I tried to give that store an exorcism, but my cross was set ablaze as I walked through the security gate. -BK, NY

Meh. I know this Target and it does suck, but that video was edited in a misleading way. The empty shelves were all in seasonal departments that just got cleaned out. No shit, there's empty shelves where Christmas merch used to be!?

And the home organization part (with the plastic bins) is across the store from bedding. Did they not have empty shelves in the bedding section to film?

That doesn't look anywhere near as bad as my local Kmarts do...

Then again, the largest volume Target here often looks that way. I'm not sure why they highlighted an empty-shelves aisle with the "making way for new stuff" signage up. That's a normal event chain-wide, whenever they're switching over displays or seasons.

If the video was from either this weekend or the past weekend, the bare shelves are easily explainable - they haven't finished replacing the Christmas merchandise with the Hooray! It's Summer merchandise.

I live only a few blocks away from it and I avoid it like the plague (along with Pathmark). Between the long lines, dirty store, lack of customer service and unwillingness to help, higher prices and never having ANYTHING in stock (how many people in Brooklyn have guinea pigs because they always seem to be out of stock on GP food? UUGGGHH!!) its not worth the aggravation.

I read posts here every day looking for Target items and I like to cite relevant Consumerist posts on my blog site http://targetfiling.blogspot.com so here is another nice Target Sucks entry. Keep up the good reporting and Remember Folks: TARGET SUCKS!

So is there a Wal-Mart closer to this store that is better?

It does seem the video is misleading.. a lot of the sections that are empty are seasonal merchandise areas.

Y@kateblack: Yeah I know this one too... Its the worst. The only ones tht even come close to being just as bad are the Targets on Flatbush and Nostrand and the one on Queens Boulevard near the White castle (I would say near Queens Centert but thats like 4 blocks away, and I think the White Castle is a black away)

Either the video is having a tough time capturing it, or this Target is not nearly as bad as the cameralady wants us to believe. As it has been mentioned, this is nowhere near as bad as some of the terminally ill K-Marts here in Jersey, limping along like a dog that just got hit by a bus.

It's a high-traffic store at a busy time of year. The empty shelves are dubious, but wouldn't that just denote heavy shopper flow?

go here to leave a comment about the store to target.

http://www.target.com/gp/help/display-contact-us-form.html?displayLink=tsq

i just left them a comment about my own experience. hopefully someone will listen!!

@Jason R: I find better luck just shopping locally, local supermarkets, local pet store, local hardware store. The service is friendlier, the shelves are stocked, the merchandise is not broken and the staff is part of the community. Sometimes the prices are a little higher but I would rather pay for a good experience and become a repeat customer than have my blood pressure rise while standing in line after a 1/2 hour of not finding many of the items that I needed (and they are usually items that aren't even on sale!)

I wish I had a video camera at my local Kohl's (Lincolnwood Town Center, Lincolnwood IL) last week when we went to redeem some gift cards for clothes for the kids.

It was an absolute DISASTER. In the boys underwear section, 90% of the packages of underwear were opened, and most were laying on the floor. Same for socks. Half the time my son tried on clothes too small for him because they were on the wrong size-marked hanger.

And I love the excuse Target used in this video, and Kohl's sales associates used when we were there - "It's been a busy season". B-Effen-S! All you hear about now is retailers complaining about how poor the 2008 holiday shopping season was. If it was so poor, and they're so desperate to get shoppers into stores now to help them make up their sales, then why the frick don't they clean up??? Maybe, oh, I don't know, make their friggin stores presentable???

Busy season, indeed. What a bunch of hooey.

i used to walk to this target when i was waiting for my laundry and the place was always a mess. i undestand how space is limited and these big box stores have trouble making their urban stores as spacious as their suburban stores but this place is really just filthy. merchandise would always be on the floor and all the usefull stuff was sold out.

and i dont buy the excuse that the shelves are empty because its a busy time of year and people are buying out everything. if they have so many customers, then they can afford to make their store presentable and the art of restocking isnt that diffcult. many other targets are able to do it just fine.

everyone who has been there knows this store is always like that. i emailed their customer service to send them a link to this page. i know a lot of people go to this store and it is crazy that they never keep it stocked enough for their customers.

[www.target.com]

@Jason R: There are no wal-marts anywhere near there.

*hooray*

That's what I remember about shopping at Target in Chicago (Logan Square, I think). All of the boxes were open, stuff was strewn all over the place.

