"Security Mostly Follows Black People" Disgruntled Target Worker Alleges
UPDATE: A current Target employee rebuts these statements, inside...
Target gets a free pass in many cases, as opposed to say, a certain blue-colored store, thanks in large part to its eye-popping ad campaigns and associations with artists and feel-good organizations, but the allegations by one disgruntled Target worker, which you should read with a hunk of salt, paint a different picture...
landlease: I work full time at Target and id like to tell their secrets
benpopken: We love secrets
landlease: I worked day time and overnight so i know what its like around the clock First, the security mostly follows black people. One manager told me they don't want a black person working in electronics, because they steal more than others...
(Photo: nycmstar )
landlease:A hell of a lot of team members steal from the stock rooms.
Everyone makes fun of customers as soon as they walk away. We wear fake name tags so that when a customer DOES tell a manager that an employee was rude, nobody gets in trouble.
When we apply, we are promised 40+ hours a week. I am down to 24. And every week my manager tells me they will go up to 40. The only reason is that I'm under 40 is that then you don't get health benefits.
benpopken: What store do you work in?
landlease: I work in NY. I'm not telling where. Oh and theres a bar across the street. So on the measly half hour breaks they give you in an 8-hour shift, many people down as much as they can and return to work buzzing or drunk.
Oh, and I'm getting a surgery next month, so i begged to work 40 hours so my health insurance can activate, they said no. So I'm gonna have to pay like, full price.
Oh oh oh, one more thing before i go, the dog recalls. Apparently the people working in pets, don't give a shit, cuz they didn't remove anything....
Whether these allegations are true and/or limited to just one store is hard to say. All we know is that the Brooklyn Target is really dirty and the shelves are always in disarray— a far cry from the gleaming image they beam out the boob tubes. — BEN POPKEN
UPDATE: And now, counterpoint from a current Target employee:
I just read the new article about Target and wanted to share my insight on the issue.The employee said some truthful things, but some were extreme exaggerations.
1.The security mostly follows black people
a. Not true at all. I work at a very busy target, and we usually have 3 AP people on site at all times. They rarely have time to follow anyone. One usually stands at the doors, one is in plainclothes and wonders the stores looking for suspicious activity - never following unless told to do so by the third person who is usually watching the cameras.
2. Everyone makes fun of customers as soon as they walk away. We wear fake name tags so that when a customer DOES tell a manager that an employee was rude, nobody gets in trouble.
a.Several things wrong with this one
b. We sometimes make fun of customers, usually in jest to make the time fly by faster - and it's usually not about a certain individual.
c. We do wear fake name tags SOMETIMES. The majority of team members wear their real names. The executives give you a random nametag if you come to work without one.
3. When we apply, we are promised 40+ hours a week. I am down to 24. And every week my manager tells me they will go up to 40. The only reason is that I'm under 40 is that then you don't get health benefits.
a. Bull Fucking Shit.
b. When you apply, you're told that you have an opportunity to work 40+ hours. You are never scheduled over 40 hours unless you're paid overtime. There were no promises. Target has been cutting hours but if you are only working 24 hours a week suck it up and maybe learn other areas of the store. I'm trained in 8+ areas of the store and get over 30 hours per week.
c. Theres also a sheet where you can cover shifts for another employee - great way to get new hours.
4. On half hour lunch breaks:
a. Yes, this is true but it's plenty of time if you don't try to get drunk before coming back to work. Almost all of the team members at my store eat in the break room or restaurants nearby and end up waiting at the punchclock to be able to clock back in.
5. Dog Recalls
a. It was removed if there was a specific recall. Target stores were sent signs and lists of recalled food items and dates. The food was removed from the store I work at the same day.
Target does have some flaws, but this is just crazy - she was probably reprimanded for working drunk and took out her anger on here.
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Comments:
Having worked at Target for several years, this sounds more like a store by store issue rather than a company issue overall. Personally never saw fake name badge wearing, racial profiling by security, or drunk employees. Ok, one drunk employee who was in and out of rehab until she was eventually let go after MULTIPLE warning and leniency to get her act together.
As for the 40+ hours, the only way I know to get a guaranteed 40 hour work week from Target is to get promoted to a level 2 or higher. Anyone one on floor or cashiering who is level 1 is usually not given the opportunity to work 40 hours each week and get benefits. Yeah it sucks, but not exactly outside the norm of most retail jobs. They shouldn't be hiring with those promises of 40 hours. Container Store is about the only place I know that seems to hand out benefits readily.
