Target or Walmart

pros and cons of each

target: celebrity designers, some actually decent textiles and housewares there

walmart: carry literally everything, cheaper

target: from minnesota

walmart: from HELL

Walmart - better big and tall sizes than puny Target customers who's waist ends at 44

Walmart - an amazing assortment of people from all levels of society including some who must just go there to be weird in public

completely ignoring the politics/$$/business practices of walmart for a second, i have never left a walmart feeling better than or as good as i felt walking in. it just takes a toll on your soul or something. i have to leave before the walls invariably start to bleed.

Walmart - better big and tall sizes than puny Target customers who's waist ends at 44

Is that a pro or a con?

target: from minnesota

A con in my book, but I work in downtown Minneapolis right next door to Target Corp. and am constantly bombarded by the reminder that high school never ends.

arkansas vs minnesota

also, i've had three or four friends work at target and were generally OK with the job. i have never heard an ex-walmart employee say anything other than "that was the worst job i've ever had."

walmart - an amazing assortment of people from all levels of sobriety

"Walmart - better big and tall sizes than puny Target customers who's waist ends at 44"

well no size 14 shoes either

Two good friends work for Sam's Club in Bentonville. They like their jobs and take my "WALMART IS SATAN" talk well.
Target is just as evil as Wal-Mart but smaller. Better stuff in general.

Can I vote Costco?

On weekly shopping trips, we usually pull 3 Kroger trips for every 1 Walmart. The whole culture at WMT is just weird. It's good for some folks, but a little too comfortable for my liking. Other customers are more talky than at the regular grocery store. More families blocking up the aisles. More folks clueless of where to go next, so they just stand there in the aisle. The food's cheaper, but the variety is severely limited.

But they have a larger food inventory than Target. And at least at mine, there's a family bathroom that Daddies can accompany their kids into without having to stuff them into a stall in the men's room. Target's very overrated in its "style". Okay, fine, you're more likely to find a teal teapot at Target, but you may as well go online or hit another box store.

In the end, I pretty much go to WMT just because you can get a case of Cokes for $6 and they're the only place in my town that I know of that sells frozen ham and pineapple pizza. But that's it.

and how in the world have I never seen that ark vs minn thread.

what is this, marketing research?

yeah but that teal teapot is like $6.50

also unlike the ones on etsy it's clean

" Target is for Ladies and Walmart is for men" some guy

I once bought a dustpan from Target designed my Michael Graves and it worked so poorly that just mentioning the name in our household elicits chuckles of failure

Target: fairly shitty produce section but weirdly good cheese selection, clothes that are adequate for stuff you dont care that much about, okish clearance on video games on the regular
Walmart: literally the worst thing in the world

i very rarely visit either, admittedly more out of inconvenience (i kind of live in a big box desert) than principle. but i'm pretty happy to not be giving them any of my money.

Target: way too many wedding gift registries in my experience
Walmart: none

jjj apparently having never been to a Sam's Club.

(but imagine the Walgreens/Krogers/Family Dollars i frequent are prob just as crap in the big scheme of it all)

We recently got a new Wal Mart in our neighborhood, and when I went to it I was surprised to see that the prices were not all that low? I thought the advantage of Wal Mart was supposed to be super low prices, but the prices were just average. I just wanted a cheap bottle of detergent! Meijer is much better in that (and every other) respect.

actually i DID spend a couple of soul-destroying nights at a Wal Mart in this meth-y disaster of a town on the north edge of the florida panhandle recently.

now i know why everyone hates each other.

they do have Stoneyfield farms orgaic yohurt at walmart

We Canadians used to pat ourselves on the back & cheer because we had Zellers - with some unionized positions! - to choose over Walmart. But Zellers is folding and Target is buying up a lot of their leases.. I was excited because of the clothes and then found out they're just as shitty to unions. My husband is a union steward so that doesn't fly. Will have to sneak in there when he's not looking. ;_;

It's funny you mention that because when I went to that Wal Mart, the parking lot was filled with Canadian plates. It's cheaper to go across the border because of the exchange rate.

p. sure I haven't set foot in a Wal-Mart in almost ten years & yeah it's 'cause by the time I'm through the checkout my feeling is "whatever I needed from here today, it wasn't worth this mood of spiritual malaise"

Meijer is much better in that (and every other) respect.

Zomg Meijer's!

Yeah, especially around Christmas there's a mass exodus of Torontonians going to Buffalo because the American prices are cheaper in general, not to mention the exchange rate, even with gas & hotel! :P

(We have Walmart here too; I just meant we used to pat & cheer because we had a semi-Canadian and semi-unionized discount store to choose over the Walmarts)

I know, but it is funny to me because crossing the border is such a hassle to me that I can't imagine doing it even to save some money.

I love Target but their food section sucks esp at the one I live less than a 5 min walk from. I like it for home/health/beauty stuff in addition to cheap plain basics like t-shirts, leggings, underwear. I like the design stuff that The Late Great mentioned too. "The Shops at Target" thing has mostly been disappointing though. Dumb idea all around.

I've been to one Walmart once. It was really depressing.

I was once thrown out of a wal-mart for having a magazine in a bag (Modern Drummer) that they had never carried! Of course, i had lost the receipt. I tried to explain the injustice but since I had red hair and I was 16 they just kicked me out.

Spending too much time in either makes me a bit nauseous.

