Brendan Bush used to buy just about everything from Bonobos, including his swim trunks and the suit he wore to his wedding.
But about a year ago, he stopped. The clothing company announced it had been acquired by Walmart for $310 million — and Bush hasn’t given it a cent since.
It hasn’t been an easy boycott — he has yet to find a replacement for his Bonobos jeans, which are now covered in holes — but Bush, who works at a technology company in Burlington, Vt., said he will not support a brand that has come under fire for its business practices.
“I don’t like the way they treat their employees or how they’ve put smaller retailers out of business. It’s not a company I want to support,” he said.
As Walmart aggressively buys upscale niche brands, analysts said it’s facing an uphill battle to win over younger, more affluent shoppers across the country. Although traffic at Walmart.com is growing rapidly — 34 percent since last year — the company’s forays into higher-end online brands have been less successful.
Online traffic to Bonobos.com, which Walmart acquired last June, has fallen 12 percent in the past year, according to the most recent data available from ComScore, an analytics comapny based in Reston, Va.
The number of monthly visits to other sites recently bought by Walmart has also fallen from a year ago: They’re down 7 percent at outdoors goods site MooseJaw.com and 8 percent at ModCloth.com, according to ComScore data.
Both brands now also sell on Walmart’s Jet.com.
Walmart, which has become the world’s largest retailer by promising rock-bottom prices, has made sweeping efforts in recent years to move beyond its no-frills image.
It spent $3.3 billion buying Jet.com in late 2016 in hopes of winning over the site’s more affluent, big-city shoppers. It also brought on Jet founder Marc Lore — who previously started Diapers.com and Soap.com — and put him in charge of its online operations.
His pay package last year is $10.1 million.
“If you think about Walmart’s existing market, it’s totally tapped out,” said Paula Rosenblum, managing partner of the retail advisory company RSR Research. “They need to find new customers, which is exactly why they bought a group of chains that don’t have the Walmart name on it.”
Monthly traffic to Jet.com has fallen 15 percent from a year ago and 32 percent since its $3.3 billion takeover by Walmart in September 2016. That measure has long been a way for companies to gauge their reach and visibility.
But analysts say well-to-do 20- and 30-somethings in large cities also tend to be sensitive to Walmart’s business practices. The company has long been a target of labor advocacy groups who say its low wages push some workers to turn to food stamps and other public programs to make ends meet.
Walmart this year raised its starting hourly wage to $11 from $9, but it still lags behind competitors such as Target — where the minimum wage is $12 an hour — and Costco — $13 an hour.
Last year, Walmart rolled back its health coverage for workers at Bonobos, ModCloth and other acquisitions, resulting in higher out-of-pocket premiums and deductibles for workers.
ModCloth’s former chief executive, Matt Kaness, left Walmart in March, seven months after selling his company to the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer.