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econobiker
January 20, 2009 3:34 PM
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Ahahahaha Target getting owned by a TJMaxx comment...


I am actually thinking the nice folks from Target are not used to the urban suburb environment of this area nor the type of customers/employees that it generates.

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morganlh85
January 20, 2009 6:58 PM
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@econobiker: As a person who has lived both in suburban areas of PA and in the city of Detroit for four years, I'm gonna tell it like it is. People in the city, particularly those who work in retail/food service/etc. have bad attitudes. Black, white, purple, or orange.

They have no notion of the concept of customer service. They don't take pride in their jobs. They don't care if their store is dirty or if their customers are satisfied. THEY DON'T GIVE A SHIT. Period. While living in Detroit, I've had retail workers snap at me, roll their eyes at me, talk on their cell phones while \"helping\" me, and other egregious things. Some of them have even been managers. It literally sickens me at times.

So yes, it's true. The type of people who work in the city are different than those who work in the suburbs. Of course there are exceptions, but they are few and far between.

And keep in mind, there have been studies done that show that people are more likely to litter in a place that is already littered upon, and more likely to tag a wall where there are already other tags, etc. etc. I'm sure the same goes for a shopping environment. Customers are more likely to throw their items on the floor when they don't want them if it's clear that the other customers and even the staff don't care if the store is littered with merchandise.

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varro
January 20, 2009 10:40 PM
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@morganlh85: Unless you're talking about the PA state liquor stores - even tony suburban ones have employees with \"I got mine\" attitudes.

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kimsama
January 21, 2009 4:20 AM
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@varro: LOL, I have had exactly the opposite experience for the most part -- the ABC store in the little PA town I grew up in had the friendliest staff. They basically got to know all their customers personally. I went there like maybe once every 2-3 months but they remembered me, held things they thought I might like around the holidays (boxed special sets of my fav bubbly), etc. They were great.

But I did many times go to a totally douchey ABC store near PSU. I'm assuming they were not so friendly because 90% of their clientele were students, so I definitely agree that bad clients = bad service ^_^

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Superawesomerad
January 20, 2009 7:12 PM
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@morganlh85: It LITERALLY sickens, you, huh? If I were a retail worker, I probably wouldn't want to deal with a customer who throws up every time he feels slighted.

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Ash78 ain't got time to bleed
January 20, 2009 4:01 PM
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@econobiker: FWIW, I interpreted \"those kind of people\" as the general \"city attitude\" (gimme gimme now now now screw you i'm in a hurry!)


Same reason many rural Walmarts have nice, friendly, helpful staff and the more urban ones generally suck. Nothing about race at all.

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beboptheflop
January 20, 2009 8:56 PM
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@Ash78:

Um, I don't know what helpful, friendly, rural Wal-Marts you've been to lately, but I can tell you based on first hand experience because I do live in rural Arkansas (against my will) that the Wal-Mart here is filthy and the associates are rude.

In fact, just about every store in my little enclave of America is pretty dirty and the recovery of inventory is pretty sloppy. It was the first thing I noticed when I moved here.

I believe there is a great misconception that only rural America has this undying work ethic that one doesn't find in the big cities.

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SybilDisobedience
January 20, 2009 9:34 PM
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@beboptheflop: Yeah, I gotta weigh in on the rural vs. urban big-box store \"work ethic.\" My mom lives in a small town where Walmart came through a few years ago and drove out all the little stores (but that's a rant for another day). It's horrendous in there - dirty, poorly-stocked, and insanely crowded, due to the store's mysterious policy of only having 2 registers open no matter the time of day.
This is a small town. Like, a REEEALLY small town. The work ethic in the downtown Target I shop at seems to be a lot better - but I wouldn't generalize in that direction, either.

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Gtmac
January 20, 2009 3:57 PM
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@econobiker: Urban suburb? Is that like a Half-double-decaf-half-caf...with a twist of lemon?

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everclear75
January 20, 2009 5:58 PM
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@Gtmac:

Thats a line from Steve Martin.. I can't remember the name of the movie, though..

