Target — Local services in Saint Paul

I am not one to post poor reviews. People that post reviews are often disgruntled or angry about one particular instance - and it's usually their own fault. Unfortunately, this is a recurring problem. The majority of the staff may be great people who serve the customers well... but it only takes a few bad apples (or just a few good people having a bad day) to ruin the experience for the customers. I wanted, so badly, to give this location the benefit of the doubt - as I have worked in a management position within a retail setting early in my career and I know the difficulty of retail operations. I also know there is no way to make everyone happy.

I'll start by saying, we love target - and are customers of target stores at least twice a week. Their cleanliness, shopping experience, and inventory is second to none. Here is why I'm giving 2 out of 4 stars: This location is always understaffed. Always. Abandoned items litter the store. The lines are always long. There is never anyone on the floor to answer questions or point you in the right direction. We've also had more issues with using our redcard at this location. It's inexcusable. My pregnant wife, with our 2 year old son in the cart (some of you may know how stressful that can be), loads a cart full of groceries, spend 45 minutes in the store, gets to the checkout, and is told "we are not accepting redcard at this time". Not only was she unable to leave with the groceries, the store now has cooler items and abandons that have to be thrown out. Management is rude and the customer service is nearly non-existent here. This is why we choose to shop the suburbs as often as we can. I've never had any issues at other Target locations. Often we'll get to the checkout, tell the clerk that we have a redcard on the target app, they scan it, and then tell me something went wrong and they can't go back because it already scanned the redcard payment on the app. It is ridiculous. Then, they won't apply a 5% discount when I try to pay with another payment method - though they know I have a redcard (and the only reason I can't use it is because THEY made a mistake). Get the tech figured out and train your employees on how to use it or don't release it to the shopping public.

Unfortunately this was our last visit to this location - a bummer because we live just a mile south! We'll head to Woodbury for our weekly Target trips and Trader Joe's for...

Elias looked down at his hands. He no longer recognized them. At various times in his long and not uneventful life, those hands had held newborn babies, opened whiskey bottles, caressed women’s bodies, and, many years ago, nearly snuffed the living breath from a man who’d jumped him outside of Friendly Frank’s bar. But they’d never been used to eat an apple fritter from Target. Now they had.

“Elias?” she said.

“Just a minute,” he said. He needed another minute before he could face her.

Morning had dawned bright and clear, and now he was standing in the kitchen staring at his hands with the feeling that his mind was unraveling.

A cardinal landed at the feeder when Sally called out. “Elias, are we leaving or not?”

Elias was far away. The man outside Friendly Frank’s has asked him for a light. Elias obliged, and as he turned to walk to his car he felt cold metal slamming against the base of his skull. Thinking quickly, he thrust an elbow into the man’s gut. Nothing weakens a beered up man more than a strong blow to the stomach. That gave Elias a moment to recover and he managed to wrestle the man to the ground. When the man’s right hand started to reach toward his waistband, Elias tightened his hands around the man’s neck. The man’s eyes had begun to bulge when Elias recognized him. Elias suddenly let go.

It was his high school classmate, an enormous Finn named Matti Kaikkonen. Everyone called him “Fake” but Elias couldn’t remember why. That summer Fake’s wife had run off with an agronomist from the local college, and apparently Fake had taken to fighting and heavy drinking to let off some steam.

Elias was always up for a good fight, but anything other than bare knuckles was too serious for him.

“Elias, I’m leaving,” Sally said.

“I’m coming,” Elias said.

As they walked down the street, Elias marveled at what one man’s hands could do and how this morning’s apple fritter had nearly caused him to delaminate.

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The donuts at Target...

Grocery Delivery: Exploits workers and underserves customers. At a basic level, your online store should reflect what is actually available in the store. Planning meals/groceries is impossible with your current negligence on this. Over 10 years ago, Coborns Delivers was able to update their ordering portal online with the actual supply in the store. I'm not sure why Target doesn't do this since it requires being tethered to our phone the entire shopping window to answer many, many questions about substitutions. This disrespects both the shoppers time (who is paid per service, not per hour) & the customer's time. Since you are charging a shopping fee & it assumed we will tip, this should be part of the service. After thoughtfully deciding on my products, I don't want to spend another hour plus answering questions about which substitutions will work or be without items for recipes etc. It just gets way too complicated to decide whether to delete 6 more items because 1 is missing, after the shopper dutifully ran around the store to get those first 6 items. Then, to have to do this for every missing item. It is like redoing the entire shopping list 3-6 times for every shopping experience. Please just find a way to do what Coborns Delivers does and have 1 staff person update the website options for all of your shoppers. Then you can remain competitive in offering the service that you are charging me to do. Please get on this. You have had years to catch up to companies like Amazon and I would rather support local businesses but not at the chronic disrespect of my time & money for a service you are barely doing. Just because the marketplace "allows" this now, doesn't mean it always will. Be different. Be better. Then you will outshine the land of mediocrity in delivery services. If you don't step above this now, you will loose customers who will not easily return if you try to be good and fair later after the public demands basic quality...