I'm about to say something just tragic but...the Gwen Stefani line of children's clothes for Target is super, super-cute and if it's wrong to clothe Aero Jr. in Gwen's Target line then I cannot & will not be right

tragic kingdom indeed

Walmart has carts like these, which lends my kids the feeling of being on a really bright hay ride.

http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/2176/photo144z.jpg

Also at our Walmart, the greeter is a midget who gives Beeps a sticker every time.

If we ever want to ever enjoy the tuneful stylings of a female Tom Waits in 2040, I'm doing my best.

it's hard to get away from Walmart here

when I enter charges to them in my checkbook register, I shorten the name to "satan"

― pixel farmer, Tuesday, December 7, 2010 10:38 AM (1 year ago)

If I know I have a trip to Tupelo coming in the next few days, I try to hold out on shopping until then, so I can go to Kroger.

There aren't any Targets in this vicinity.

http://target.scene7.com/s7viewers/dhtml/images/spacer.gif

bah humbug

charming story about Walmart: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/k2dwy/iama_walmart_store_manager_try_your_best_not_to/c2h0mjw

I've never been inside a Walmart. I don't like Target either but my wife insists on buying various things there.

i kind of like target and usually pick up my cat food there -- it's rarely that crowded and there's something kind of pleasant and un-hateful about the vibe and aesthetic. the big red plastic shopping carts!

fact: if you voice any criticism of wal-mart to a libertarian, they WILL flip out at you. wal-mart is like the embodiment of everything they cherish in this life.

like others have said, wal-mart is depressing. the place is dismal, the staff are zombies and the customers are worse. i'm sure there's something classist in my revulsion, but i just don't like being there. i get less weirded and grossed by dusty christian thrift shops that smell of urine and rot.

target may be just as hard on its suppliers and bad for local business, but i like the place. their products and premises are well-designed and inviting, and the staff seem at least roughly cognizant of their surroundings. it's the discount department store as a modern ideal. i always looks forward to target trips, though i rarely do much but wander around looking at toys and DVDs i have no intention of buying.

I go to Target roughly once every two weeks for detergent, paper towels, stuff like that. I frequently wind up walking out with what I came for, plus some random norteno CD or cheap DVD (Bullitt for $5!) that caught my eye.

I have been in Walmart twice and will never go again. The one I was in was disorganized and everything looked dirty. I didn't want to touch anything, so wound up buying nothing. By the time I walked back out into the sunlight I was on the edge of doing that "bugs on me" frantic self-brushing thing.

xp p sure walmart is the embodiment of 'crony capitalism'? some entry level libertarians you're dealing with

Target and Walmart pretty much both suck to work at.

Two things I'll give Target is that they don't go out of their way to pull controversial stuff from the shelves (you can buy the Daily Show's America book, complete with Supreme Court genitalia, if you'd like.)

Also, there is no peopleoftarget.com, that I'm aware of.

But as far as what I'm shopping for and the prices I'm willing to pay, Walmart wins over Target.

ist easy to blow your wad of cash at target

things you never knew you needed

though i rarely do much but wander around looking at toys and DVDs i have no intention of buying.

i wondered whether someone might rep for walmart itt out of creepy fascination/out of appreciation for its weird dystopian late capitalist John Carpenter/mall-horror vibe. like with 24 hour supermarkets, just intriguingly artificial & sense-overloading places to drift around.

i don't really go to either, but if i do go to one of them it's target

I bet walmarts of the future will have no human staff, all robots

ist easy to blow your wad of cash at target

things you never knew you needed

^^^ this. I go every weekend and blow more than I expect on V-necks and shorts when all I wanted was coffee and toilet paper.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xcJRrhi7RQ

i wondered whether someone might rep for walmart itt out of creepy fascination/out of appreciation for its weird dystopian late capitalist John Carpenter/mall-horror vibe. like with 24 hour supermarkets, just intriguingly artificial & sense-overloading places to drift around.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1OCD35Ih27M/Ti51RFq3uCI/AAAAAAAACNk/aeox4NBxLME/s1600/careeropportunities030bx0.png

otm but isn't that target

think that was the point

one thing that really impresses me about target is the quality of their "house brand" stuff. toys, clothes, even food - it's often at least as well-designed as the name brand stuff they carry.

I love their English muffins and meatballs.

the target brand cheezits are an abomination in the eyes of the lord

Target in the Motion Pictures: Career Opportunities
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Career_Opportunities_(film)

Yes, Target has awesome food ... even frozen Indian! I got samosas there. It's great underwear selection. Good booze selection too.

You can't even buy beer at our Target. Wal-Mart's got it covered though.

Target political contributions

Neither

Target: slightly better housewares, also use them for some cosmetics and cheap shoes
Walmart: Royal Oak Charcoal is about the only thing we ever buy from them, for Mr Veg's bbq

I've never had a good experience with any food item from Target's house brands.

they had some house brand fizzy lemonade thing that was pretty good that we used to buy

Is Archer Farms the Target food brand? (Google says yes.) I tried the chocolate covered almonds and the "chocolate" was virtually tasteless, which put me off the brand for a while. I've since had the roasted nuts/trail mixes and they're OK, but the Trader Joe's versions are cheaper. Also had one of the granolas - same story.

Used to pride myself in never have been in a Walmart (except once in desparation in Missouri), but I've since shopped there a few times, and is a little depressing, but no big deal. They do have a better selection in the camping dept than any other big department store. The neasrest store is 6-8 miles away, so I don't go there except when I'm in the area anyway and need something.

