Don’t Be Like Target Stores

By Marketing Strategist and Advisor, Nick Nichols

If you’re like me you’re getting fed up with pointless, mindless and clueless "policies" that are in force at certain large retailers, like Target. We’re fed up because we’re tired of being treated like commodities, numbers and criminals – yes, criminals! Let me explain…

This Kind of Flattery Will Get You Nowhere!

Certain stores – like Target – insist on making everyone who wants to buy beer or wine show their ID. While this may be flattering to those people who are just starting to get older, for the rest of us, it’s a needless intrusion on our lives.

Great-grandfather, 92, asked for ID to prove he’s OLD enough to buy booze

While I understand the need to prevent alcohol sales to minors, I resent being carded at my age. I suspect I’m not the only one who is bothered by this. Tom Thumb, on the other hand, has a "We card under 40 " badge policy that gives the checkout person the discretion to check IDs. This is the way it should be at all stores.

"You want me to do WHAT?"

Customer No-Service at its Worst!

I went to my local Target store to buy a $50 gift card. After the transaction was complete I realized that I needed some one-dollar bills to tip the valet at a nearby restaurant I was headed to, so I asked the cluck… err clerk… if she could change a five. To my absolute disgust, she refused, saying unapologetically that it’s Target’s policy not to make change! Policy?

For a customer who just bought something? More like stupidity! To me that’s like saying, "We’re happy to take your money but when it comes to dispensing a little courtesy and good old-fashioned customer service, we really don’t care about you!"

Target 33⅓: The Final Insult!

Are you tired of being treated like a criminal? That’s the way I feel when some minimum-wage cashier puts my currency up to the light or marks it with a pen to see if it’s real! This is exactly what happened to me when I bought the $50 gift card at Target. I bet this has happened to you, too.

Who do they think I am, the Federal Reserve?

According to the US Federal Reserve, there was approximately $2 trillion in US dollars in circulation as of September 30, 2015, totaling more than 50.3 billion notes in volume. According to this CNBC article, "…there’s upwards of $147 million in fake U.S. currency circulating globally these days, according the most recent data available from the U.S. Secret Service. About 60 percent of that is in the U.S." Using these figures, that means that less than 1 bill in 10,000 is fake, That’s a 0.0001 chance that my bill was fake!

So, Target (and all the other stores with this insulting policy) stop treating me like a criminal by mindlessly inspecting my money when the chance of being struck by lightning in a lifetime is 3.33 times greater than getting a counterfeit bill!

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