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zibby
January 20, 2009 4:18 PM
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@Raekwon: The type that will go through a rack of clothing and toss what they don't want on the floor. The type that will put their \"tag\" on merchandise. The type that will open a package of Chips Ahoy, eat a few, and leave the rest on the shelf - you know, pigs. Anyhow, I don't go to this Target as often as I used to, but it hasn't improved.


Macy's down the street is pretty lousy too, but the employees do seem marginally better at keeping up.

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Raekwon
January 20, 2009 3:47 PM
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@econobiker: And what type of people would those be?

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Canino
January 20, 2009 3:52 PM
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@Raekwon: And what type of people would those be?


The type who leave their Starbucks cups on store shelves for employees to throw away...at least that's what I get from the video.

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Katxyz
January 20, 2009 5:10 PM
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@zibby:

If it weren't for the staff, most retail stores would end up exactly like this within 48 hours. The \"someone else will clean this up\" attitude. is present at practically every place I have ever worked or shopped at.

Yet every time I point out, politely, to a friend or family member they're being messy or rude by putting items on a totally different shelf or leaving spilled food on a table, they act as if since it's the employees job to clean up, it's their job to make a mess.

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zibby
January 20, 2009 5:37 PM
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@Katxyz: Oh, I'm aware that there are slobs everywhere - but this Target seems to draw slobs that are particularly aggressive about it. It's almost like they want to destroy the place. I realize my observations are in no way scientific, but I've never seen the like.

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Katxyz
January 20, 2009 5:05 PM
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@Canino:

Last time I went to my (suburban, Southern Virginia) Target, I saw a total of 6 Starbucks cups on shelves throughout the store! They were every where. The rest of the store is very well taken care of, but apparently people are kindergartners who can't handle having snacks available at the new Starbucks in the store.

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idip
January 20, 2009 3:47 PM
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Product can not be pushed to the floor if employees are helping people. Do you know how long it takes to go through an aisle that has been torn apart to make it all pretty again?


It takes FOREVER! Especially when people start asking you questions and act like you're their personal shopper.


I'm not saying that is a valid excuse for having empty shelves. But in one of the busiest Targets in the nation, this is what happens.


Why should Target be embarrasesed? Empty shevles means they have sold product. Granted if they were always full they could make more money but apparently they are doing well enough.


I'll still shop at Target, nothing beats not having to listen to Christmas music on Halloween *cough*Walmart*cough*.

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Andrew
January 24, 2009 10:40 PM
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@idip: I worked at the Target in Westbury, which was frequently #2 in the country in sales, and it was never anything like this.

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SybilDisobedience
January 20, 2009 9:36 PM
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@idip: I just wanna weigh in and say that empty shelves don't necessarily mean that product is briskly moving off those shelves. It just means that whoever's supposed to be going through with the ordering RF gun and scanning the barcodes in the empty spots isn't doing their job. And even if they are, the stockers aren't putting anything they're ordering on the shelves.

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Mary
January 20, 2009 6:49 PM
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@idip: I'm sure other people have said it, but I repeated it so often to my management when I was in retail that I have to repeat it again here:

If your problem is that you're so busy helping customers that you can't restock, then you need to hire more employees. Because the fact is your lack of restocking ISN'T HELPING CUSTOMERS. It's like you're looking them in the face and saying nice things, but then behind their back somebody is about to steal their wallet and you're just ignoring it.

There is no excuse. Ever. For brief periods of time at Christmas if there's a rush you didn't expect. But if you can't get the right amount of employees and get them to do their jobs properly and make the store look nice, then who cares if you're actually assisting anybody when they walk in the door? Your sales will drop, people will not like to shop there, and your store's reputation will plummet. On top of all that, you'll deserve it.

I quit my job that treated it's store and it's customers like that. I couldn't stomach it anymore.