One store, I'd guess. I worked at one in Maryland for ~2 weeks this past winter.
1) AP (Assets Protection, not Accounts Payable) was a black guy.
2) Name tags were legit.
3) Breaks were better. I forget the exact structure, but I think I got 30 minutes on a 4 hour shift.
Surgery next month eh? Hope that brain transplant works out for you.
Hmm..not sure if I believe all stores practice this type of "service".
I can say that its way better than Walmart!
the brooklyn target is abominable. every store in that mall is a total mess. it looks like a bomb went off half the time. i always wondered if they don't hire enough staff to keep the place neat or if the workers just don't give a shit anymore.
if my girlfriend says she needs to go to target i will drive to the one out by laguardia or i will find an excuse to go to new jersey and hit one there. the brooklyn store is really that annoying.
You could always shop at Target.com instead.
Just be sure that you're pretty flexible with what you want. Like, for example, say that you like the Midnight Tranquility plates, and would like to own them. Before ordering them, ask yourself whether you also like the Sunset Tranquility plates, because that's what you're probably going to get anyway. Even if you call them requesting a replacement shipment be sent out with the plates you actually ordered, you're just going to get the wrong ones again.
In short, I don't think Target labels the boxes in their warehouse, so if you want to buy something and have them ship you something, Target is the way to go! If, however, you like receiving what you ordered, stick with amazon.
Who me? Bitter?
I suppose the recall thing can be checked just by going into a couple of Targets that sell pet food. Everything else sounds like it's most likely a problem with that store rather than the chain.
The Brooklyn Target looks just fine.
In fact, the bigger Targets are the ones that seem like a chaotic mess to me.
landlease - "We wear fake name tags so that when a customer DOES tell a manager that an employee was rude, nobody gets in trouble."
Wouldn't the Manager notice everyone was wearing fake name tags?
Yeah, this sure sounds like some 16 year old just trying to show off to his friends that he can get his cock and bull story posted on "The Consumerist".
Sorry Ben, but this is just not up to your usual standards. Slow news day, maybe?
She sounds totally credible, a real upstanding citizen.
@chrisgoh: And there we have it... I think all of the "confessions", if true, are isolated to this one store and can be pinned to poor management.
Furthermore, why wouldn't the employee do the whole anonymous whistleblower dance by sending an email to Target Corporate as a "disgruntled customer" and casually mention some of these things (from a customers perspective, of course)? That would shake things up, no doubt.
I'd also have to say that this is not up to Consumerist standards. There is no way that business practices like this would be tolerated, especially at Target.
"One manager told me they don't want a black person working in electronics, because they steal more than others." Are we taking shots at the entire company because they have a store where some of the employees are racist?
My wife worked at a Target, and while she had a terrible experience, her problems- and this person's- seem more store-by-store, rather than company-wide.
There's a difference between news and sensationalism. Come on. You can do better than this.
I call BS...the Target in Sandy Springs, GA has at least two or three African-Americans working in electronics. (In a metro area that's approaching majority-minority status and actually has in some parts of town, there isn't much room to be racist.)
I worked at Target, myself, and I very little of this rings true. It may be true, but I suspect the problem is management in this store, and not company wide. I actually left Target because I was getting too many hours, not too few. I'd buy that they probably keep a lot of people part-time for the reason stated, but they were pretty clear about all that during my orientation.
I had an incorrect name badge only if I forgot my badge and on my first day because they were out of temporary badges. Still, my supervisor knew full well about this and easily could have identified who "Marco" was. I actually never recall anyone mocking a customer. I felt genuinely encouraged to serve the customers well and we were repeatedly told that we always drop our regular tasks to help a customer. The break time was very fairly handled, too, though I actually seem to recall us being required to stay in the store during our breaks. I could be getting that very wrong, but if that's policy it'd be tough to go get hammered. It'd be impossible not to be noticed by your supervisor for being drunk.
"All we know is that the Brooklyn Target is really dirty and the shelves are always in disarray- a far cry from the gleaming image they beam out the boob tubes."
Sometimes I think the Consumerist folks fail to realize there's a world outside NYC, but fortunately, New York has little to do with the rest of / the real world.
Target stores elsewhere are, in my experience, massively cleaner and more organized than any of their competitors.
