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

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.