Well, after shopping at Wal-Mart, Ross and Savers for most of my goodies, I decided it was time to give Target another try. You see, one of their Sacramento locations and one location in Reno turned me off from this chain for a long time.
I figured that the new one, which is closest to home, would be the quickest to get to on a Friday around lunch time, even though I have to take city streets the whole way. Getting there was a breeze.
The parking lots are clearly marked so you know when to turn. That's awesome and a bonus star for the shopping center. Though, there's no dedicated turn lane, so I almost got smashed by a cargo truck. That's San Jose for ya.
Parking is ample and appears well lit, though I went during the day. The only thing is that you have to drive past the storefront to get the best parking, which means you have to dodge hobbling old ladies and countless children running in front of your car.
Once you're inside, it's nice. I didn't care much for the two security guards, but that's okay since they didn't harass me and they were dressed nicely. Kudos to the rent-a-cop agency that works this place.
This place is bigger than it looks, which is AWESOME. I have seen so many locations that have the exact same inventory but in a building half the size. With this one, the lighting is great and the aisles are wide. The floors are still in good condition, relatively shiny and are pretty darn slip-proof, at least when dry.
I went to get a coffee maker. One in particular. Hamilton Beach BrewStation Deluxe. It's a digital, programmable, thermal carafe model, which means it holds the coffee in an internal tank, without a hotplate. Your coffee won't get burnt if it sits in there a while (since I sip it all day) and the water won't evaporate off over time. Plus, you can't break the carafe because it's not glass. Lastly, it doesn't use Teflon, which is a must for me because I'm a parrot owner and the fumes from Teflon are extremely toxic to them.
Believe it or not, they had it! Not exactly the black and stainless color I wanted, but the plain black will do just fine. Just so long as its not white, beige, avocado, firetruck red or neon yellow, I'm happy. This was after searching two Wal-Marts (Story Rd, Monterrey Rd) and a Kohl's (E Hamilton Ave). I was about to have to buy this thing online and pay the same price after shipping. Bravo, Target, bravo!
They also had a nice selection of coffee grinders, which was very welcome. Most department stores carry one or two cheap grinders, but Target had four. Yes, three were $10-$20 cheap models with the two blades. They work, I suppose, but bladed models don't give consistent grind sizes and they're not selectable. For $30, I got a Black & Decker Stainless Coffee Bean Mill. It'll grind and ALSO STORES up to 14 cups worth of beans. Plus, it grinds with a mixture of burrs and crushing wheels, which means it's adjustable on the grind size setting and it'll last a long time.
Now for the gripes.
* Prices were a little higher than I'm used to.
Yes, I shop discount. The point is that I did pay a little under 10% more to get my goodies, as compared to Wal-Mart. In Target's defense, the experience was well worth the money. I didn't have to fight to walk in a straight line through the store, I wasn't worried about people stealing my wallet and I didn't have to smell raunchy folks as they crowded each aisle with me. Also, on-site security was much nicer than showing my receipt to a high-school dropout who doesn't speak English, just to leave the store.
* The landscaping is just a little bare still.
More plants would have been nice outside, especially some large shade trees in the parking lot. Newly paved asphalt gets hot pretty quickly on an average day with direct sunlight.
* Their customers are idiots here, just like everywhere else.
You'd think by moving up in price range, the people would be less idiotic. No, sorry. A lady in a store-owned electric wheelchair (who wasn't disabled) cut in front of me in line at checkout. I normally would have given her my spot, but I didn't have a cart and was holding a large coffee maker, large coffee grinder, two insulted travel mugs, a box of coffee filters, a Pur water filter and a large bag of coffee beans.
That's that. From now on, I think I'll end every review with a gripe about how stupid the place's patrons are. Stay tuned... next up, Ross Dress for Less on Homestead Rd. read more