Target's in-house foie gras is tres declassé

Distance from my house to local Wal-Mart: 0.9 miles.
Distance from my house to local Target: 1.5 miles.

I would not go to that Wal-Mart if my dick was on fire and they had all the water in the world,

The lines would terrible anyhow

I buy plastic bins/storage shit/tupperware/etc. at Walmart b/c they have shit 4 cheap that is way more durable than the dollar-store equivalent. Also, they are the only place I know of in my area that stocks these (even in the winter!), so sometimes I go on special popsicle quests to WM.

http://static.caloriecount.about.com/images/medium/edys-lemonade-fruit-bar-53734.jpg

Although I am by no means a fan of their business model, the WM cultural experience has for me not been profoundly different than that of the Michigan-based chain, Meijer, which are everywhere there.

I'm pretty sure I've been to Target all of 3-5 times maybe - again, I try to avoid b/c not too keen on their business practices. I did, however, pick up some decent bedding there on some ridiculous clearance sale for like 80% off, so maybe I should stop thru more often & what other exciting bargains I've been missing out on!

Walmart staff seems to 70% middle-aged women sporting injuries - eyepatches, slings, neckbraces...it's v weird.

Target seems to have barely any floor staff anywhere, half of them discreetly checking their phones every 10 mins. And their checkout system is a nightmare. Piggybacked checkouts, at least, what 10 lanes...and only 3 randoms open. EVER. I've never seen them running full checkout lines, even during Christmas.
and I hate their stupid big red plastic toy carts and baskets. HATE.

No trouble at mine! Smiling employees who speak English and Spanish. I think they're drugged.

I've been to Target all of 3-5 times maybe - again, I try to avoid b/c not too keen on their business practices

And yet you still shop at Wal-Mart? I mean, I'm not a fan of a lot of Target's practices either, but they are light years ahead of the shit Wal-Mart does.

yeah well, as I mentioned, I do buy plastic bins and popsicles at Wal Mart, yeah.

The Target near me is pretty good about opening more registers when the lines get too long. I have never seen that at Wal-Mart.

ha, x-post with VG!

OTOH there's this. Not that there are any large retail chains that AREN'T union busters, but still.

http://gawker.com/5912363/targets-getting-another-union-vote-thanks-to-company-misconduct

Oh yeah, I'm not defending Target in the least, I know how awful they are - I spent a couple moths working for them when I was between architecture jobs a few years ago. But I also had a sister who worked for Wal-Mart and, Target treats their employees light years better than Wal-Mart.

I live in an at-work state where there aren't any unions for anyone. (Except teachers and electricians, basically.) I know workers get treated horribly there, but I have to say that at least half of the employees I run into there seem to have bought into that Walmart spirit.

And what they've begun in regards to the environment and offering same-sex couples benefits and cutting prices on prescription drugs... look, I'm not defending them or even saying that the "depressing" vibe doesn't fit. But at least Walmart acts like Walmart.

Target, on the other hand, trying to act like this hipster Trader Joe's version of Sear's... Nah, I'm not buying it.

Yeah I kind of feel you on that pplains

the target i go 2 has helpful staff (actually the same 1 lady helped me both times) when i wanted to find season w/e of mad men to give as a gift and didnt see it on display and also to buy a mid size flat screen tv. all i had 2 do was stand around and look helpless

i like the archer brand cereals ok. im sure it's not @ all 'healthy' but i eat it like granola usu

i also bought some throw pillows from target that i like a lot

oh I also eat Archer Brand chicken-spinach sausages -- tasty!

x-post

I have 6 throw pillows in the living room. 5 are from Target. The other one has pugs on it and was a gift.

Also everyone totally otm about spending extra money at Target. What I need = dog food and tp. What I walk out with = dog food, tp, a cute lipstick, oh what a nice little notebook, man these Archer Farms fruit snacks sure look good, oh don't I need some greeting cards etc.

^^^

otm

I also should add that Target is 1.1 miles from me (significantly less if I walk), while the nearest WalMart is 4.6 miles away.

There are two Targets 1.8 miles from each other on Broadway here in town. I don't get it. My family is all jealous. "There's nothing more fun than Target-hopping!" NB we all just shop the clearance racks most of the time.

I haven't gone to Target in a long time because the closest one is always too busy for me and I end up feeling claustrophobic. No great loss.

yeah target is too close to my office and they just built a brand shiny new one not far from my house. watch $$$ fly out of my wallet.

that spending too much money thing at target thing is another check in the awesome column for target

the target and walmart near me are definitely the "meeting of cultures" spot in san diego

I live in Arkansas which means I can jump in the air and land somewhere 200 yards away from a Walmart.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4fdu4G4qK1rsat8no7_400.gif

...but when you buy a spear at Wal-Mart, they have an employee walk you to your car with it!

i swear to god this isnt meant to sound judgy but im amazed at how many of you guys buy food at these places

Really though, I probably know WAAAAAAYYYY too much about the different sides of Wal-Mart (both Mom & Sis used to be Merch Reps) and they are pretty damn bad on most fronts.

