the time.
Whatever product line you prefer, Target certainly upped the cachet of in-store brands, which used to be called “generics” and tasted about as good. Target’s Archer Farms may be missed, but you can still find many of your favorites like Monster Trail Mix, roasted nuts, coffee, pasta and hundreds of other products under the Good & Gather branding.
7. Mossimo clothing
You haven’t been able to buy Mossimo clothing at Target since 2017, when Target opted to part ways with designer Mossimo Giannulli in favor of showcasing smaller and more targeted fashion lines in their stores. (Another Target brand, Merona, bit the dust around the same time.)
If you’re still holding out for a comeback, it’s probably time to give up that dream. After Giannulli and his wife, Lori Loughlin, went to prison for paying $500,000 to a recruiter in that famous college-admissions scandal, it seems unlikely that Target will renew its partnership with the disgraced designer.
8. Paula Deen cookware
Here’s another famous person who had their product line pulled from Target shelves. The Southern chef’s line of affordable cookware was once a popular pick at Target, but in 2013, when Deen admitted during a deposition to using racist language, the store severed all ties with her.
9. Cigarettes
Target made headlines when it became one of the first major retailers to stop selling cigarettes back in 1996. While the decision may have helped the health of their shoppers, the company cited the expense of keeping up with regulations to prevent teen smoking as the reason behind the move. And even modern methods of getting your nicotine fix won’t fly—vaping fans won’t find Juul or other e-cigarette options at the retailer, either.
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Sources:
- HuffPost: “If You Have One Of These Toys In Your House, You May Want To Stop Using It”
- Los Angeles Times: “Target says it will stop selling sandblasted denim by year’s end”
- New York Times: “Target, Unhappy With Being an Amazon Showroom, Will Stop Selling Kindles”
- Atlantic: “Target Won’t Actually Say Anything If You Bring a Gun Into Their Store”
- TIME: “Target Will Stop Separating ‘Girls’ Toys From ‘Boys’ Toys in Stores”
- Target: “Target Unveils Good & Gather: New Flagship Owned Brand Featuring High-Quality, Great-Tasting and Affordable Food and Beverage Products”
- Fox Business: “Target distances itself from Mossimo label amid college admissions scandal”
- Eater: “Paula Deen’s Endorsement Deals: Who’s In & Who’s Out”
- New York Times: “Target Chain, Citing Costs, to Stop Selling Cigarettes”
