Target — Local services in Lake View Township

I have a very positive opinion of Target. Stores that I have gone to in the past leave me feeling cheerful, happy, and like I want to spend more time there. The checkout lines are fast and plentiful, never more than 2 people deep. The employees are friendly and their hands move fast. And dang, what a joy it is to be standing in line when they open up a new line for you. "Come on up." they say. What I hear is "We called in the reinforcements, we don't want you to have to wait, sir." "Aw shucks, thanks you guys," I say with my smile.

This Target is not that. This Target takes the one thing that differentiates Target above other stores- the experience- and just destroys it. I have visited about a half dozen times, and I inevitably leave with my blood starting to boil and vowing to not go again. There are only self-checkouts and service counters here. Both are terrible.

We're talking failure on a real basic level. For example, instead of a nice long conveyer in a real Target where you can unload your stuff, this place has a tiny little square to set your stuff on when you're checking out. You're stuck doing this little dance sitting stuff on the floor, scanning, wiggling it into bags, trying to keep things from falling over, and trying to remember if the thing that you have in your hand was scanned or not because there's no place to set it down in this chaotic, poorly thought out process. If it was an easy, fast experience, fine. I'll do your work and check myself out. I can conceive of a future where a self-checkout actually is a good experience, but this machine definitely is not. I'm buying 10 things, this would take a cashier 10 seconds, but instead of being on my way out the door, I'm stuck trying to get the damn thing to scan, deciphering the incoherence between the kiosk and the credit card reader, and trying to get the attention of the one person in the store so that I can buy alcohol.

For the service counters: This week I ordered online for pickup at both this Target and at the new Amazon pick-up place a few doors down. Amazon- you walk in, and it's obvious that you have to go to the scanners. There are many of them, no wait. I put my phone code under the scanner and 0.1 seconds later there's a magical little moment where the locker pops open. There is a huge, wide counter where I can set my boxes, there's a tool to open them, and spots for the packaging. I can leave all the cardboard there!! What?! Perfect! They thought of everything! There is a smily person there ready to help me if needed. I was out the door in three minutes, and I left thinking, "huh, I actually kind of liked that. It was easy, and fast, and I like not worrying about lost packages at my house."

At Target, there's a huge sign for online pickup, but it's not clear where the line actually is. Do you go from out to in, eventually ending up stuck in the corner of the store, or from in to out along with the flow of the self-checkouts to the door? Who knows? The employees maybe, but the four of them doing one person's worth of work behind the counter have not sent even an acknowledging glance in my direction for the four minutes I've already been standing here. One walks my way, and I ask if this is where I'm supposed to be for self-pickup "yeah, we'll get to you." Great, thanks man, sorry to be such a needy, stupid customer. Heads up to the store manager, every employee I've encountered here has an aloof attitude. They don't really know what's going on, and they flat out ignore you if possible. Did Trader Joe's steal all the nice, effective people? I get to the front, and the magical moment here is identical to getting looked over by a bouncer at the bar. I feel slightly guilty for no reason, and because of my request, an employee has to walk away to some other part of the store to retrieve my item. Wouldn't the store pickup orders be in the store pickup area, you ask? One would think this yes, but I wait for a few more minutes for the guy to return. I leave thinking that I'll just get the Amazon...

My favorite Target—and I’ve been to many in Chicago and elsewhere. The North Side offers a dog’s breakfast of targéts, but only the one at Clark and Drummond so perfectly blends variety and convenience. Target is at its best when customers feel encouraged to peruse the aisles hoping to stumble across something wonderful, and at its most authentic when loyal customers are empowered to breeze in and out quickly and comfortably as part of their errand runs. Target Lincoln Park North offers both experiences, often simultaneously. Its location is a tent pole to something of an errand haven for twenty somethings in the Park West area; all week long you’ll find Zillenial shoppers trekking dutifully between Trader Joe’s, Foxtrot, and Target for their weekly spoils and treats. The Target store is well sized and well laid out, making quick trips easy and payday trips exciting. Beyond groceries, you’ll also find ample home goods, electronics, and clothing departments. The inventory suits the neighborhood—aside from grocery shoppers the store also caters to DePaul students looking to spruce up their dorms on a budget, renters looking for small space storage solutions, and anyone quickly in need of a box fan or set of plates. The store is well managed, and employees are genuinely very friendly and available to help or facilitate in-store pickup. There is also a pharmacy with limited hours in the back. Even more conveniently, the 22 and 36 buses stop right in front of the store for folks coming to and from other neighborhoods. If you live in proximity to either of these buses, I’ll be the first to tell you the ride...

I have never had a bad experience at Target until I visited THIS store on April 15th 2017 at 11:45am. Generally its smaller than most targets, maybe that it did not have the right kind of cooler I needed, but I decided to make due and try the one they had that I thought would work. It was a horrible fit, and I was back to return it less than 2 days later on April 17th 2017 in perfect condition with receipt. After several other customers and I waited to be helped, an older white guy attempted to "help" me, but seemed to have no clue what was going on, and had to ask someone for help. After again waiting a bit, a very rude artificially blonde lady came up, and she was CLEARLY not happy to be bothered with my return. She barley looked at the cooler and told me sorry its wet, and damaged, flat out lying to my face about any damage. Then the older guy was like "uh... there is as-fault on this, we dont take as-fault coolers." I showed them every angle of the cooler again, so that they could see there was not a mark on it, and they replied its wet. And this is a plastic cooler we are talking about... as if they cant get wet! Thankfully I decided to not waste anymore time there, and I went to a different target location where they happily and politely accepted my return. To management... you better get your act together and retrain your employees. And to any other potential consumer; if you like target, try another location. They are rude here, and they WILL waste your time if you let them. I doubt this place will be around much longer unless they make...