The two things that they do have on Target:

• A more random selection of stuff. Target is pretty strict w/their tagging & shelf space, so it's like you go into one store you've seen nearly all of them product-wise. On the other hand, Wal-Mart frequently takes chances on merch, so you can find, say, a crochet magazine at one, some Hot Wheels at another, or a certain brand of ice tea at a third--items all of which you couldn't get at Target.

• Open 24 Hours 364 Days A Year. Cause I really that $5 Van Halen cd, a gallon of milk, and a folding chair @ 3:00 AM.

Most stores have at least a few items that meet your idea of the right product at the right price better than any other store. When you figure out what a store is 'good for', you tend to return, but only for those few items. This is not a very interesting fact, but it is a fact of modern post-industrial life.

As it happens, I don't have a local Wal-Mart and the nearest Target is somewhat further than I want to drive on a regular basis, so this gives Target a very tiny edge by being not entirely irrelevant to my life, although it nearly is.

tbh the one thing I like about Wal-Mart is ~~~some~~~ of them in rural areas carry knitting stuff, yarn and needles.

This saved my life when I was visiting my parents and ran out of yarn.

Walmart staff seems to 70% middle-aged women sporting injuries - eyepatches, slings, neckbraces...it's v weird.

ahaha

i wondered whether someone might rep for walmart itt out of creepy fascination/out of appreciation for its weird dystopian late capitalist John Carpenter/mall-horror vibe. like with 24 hour supermarkets, just intriguingly artificial & sense-overloading places to drift around.

i have a friend who's like that and who used to really enjoy going to walmart at 2am. his thing was "everything's so fucked up beyond repair that you might as well enjoy the fucked-upness of it all"

i don't get much enjoyment out of the walmart experience, but i find fast food restaurants and mall food courts fascinating for similar reasons. they're very odd environments

i miss living in a place where there are 24-hour supermarkets. it's entertaining to see what kind of ppl are food-shopping at 3:30am or to be able to buy breadcrumbs or pancake batter while the rest of the world is sleeping

Y'all can take my word for it right now -- Walgreens is NOT the place to be at 11:00 at night. God knows what's happening in there four hours from now.

i go to target all the damn time, impossible not to, kinda

i grew up with a wal-mart. i remember the music section at the one in my hometown filed led zeppelin under Z. every one i've been to recently has been a tiring and unhappy experience. it's the quality of the light, i think. tho i feel like ppl need to get with the WM experience in a solidarity kind of way.

on a political level they aren't that distinguishable. lol "consumer choice"

xp oof walgreens. late night drugstore vibe is really unseemly.

Walmart at night can be tough to navigate because the aisles are crowded with restockers and pallets of merch.

The real misery Walmart causes is in their supply chain, do some reading about the abuse of temps in their distribution centers if you have time. I work in a Walmart factory supplier.

My job is like 90% Hispanic and Hmong temps, 10% Caucasian office staff.

It took me a long time to step foot back into a WMT. I used to sell photography packages for American Studios inside rural Wal-Marts that weren't big enough to have their own studio.

Still have one part PTSD, one part Stockholm Syndrome about the place, tbh.

http://www.alternet.org/labor/154020/wal-mart_warehouse_workers_move_ahead_in_fight_for_justice/

re: food, Super Targets around here have full grocery stores inside with produce/meat at least as good as Kroger/Tom Thumb, if not better. And we only have one Trader Joe's about half an hour away when it opens.

I just read taht walamrt is actually trialing robo-stocking of shelves

target will stock robots HOORAY

I wonder if the walmart robots will be injured and middle aged like the ladies that work there now - plus will they have cameras with a feed to peopleofwalmart.com

i have a friend who's like that and who used to really enjoy going to walmart at 2am. his thing was "everything's so fucked up beyond repair that you might as well enjoy the fucked-upness of it all"

there's a Walmart in Greenpoint?

I have always had knowledgable clerks at Wal-Mart in the gun department, when I'm trying to figure out what ammunition I want.

do they make a gun that can shoot paintballs full of pepper spray? - for use against racoons

do they sell t-shirt guns, y/n

do they sell a gun that shoots beer into your mouth?

yes but you can only really use it once

they have low, low prices on ammo I gotta say

I like Target hand soap, by contrast.

good candles too

there's a Walmart in Greenpoint?

heh-heh

no actually this wuz near where billy clinton lived. during the clinton years.

Target started carrying a lot more aspirational soap + candle brands like Caldrea and stuff

I think it's the same company as that Meyer's Green Day cleaning products stuff, actually

I am a 31 year old male who likes buying cleaning products and stuff that smells good don't judge me

* rubs green tea-scented lotion from Target into hands *

i've some target dental floss and as someone mentioned upthread, many of their in-house products have better graphic design going on than do the name brand competitors. especially since proctor and gamble got rid of their "we worship satan" progrock wizard logo

I am a 31 year old male who likes buying cleaning products and stuff that smells good don't judge me

dude i think that is called sanity. if all guys were into aromatherapeutic cleaning products then our children would have a chance at a thermonuclearwarless future

so please rock on with your aspirational soaps. you have the right idea

yankee candles are for frat guys and inveterate stoners who live in dominos pizza box hovels

there, i said it

Target's applesauce is bad

ugh

do you mean "bad" like b.a. good?