I wouldn't be surprised if any of this were true, especially the security following black people more.
That being said, there's nothing here to corroborate this tipster's story, so who knows? Also, I doubt every Target is run like that anyways.
I once worked for a guy, that when looking at applications, would throw out the ones that had "black sounding names" or the ones where the addresses were from "black parts of town."
I started looking for another job that day, and left his company soon after.
"Container Store is about the only place I know that seems to hand out benefits readily."
Yeah; a place that charges $49.99 for a plastic box probably can do that. I do not understand why people like Container Store. I have always found it to be a tremendous ripoff.
You can count me in on the Brooklyn Target hate. I generally avoid the place, but on the few occasions I have been there I've come away with the impression that the customers and employees have some sort of secret agreement wherein they work together to make the joint unusable.
My target experience: we had the real names on our name tags, I got my hours (but I was a Level II), but it did seem our security people were drawn to african americans.
BREAKING NEWS: Security follows black people around more than whites!!! Next up, Liz from Gettysburg with an update on the war. Liz, is General Meade feeling confident on his second day of battle?
It's not unusual for
Plan for revenge against asshole Target manager:
1) Compile litany of outrage-inducing half-truths about and allegations about my place of employment and get it posted on the Consumerist
2) ???
3) Profit
Target.com blows. I ordered 2 sets of 4 glasses. Pretty simple order. I waited 8 weeks they never came target never called. So I called them. First off complete retards work for target.com customer service. I asked where my glasses were they said I don't know let me transfer you. Next guy looks it up oh sir we canceled your order. I never canceled it. Their is nothing we can do. I used gift cards to by the glasses which I threw away after I received a conformation e-mail saying that my order had gone through. Long story short I had to wait 3 days before someone with any power at target.com could get me a new gift card with the balance i was owed. I will never shop at target.com again. The store is great there website sucks ass and I know I am not the only one with these kind of problems with their website.
I feel compelled to speak a bit on this post, from personal experience as a former Target worker.
The store I used to work at was the cleanest Target I've ever been to. But, it was in a pretty upper-class area. I've also been to some really shitty ones in lower-class neighborhoods.
I worked with a black guy, and girl in electronics, they're still there and I drop by to say hi every so often. The head of security while I was there was black, as well as the head of HR. Suffice it to say there were no race issues going on, at least none that I saw.
Fake name badges, yeah I did see that happening a lot. But from what I saw it didn't translate to rude behavior or poor service, it was just kind of a joke for fellow employees.
I worked only part-time, but my full-time friends did often have problems getting enough hours week to week.
Never personally saw any employee outright steal something, but I have seen the "hide item until it goes on clearance" trick. I know theft happened occasionally, though. I've found empty videogame boxes in the back room.
I always got the full allotted time for breaks and lunch. Two paid 15 minute breaks and one 45 minute lunch for an 8 hour shift. In fact, if you didn't take the full time, you could get in trouble. I've seen people get fired for not taking their lunch before their 5th hour.
I live in a major metro area in Southeast Michigan. Minorities work in all levels of the many Target stores in my area. Discrimination as blatant as described would make the Detroit Free Press in about 2 days. No retailer in this area could discriminate so blatantly and not lose huge amounts of customers. I have always found Target to be a cut above in customer service.
@tcp100: It really depends on the store. I used to think all Targets were as dingy, dirty, disheveled and rude as the ones I had been to in Vernon Hills and Evanston. Then I went to one outside Philadelphia and it was like a revelation. The recently built a shiny new target down the street from me in Chicago and it's always clean, always friendly, and pretty much an exemplary operation. Different stores have different cultures, no matter how hard corporate works to make the experience homogeneous.
Dude is obviously fronting as a Target Employee. Target drills into their Team Members that there are not customers, but Guests. I have to call BS on a store manager allowing anyone getting smashed and coming in to work. If this guy did work at a Target, it was for a day or so as he's obviously a knucklehead.
As far as the claim that security follows only black people, that probably isn't entirely true. If you're dressed decent and respectable, you most likely won't get followed. If you're dressed like a "thug," you're asking to get followed in any establishment, black or white.
Wal-Mart people seem to follow me around with annoying regularity. So much so that I'm recognizing these same people when I go shopping. I wonder if it is because I look like someone they've have problems taking down, or because I'm gay?
I think I'll go ask in a gay forum if other people have that some problem with Wal-Marts in the Central US.
