Target CEO Brian Cornell came from the food business, having worked for companies like Safeway, Sam’s Club, and PepsiCo before joining the big-box discounter in 2014. Since then, he’s been working to make groceries at Target better, experimenting with delivery and more fresh and minimally processed food instead of cans and snacks. For example, there’s this nice selection of ground beef that Michael wanted to buy, which is even on sale this week. No… wait a minute, that’s not right. [More]
target is crazy
How Much Does This Bottle Of Stain Remover Cost?
By 1.6.16
Welcome to Target! The normal rules of logic do not apply here, and addition and subtraction also work differently, so you need to evaluate all price tags and signs that say “Sale” or even “Clearance” carefully. Are you up to the challenge? Then you can shop at Target. Congratulations. Here is your first assignment: help reader Bill figure out how much this bottle of Oxi Clean costs. [More]
DVDs Are More Expensive In Target’s Reality Vortex
By 12.14.15
Like many Americans, I like to shop at Target. However, walking inside the friendly red doors means that shoppers must accept that they’re entering a different reality. Inside the Target Reality Vortex, numbers have no meaning, and ordinary retail logic doesn’t hold up.
Shopping there is easier once you’ve accepted this, but our readers still send us pictures from Target’s reality vortex. [More]
Target Still Not Clear On How Clearance Works
By 11.16.15
What does “clearance” mean? Usually, it means that a retailer needs to get items off the shelves, and they’ve lowered the price by a little bit or by a lot. Usually, though, the plan is to lower the price so people are more likely to walk out of the store with that item. Unless you’re at Target, apparently. [More]
At Target, Tide Free Is Free Of Dyes, Perfumes, And Logic
By 10.30.15
Reader Rob is a longtime reader and very familiar with our “Target Math” series of posts, so he knows to check the actual price per ounce on items he plans to buy. Especially, he notes, at Target. This recent promotion for laundry detergent demonstrates why. [More]
Target Charges $1 Extra If You Want Your Applesauce In A Bigger Box
By 9.30.15
Perhaps Target’s goal is to simplify our lives, reducing the number of boxes that we have to carry out of their stores. Probably not, though. There is no logic behind Target math, but at least now they’ll price match to a store with more logical pricing. [More]
There Should Not Be Two Examples Of Target Math In The Same Aisle
By 8.24.15
Pricing errors happen. That’s a fact of retail. What we’ve never been able to understand, though, is why they happen so often at Target, and why that store tends to make the same errors over and over: specifically, pricing items so you pay more when you buy in bulk, and posting “sale” signs with higher prices than the original price. [More]
At Target And Walmart, Save More Money By Not Buying In Bulk
By 6.22.15
Target has its own special variety of math, where putting an item on sale means raising the price, and buying in bulk means that you pay more per unit. This strange method of calculating prices isn’t exclusive to Target, though: you can find it at other retailers, too. [More]
Reader Notices Target Math, Gets $4.99 Off Price Of Lamp
By 6.2.15
Target is a discount store, but also a strange and mystical place where Doritos are refrigerated, sale items are simultaneously 50% off and free, and customers are notified when something isn’t on sale. As a Consumerist reader, Erin knew to look out for Target’s strange version of reality, and was able to get an item for the lower shelf tag price rather than the higher “sale” price. [More]
Target Math Means You Pay Extra For Cardboard Box, Less Choice
By 5.26.15
Bulk buying is good. When you buy multiple food pouches that come in a single box, for example, it makes life easier for cashiers and maybe for you when you unload your groceries. That’s what Jared thought when he went to buy some baby food pouches at Target. [More]
With Target Math, The Price Increases When The Sign Gets Bigger
By 4.28.15
Target is a popular and successful retail chain, which has somehow managed to spread nationwide and woo customers in spite of its poor grasp of math. Here’s yet another example of Target Math, a special way of calculating sale prices and promotions that isn’t unique to Target, but for some reason turns up on their shelves very, very often. [More]
Target: You Must Pick One Discount With Your Wii U. Only One
By 7.30.14
Silly Justin: he thought that because Target advertised two different promotions for the Wii U he bought, he would get to take advantage of both of them. Nope. He learned that he could have $25 off or $10 off, but not both. [More]
Spend $5 Extra To Get $5 Gift Card At Target
By 6.10.14
Target is a successful retailer, which is impressive considering the company’s collective poor grasp of math. Reader Mireille was shopping for diapers there and spotted an interesting deal on diapers. If customers bought two boxes and paid $2.50 above the listed price on the shelf tag for each, they would get a $5 gift card. Wait, what? [More]
Target Reality Vortex Now Runs Its Own Spell Check
By 5.20.14
We often make fun of Target for being a reality vortex where words and numbers have no meaning. Yet at reader JD’s local Target, the store’s own loose relationship with words and marketers’ need to spell words in distinctive and incorrect ways combined to…spell something correctly. [More]
Time For Another Visit To Deodorant Aisle Of Target’s Reality Vortex
By 5.9.14
Erika was shopping at Target when she took a step in the wrong direction and ended up in an alternate reality. Or maybe entering a Target store is an alternate reality, where the Doritos are chilled and numbers have no meaning. [More]
Target Is Refrigerating Their Doritos For Some Reason
By 5.5.14
Steve was shopping at Target when he noticed something that stopped him cold. The Doritos were refrigerated, in a case alongside cheese and fresh ground meat.
Is this yet another strange new variety of Doritos, or a strange new habit of Target’s? [More]
Personal Grooming Is Easy, But Math Is Difficult
By 3.26.14
Usually, buying in bulk saves you money. Buying a larger container or multi-pack boosts sales numbers and lowers prices for consumers. This makes perfect sense…until it doesn’t. Just ask these readers, who had to give a few seconds of serious thought to the pricing of their personal care items while shopping recently. [More]
Target Clarifies Confusing Sign: Cleaning Products Are 50% Off, Not Free
By 2.20.14
We are thankful to Target, because they have alleviated our existential angst. Okay, it’s their weird signage that caused the existential angst in the first place, but we’re still very happy that they cleared things up for us, for our readers, and for Target shoppers everywhere. [More]