I mean like it feels like it has some sort of detritus in it

i bought a target ("archer farms") ham once. was p good. tasted like normal ham. their salty snacks are good too. don't really know beyond that.

i shouldn't have repped for target brand food in the first place. i started out intending to compliment their packaging and product design, especially their toys and holiday merch. they have kids workshop and kitchen toy sets (lol, i know) that are way cooler and cheaper than anything similar on the market. if i had kids, i'd buy the shit out of that stuff. and their halloween stuff is wonderful.

old moms in momjeans and sweaters and grannies like Yankee Candles too

eh, they're not really people though imo

fair enough

they have kids workshop and kitchen toy sets (lol, i know) that are way cooler and cheaper than anything similar on the market.

nah, i totally can relate. since they stopped making incandescent lightbulbs and made everyone buy those florescent ones, it's almost impossible to build your own e-z bake oven

I hate all scented candles ever

maybe you just have shitty ones with bad scents rather than good ones that smell like bamboo or cilantro

go back to AUSTRIA-LAND!!

how dare you

"this candle smells like a kangaroo's pouch, just like home"

I DON'T WANT MY CANDLES TO SMELL LIKE THINGS

and I will stay right here, thank you very much mr racistpants

fake smells smell like fake smells

the end

since when is "australian" a race

was recently thinking that fake watermelon smell is the best fake smell

in fact I might think that fake watermelon TASTE is better than real watermelon taste, at least in the Jolly Rancher version

jolly ranchers are the best fake tastes

the wax-scented candles are pretty inoffensive

Kudzu scented candles are really nice. I didn't even know kudzu flowers had a scent until a local candlemaker started selling them.

since when is "australian" a race

it's pretty much a race to the bottom down there with the exception of yahoo serious

if u love scented candles so much why don't you marry them

jerkface

or marry yahoo serious

still illegal in most of the lower 48 iirc

kinda off topic but just fyi mh you wanna get on some of this, it is a grade:

http://ekostils.lv/131-162-large/ecover-washing-up-liquid-with-grapefruit-and-green-tea-1l.jpg

two of my favorite things together!

eugh, fake watermelon is horrid

I hate all scented candles ever

― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, June 7, 2012 1:50 PM (6 minutes ago)

fake grapefruit scent is amazing, so long as it's not in a candol

target's knockoff peak freans are NOT as good as genuine peak freans (though I called them and asked if they were made in the peak freans factory, and they were very cagey about it.) target's tim tams ARE as good as genuine tim tams, or at least they're as good as taiwanese tim tams.

^ these are made up things

"peak freans", for instance, is clearly a drug reference

anything canadian is a drug reference. e.g. toques, Rush

knockoff timtams are satisfactory when the real thing is not available but they aren't as good as the real thing imo

I hate that AC mOORE smell of "every synthetic fraganace in the worl d at once"

Target started carrying a lot more aspirational soap + candle brands like Caldrea and stuff

I think it's the same company as that Meyer's Green Day cleaning products stuff, actually

I am a 31 year old male who likes buying cleaning products and stuff that smells good don't judge me

― mh, Thursday, June 7, 2012 4:31 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I got two of those candles the other day. They're soy ones that smell fresh and awesome and not heavily perfumed or cloying like YC. Yes, I bought them at Target. I may have a small Target problem.

"Target - we know what you like and what you are willing to pay for it."

otm

i am starting to accept that i love going to target. the way every store is the same bc target stores are always newer than walmart stores makes me feel like i am in the same store all the time even at a different location. that makes no sense to anyone. anyway i like to buy cleaning products that smell good. i get the "natural" dish soap and detergent and method stuff. i don't like to clean though!

I'm going to Target now! Anyone need anything?

target smells like plastic offgassing to me. walmart smells like newspaper recycling plant. costco smells like cardboard.

A new super Target is opening two blocks from my work, so now I can pick up grocery items on the way home. I haven't lived in a Walmart friendly area since they became ubiquitous so I have only been to Walmart once ~ 1997, on a special trip with a friend who was going for a particular thing. I have actively fought against Walmart's business practices but tbh if they open one of their city sized grocery stores walking distance from our house, I would shop there.

Since Target started one state away, we have had them forever. I remember going to Target 25 years ago, long before Wal-Mart came here.

I should clarify that there are no other grocery stores w/in easy walking distance. If there were, I would not embrace a Walmart.

Can I ask what the heck Target Commercial Interiors is? There's one near my house and it's one of those stores that feels too mysterious to enter.

it sounds like it's run by the weather underground

how do u hug a walmart with nuclear arms

We've got a Walmart Neighborhood Market next door to a Walmart Supercenter. It's ridiculous.

Target with a Starbucks inside that has a Target gift card kiosk that has a mini-rack with Starbucks gift cards

http://www.ncsx.com/2012/052812/Hungeree/timberlake.jpg

Justin Timberlake, doing his Sam Walton impersonation.

Can you use a Target gift card to buy a Starbucks gift card?

Stuff like this does not happen at Target:

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2012/06/cops-woman-shoplifted-and-cooked-meth-inside-walmart/1?csp=34news#.T9QARcV401I

Although IDK maybe sometimes people do lines off a Michael Graves Design mirror

Liberty of London absinthe parties in the haberdashery section

if you feel bad about buying something from walmart but you buy stuff from amazon you gotta recheck your feelbad math, amazon is really worse than both these guys.

anyway I like walking around these stores. they will make great megachurches.

Amazon is pretty evil up and down the line. The stories about their warehouse operations etc., plus I've heard that they fuck suppliers over hardcore.

and they have a side project where they discovered that the market clearing wage in america is like 50 cents an hour

Too busy to read what you're saying too busy clicking on my amazon order.

