New annoyance at Target? Or just mine?

I don't care for my Target nearly as much as I used to since they remodeled it a few years ago. But I will shop there any day over Walmart. Fortunately, very few stores around me have items locked up. Everyone has electronics under lock and key and it has been that way for years.

A very good friend of mine worked in retail for over 30 years. She was the store manager for a high end store in our mall. People would come in with dead bolt cutters to steal purses. Her store quit carrying certain brands of clothing because so much was being stolen. She finally got so fed up she left retail last year.

Our most recent Walmart remodel is already planning on removing most of its self check out stations because of - you guessed it - theft.

They recently revamped the Target Circle app so now the discounts are supposedly automatically applied. I haven’t looked at it all that closely yet. I primarily go to two Target stores and both of them have a decent selection of fresh produce, dairy, bakery and meat. It’s pretty rare that I have to actually step foot inside a real grocery store and when I do it’s usually for some really specific thing. Right now the only thing on my grocery store list is fried rice flavor Rice A Roni. For some reason the Targets I go to stopped carrying it. 

The nice thing about the Red Card (other than the extra 5% discount) is that it gets you free two day shipping if you need to order something from them online and I don’t think there’s a minimum order to get it. I use that option every once in a while, usually if I want something in a size that the two stores I usually go to don’t have in stock. 

But what does that really mean? These big retailers don’t want employees to put their life or safety at risk so they tell them not to confront or stop people if they see someone taking something out of the store that hasn’t been paid for, so having more foot soldiers on the sales floor won’t really help. Does that mean more cameras? Cameras only identify thieves after the fact, at which point the merchandise is already gone. Security guards or receipt checkers posted at the front doors (which people have also said they don’t like, plus it’s a bad look for a store that is trying to be more upscale)? Other than stopping people from coming in all together (which isn’t good if you’re hoping people will make impulse buys while they’re there for something else), what is the answer?

I think the idea with having certain things locked up means a potential thief has to come face to face with an employee to obtain the item, which is what most shoplifters try to avoid at all costs. They want to slide into a place under the radar, avoid contact with anyone who might be able to later identify them, and slide out with the stuff without anyone noticing them. As annoying as it is to a regular shopper, I’d be willing to bet it’s a pretty effective deterrent for shoplifters because it slows them down and makes them more noticeable which is the exact opposite of what they want.

Those of you that have items locked up in your stores, do they hand you the items or do they make you pay for them right there and then? My Target doesn’t lock up things, so I don’t know. Yes, electronics you pay for the item in the electronic department, same with the Ulta department. At Walmart, if the item is locked up, they don’t hand it to you until you pay. They walk you to a cash register. At Michael’s they take the item to the front and you pick it up when you check out. That is one reason I don’t buy items that are locked up at Walmart. PITA.

I am not much of a complainer, but this, I agree with. The person who drives their cart on one side of the aisle, while looking for something on the other side of the aisle, then walking across to now block more than half the aisle so you can only squeeze through the middle between them and their cart while also trying to dodge them trying to make it back across to their cart. This might seem like a petty complaint, but I have terrible grocery store anxiety to begin with.

I don't shop at Target, always found it overpriced. But I stopped in a grocery store near the city where I work and noticed infant formula kept locked up near the front of the store. Not sure if that's more about safety or item limits or theft?!

I rarely go into any stores since Covid. I do curbside at HEB for groceries and most everything else I order online. I very, very rarely go to Walmart. I used to like Target but I haven't been in ours (not the greatest store) since Covid. I think I need to stop in and see what it's like now. Sometimes I think I need to go back into stores and then I read things like this thread and think nope, I'm good.

I know it's petty, but I quit shopping there but a couple times a year when they decided that to get a sale price you had to scan all the stuff in your cart with your phone then add things to your "wallet" then enter it at check out and have your phone code scanned to get the "wallet" prices.

I may be misremembering some of the mechanics of it- but it just ticked me off to no end. Especially to go through all that, trying to "teach myself" then go to the damn check out and have to do self check out, and of course do something wrong, then the lady comes over and tells me "oh, make sure you (do this and that and something else in the app) and then I get a few more dollars off that I would have overpaid if I handn't randomly needed help because I bought something that needed a security tag taken off.

Just nope. I went in about a week ago while I was out of town to buy something and there was a sale on swimwear (that's what I'd needed - luckily) and it was 30% off. So, I started self check out (only option) and then just pushed the help button to get someone to come over) anyway, she said now you don't have to do some of the stuff, as long as you put in your phone number.

This is the same reason I quit shopping at JC Penny, Kohl's, Dick's and Bed Bath and Beyond. I felt like I was getting robbed if I didn't spend 30 minutes preparing to shop and certainly didn't want to buy ANYTHING if I didn't have a 20% minimum coupon. 

There is nothing in that store I want that bad. Certainly not $45-$100 costume jewelry (WTH- I was in a super long line waiting for self check out so was looking at the jewelry displays. I just had to laugh about that one!

FuzzyMutt you nailed it. I stopped shopping at a lot of stores because of shit like that. The grocery store my husband goes to has "digital" coupons. So I've got to go into the app, "clip" the coupon I want, add it to my wallet, and then input my phone number at the checkout to get the deal. Fuck that noise. Just give the fucking sales price to everyone. I just know the only reason they are doing this is so that they can send targeted marketing emails so I will what? Continue buying what I already am planning to continue to buy? I've had enough. Sometimes I really miss the world 30 years ago.

Agreed. LOL I do play the game at CVS and Hannaford (my grocery store) because I do have to shop somewhere.

CVS is easy because I only buy a few things there, and it's on my way home. So when I get a "good" coupon, I stop and get what I need. Ironically, I LOVE the self check out there, but that's because it's only 2 maybe 3 items at a time and it's easy (for me)

Hannaford also has an app where you go in and click coupons, and you get back rewards for store brand items you buy every quarter I think. I sometimes will click the coupons if I think about it, but often don't. I always forget to claim my (maybe) 5$ a quarter rewards.

I fully admit I am not a barterer- I like to just pay whatever the thing is. I used to be a couponer, up til about 8 years or so ago. It used to be worth my time. Now, to save $5 on my $250 grocery bill? Nah, I'm good.  

Money etc aside, we are clearly different style shoppers. I would never use one cup holder, much less two, lol. If I get a Starbucks, it's on the way out the door, and even that would have only been when the Christmas cups came out when it was the big thing in scrapbooking lol Now wine.... I could get into that- but then I'd end up buying the $45 costume jewelry LOL

Enjoy your shopping and sipping

Tell me about the wine shop. We have 1 aisle of crappy wines at ours.

No tasting here but lots of over priced alcohol at ours.

Wow we don’t have any of this at our Target or any stores nearby. I’m surprised to read about it and I def would no longer be going if they did. the only thing locked is spray paint. 

I almost never have anything shipped because I go to Target pretty much every week. I just put a $30 pair of pants in the cart on the app and it did have the two day free shipping, plus the 5% discount for using the Red Card. But again, I’m in Target’s hometown and there is a distribution center 20 minutes from my house. If I wanted to do their new subscription thing (which is I think $49 a year) I could get free next day delivery, but that’s not a value to me because I go right past a Target store pretty much everywhere I go.