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boomersix
January 20, 2009 4:42 PM
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@idip: You don't wait for an aisle to be \"completely torn apart\". You straighten it throughout the day. I worked retail 3 years and NEVER did my dept look anything like this. An aisle thats \"completely torn apart\" got that way because it was ignored for an extended period of time.

This also goes to employees being unavailable. They obviously arent around enough to straighten up, much less help a customer.

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bananaballs
January 20, 2009 4:40 PM
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@idip: How do you explain no product on the floor AND no employees helping anyone? Because that's exactly what goes down at that Target.


Target has much to be embarrased about when it comes to that store. That video isn't really exaggerating.

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Rectilinear Propagation
January 20, 2009 4:19 PM
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@idip: If they're doing so well, why don't they hire more people? It seems like the problems at this store could be solved if they hired more cashiers and people to move stock. Give the stock people permission to tell customers that they're unable to help them since they're not floor staff.

They should be embarrassed that this store is kept in such poor condition and people have to resort to going to the pharmacy to check out. You do not want your customers to give up when trying to buy something from you.

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Outrun1986
January 20, 2009 5:17 PM
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@Rectilinear Propagation: That may not be a solution if the employees are doing their job improperly and goofing off. They may have enough staff, but perhaps the staff they have aren't doing their jobs. Maybe its extremely difficult to find competent retail employees in that area. Do any other retail stores in the area look the same, or is it just Target? If its just Target and the other stores are normal then it is a problem with Target, if every store in that area is the same, then its the people living there.

It probably DOES take forever to straighten an aisle, it can probably only take 2-5 min for a couple of kids to ransack a department when the employees are away, so even keeping up with the department would not be a solution in this case if it was constantly being barraged by unsupervised children.

If your a floor worker in retail your time stacking the shelves is limited too, at the store I worked at you could be called to the register every 5 min to ring if they needed extra help or the lines were so many people long. You are not only a floor worker when working retail, you can be summoned for other jobs as well.

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bananaballs
January 20, 2009 5:49 PM
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@Outrun1986: Are you kidding? This is Target, not a boutique or even a department store. Cashiers are behind the register, salesmen are on the floor, and everyone's job is relegated. Please.

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d8uv
January 20, 2009 6:48 PM
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@bananaballs aka the urban juror: Unless, in the case of the Fred Meyer I used to work at, they don't hire enough people to run the store. Which means too few cashiers, which means long lines at checkout, which makes the Store Manager pissy. Which makes him call on the other managers and cashier-trained employees to walk out and help get people out of the door.

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GirlCat
January 20, 2009 3:58 PM
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It is a filthy fucking hole--I never shop there even though I love Target and it's very convenient. Target SHOULD be embarrassed when ANY of their stores represent them so poorly. And as for the racist/classist \"those kind of people\" comment: Why is it that Bed Bath and Beyond, which draws its employees from the same labor pool as the Brooklyn Target, has polite and helpful workers? It's the Brooklyn Target's shitty management that's the problem, not the customers and not the staff.

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karmaghost
January 20, 2009 6:23 PM
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@GirlCat: I agree; management is totally to blame here. How management treats the people under them influences how they treat the merchandise and the customers, and when you don't respect the customers, they won't respect your store and your merchandise. It's a vicious circle.

I see it all the time; where I work, people are treated quite well by management and it shows in the customers. I often see customers drop or break things in the isle and then immediately pick them up or report the breakage to an employee. In places like Wal-Mart, even the \"nice\" one we have across town, in similar situations, customers will just leave things on the floor, keep broken items unreported, and place perishable items in places where they'll \"spoil\" in a matter of minutes. Yes, this does happen in all grocery stores, but you can minimize it by treating everybody involved properly.

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zibby
January 20, 2009 7:08 PM
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@DanteDiablo: Is it ok if I just take your word for that?

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zibby
January 20, 2009 7:06 PM
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@karmaghost: I guess I'm getting old in my 30s. If I'm paid to do a job I do it, and I don't ruin other peoples' property because...it's wrong. Having my ass kissed (or not) really has nothing to do with it.