I have a friend who did warehouse/back room work at Target in Minneapolis and apparently the downtown one is a coveted position and is kind of fun.

i find target as depressing as the kmarts of yore

K marts - "Joe Boxer"

Was in Kmart yesterday buying antibacterial fluid for my Swiffer. Wondered about buying a pair of Craftsman boots (or any of the other off-brand work boots they carry. Like, I don't really need a pair of Red Wings to dig holes in my yard, right?

Martha Stewart workboots

http://www.pressherald.com/news/Man-taken-into-police-custody-after-going-berserk-at-a-Sanford-Walmart.html

"private citizens"

sovereign citizens?

we have great journalists in Maine

can i tell you, recently hsbc sold off its zellers stores to target and walmart
so we started getting targets here
i like walmart. it has a pretty good "ETHNIC FOODS" section that's slightly different based on neighborhood/city and so on 118th ave, there's a section of postramadan snacks, dates, nuts, whatever, and middle eastern groceries that you don't see anywhere else, and decent produce, with a limited but still there section of local and semilocal stuff. and stuff like 4 for $2 cans of snapple.

snapple is horrible, imo

what can i drink instead?

(must be sold at walmart)

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-G0tPB8orgZY/TjXPIFcd8_I/AAAAAAAACrs/mquH45TZTg4/s1600/lc2.jpg

every day as i sift through more and more facebook notifications about people i know "liking" one of these, the more i hate them both

Well, so much for Tarjay being the more hipster of the two.

http://i.imgur.com/Ldc9g.jpg

I bought a Walmart brand floor lamp that has shelves built in; the picture on the box had it stacked with LPs, and Belle & Sebastian were the cover you could see.

dylann where do you live? we've no targets yet in Ontario IIRC

currently alberta/british columbia. living in alberta has provided my first positive walmart experiences.

but my target experience is all in the united states. you'll have targets in ontario eventually, right? our targets are set to open in spring 2013.

Please tell me that someone has already done this:

http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/5383/targetlogo.jpg

hahaha

captain canada sheild?

targeting canada

as in

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/.e1h/img/1.0/sections/mag/fortune/fortune500/2010/snapshots/target_store.jc.jpg

wow that ones unique!

i have very strong feelings about this

walmart forever

target it's like it's so red i swear i can't see when i go in there

and what kind of a name is target

walmart is ancient, classic, tradition, or something !

Targets products failed me again - crappy ice cube tray!

Target and Wal-Mart had their first stores in the same year, 1962.

well, no matter. target is not as welcoming.

what if the twain were merged? like Waltarg? purple?

terrible. there's just something about walmart and kmart that will always trump target. maybe it comes from my time in the south but those are the places you go if you want some real down home retail therapy on a bum afternoon. not target. and that's just the way it is.

no dream in yoru soul for a Tarmart?

dylan - ahh, gotcha. Your mention of HSBC made me think that the Zellers on the west coast were already Targets :) We're scheduled for 2013 stores too.

Walmart is the place you go when you want a practical thing - like a cooler, or a camping stove, or windshield wipers

Target is where you go when you want notebooks or a fun new backpack for a trip, or you're buying a birthday present for a not-close friend - they also have better towels than walmart imo

Of course Wal-Mart is more down home, they originally expanded through rural areas throughout the south, while Target tended to cluster around more urban/suburban areas, iirc.

Looks like the Target I went to as a kid was probably there since 1972. The first Wal-Marts in the state were rural ones, and not until 1983. I remember my friend's parents would go to one in a small town a half hour away occasionally and we bought silly string one time.

I guess if you want sewing stuff or guns, Wal-Mart is your choice, Target never seems to have too much of that stuff.

i had no idea target had been around so long. i've been to target like maybe 5 or 6 times in my life, so it still has a novelty factor for me. and cuter stuff and maybe better lighting than wal-mart? i can hardly deal with wal-mart.

maybe even just 3 or 4 times

target

I remember my mom letting me chill in the area that had magazines while she shopped when I was a kid. I think it was a bigger section than it is these days. I think I flipped through every video game magazine in the store once every couple weeks for years.

A few weeks ago we went to Walmart for some camping essentials and it was in the middle of being remodelled. Oh. My. Christ, what a mistake. We gave up halfway through because we couldn't find anything and the stuff we did find we found by accident. Seriously, it was like someone tipped it upside down and shook it. Bad idea.

Somehow Target has tents and inflatable camping mattresses and all that stuff now! I had no idea.

They do! Though the few times we've tried them they seem to have less of a complete array than WM. But maybe that's just us shopping at a smaller than normal target idk

my friend recently wanted to rent a car to go to the walmart on long island

which is pretty much my favorite fantasy ever

yeah it seems like the key to never going to these stores is to live in the urban-residential core a big, possibly Canadian city and not have access to a car

sometimes going to walgrens is like my friday night activity

i know they're not related but i do what i can

I think a lot of people casually buy stuff at walgreens, which is probably why they have the weirdest selection of shit

Hey surm... this is the second-closest Walgreens to me right now - http://winnetka.suntimes.com/business/9908814-420/sushi-at-walgreens-new-state-street-store-offers-urban-format.html.

