Discussion
  • Read More
    Captain_CrutchHamilton Nolan
    5/14/14 1:16pm

    Not for nothing, but it shocks me how bad this writing is for someone who has a college degree.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      DoctorNineCaptain_Crutch
      5/14/14 1:25pm

      Allow me to direct you to the nearest Target, where you can pick up some laxatives and a handy six-pack of toilet paper for that problem you are having. If that doesn't work, I hear they are doing wonderful things with botox for excessive sphincter tone these days.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      Captain_CrutchDoctorNine
      5/14/14 1:28pm

      I didn't realize laxatives could cure honesty, but thanks for the tip.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    Al PastorHamilton Nolan
    5/14/14 1:24pm

    Hamilton,

    I very much appreciate your articles on "big retail". Thanks for helping me make an informed decision about where to spend my dollars.

    Besides the obvious "Buy Local", do you have any recommendations on national brick & mortars or ecommerce sites to patronize?

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      Hamilton NolanAl Pastor
      5/14/14 1:36pm

      Costco has a good reputation. You can also look up which stores are unionized online.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      Al PastorHamilton Nolan
      5/14/14 1:49pm

      Thanks!

      This appears to be a good resource.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    DoctorNineHamilton Nolan
    5/14/14 1:07pm

    Here's a little clue, Jeff.

    If the people you work with are afraid to tell you the truth, then it isn't a 'team'. Your Target culture has turned you into an approximation of 'The Red Queen' from Alice in Wonderland. You might wanna work on that.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      toothpetardDoctorNine
      5/14/14 1:09pm

      I remember a conversation with a CTO who was proud about how his team was terrified of him- it was about some fundamental inoperability of his flagship product. I was out within a year; have yet to see this flagship product in a successful installation.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      lena dunhams boobstoothpetard
      5/14/14 1:22pm

      We have a CMO who is exactly that way. Came in doesn't know his job but bosses around like he is the king of sales and marketing. Brought in someone to help (since he doesnt know a fucking thing) who purged the entire staff to save money outsourcing. Now things cost even more from a marketing perspective and are not nearly as effective anymore.

      Only a matter of time before the two of them are shitcanned but it cant come soon enough...

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    Arctic16Hamilton Nolan
    5/14/14 1:12pm

    I worked at Target from 2010 to 2011 as a Team Lead before being promoted to ETL. The first two paragraphs are absolutely accurate. And frankly, it's shame. In my short year there, my store saw THREE ETLs fill one position. They were all recent college graduates, like me, that bailed once they realized that working retail is awful. Meanwhile, my stores Senior Team Lead had been working at Target for 15 years and could run circles around ANY ETL in the store. Unfortunately for him, he didn't have a college degree and he was maxed out on raises, so he was fucked. He left Target, the only job he'd ever known, shortly after I did because there was nowhere else for him to go. To reiterate, this guy would never be promoted because he didn't have a degree despite him being by far the best employee in the store.

    The kicker for me was when an ETL arrived, fresh out of college, who had interned at Target during college and was drinking the kool-aid like no other. She was being groomed to be a lifer, upper management. She was a mirror image of my store's Store Team Lead. She quit in 3 months. That blew my mind, that the person who interned at Target during college and set up her whole track to be an ETL post-graduation hated it so much once she got there that she bailed in a few months.

    My store was incredibly well-run (our Store Team Lead was promoted to District TL right after I left. She was 26 and probably got bumped up to at least a cool $200K salary with that promotion) due to management there, and it STILL was absolutely awful.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      AfleetAlexArctic16
      5/14/14 2:39pm

      It blows my mind that someone would set up a college-level education track to become an ETL for a retail store. Seems like a waste of tuition to me. Who would WANT to work retail in the lowest levels?

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    Ronald MexicoHamilton Nolan
    5/14/14 1:06pm

    "As to Jeff Jones' dismay that a Target employee would not share their concerns internally: perhaps their reluctance is due to the fact that complaining internally is traditionally seen as a good reason to fire employees, as Target store managers have told us. "

    Perhaps their reluctance would recede if they realized that by firing them, Target is gift wrapping them a retaliation lawsuit.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      seeyaRonald Mexico
      5/14/14 1:29pm

      They don't have to say the complaint is the reason they are being fired. They can use any reason that isn't discriminatory and not have to worry about it retaliation lawsuits, which are notoriously difficult to prove.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      Exponential GrapeRonald Mexico
      5/14/14 1:38pm

      Remember in the article where it said the guy was getting written up for things people don't normally get written up for? Stores pull that crap all the time on people that complain to give them solid documentation in case a retaliation lawsuit comes up.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    Voltaire CrescentHamilton Nolan
    5/14/14 1:29pm