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karmaghost
January 21, 2009 1:40 PM
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@zibby: Because you're a completely reasonable person and there's lots of people like yourself. But a lot of people aren't, unfortunately, and while they might not go out of their way to make things a mess, they also won't go out of their way to right a wrong if it's their fault. Treating employees and customers properly reduces the chances you're going to get people mistreating merchandise. This is proven policy, I'm not making this shit up.

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zibby
January 20, 2009 4:24 PM
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@GirlCat: Sorry, I must disagree - and since you \"never\" shop there I consider myself a bit more qualified to judge. I'm sure management is no prize, but the most of the customers and most of the staff at this location certainly do more than their share to make it a crappy shopping experience.

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Sarah Black
January 20, 2009 4:04 PM
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@GirlCat: Just as Walmart draws a particular type of shopper, so does Bed Bath and Beyond. And so does KFC vs Nordstroms vs Porche vs Taco Bell.

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chatterboxwriting
January 20, 2009 4:09 PM
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I used to work on Bergen St. and had to go to the Atlantic Ave. subway station to go home, so sometimes I would stop at Target. I had just moved to NYC from a PA suburb, so the rudeness of the employees absolutely shocked me. The cashier I encountered was so nasty that I ended up leaving my stuff there and telling the manager why I wouldn't be buying from them. Plus, it does look like a shithole, holidays or not. I used to go there in June and it would look the same way.

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bellsandasiren
January 20, 2009 7:24 PM
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@chatterboxwriting: Definitely; I was there last October, trying to track down a birthday gift for a friend, and it looked even worse than this -- clothes racks lying on the ground, damaged merchandise (gee, wonder how it got that way) piled up on the floor, empty shelves ... and lots of people just trying to get their necessary items and get out while the rude, untrained staff loitered around and ignored us. It sucked, and I'll never go back even though I could really use a lot of Target items. That's what the internet is for.

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Anonymous
January 20, 2009 4:09 PM
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That Target looks like Afghanistan...bombed out and depleted.

Seriously, this reminds me of those news reports about stores in communist countries. You know, the ones where the only product available was razor blades.

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richcreamerybutter
January 20, 2009 9:19 PM
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@SamuelApplesauce: Many years ago when K-mart first opened its doors at the Astor location, it managed to maintain the giant chain store sparkle for about 6 weeks. To my recollection, this was the first experiment of an easily-accessible, reasonably-priced chain in Manhattan and the parts of Brooklyn and Queens closest to the city. Basically, it targeted those of us without automobiles.

Here are the steps to NYC retail Afghanistanification:

1. Women's bathroom door is suddenly replaced with plywood and duct tape.
2. Selection is cut in half; while maintaining old shelf tags, depleted inventory is simply replaced with extra neighboring product (which is why you will see an entire row of Tide With Bleach).
3. Constant foul smell seeps in from one corner of a floor.
4. Rodents gleefully and brazenly frolic among the nutrition bars.
5. Escalators continually out of service; skidmarked pair of tighty-whities is inexplicably caught in top stair of \"up\" side.
6. The length of the fingernails becomes inversely proportional to the help you will receive.
7. Male pharmacist shrugs when out of your birth control pill prescription...says to come back tomorrow and, \"it's not the end of the world if you miss a day\" (this actually happened to me).
8. There are registers you have never seen in operation, and never will.
9. Feminine products suddenly abut bountiful bait & tackle section.
10. DVD section consists of only \"Everybody Loves Raymond\" and Goldie Hawn movies.

(feel free to add)

My biggest fear for this Brooklyn Target is that the Boots products will suddenly go away.

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karmaghost
January 20, 2009 6:24 PM
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@SamuelApplesauce: Fun fact: razors are the most shoplifted item in grocery stores.

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ImeldaAmphilochus
January 20, 2009 4:09 PM
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\"Worst Target\"? But New Yorkers are always going on about how they have the best of everything. How could this be?