Last time I bought something from the Target electronics department, the entire electronics staff was black.
And we're supposed to be shocked that employees make fun of customers behind their backs? Having done time in retail myself, my guess is that it's a rare store where that doesn't happen.
@LowerHouseMember: We know that toy collectibles tend to not make it out of the back room at the stores around here.
Blacks being followed in a store, its not as improbable as some may think.
this isn't just target, it's retail. Every joe job I've ever worked we did a lot of the same things, sans the racist bit. I've worn fake/no name tags, made fun of customers, lifted stuff from the stockroom, etc. We used to take expired soda out to the back and set up 2 totes and play tee-ball with a mophandle. We had to call animal control because the squirrels overran the dumpster from all the expired halloween candy we put in there. It's pretty common practice for kids with jobs to behave poorly when management isn't looking/doesn't care/is in on the prank.
As far as the benefits thing, well that's just sad but as a part time employee I rarely expected to get benefits at all, and Target should have made clear somewhere in the 2 day orientation that you were a part-time employee. There are certain jobs where part timers do get bennies, my job#2 is currently one of them.
Retail jobs suck. All of them. Sometimes you just have to make the best of a bad situation and you find fun in being rude, jaded, cynical and crass.
hasn't anyone seen the movie Clerks?
IF this joker's statements are true, then I'd have to say that it sounds like the employees at this particular Target are a bunch of screw-ups. I'd be willing to bet that he'd get his 40 hours if he didn't pull shenanigans like wearing fake names on his tag, coming to work drunk, and badmouthing the customers.
Bitter, party of one?
Sounds like they need a new manager. The Target I go to in my town is great.
This sounds like a low-level, disgruntled ex-retail employee at a badly-managed store.
Fake nametags, and mocking customers behind their backs are commonplace in retail. How pervasive and overt that behavior might be is a function of management.
If management isn't at least a little feared and/or respected by the employees, things will go downhill no matter where you are. If a manager is openly racist, and employees are allowed to come back from lunch visibly drink with no reprecussions, rampant employee theft shouldn't be unexpected.
My wife worked retail years ago, with a manager who had been caught sexually harassing female employees. He had no credibility or authority in the eyes of his staff, and the magnitude of employee theft was astonishing.
About the only factor that appears to be company-wide is weekly hours of employment and access to benefits. That kind of frustration can lead to some other employee problems, but it's endemic across the modern retail industry I'm afraid.
Dude, I work full time (in a salaried position) and I only get half an hour for break, too...
I had a manager at a Target call me a son-of-a-bitch as I was walking away this winter. There was a power outage in aprt of the city, but we needed supplies so we hit Target. Entrance doors were open, and registers were functioning. So we came in and started walking around only to be told we had to leave. I calmly asked why someone wasn't just at the front door saying they were closed. The response was we cannon lock the doors until the store is clear. I pressed the point as we were moving towards the exit, why let us in just to shoo us out, you will never "clear" the store unless you tell people you are closed at the entrance. As I was exiting a woman referred to me as a son-of-a-bitch, I turned around, indicated that I heard that and asked for the managers name. She said I am the manager. I left with the intention of writing Target corporate, but I never did, we made chili and played xBox 360, because I figured the time it would take to draft a professional letter wouldn't be worth it as it would unlikely garner any pertinant action on the part of Target.
I understand it was probably a stressful situation, but I wouldn't have been pressing my point if it didn't make so much sense. And for pete's sake if you're going to talk about a patron, make sure they are out of ear shot!
I'm calling shenanigans with this story. I worked there in college - none of this EVER happened.
I will never shop at the Brooklyn Target ever again!
Of course it helps that I live 5,000mi away.
Whether these allegations are true and/or limited to just one store is hard to say.
Indeed. To do so would require... oh... journalism.
Why was this even posted consumerist? Sketchy random person IM's is all it take now?
Could this person be:
1. lying
2. crazy
3. Walmart corporate intel type
4. attention-starved
5. Most to all of the above.
I love the consumerist, but have to admit this is a real black eye for you.
landlease sounds like a liar with a chip on its shoulder.
Breaks at Target are the legal standard of 30 mins for lunch and 15 min breaks for anything under 6.5 hours. If you work an 8-hour shift you get two 15s and a 30.
And they *never* allow 40 + a week. That means over-time pay, and they don't even let the team leads over 40 a week.
This all sounds like disgruntled employee falsehoods to me.