I had to go into Target TWICE recently, and both times I was super annoyed. I think to the point that it is no longer fun to go there. I will continue to use the option where someone brings my purchases out to my car, because sometimes Target is the best place to procure certain items. But I no longer enjoy shopping IN Target.
First, the shelves are so intermittently empty that I get that Early Pandemic panicky feeling in my chest. I went in well before Valentine’s Day – well, a week before, which seems like it should be fine – and the Valentine’s Day section appeared to have been looted by mauraders. It was a mixture of chaos and empty boxes. I found a giant Hershey’s kiss for Carla and a pink bath bomb and that was IT.
Well. I also found a whole section of Easter candy, which makes zero sense. But they had a large stack of Reese’s peanut butter eggs – the best candy – so I bought myself two boxes. I was there for VALENTINE’S DAY loot though, so I remained unmollified. Plus, I now have to go to a separate candy store (barf), inside the mall (extra barf), to get something for my husband.
Second, the Valentine’s Day card selection made me grumpy. Perhaps this is less a Target-grouse than a card-designer/producer grouse, or maybe even an It’s-2020-Yet-Everything-Is-Still-So-Gengered grouse, but a) it happened AT Target and b) I do have more Target-centric grousing to do, so I don’t want to interrupt the flow of my Target-directed irritation.
Carla loves dinosaurs, and dinosaurs are a Very Common Kid Passion, so it seems reasonable to expect that there would be dinosaur-themed Valentine’s Day cards. And you would be right! But they were directed at boys. Because only boys like dinosaurs.
Except for this one, which was gender-neutral. And also $8.99. I am not going to pay nearly TEN (10) U.S. dollars for a single-use card, no thank you. It is hard enough to choke down the normal $4.99 price tag, which I do only because I love cards so much.
I know – I KNOW – that you can’t expect there to be something for everyone. You can’t. It’s not possible. But… maybe there could fewer gendered things?
I bought a card. And altered it slightly, for Carla.
Back to the Target-specific grousing.
I know I have grumbled about this before. Target often – I am saying often, because it happens almost every single time I go to Target – has discrepancies between the price listed on the shelf and the price that rings up at the register. HOWEVER, it is nearly impossible to discover the discrepancies because it is impossible to read the register as the checker rings up your items. I am willing to give Target the benefit of the doubt. It is a big corporation, and errors happen. Plus, maybe there is a big price difference to the company between ordering computers that show the prices only to the checker and computers that show the prices to the customer as well. I don’t know. But the two issues added together make me feel like Target is trying to pull one over on me.
What I have begun to do is take pictures of things on the shelf. If they are on sale, and I am buying them purely to get the sale price, I take a picture. If there is a discrepancy between the price on the shelf and the price in the app, I take a picture. And then I try very hard to squint at the computer screen during check out.
It is too far away and the font is too small to see, though! I got right up in there this last time, right up in there, and then backed away because I felt like I was intruding upon the checker’s plexiglass-enclosed space. So I had to ask the checker to doublecheck the price of the items I was concerned about. One of them was fine, but the other rang up for a dollar more than it was supposed to, so I showed the checker my photo, and they reduced the price.
I realized that I sound more than slightly unhinged, here, hawk-watching over the computer just to prevent Target from getting even one dollar extra from my clenched fists. But it makes me really mad.
The last time I posted about this, I wrote a frustrated email to Target about my experience. I got a response, too, from someone at my local Target:
Hi Suzanne,
My name is NAME, and I’m the Service and Engagement ETL at the CITY Target store. Thank you for sharing your experience. I sincerely appreciate your feedback about the checkout process at Target stores. We never want guests to feel like they are being taken advantage of or that Target is hiding anything. Our checkout advocates are here to help so they can relay the prices as they ring up for you. If there is a discrepancy they can get a price check and change the price for you as well. Also, if there is ever a need we can retroactively make price adjustments at Guest Service for you as well. I will share your feedback with my immediate boss so that it can be directed to the appropriate channels.
I want to make this right both for you and for all Target guests in the future. If you’re open to further discussing how we might do that, please reply to this email. You are also welcome to call me at NUMBER.