The K-Mart out on Addison was like that too. I just dealt with it, or otherwise shopped in the suburbs (Daley and his 8% sales tax be damned).

"I don't have time for this! I left my Bentley running out front, in the Fire Lane, and I don't deserve this sort of treatment from Target. If I wanted this, I'd go to Walmart with all the proles. Come on, Dakohta, Mackenzee, we're leaving. I'm having my husband write a letter about this. He's an attorney, you know!"

Strangely enough the one in Penn station isn't that bad. Though I know this one and go there often enough. What a hellhole.

@kthxbai:

"White Castle is a black away"

Freudian slip?

@acknight: I was thinking the same thing (though my local Kmarts finally got nuked a couple of years back). And I'm in a peppy small Midwestern town, so no urban blight to be blamed. This just doesn't demonstrate the filth quotient (where was the sticky sound of feet on floors, for instance?) that the Kmarts had.

I also don't hear "duvet" around here, but Target's website seems to have tons of them, so that must be a regional tendency rather than a legitimate excuse for this store.

Take the Path to Newport/Pavonia. Walk about 4 blocks. It is the Target Dream come true for all the Bklyn Target haters. Huge. Usually fully stocked. Nice people. I have never been more than the third person in line. I have walked right up to the Customer Service desk and spoken to a very nice worker. After discovering this Jersey oasis, I have never been back to that Atlantic Target mess again.

@humphrmi:

Just because sales are down doesn't mean it's not busy. Sales at the store I work at were down about 3.5%, but the store was still very crowded most days.

Not to mention that when sales are down even a little they cut payroll hours significantly. I work 4 hours this week and there were a couple of weeks before Christmas that I got 0 hours.

And anyone that buys based on the size on the hanger is a fool. I don't know how many returns I've done for that reason.

@kthxbai:

Na, the one on Queens Blvd near the White Castle is fine. I've never had a problem there. The one in Whitestone is pretty good too.

@Adrienne Willis: Thinking about how bad the Pathmark next door is, I am almost moved to cut Target some slack.

Really, it's all just part of the Atlantic Center experience; the whole place sucks. Since that place went up I've seen more fights in there than on the streets, and all the chain stores are like crappier versions of the "real" store. The Buffalo Wild Wings isn't bad, though.

If they don't have duvet covers, the employees don't know what they are.

The place was reasonably clean and no one got shot. Try a target in Mexico or the Balkins for real horror. There are places in the world with real destitution and an American chain store isn't it.

I didn't know what a duvet cover is either... While that Target may (or may not) suck, that video was "bad faith"... Boo!

@humphrmi: In this particular Target's defense, I will say that a lot of their customers seem determined to destroy the place - no lie. Stock has always been a problem though, and yeah, that's the store's fault.

@jkanode: I find Pathmark ok when it is 6 in the morning.

I've never seen a target that looked that empty except for under renovations, even right after xmas when they clear the stuff out... unless this was after hours or something?

@FletcherMyrrha: I actually like Target very much. I probably shop there every week and have never had any bad experiences. I don't think they suck at all.

The video is not misleading:

1) I wanted to pick up a package of oatmeal. I went to the aisle with the sign for cereals. Instead of cereals, the aisle ended up having soda and soft drinks. About 6 or 7 aisles over at the aisle with soups were the cereals and oatmeal.

2) I wanted to buy some yogurts. Almost the entire refrigerator cabinet was empty, and most of the remaining yogurts were heavily damaged or covered in sticky slime.

3) I wanted an electric screwdriver. The shelves in the hardware section were almost completely bare. There were only a few boxes and like, a couple tape measures on the wall.

4) I wanted a beach towel, which unlike a duvet cover would not confuse anyone. I asked about 4 people and I was either ignored or given the same kind of pointless responses.

@zibby: I think it has everything to do with the neighborhood. The workers and the customers are generally locals and they share an attitude.

Targets in the same town but in different neighborhoods are totally different. Its cultural and I am not saying race. In a some areas people have manners and the workers are not berated and beaten down all day and will do a better job than the ones where the slobs rip everything apart.

This comes to me via 8 year experience at Best Buy and working in three stores. Customers had more to do with my attitude than management. Down in the nice expensive neighborhood the people were self righteous jerks, in the poor area they were rude and sloppy (lots of redneck trailer trash, nothing against rednecks but trailer trash is bad) and in the middle income area where people worked for a living they were generally more polite and did not just open stuff in the store and were empathetic to our crazy hours.