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bluewyvern
January 20, 2009 9:19 PM
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@ImeldaAmphilochus: It's in Brooklyn?

I am disgusted by that place. I used to stop there on my way home from work, but I quit when I could never actually successfully buy anything. Now I just get what I can from Amazon, and sometimes Target.com.

I will say one thing for that store -- sure makes it easy not to impulse shop!

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Rojma
January 20, 2009 4:17 PM
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Hey it looks like your typical Wal-Mart!

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Jesse
January 20, 2009 4:38 PM
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I'm surprised Target doesn't use some form of computer assisted ordering that pushes product out when the inventory runs low.

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calacak
January 20, 2009 5:13 PM
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@Jesse:

They do, all big-box stores have them. In fact, the systems are advanced enough that they PREDICT sales and send product anyway.

This is just an example of horrible, horrible management. Not only should the entire management staff be fired here, the district manager should be fired as well.

No store should ever look like this.

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SJActress
January 21, 2009 6:21 AM
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@calacak:

I just wanted to add that it absolutely HAS to be horrible management. I worked in the back room (Database Manager) for an independent music store that had ONE buyer.

ONE. FOR THE ENTIRE STORE.

We did not have any automatic systems AT ALL. The buyer had to look at EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF PRODUCT and determine whether to buy more or not. Granted, there were codes in the database (thanks to yours truly) to determine whether it was a \"new\" selection or not, so he'd know which group of selections to research first, but it was still done MANUALLY.

To be fair, it's an independent store...but with millions of CD titles, DVD titles, and ENDLESS rental DVD/VHS product, we managed to keep everything in stock during a music industry \"epidemic\" (mp3/DVD torrents/VHS dying and all). And we had 10 times the selection of any big box you can think of.

During all of this, raises were terminated. The company couldn't afford them anymore (special note: the company shut down for a year, only to be re-opened by a new owner, and has succeeded GREATLY for over two years now).

How could this Target possibly FAIL? They get automatic raises and the option of insurance (albeit too expensive to pay for with the salaries they offer).

I don't get it.

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sleze69
January 20, 2009 4:56 PM
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How does this Target make money? Shouldn't the bottom line have more of an impact (with people's inability to buy things) more than a viral video? Is Target forced to have this store in order to also have one in Manhatten or something?

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bellsandasiren
January 20, 2009 7:27 PM
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@sleze69: There is no Target in Manhattan. There's one in Riverdale, in the Bronx, which is basically a paradise compared to the Atlantic Ave Target.

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acrobatic rabbit
January 20, 2009 4:59 PM
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wow. that's pretty bad. Target seriously needs to do some damage control.

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acrobatic rabbit
January 20, 2009 4:59 PM
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TJ Maxx looks better than this!

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Outrun1986
January 20, 2009 5:25 PM
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Amazingly this looks a lot like the Kohls store near me, the clothes in a pile DEFINITELY ring a bell for me, as pretty much every pile-rack looks like that at all times.

But its kind of the reverse of this video, that Kohls store is so packed with merchandise that its very difficult to even navigate between the racks (since there is no space to walk) to find something you want. Its so cluttered and packed with merchandise that you can't even look to find your size if you wanted to, because the clothes are piled to the top of the rack or packed on the hangers so tightly that you can't even move them to look at them. The amount of product they have is just overwhelming, in a bad way.

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ribex
January 20, 2009 6:38 PM
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@Outrun1986: Wow, that sounds like a Kohls I recall shopping at (and being thoroughly disgusted by) in Delaware County, PA. I can't remember exactly where the store was, but this goes back probably 6-7 years now. That store was freaking embarrassing.

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Outrun1986
January 20, 2009 11:20 PM
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@ribex: When you see THAT many clothes in one store, trust me, they all start to look alike. Not to mention they are ill-organized, so you can't find what your looking for easily and have to rummage through several piles just to find one pair of jeans in your size. You can't just pluck a clearly labeled pair off a rack like you can in most other stores. When it all starts to look alike then you have no motivation to even try to shop there. My local thrift store is more organized than this! Shopping at a store like this is more like work than actual shopping, might as well just get a job there and get paid for your time, it will be 3 hours before you find something you want to try on anyways. I am a girl and I like to shop and shop for things like clothes too, but not in that store.

