If you normally don’t read over at Milk and Cookies because you’re kind of bored by all the shopping talk, perhaps today will be your day: I’m talking about PLANTS! And also: the plant post CAME TO ME IN A DREAM! I dreamed I was writing it, and so then later, I….well, I wrote it. As you can see.
Or maybe plants are as boring to you as watching plants grow, in which case let’s get back to the shopping talk.
I had something unusual happen the other day: I went to a Target I’d never been to before, and…I didn’t enjoy it. I think they must not have been piping in the same life-restoring air the other Targets have, because it didn’t smell soothing. The walls were painted (or possibly stained) a too-dark shade of grey. The ceilings seemed lower, and the departments seemed smaller, and the music was depressing. The fluorescent lighting was too dim, and some of the lights were flickering. The employees seemed exhausted and beaten down, as if trapped in a twilight zone situation, working the same workday again and again. The clearance areas were sparse, and not very reduced. I felt weird and skittish, and then discouraged and plodding. I bought hardly anything: a pack of card stock (50% off), a 3-pack of Wonder Pets unders (30% off), and a package of lightbulbs (rang up higher than expected, and by then I had soaked up too much atmosphere to do anything about it).
So now if any of you say, “Meh, I don’t get what the fuss is about Target,” I will nod understandingly rather than reeling back in shock and horror. I will imagine you at the grey, flickering, plodding Target.
YES. There are Targets like that. Think of all the poor people who haven’t yet been to the right Target and who are imagining US shopping in the bad Target and just not understanding what we’re talking about!
Maybe it wasn’t a Target? They don’t have Muzac playing in them. They are a “silent” store. Or, maybe you dreamed that, too!
I know EXACTLY what you’re talking about. It usually happens to me when I visit an older Target–the ones with lower ceilings and lighting that is “a little off”. The worst for me is when I visit a new Target and the store is flipped opposite of what I’m used to. ARRRRGGGHHH..It makes me dizzy!
That just made me re-evaluate my own Target and be a lot more grateful for it.
When I visited North Carolina recently I came to the realization too, that All Targets Are Not Created Equal. And in fact, it would seem that in some parts of the country (Washington, I’m looking at YOU) most of the Targets are on the older/decrepit side. In NC, for instance, the Target was absolutely BEAUTIFUL and BRIGHT and WONDERFUL. I was sadly a little disappointed to go home to my own Target.
I keep hoping that the Great Target Corporation will get the memo and decide to remodel or something – which, why is it that a remodeled Target gets better stuff? I just don’t understand.
I know what you mean. We have a Target like that in the area. Not too far from a gorgeous, sprawling Super Target with all of the lighting, atmosphere, happiness. I don’t know WHY anyone would ever go to sad Target.
50% off cardstock makes me want to go check out my Target today though. I heart reduced price paper products!
How could Target HQ allow such a thing to exist? Don’t they understand they they are RUINING THEIR BRAND?
I wonder: does the crappiest, dreariest Target still beat the newest, brightest, prettiest Wally World? It probably would, for me (especially if it had Choxie on sale). We have a Scary K-Mart that sounds eerily similar; I’ve had some luck with clearance bargainzas, and I like browsing Martha’s stuff, but it’s just sad in there. I have no idea how it stays open.
I have tried out most of my local Targets and my most favorite Target is starting to resemble the one you describe. Target burnout perhaps? I hate to have to find a new one as this one is FIVE minutes from my house. Door to electronically opened door.
That sounds more like a Wal-Mart.
We live equi-distant between two Targets. They represent both ends of the Target spectrum you describe. The plodding Target is right next to my work, but I will avoid completing that particular errand– even if it is entirely convenient for me to run in on my way home– until the weekend, when we can all take a trip to the restorative Target.
Target is actually in the process of renovating ALL of its stores across the country. They have been redo-ing all the ones around here, and they are really nice!
WHAT??? this is terrible news. i refuse to believe that a Real Target would allow this.. this… BLASPHEMY of a store to exist. my world is crumbling.
We have one of those as well. I think it’s the lighting. It’s like a Target/Aldi’s hybrid. And not in a good way.
Maybe sad Target is the next store to be remodeled. Our Target is terrific but yet it’s being remodeled so right now the selection is a little bare while half the store is sectioned off.
My Target is new-ish and not plodding but I have had the oposite experience with returns. Around here, W*l-M*rt will take back ANYTHING, in any state at any time and Target makes you feel like you’re trying to rip them off because your mom bought your kid’s shirt too small. A receipt is not good enough. They must have your drivers licencse to scan, the return must be withing 15 minutes of purchase (ok, not really but its a very short time) and you can only return items WITH a receipt like 3-4 time a YEAR. What’s up with that?
This post and the comments are so hilarious! For some reason all of the Targets around here are pretty new, so I don’t think I’ve experienced this twilight zone version of the best store ever. Hopefully it will never happen.
Horrors!
I am a HUGE Target fan too. :)
Sigh…
OMG, Swistle! The fact you wrote down something that came to you in a DREAM excited me… because it reminded me of how Stephenie Meyer came up with the Twilight series (the first book began because of a dream she had, that she started writing down, and the rest is history).
Mind you, from her dream she sold four books, has a movie deal for at least three of them, and has made oodles of money.
But hey… you wrote about plants, and they’re cool too!
;-)
(But I really *was* excited that you wrote it from a dream, that’s TOO fun! I’m a big “dream” fan, since I have really vivid ones myself).
I live near a bad target and drive to the farther target because I come out depressed whenever I visit the closest target.
I grew up in minneapolis where Target is head quartered and its a Target Mecca- they are all HUGE, bright and so awesome. I always try to go to one when I am home so that I can soak up some positive Target energy.
Unrelated to this post- I’m so glad you did the little Categories section over on the side. Now I can find recipes! Thanks
That is horrible! This can’t happen!
I go farther to the supertarget, b/c they have cooler stuff.
I feel your pain!
Was it a mall Target? I prefer our free-standing one on the opposite side of town from our mall. I have no idea why they’re different, but the other seems happier, somehow!
Huh. Ours is big, bright, pretty new, but it’s just so… soulless. The employees hate it there, there are never any sales. I found one small clearance shelf once, with a bunch of opened and broken things on it, otherwise we never get clearance prices. And I was so excited when we got it because I thought it would be a Hello Kitty paradise! Don’t look at me like that. It’s okay to be in your mid 30s and like Hello Kitty. Mom told me so.