    My wife works for Target and she comes home with horror stories nearly every day. First and foremost, she was hired on as an over-night stocker and Target has slowly been removing that position. She used to go in to work at ten, then midnight, then 2am, then 4am, and now she finally goes in at 6am. This has effectively removed that extra buck-fifty or so an hour she got for being a nighttime employee, a boon that was quite helpful considering the paltry wage she gets to begin with. When she started she was working seven and a half hours a night, Target's way of getting away with not making their employees "full time" and thus having to give full-time employee benefits. Her hours have been reduced down to six a shift if she's lucky. Add in the less-than-reputable people she's forced to work with (including a misogynistic upper management that gives her no end of trouble) and I'm surprised she hasn't lashed out like these other Target employees. When are these big chain stores going to realize that their employees are people too, that they cannot survive off of nearly minimum wage and terrible hours? (For the record, we're a two income household with a child on the way and we were just managing to get by in Maryland, the state of "work for the government or gtfo") It's appalling and the attitude that it's alright to screw over your low totem pole employees makes me want to throttle people. The sad thing is that there's an endless supply of fresh out of high school/college aged people that they can replace anyone with at the drop of a hat. Those people don't care if they're working for minimum wage, they're just glad to have a job. The majority of them don't have debt, or house payments, or a child on the way.

    I tell myself, it's only a matter of time before these big business become so bloated they burst.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      aamnikeVoltaire Crescent
      5/14/14 1:40pm

      I would agree with you about there being people to replace them with, but there really isn't. Millennials aren't getting shit either. It's nonsensical about what's going on in this economy, but this is what happens when you let businesses be people.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      the johnVoltaire Crescent
      5/14/14 1:41pm

      She should write up her story and send it in to HamNo.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    aismoHamilton Nolan
    5/14/14 1:02pm

    I hate Target. Its like the mutt of the commerce world. Shopping there isn't financially prudent. You're better off saving money at WalMart and buying trendy "designed" things at real stores.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      toothpetardaismo
      5/14/14 1:04pm

      I went in there once a few months ago. Amazing displays of food simulacra.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      RagingBulldogaismo
      5/14/14 1:12pm

      At least most Targets are fairly clean and decently stocked. Most Walmarts have day old spills on the floor, merchandise on the wrong racks (if not on the floor), and the least helpful employees ever. Yes I know their job sucks, but if you can't help me at least point me towards someone that can.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    AshiiHamilton Nolan
    5/14/14 1:13pm

    Almost all the left-leaning, urban 20-somethings and 30-somethings I know shop at Target and feel better about it than if they were shopping at Walmart. Now wtf are they supposed to do? All the millennial guilt!

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      lisaloAshii
      5/14/14 1:40pm

      I shop at Target over Walmart because T is closer to my house and cleaner. Organized. Where as the WM is a little further away, filthy, and chaotic. Both are full of plastic cheap crap and the results of sweatshop labor, i'm sure - I guess if I have to choose I'll choose the convenient less gross one. Neither make me feel "better."

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    lisaloHamilton Nolan
    5/14/14 1:38pm

    Amazon is cruel, Target is bad - WHERE am I going to shop now, ethically? Mom and pop stores? Sure! Oh wait - they've all been put out of business by the big boxes. Maybe we should all just stop buying stuff, altogether, to teach the evil corporations a lesson.

    Not gonna happen, I know, and even if it did it wouldn't work. :(

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      fastd63lisalo
      5/14/14 8:07pm

      Where I am we have Wincos,not Costco level good but they are a employee owned grocery store chain.For many thing try the local thrift shops.You would be surprised at the level of almost new clothes,furniture and tools you can get there cheap.You may not find something every time but it you hit them every week or so you'll probably find something.I used to look down on these places,but after being out of work for a while I got past my ignorance.Also shopping there is a good way to help recycle goods and keep them out of landfills.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      Blatheringlisalo
      5/15/14 11:24am

      This is a common problem I have. I want to shop local, or even if Boxy, at least Medium Box. Then I went to Valu Home Center last night, a regional chain, and they didn't have the simplest thing I wanted. And the one locally owned men's store is awesome if you're going to a wedding in 1975, but useless otherwise. And the local office supply store sells items that I can get—and I mean identical, in packaging—at a Big Box at a 500% mark up (and always has, not like they were forced up mark up by competition.)

      So I'm at a loss. I've tried the local thrift stores and it's all junk. I could drive an hour to a larger city, but that doesn't help my local economy or help me when I just need to run out and grab something quick.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    Same Sad EchoHamilton Nolan
    5/14/14 1:16pm

    "To quote French novelist Emile Zola, "Only pretentious assholes quote French novelist Emile Zola.""

    - French novelist Emile Zola

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      DoctorNineSame Sad Echo
      5/14/14 1:29pm

      Winning the internets one quote at a time...

      Reply
      <