I've always liked Target. In fact, I've often been willing to pay a little more at Target because I…read morefelt the shopping experience was worth it. After my experience at this location, I'm not so sure anymore.
The whole thing started with a return. I was returning an item that cost a little over $10. The employee told me that my only options were to receive the refund back to the original debit card or onto a Target gift card. I was confused because the customer immediately before me had received a cash refund. So I politely asked, "Are you sure? Could you check again? That doesn't seem right?" She was extremely confident that those were the only two options. I then asked if I could see what was showing on her screen. She blocked the screen. And then, somehow, the cash option appeared. I took the cash and said thank you. No response. I thought, okay; maybe she was having a bad day.
Then came the pickup orders. I had four small pickup orders to collect for friends. One was a $5.83 bag of rice. Another was a $5.29 box of croissants. The four orders together totaled $22.78. I was already going to Target, so I was simply doing my friends a favor. There is also an important reason why I have been willing to do this so many times. Over the years, I've picked up Target orders for friends on many occasions. My friends have always appreciated the favor, and Target employees have generally been courteous and appreciative as well. Those positive experiences are actually part of the reason I continued doing it. From my perspective, I was doing my friends a favor by saving them a trip to the store, while at the same time helping Target complete their orders smoothly. It was a simple situation where everyone benefited. I wasn't trying to circumvent Target's procedures or obtain some special privilege. I was doing something I had done many times before, based on the way Target employees had previously handled these pickups. That is why this particular interaction felt so strange. The employee told me I needed to show my ID. I explained that I was picking up the orders for friends and that I had done this many times before without being asked for ID. She told me my friends needed to add my name to the orders, and that I would then need to show my ID. Fine. If that's teh policy, that's the policy. I contacted my friends, had them add my name, and got back in line. Then I was required to show my ID four separate times; once for each order. Again, I didn't argue. I did exactly what I was asked. But then I noticed something. She wasn't actually checking my ID. My name is only a few simple letters, and each time I handed her my ID, her fingers were literally covering my name. She would glance at it for maybe a second and hand it back. So apparently the important part wasn't actually verifying my identity. It was making sure I handed over my ID. Four times. At that point, it became difficult not to feel like this had stopped being about security and started feeling like a power trip. And here's what really bothered me: I watched other customers picking up their orders. Nobody else seemed to be going through this. Their orders appeared to be worth more than my four orders combined. Just last week, I picked up my glasses from Target Optical at this same location. I simply gave them my name. This time, I had the order numbers, the full names, and the pickup barcodes. If I were picking up four iPhones, I would completely understand Target being extremely careful. Honestly, I'd appreciate it. But four grocery orders totaling $22.78? A bag of rice, and a box of croissants. And somehow this required an ID inspection for every single order?
I was actually more cooperative than necessary. I didn't argue about the policy, and I contacted four different people and had them modify their orders. I waited in line again. I showed my ID every single time. I did everything she asked. And when I finally received all four orders, I said thank you. Again, nothing. Not even a "you're welcome." At that point, I asked for her name. I'm intentionally not posting her name here. I asked for it because I want management to know that I'm referring to a specific employee and a specific interaction, rather than making a blanket complaint about the entire team. There are Target employees who provide excellent customer service, and I would never want a review like this to unfairly reflect on people who had nothing to do with what happened. I know this employee's name, and I'm happy to provide it privately to Target management if they would like to investigate the interaction. I hope they'll be able to identify her based on the date, approximate time, location, and transactions involved.
But there is a larger issue here that I think Target management should consider. If this employee was simply following Target policy, then what does that say about the other employees who have handled these same types of pickup orders for me, and apparently for other custom
