Target or Walmart

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.