And to back up what another commenter said. Sales go down 4% and they cut staff 50%. Things go to heck real quick when you used to have 6 people doing a job that one or two are now doing.

@humphrmi: I have never been to a Kohl's that WASN'T like that. Kohl's is a freaking nightmare. But a nightmare with really good deals on Kitchen Aid stand mixer accessories, if you don't mind waiting in line half an hour to check out.

(Once I was buying layering camis at Kohl's -- something they always have, the ones with the built-in bras, I love those -- and I was getting them in the junior's section because they're like $5 in juniors and like $12 in women's, and the women's come in fewer colors and they don't have many in cotton. And this salesperson was like, "You're in the wrong section." "I'm buying layering camis." "But this is JUNIORS. You're an ADULT." I am sorry to say I did not have a clever answer to this, I just stared blankly at her because ... what? And that's probably the most customer service I've ever gotten at a Kohl's.)

@Yan Grinshteyn: I go to the target in DC, and while it's not in a mall, it is in a shopping complex with a few other stores (Best Buy, Bed Bath & Beyond) and they manage to keep it neat, spacious, and generally enjoyable. Urban stores aren't neccessarily doomed to cramped misery.

@TheWillow: Would be a hooray, except the lack of competition seems to have made many of our local merchants sullen, overpriced jerks with lousy selection and lousier service. My sense of community isn't strong enough to make me feel that these guys are doing me a favor by taking my money.

@Fantasysage: that's a kmart though

Does anyone know if this Target was one that was "built from scratch" or "repurposed" from an existing store? The nearest Target for me (Springfield, DelCo, PA) is actually a repurposed "Clover" store (anyone from Philly remember those?). It's two floors, poorly arranged, and doesn't have the most stock or selection. They are actually relocating this Target to the old Springfield Mall up the road, where there used to be a Strawbridge & Clothier.

I find that the Target stores that have been "built from scratch" are usually more organized, thoughtfully arranged, and better stocked than "repurposed" stores. So, maybe part of the problem at the Atlantic Center Mall Target is that it wasn't always meant to be a Target.

Of course, if indeed it was "built from scratch", well then, this entire theory does not apply.

@pegr: And aren't you embarrassed, having walked around IN PUBLIC for all these years with your duvet uncovered! It's a miracle you weren't arrested for public indecency!

@Adrienne Willis: The prices are lower on most grocery items than other spots in the neighborhood. The immediate area surrounding this store is a food desert. There's fast food, bodegas (same crap food as Target @ 150%-200% the price) and if you walk half a mile, Key Foods (same crap food, approx. same prices).

Atlantic Target is bad, but this video doesn't capture actual bad, and tries to recreate it. It's like when you've got a malfunctioning gadget that you bring to a repair shop and it works fine as soon as you've got something invested in it malfunctioning again.

@humphrmi: The Children's section in the Lincolnwood Kohl's is ALWAYS like that. That whole mall is pretty depressing actually.

@JuneCarter: I think I need to learn to appreciate what I have. My husband & I moved from Atlanta to Jersey City for work in NYC in July. When we came upon the Pavonia Target, we died a little inside, because it was so terrible compared to the 'burbs. We usually go there as a last resort. Now I see it's not so bad.

@humphrmi:
The Lincolnwood Town Center is a dump!
One of the worst malls around, it looks like every illegal alien in Chicago goes there!
And it has the low quality junk to sell them.

@Great Mutato: Just because it's busy doesn't mean that they can't clean up. You know, since they claim that they're so desperate and all, maybe make the store - I dunno - appealing, or something?

@kthxbai: The empty shelves don't bother me as much as the dirty store and clueless/rude employees. The last time I went there some wannabe gangster asked me if I wanted "some pain" and bumped my chest because I accidentally skipped past him on the video game line because I thought he was still shopping.

So I guess this is a preview of what Chicago will be getting in a couple of years at the Target to built built on the Wilson L Yard.

@Adrienne Willis: There is one thing this Target always has in stock, and is usually the reason I go in if I'm passing by: PC games. Great selection right on the shelf, too, but only PC games - console stuff is almost always sparse, and even if they do have something you want it's PITA to actually get because they practically keep it in a bank vault.

The Target is better than the Pathmark at the Atlantic Center!

@Jason R: Walmart doesn't do New York. Something about the unions, etc, plus they probably do not want to pay going hotel rates for their brass to visit the area...