I work for a publishing company that put out a 50th anniversary commemoration of Walmart. Check it out for some goofy pictures.

http://www.pageturnpro.com/Arkansas-Business-Group/41134-Wal-Mart-at-50/index.html#1

we used to buy weird shit at Long's while we were wandering round waiting for our prescriptions to be filled. They have the most random food items.

Now that it's CVS I feel less inclined to wander.

One of the Walgreens stores near me sells Argo tea in the refrigerated case! I hadn't seen it anywhere else around here.

sometimes good beer sales at Walgreeens/Longs etc

I can't even begin to imagine living someplace where Target worse than Walmart. Every Walmart I've ever been in has been the fucking end of the world.

tbf, you're from Target central

well yes, this is true; I've been enjoying both Target and Best Buy since I was a small child

altho Best Buy sucks super hard now

Have you been in the newly-remodeled ones? They're trying, they really are.

Hey surm... this is the second-closest Walgreens to me right now - http://winnetka.suntimes.com/business/9908814-420/sushi-at-walgreens-new-state-street-store-offers-urban-format.html.

― ms. cookie (carl agatha), Thursday, August 16, 2012 10:31 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

love

Best Buys are no fun anymore

They're like suburban furniture stores now, where you're swarmed by 900 employees just as you realize the store has nothing you could possibly want to buy

I love Walgreens, I can't lie, and that big Walgreens is miraculous to me.

when the sax music starts playing and i have been looking at face washes for half an hour is officially when i transcend into 7th heaven

Heard the full version of "Fools Gold" last time I was in Walgreens. Beats the hell out of hearing Captain & Tenille on the PA.

xp This Walgreens has a whole huge fancy makeup and skincare product section full of brands I've never even heard of. You would love it. I hope you come to Chicago one day and check it out.

:)

Every time i've gone into a BB in the past few years it was like the total number of customers in the store was lower than the number of blue-shirted dudes and dudettes wandering around chasing them and trying to appease their bosses, who were being pretty non-discreet about standing there and looking all boss-like. Honestly, you could have run that store with 1/4 of the people that were there.

Anyways Wally World wins for me. It was my first job and it was dead easy and by the end of it I was making pretty good money ($11/12hr back in the late 90s), and yeah maybe it has something to do w growing up in the south. Just seems to have a far less formal vibe, like you can forget to dress properly and go in the store and it doesn't matter. Every time I go to Target I feel like it's full of people who get dressed up to go shopping.

Also one of my friend's uncles recently was on People of Walmart looking insanely white trash. So that's classic.

I just go to Target looking how however. I mean, I guess I don't wear tank tops and camo shorts on the reg, though

could be a good look for me, I'll think on it

Also one of my friend's uncles recently was on People of Walmart looking insanely white trash. So that's classic.

this is indisputably classic

i go to the Target dressed to the 9's

just kidding i don't always do that . . . . just on special occasions

will readily admit tho that target had one of the best commercials of the last 10 years with this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFBsxwKHT14

You see, I take several points off of Target for that.

I think I'm the only gut at my BB who buys CD's. Last weekend when I started walking to the computer section to buy speakers for my laptop several employees, in a panic, wondered if I was lost.

It's weird the difference in cashiers hired at these two giant national box store corporations:

Target, I get the hip kid who has to work four hours a night for his drug money. At the end of one transaction, I throw a box of diapers from the cart onto the belt (notice that it's on the cart's right at Target, for some reason) and dude says, Yo, he didn't even see those and he probably wouldn't have caught that if I catch his drift. *wink* -- I get charged for the diapers.

Walmart, it's usually a female who has to work 38.25 hours a week to feed her kid. Hey, there's some cokes on the bottom I tell her as she wordlessly starts running my items over the scanner. The five-year-old tears off for the drinking fountain, I'm putting the bags back into the cart myself, the cashier has to call the manager over to sell me the four-pack of Old Milwaukee, I forget to give them my coupons and when I get out to the car, I realize that I still have the cokes on the bottom of the cart, never scanned.

that's hot

bamford has a target joke. i wonder if target is ok with it.

the joke is more about how unsuccessful her awful high school nemeses are, but the punchline is they work at target.

The most aggravating thing ever about working at Target is that they for some reason expect you to buy into all the hype that they are awesome and sell the best stuff a cheapo big store can possibly sell & they are sooo into diversity and all their cool stuff like that.... except its just like any other shitty retail job. I dunno, the best thing about working at Target IMO was the pricing guns and walkie talkies. Also, their POS system is not terrible.

best part of working at target is no walmart chant and no squiggly yeah?

er walmart cheer

We didn't have a cheer but we would do weird countdowns and stuff like we were about to go out and play a basketball game or something. I honestly don't know what you mean by squiggly, so I guess we didn't have whatever that is.

i remember one time i was waiting for my prescription, and this group of target employees like did one of those hand things? you know where you all put your hands in a circle and cheer?

it was invigorating, i felt moved

and to be completely honest i have found some of my best tshirts at Target

i'm wearing one right no

The Target store I go to the most now is built on to the outside of an old mall and replaced another about 30 blocks away on the same street. Well, not replaced, but they closed one right before this one opened and some of the staff transferred. My favorite is this sassy older black man who can scan all your items in about 30 seconds while making it look effortless. He's probably worked at Target for decades. The other cashiers at some local Targets are a balance between kids and women in their 40s/50s.

