Target — Attraction in Vancouver

Your Pharmacy personnel are just terrific! My wife and I were very happy when we found out your new store was coming just a couple of miles away. Your staff has been helpful and knowledgeable about your well stocked store.

I am sorry we will not be able to continue shopping at your store because of your new policy we just heard about on the radio where your management, maybe corporate, has decided not to allow persons who have obtained a concealed carry weapons license to enter your stores while carrying a weapon. I wonder if open carry would be considered ok?

The radio "personality" on AM 860 made the statement, "Yeah, it only takes one nutcase to go off..."

It is quite likely and supported by past evidence that if a nutcase were to go off, it would not be a responsible citizen who is legally carrying a firearm. I can't imagine someone who is going through the process of deciding to "go off" giving much consideration to your policy of not allowing citizens who have met the community's requirements to own and carry a concealed weapon before going into your store to do harm.

I can see where a criminal who wanted to use a weapon in the course of robbery would want to go where he/she knows no one else might have a weapon or if a uniformed armed security guard were present, the thief would have a pretty good idea of how to spot and count such deterrents.

My wife and I have both retired from the US Military and have had weapons training throughout our careers. Being an Infantryman and combat veteran, I have had more training and experience than she, but she always fired expert with both the M-16 and the 9MM sidearm. In our many overseas deployments to hostile locations where we were always armed and saw how citizens of nations which restricted private ownership of weapons were living lives afraid of the often capricious nature of the use of firepower by their police and military against their own citizens.

My wife and I long ago decided we would never be victims as so many unfortunate people we have seen around the world.

We are not gun nuts nor do we have a stash of food hidden in buried overseas shipping containers somewhere out in the boondocks where we would go to survive the Zombie Apocalypse. Neither one of us have ever been to a "Gun Show" but we have seen plenty of "Firepower Demonstrations" while in the military. We are not members of the NRA and do not have our hair on fire about the second amendment. We would like to see better quality background checks including mental history and a requirement for gun owners to secure their weapons to prevent use by a thief or a relative. It would be a huge step forward if the requirements for the use and ownership of street legal vehicles was applied to the ownership of firearms.

We realize not every gun owner or potential gun user share our experience and training - every trip to a managed firing range has reminded us of that. We realize you cannot post someone at the door to conduct a viability screening of those possessing legally owned and carried firearms.

I do not expect you to reveal your safety measurements in place to protect shoppers while in your stores. You may have armed security personnel who are not uniformed and I hope you do as your new policy would leave your shoppers without anyone armed and on their side in the event of a nutcase going off.

We will continue to use your pharmacy and respect your store policy, but will limit our time in your store as much as possible. One of us will always stay outside in our vehicle as we never leave our weapons in locked cars.

Thank you. I hope you review your new policy...

Y'know, I'll admit that Target has stepped up their game on the staffing. The past few times I went, more than half the registers were staffed (which is, by today's standards across retailers, actually quite impressive). I didn't have to wait and the staff was very cordial and efficient. So I bumped my score up from 1 to 3; the other two I left off mainly since they still carry less than Walmart for godsakes, so I can't buy the stuff I need in order to take advantage of the service.