What a very nice and sincere-sounding email, right?! I mean, no way am I going to ask the poor checker to read every single price as it rings up, which seems to be what this nice person is suggesting. And also, I am overlooking the fact that this person does not seem to understand that it is next to impossible to identify a discrepancy in the moment. And you KNOW I am wary of price adjustments based on prior experience. But it was a good start, I think.
I haven’t yet responded, because I didn’t know what to say. But now I know. I have a SOLUTION. My solution is that they should increase the font on their computer monitors. And maybe – although perhaps this is asking too much – they could angle the computer monitors toward the customer.
I am not asking for their prices to be accurate. I am not asking for their prices to match, between shelf and app and register. I am not asking for them in install new monitors at the credit card machines, or replace the credit card machines with machines that list the prices as the checker rings up each item, or even to figure out some way to show the total you are about to pay ON the credit card machine! No. I am simply suggesting that they increase the font, so that a non-eagle can see it while standing near the checkout.
What do you think? Is this a good plan?
Or perhaps I should simply… not set foot in Target. Probably that’s the best choice.
Just this week, I went to Target and thought to myself “…This isn’t fun anymore.” Part of it for me is that masks are required, and there is someone checking as you come into the store—but then some customers are taking off their masks once they’re past that checkpoint, and that is making me so angry I almost can’t function. Then there are the same things you’ve mentioned: the stripped shelves, the pandemic feelings, the new register set-up. Plus, I’ve been noticing that the sales for pick-up only, which I’d been taking as evidence that Target still WANTED me to do pick-up, are sometimes not as good as the sales in the store. This makes me feel twitchy, and like I have to now compare everything (the price online for shipping, the price online for pick-up, the actual prices in the store) and then place three separate orders to maximize my savings. Oh, and so many “buy 4, get a $5 gift card” for things I want one of, mayyyybe two of. I realize I don’t have to buy 4, but when they’re on sale in that way it makes me feel like I’m getting cheated if I only buy one. I’m not saying that’s rational.
Oh and the MADDENING and UNNECESSARY GENDERING!! Like, we’re not saying they have to make the card in “boy” versions and “girl” versions, just LEAVE THE WORDS BOY/GIRL OUT OF IT ENTIRELY WHEN THERE IS NO REASON IN THE UNIVERSE TO USE THEM. Your version with “kid” is BETTER!! It’s BETTER!!!
The holiday drift irritates me in every single season. Pumpkin spice in early August when it is a hundred degrees, Christmas displays in September, for Pete’s sake, Valentine’s Day immediately after Christmas. But maybe if it keeps accelerating, things will drift all the way around the calendar and back to their proper places?
Target has become the new Walmart- full of crud I don’t need, of poor quality, and no fun to shop at anymore. I also have a deep seated hatred for cards since I worked at a hallmark store in college, so I guess I miss most of that gender specific frustration.
What a smart idea, to use stickers on the card! Also, what is UP with the price of cards. I sent one to my niece, and I didn’t look at the price at the time, but then later, looking at my receipt, I saw it was $6.99, and it was just a regular birthday card without stickers or cut outs or what have you.
We don’t have Target up here, so I am weirded out that you can’t see the price of each item. In the (only two) places I go, Superstore and Costco, you can clearly see the price of each item and – in the case of Costco – you see the discount taken off exactly at that same time. So Target sounds like the unhinged one here, NOT YOU.
Does your Target have self- check out? I use that so I can see the prices as they ring up. I have gotten burned by different prices online and in store as well, so I watch carefully now.
I love my Target because the staff – I mean team members- are great. They would have my online line orders ready for me even before I would get to the service desk- they recognized me walking in even with the mask on. They adjust prices quickly no questions. I take good customer service and put up with some of the inconveniences. The Valentines candy was put up at news years and disappears- the special deals were mid January? – and cycle for Easter started at the end of January. Maybe Valentine day isn’t as profitable for them.
Clever fix on the card. I’d have been tempted to just buy the ridiculously overpriced gender-neutral one, though, to demonstrate there’s a demand.
I believe you posted this to rid your front page of the last topic, which is still causing me worry, although I talked to my husband and he agreed that he would post an (already written up) post in the event of my untimely demise, although he added the caveats that a) it would not be his priority and b) he’s going to die before me, which sounded vaguely like a threat.
