Target — Local services in Seattle

Edit 12/2/24 Time to pay an annual visit to everyone's favorite downtown target. The homeless issue that has usually plagued this area has shifted in the city somewhat. It's not that I don't feel safe in this location, it's that everything is locked behind a cabinet and the armed guards in the store make you pause and think about why you need armed guards in a store in the first place. The selection of items is relatively good now but not as good as other targets. I don't think people living in rural communities or really anywhere outside of the city have armed men with guns protecting the merchandise. If you want to gauge the health of seattle in general, visiting the downtown target gives you a good sense of how everything is going. Not great, not horrible, just the same. No solutions for the people who live on the street, they just get pushed around to some other street on some regular basis. I still can't believe it hasn't closed, but whenever I need a toothbrush or toilet paper, I can rest easy knowing that someone with a firearm is there to keep the locked glass cases stocked.

edit 1/15/23: The situation has largely resolved. Target has extensive professional security roaming the aisles. The shelves are once again mostly stocked. The situation described previously has largely moved to the Ross down the street. This cycle will continue to move and consume a new retail location until Seattle properly addresses the mental health and houselessness problem.

Sometime during deep covid: it is an apocalyptic free for all in this location, food being eaten off the shelves. it seems like you can literally just come in and take whatever you want and leave, with nothing but an underpaid teenager to stop you. how this location continues to do business with this model defies...

I was lock in today at Target emergency exist, because I was on a hurry and didn't read the sign on the door. I saw it say stair only, went in and thought it would be a way to access to target beside the elevator. I was able to get in, realize it was no access to target, trying to go back out but all the doors was lock from inside. So you could go in , but not out. Luckily I had my phone, call target and ask for help. When someone open the door for me. I was so happy that I could get out, but the crew that was there to help were all just laughing at me, the tall guy from that said to me " we're you confuse, did you not read the sign?" I feel very upset, they all were just standing there and laughing at me, Make me feel like I'm very stupid. I was very offended. I went to work, but still very upset, because I couldn't do my emergency shopping for my daughter, and here were lock in and being tease at. I decide to call target again to tell them my experience. I got transfer to the store manager, after talking to him he told me he was the tall guys with his crew that had open the door for me. I did give him my feedback about the whole incident, told him how upset I was for being tease at instead of trying come calm me down. I think I was very lucky that I have my cell phone with me to call for help, otherwise, I could have been lock in there , SUFFOCATED because there were no airway from the inside without anyone noticing. So, so upset! If that's an emergency exist, there need to be a way out, and not being lock in. Not only that, they made you feel like your very very stupid to have gottin yourself in there the first place. Now that I found out that he's the manager there, I will never visit downtown...

This Target in downtown Seattle has good deals especially in the HBA section. There's a midsize grocery section stocked with food staples along with some specialty items. They close the registers down early on the main floor causing everyone to forms long lines on the bottom level, while a high pitched sound pulses extremely loud screeching bursts of intolerable noise. The long lines and blasts of noise often result in customers abandoning their baskets and carts, to leave the store and shop online or at a competitor. It seems like the management are really trying to sour people's taste of the Target brand and drive them away as much as they can. I've witnessed it. What a shame. It's probably only Target loyalists, tourists, and people with no other option who shop here or they come when the upstairs registers are open. Really poor service and they should always have at least one register open on every floor in my opinion. Common sense. You should not be inconveniencing the customer especially the disabled, elderly, and otherwise vulnerable populations who might not want to be forced to check-out on a certain floor due to their issues. Sad. They should maybe try a pilot with self check-out equipment like QFC which gives customers their own PDA scanner to check-out with, or Walmart which now does the same. Target is behind and this Target goes beyond being behind by not only having a technology deprived store, but inconveniencing customers to the max. Target used to be a leader in using state of the art technology in it's stores and strived to have fast fun and friendly service -- not anymore. Other than the poor service, the Target brand still remains a...