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Anonymous
January 20, 2009 5:32 PM
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Whoa, wait a second! Do you think employees left those coffee cups on the shelves? And as for all th ecrap left all over the place? True the employees are not picking up after the ANIMALS who shop there, but that is a BIG part of the problem at that store- the \"customers\" treat it as if it's their subsidized housing- they act like animals and leave their detritus all over.

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Anonymous
January 20, 2009 6:01 PM
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As someone who (unenthusiastically) patronizes the Atlantic Center Target, I can assure you it is indeed the worst Target in the nation. It always looks like a bomb just went off, and it frequently is out of stock on, well, many, many things. The lines are heinously long and the employees are (for the most part) completely apathetic. It's never a pleasant shopping experience. Target should be ashamed of this store. And yes, it is like that all year round.

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P_Smith
January 20, 2009 6:16 PM
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Anybody wanna bet that Target head office is just going to abandon the store, close the doors without notice and not paying back rent or wages?

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SJActress
January 21, 2009 6:26 AM
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@P_Smith:

I'll take that bet. NYC has over one trazillion katrillion people in it, and Target knows demand won't cease. It's unfortunate, really. They're a big brand, so they have no need to fix this store; the other million stores make up for it.

Mom and Pops may be slightly more expensive, but at least you know they depend on your business, and won't be around much longer if they suck.

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karmaghost
January 20, 2009 6:26 PM
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This baffles me. Management is obviously not doing their job here. I can only imagine that some sort of regional manager has not visited this store as there's no way this Target would look like it does if they were holding people accountable for their job responsibilities.

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richcreamerybutter
January 20, 2009 9:23 PM
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@karmaghost: I've worked with some Target Mothership managers on a few projects, and they are extraordinarily particular about the finished products. This is why such mismanagement is extremely baffling.

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JiminyChristmas
January 20, 2009 6:32 PM
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I shopped for many years at a Target store in Minneapolis we affectionately referred to as Targhetto. The product selection was not quite as good as most other stores and the parking lot could be a little frightening, but it was otherwise a typical Target. Not on its worst day did it look anything like this store in Brooklyn.


There's no question in my mind this store has a management problem. Any business that runs on a low-wage, low-skill, high-turnover staff needs very active management and training. Yes it's depressing, but plenty of people don't learn how to be courteous, helpful, and industrious at home. Nonetheless, people can be taught to manage their time and interact with the public in a decent manner. Obviously, no one running this store is trying that hard.

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kexline
January 21, 2009 7:45 PM
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@JiminyChristmas: The second Target built inside the city of Atlanta is in what is euphemistically called an \"up-and-coming\" neighborhood. It feels like a Wal-Mart with its icky lighting and narrow aisles, but it's always reasonably clean and orderly. Nothing like what's shown in that video, anyway.

And the first Atlanta target, in a swank retail/business area, is a freakin' wonderland by any measure.

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ElizabethD
January 20, 2009 9:36 PM
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@JiminyChristmas:

I'm embarrassed to admit that I laughed at \"Targhetto.\" Clever and so wrong!

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DanteDiablo
January 20, 2009 6:33 PM
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Take a trip up the 1 train up to 225th street to the Marble Hill Target sometime. It's strikingly similar.

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zibby
January 21, 2009 2:37 PM
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@karmaghost: I don't know. Maybe you're right - but the bar of conduct is pretty damn low at this place and the so many of the people pretty damned unreasonable. Hey, maybe it's fabulously profitable in its current form and there's just no pressure to do better.

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morganlh85
January 20, 2009 6:49 PM
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I wonder if Target has an official comment?

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Michael Ortega
January 20, 2009 6:52 PM
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Almost everyone has one of \"those\" stores in their area. I have a Walmart in my area that is like that. Just don't shop there.