I have been in a Target twice since March 2020 and it causes me mini-freakouts, so I am now a curbside lady 4 life, which is kind of bad for Target because I’m much less likely to impulse buy. Also, we’re buying a Costco membership, which I’m hoping will make me need Target and Walgreen’s much less. We’ll see.
Your plan sounds perfectly reasonable – use the comments to help convince Target. I haven’t been inside a Target since 2020 – so I don’t know if I’m overpaying or not as I (usually) have everything shipped. The convenience is so amazing that I’m not even going to THINK about whether or not I’m getting the short end of the stick. Plus, shopping this way means I do not succumb to impulse buys.
I would suggest that you hit CVS or another pharmacy for your Valentines – the ones here seems to have an over abundance of Valentine merch.
You were smart to get the eggs when you saw them, even though it’s totally crazy that they were out a week before Valentine’s Day. Everything is so weird now! I’m with you on the Target thing: it really isn’t what it used to be, sadly.
Well, this is why I do self-checkout at Target – and yes, I have noticed discrepancies sometimes but I figured it had to do with prices having changed. I have asked for adjustments though – however, this should be a thing Target should address if it’s happening with every other item!
I am guessing that you are not allowed to get your money back after you have paid, if have been charged too much? Here in the UK you have the right to do that, I know it can be a faff but it is worth it.
In the UK they have to charge you what is displayed, by law, so even if it is an offer/reduction that has expired if the shop has forgotten to alter the display to the full price they have to honour the reduced price. This has happened to me a few times.
We don’t have Target here in the UK, it looks a little like other shops we have here but we don’t have any like that in my local town so I don’t use them that often. It it frustrating when we go shopping for a particular thing and cannot find it. I so hear you on the gender stuff, did you read about Lego and what they are doing about gender bias in their products as a result of a survey they did? If only more companies would follow suit, hopefully they will.
I cannot believe the eyewatering sums of money you are paying for cards, they are probably the same price here in the UK but it is years since I have bought a card as I make them all. I must be saving myself so much money (I have made three this week alone and have a fourth to make this weekend)
Now that you mention that “Target has discrepancies between the price listed on the shelf and the price that rings up at the register,” I’ve *noticed* the same thing. I rarely shop in one because of how you have to memorize the correct price, then watch the register like a hawk. Awful work-y on my end of things. Also there are none near us, so getting to one is a bother. How they stay in business is beyond me.
I don’t shop at Target very often, but if they messed up the prices that often I would be ticked. I did see someone suggest a self checkout and that sounds like a good idea. I usually have way too much to use a self checkout. Love the card that you doctored.
I have barely been inside a Target in 2 years but that used to be such a fun place to browse so it’s sad to hear about the state of the store. 🙁 I exclusively do the drive-up check-out process now. Like NGS said, it’s not good for Target since that means no impulse buys! But I love the efficiency of it!
I worked at Target for a brief period of time after grad school… So I am pessimistic about them making changes based on your (excellent) suggestions. it’s such a huge company and that means sooo much bureaucracy. Which tends to happen at large companies of course. But ay yi yi. There is so little flexibility and ability to adapt and take recommendations.
I agree with the other commenters that self-checkout my be the way to go. The only thing is, if there is an issue, you have to wait for someone to come over and assist you and it can be kind of a pain. You would feel more in control though. HOWEVER, I agree with you that this shouldn’t even be an issue in the first
place- you should be able to clearly see the price of each item as the cashier rings them up.
This is what I’ve heard- people are going into stores like Target, cleaning them out of certain items (like Valentine’s candy) and then selling it online. Not sure if that’s what’s actually happening at your Target, but it’s a possibility. People ruin everything!!!
I don’t have any solutions for you, either, unless your Target has self checkout. I don’t ever use the regular lanes anymore, even if the self checkout lane is longer, haha. It suits my introvert soul to not have to make small-talk with a cashier. But if your Target doesn’t have self checkout, I don’t know what to tell you! Other than just checking your receipt right after checking out…?
I still enjoy the casual stroll through Target so I’ll do it every once in a while and I haven’t really noticed empty shelves. The holiday section is usually picked through if the holiday is within a few days, though.