Great example that comes to mind: I wanted Manwich. Target now carries a full shelf - the entire shelf - of one variety. And it's family size. This isn't just a disregard for its consumers. This is the laziest display of insolence I've ever seen at a retailer. I know part of the reason is so they don't have to restock the shelves an extra one time per week or whatever laziness they promote in their stores. I get it - the stores' in-stock conditions are usually so bad it looks more like the Omaha Beach scene in Saving Private Ryan than it does a Target, but most retailers don't let the tail wag the dog. They figure out how to get their staff to stock them, not how to accommodate their staff's laziness. That's just the first immediate, innate display of laziness associated with this abomination of merchandising. The other is that household demographics have been rapidly shifting over the past decade or so to the point where there are now, for the first time in the country's history I believe, more singles than married households. I'm guessing that a company like Target has pretty easy access to that little nugget of wisdom, but if they can't be bothered to drag the astronomical heft of a case of Manwich to the shelf and figure, "Eh. To heck with it. Just make the whole shelf Manwich," I can see the marketing team and buyers similarly answering the next question of, "Which one d'ya want me to fill the shelf with, boss?" with "Who cares. Family Size. Families like Manwich, don't they?" instead of blowing the dust off that growing pile of data printouts and presentations stacked higher than their cubicle walls in order to determine that's the opposite of "on trend," because they're already spent their 10 minutes of bandwidth they allow for "work" to be used in some goofy "rah rah" department meeting where everyone pretends Target is still a prestige brand associated with a premium shopping experience.

Believe it or not - that accounted for just 1 absence of the 2 missing stars. The other came from the sales-prevention policy of keeping toothpaste behind plexiglass. Toothpaste. Yes, I get people steal it sometimes and the CEO of Target has the unenviable task that night of telling his 22-year-old son Higgensworth that Christmas is canceled this year because they lost their 30% margin on a $4 tube of Arm & Hammer Whitening Toothpaste and there'll be tears and all that, but they're in the inventory business. That's, like, the main thing they do: have the products they're supposed to available for you to buy. And by available I don't mean in 25 minutes after I push the doorbell so someone can come unlock my toothpaste after they finish the monumental task of unloading a tractor-trailer's worth of Manwich into what is now the "Manwich" section because one shelf just wasn't enough to keep an individual item in-stock. Not if you feel like checking on it more than once every 2 years, anyway.

So that's where the other star went. Customer Service lately, though?...

The return process in the store is simple and relatively easy. However, a particular cashier (an older woman with gray hair) who works this particular location is never friendly and makes me feel uncomfortable. She never smiles and rarely conveys the friendly/personable attitude Target is known for. She never goes above and beyond, and when I saw she was working this particular day I should of turned around. I happened to purchase an item that fit relatively well in the store, but when I tried it on for my husband at home, I felt it was too big. I came to the store to exchange it because I loved the item, and had received a fabulous offer through Target Circle. Fortunately, the Target Circle offer was still there, but my exclusive RedCard offer was not. The representative at the counter did not offer to have me keep my savings by merely switching out the item for a smaller size- this is customarily an option through the app, so I don't see why it couldn't have been offered in store as the store had multiples of the smaller size. In addition, I explained to the cashier that I wanted to get it in a smaller size because the one I had purchased was too large. I would have appreciated an offer to go get said item in smaller size and do the exchange in one transaction- saving me time and money! However, when I went to purchase said item in the smaller size, I lost money. Iwas no longer afforded the extra 5% discount for using my RedCard that I had on the original purchase. This became even more of an issue, because I had found an additional item I had wished to purchase but this item had no tag, and I was unsuccessful in finding a duplicate in the same or different size to use to scan in self-checkout. Despite there being 3-4 Target employees standing near the back of the self-checkout by jewelry, no one offered to help me as I attempted to find a cashier who was available to check me out (I had found the item in the app, so I knew the price, but couldn't use self-checkout at this point). When I went to one at the furthest end of the group of check stands (there was only two open), finally a manager came and asked the cashier where I was at to call for backup. Then she proceeded to offer to help the person who was waiting behind me, despite the fact that I had only 2 items and a small child. This again happened when the back up cashier came. She didn't see that the women who had been behind me at gotten to the other check stand, so she offered to help the women who was standing behind me again (different woman than the first manager) ALSO ignoring me and my 2 items. As I tried to wait for this cashier, who was incredibly slow and methodical in ringing up lines, never addressed me when I was standing there even with a smile, I lost all patience. So I discarded the item without a tag and left the store. All in all, Target I KNOW you can do better. I won't return to this store, and I will not recommend that my family or friends...