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Anonymous
January 20, 2009 6:55 PM
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I've been beating up on Tarbutt for 3 1/2 yrs now with my blogs, I even got sued by them for 23 months before the case was tossed out this past July. Yet this bunch continues to amaze me with just how bad a firm they really are. http://targetfiling.blogspot.com

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katinka
January 20, 2009 6:56 PM
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Does anyone remember when this store opened in 2004 and there was a huge grand opening only for celebrities? What happened?

[gawker.com]

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HogwartsAlum
January 20, 2009 8:08 PM
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@katinka:

I saw Maggie Gyllenhaal and Sandra Bernhardt. No one else I recognized.

The store looks much better there.

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Awjvail
February 3, 2010 12:59 PM
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Chloe Sevigny won a Golden Globe last month for best supporting actress

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econobiker
January 20, 2009 8:54 PM
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@HogwartsAlum: I think that pr goober Lizzy Grubman (sp) was the anorexic blond in the white shirt. I think I only know that because of the infamous accident when she reversed her lux suv over some people at the Hamptons or somewhere similar.


Anyone read the description of someone attending it? Practically reads like a fortune teller forseeing the future:


\"As one attendee, pictured below, put it:


I use the terms \"this is surreal\" and \"I hate hipsters\" and \"there's no way this could be happening\" every day but then last night at Target it became clear that all the other times I said it and didn't mean it it was just practice for this singularly bizarre event.


Three news outlets interviewed me because I was accidentally wearing my 'defend brooklyn' shirt which is about police brutality but aparently it was read as an anti-gentrification statement despite the fact that I was buying discount catfood at an invite-only target night and so many levels of irony were torn through that I think I just came out a happy consumer. Men in red eyeshadow and girls with Robert Smith hair - they've never been to Atlantic Center! I'm not fooled - and doing shots of tequila? That's not going to work out in the end. And then what I was more ashamed of myself was how sad I was that in two weeks, once this joint is open to masses of brooklyn trash who make Pathmark unusable, I will never again be able to admire the rows and rows of blue greeting cards and purchase them with matching envelopes or peruse the aisles of Gatorade without witnessing parents beat their children in the middle and the dirty sick part of me just wants Target to stay exactly like it was last night.\"

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HogwartsAlum
January 20, 2009 10:41 PM
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@econobiker:

Omg how did they know????

*sarcasm*

I've never heard of Lizzy Grubman. Who the hell is that?!

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katinka
January 20, 2009 11:38 PM
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@HogwartsAlum:

[en.wikipedia.org]

I feel happy that you have never heard of her, thanks!

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HogwartsAlum
January 21, 2009 9:38 PM
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@katinka:

Yikes, the SUV incident.

She's kind of a bee-yotch.

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Evan Dashevsky
January 20, 2009 7:47 PM
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A terrible, terrible place. Good thing there's another Target in Brooklyn (near Brooklyn College) that is a subway or express bus away. Takes a bit longer to get there from Western/Southern Brooklyn but sooooo worth it.

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BeThisWay
January 20, 2009 7:48 PM
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I'm not saying this Target isn't a hole, because I've not been there.

The things depicted in this video are not so egregious, really. It's very common for the after-holiday 75% off sales to make the seasonal area look like the aftermath of a nuclear disaster.

And empty shelves are not a surprise for many businesses in January, as companies like to deplete their on-hand inventory to make their fiscal year-end numbers better. Many companies do inventory in January, and the less there is the better.

Just sayin'.

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Gustastic
January 21, 2009 1:59 AM
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@BeThisWay: No, I live five stops away from this Target and it really does suck that much, 100% of the time. I rarely go there because the lines are long enough to drive a saint to drink.

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WalrusTaco
January 20, 2009 7:59 PM
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It's not really the condition of the place, but what a contrast it is to other Targets that make it so discomforting. You WILL see a group of employees hanging around, talking trash and cursing, but that's pretty much the whole mall there. The Queens Center Target isn't much better... but let me say that I HAVE met great employees at the BK Target and gotten great service just as often as I say WTF just happened after I made a purchase there.