When we had fewer Target stores people named them according to neighborhood stereotypes:
- Tarjay: bourgeois suburb Target
- Targhetto: self-explanatory
- Targentino: Italian side of town

wow, midwest target diversity

though i remember having similar distinctions about malls as a teenager

this is the Target ad I love, mostly because when it came out my SIL and her partner were moving into a new house and my wife and I joked that this is what they did while unpacking:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfqEG7ZPO1k

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/10/10/1141724/-Walmart-fuels-inequality-epidemic-taking-advantage-of-our-safety-net#

Walmart has become the number one driver behind the growing use of food stamps in the United States with "as many as 80 percent of workers in Wal-Mart stores using food stamps."

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2012_11/the_walmart_way_is_not_the_onl041379.php

Costco pays employees more

Costco is a members-only place with an emphasis on bulk goods, but the Sam's Club/Costco comparison is a good one and Wal-Mart comes out looking horrible.

I think the "you have to have a big family" aspect of Costco is greatly exaggerated, although you do have to have a bit of discipline in order to make optimal use of the place.

In a statement from the United States, Wal-Mart said, “While we are trying to determine if the factory has a current relationship with Walmart or one of our suppliers, fire safety is a critically important area of Walmart’s factory audit program and we have been working across the apparel industry to improve fire safety education and training in Bangladesh.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/26/world/asia/bangladesh-fire-kills-more-than-100-and-injures-many.html

I worked for Walmart in 1999-2001 as a cashier and I was making pretty good money ($10+/hr by the end of it) and working plenty of full-time weeks. Though yeah that was over 10 years ago so maybe things have changed. They were pretty anti-union back then too fwiw.

walmart for president

Rented a RugDoctor from the kiosk at Wal-Mart yesterday. I attempted to return it today and see nothing but a blank screen at the kiosk. I ask an employee if the machine is not working, and she takes one cursory glance at it, and says "must be down", and walks away. Then I ask her what I'm supposed to do with the heavy machine I'm holding and need to return, presuming that since there's a machine in their store, they know who to contact.

Instead, she says "Be right back", then comes back with a supervisor who says "It must be down. You'll need to call RugDoctor and explain the situation to them. We'll vouch for you." They also tell me I can return it at another Walmart with the kiosks (I think this is BS - the kiosks only have enough door slots for the machines that originated at their location).

I really do not want to haul the thing back to my car and into another Walmart, as they're heavy, plus I know RugDoctor isn't going to magically 'waive' my late fees just because I call them, but I do anyway. When I call, it's readily apparently that the store is the one supposed to be calling, because the instructions say for the store to report a kiosk issue at their local district number. All I could do was leave a voicemail.

A couple comes up to rent one and I explain what's going on, and then one of them realizes THE FUCKING THING IS UNPLUGGED, so he plugs it in. Problem solved, we think, but it gets hung up at the startup menu. I found a CS manager to tell her it's plugged in, but stuck at the main menu, and she clearly isn't listening, and walks away, thinking we just need to let it boot. After about fifteen minutes passing and other employees telling us to call RugDoctor ourselves, I called corporate to complain, and one of the other customers found the manager again to tell her we still needed help, as the machine hadn't booted (since she wasn't listening).

First supervisor comes back and basically barks at me "I told you I was gonna call, didn't you hear me" (which she didn't), then finally picks up the phone to call them (it's been about 45 minutes now). The other supervisors have no idea what to do or if they even have a key to open it. Then, the manager asks the CUSTOMER to unplug it and replug it in, and after 5 minutes, it's working.

So basically, wasted an hour in a Walmart talking to five managers over a goddamn unplugged machine. This is why I never visit Wal-Marts (well that and because of the people that typically visit them!)

Those people are just Neanderthals.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/23127186

If Walmart paid its workers a living wage, the price of your macaroni and cheese would go up by one penny

but even a penny more might cause walmart to lose a customer. and walmart can't . . . bear . . . to . . . lose . . . even . . . one . . . customer.

http://cdn.smosh.com/sites/default/files/ftpuploads/bloguploads/0513/more-mentalnicktoons-krabs2.jpg

i love target's fascist aesthetic; plus the one here has actual sidewalks (some of the few in my town!) extending out into the parking lot, so you can push your whisper-quiet plastic fascist shopping cart to yr car without checking behind yr shoulder every two seconds. plus there are three or four trees planted nearby! it's like versailles.

my hometown wal-mart has been a dud since i was in high school and it stopped staying open 24 hrs cuz we used to go there ~2AM to play sardines.

maybe walmart does to but target has good surveillance, it p much caught this kidnapper/murderer this was an interesting/terrifying true crime ep i saw recently

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Kelsey_Smith

Alice Walton knows where her bread is buttered

http://usuncut.com/politics/alice-walton-hillary-clinton/

uh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EUxCGnkWcI

http://i.imgur.com/8G3O0Pv.jpg

some of the Targets near us are hilariously incompetent at delivering products.

Last December, I was over one of my close friends' houses, and Target had delivered a bunch of christmas gifts to the door, but instead of putting the toy inside a Target box, they just slapped a Target sticker on the product's box, and their daughter found it at the door so they had to give her gift early.

but today, another one of my friends ordered Nintendo Switch controllers, paying $80 for them. instead of getting a box with two switch controllers, they got an envelope with a cardboard endcap display featuring a picture of both controllers. i feel bad for the friend but i'm having a hard time not giggling at the image they shared.