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parad0x360
January 20, 2009 9:31 PM
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If Target wants to give me a raise I'll transfer there and fix that place right up.

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creative differences
January 20, 2009 9:50 PM
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i used to wish i had target stores in canada. not so much anymore.

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theodicey
January 20, 2009 10:38 PM
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@econobiker:

Whether employees are responsible depends partly on management, culture, etc.-- but also on whether there are any better jobs available for responsible people than retail stocking.

In NYC there are millions of jobs available within a subway ride from anywhere. Target seems to be hiring the absolute worst tier of employees -- maybe that's what's available.

In a rural area with a terrible economy, Walmart can afford to screw^H^H^H^H^Hhire the best employees around.

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kingdom2000
January 21, 2009 12:35 AM
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I love Target. I am aware of four in my area, use them all at various times both before and after Christmas and none come even close to that disaster area. Some sections are still depleted but nothing on that scale. The lines to get out are rarely long, usually have plenty of registers open, etc. Basically every complaint I have about Wal-Mart are complaints I don't have about Target (all four of em). That consistently could be the area but more then likely they just have better managers (and district managers) who hire better employees.


It starts at the top even though I know corporate America loathes to think that managers are at fault for anything. They need to clean house there by starting with the entire management team. Rather then accept excuses they just need to make harsh examples and go from there. Bring in help from other stores (for OT of course), get the stores righted under a new management team and go from there. Might also want to increase wages so get better employees but management is the starting point.

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Brad Riley
January 21, 2009 12:59 AM
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I could have cared less what the Target store I worked at looked like after Christmas.
All those rude guests and minimal pay to clean up after them.
Our leads gained MEGA points with us when they let us leave when the store was zoned but abandoned was no where near being taken care of. We had like 10 carts of it one night at like 1 AM, and they just said, go home!

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nicemarmot617
January 21, 2009 2:39 AM
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Having lived in New York, LA and the suburban midwest, there are Targhettoes everywhere, but nowhere are they worse than the NYC area. The low-end retail situation here is really awful. I live in lower Manhattan and the Gristedes grocery store near my former apartment - you couldn't even shop there. There was rotting fish in the fish cases and expired merchandise everywhere. It smelled extremely strong, even from the outside.

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twophrasebark
January 21, 2009 4:18 AM
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What is your obsession with this Target, Ben?

This is just all starting to sound like the entitled whining chorus of people who once would have lived in Manhattan but heard Brooklyn was cool about 10 years late and then moved here and just complain all-the-time about stuff.

Ugh! Stop already. Or at least ask Target for a response. I personally suspect that the problem is they have about 10 times more traffic than other Targets in a footprint about 1/4 of the size of their average store.

But I mean, give it a break! Video footage?

We get it. You don't like this Target. Jeez.

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ekthesy
January 21, 2009 4:27 PM
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dn't s nythng wrng hr. Ths Trgt s smply th qvlnt f Th Wnr's Crcl n Chcg.

[www.rdfd.cm]

(Dn't rdr th chclt mlkshk.)

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urabl
January 20, 2009 7:27 PM
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@ekthesy: Someone in front of us got convinced to order the chocolate milkshake the one time I was there - the look on his face when he got his order was priceless.

We were cracking up for days about how they yelled at everyone for tips. It's a weird place, but hilarious.

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ScottRose
January 22, 2009 6:44 PM
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I get that the Target store is terrible.

But the \"documentary\" (or whatever you'd want to call that video) is worse.

It's hard to take a consumer advocate video seriously when the title of the group has the word \"fucked\" in it, and the sound track has the word \"nigger\" in it.

The \"artsy\" (I can only assume that they were attempting to be artistic) editing makes their claims seem questionable. As if they're trying to mislead, even if I give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that they're not.

My point is, I'd give this debate to Target.

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