The Consumerist: The Brooklyn Target, An Abortion Of Retail

the atlantic center target is horrible. it's true! they rarely have sale items in stock - better yet, sometimes they don't have the item at all. one time i went there and they were out of rubber cleaning gloves! what?! how is that even possible - it is such a basic item! forget going to the cosmetic department because they will NOT have your preferred shade of lipstick or lip liner that you've been buying for years in stock... like, ever.

the commenters on the consumerist were saying that the video was misleading because it was shot before and right after the holidays - but i've lived in the area for 1.5 years and have made many disappointing visits (when will i learn) and it is always the same year-round.

I have to be in the suburbs twice a week and that's the only way I'll go to Target

Well, you won't have to worry about that Circuit City for much longer. Unfortunately, it's soon destined to be a huge, empty store. Maybe Best Buy will take the space.

THE ENTIRE ATLANTIC CENTER IS A BOX OF TURDS.

The fuckedinparkslope blog just did a post about this. I'll copy comment from there:

EVERYTHING IN AND AROUND ATLANTIC CENTER IS A ROTTING SKANK RAT ABORTION MADE OUT OF AIDS.

Case in point:

I went to the Circuit City last week. Poorly stocked, dirty, annoying sales staff. TOTAL CLUSTERFUCK.

Best Buy was worse.

Don't even get me farted on that P.C. Richard and sons across the street. I don't have a bag of dicks big enough for all the dicks Mr. Richard and every one of his sons can take a suck on.

You know what is sad: I ended up going to the Circuit City in Union Square, finding what I was looking for and had a friednly, helpful salesperson answer my quesitons and ring me up.

Althea wrote: Agreed on Atlantic Target. What a waste of time. They were out of freaking toothpaste when I last gave it a shot, I attempted to buy a trashcan but someone stole it out of my cart while I was searching for said toothpaste.

Ahh well, maybe I'll trek down to Brooklyn College.

I once made the mistake of going to Target to look for a cooler. Nope, not a cooler in sight. Lots of empty shelves where the coolers had been, but none in stock.

Found the damn thing at the Korean grocery store on Flatbush. Now, when that place is better stocked in housewares than the Target, that's saying something.

I could go on and on. Every time I think "This is so straightforward, so basic, Target will have it stock." I am proven wrong.

I bought some gift boxes at Christmas. Opened the package, and discovered that the boxes has somehow gotten moldy. So, even when something is in stock, it's probably crapped out.

I'm going to make 2009 a Target-free year. I hate going there, fighting the crowds, tracking down the item, dealing w/surly Target employees, and waiting in line to save $.50 on something that I could have gotten in five minutes at the stationery store on 7th Ave. As for the Target down at Flatbush, I hear that it's getting Targhetto-ized as more and more people discover it.

Next up: let's discuss the Pathmark next door. The last time I was there (near Christmas) it was out of FLOUR.

I've been wondering why the A.C. stores are so spotty. Occasionally I'll find something I need but it's hit and miss. Has it always been bad or do people think it's worse lately? I'm wondering whether it's a sign that China is cutting production of consumer items, international shipping has ground to a halt and big boxes have ceased imports to save cash. Maybe they're trying to clear the shelves before starting to restock when/if things improve, those that aren't destined for closure that is, and progressively there's just the dregs left. Even Macy's on Fulton was much worse a couple of weekends ago for simple items than I can ever recall. Quality merchandise may be hard to find locally for a while; might start buying more necessities online.

I don't think that it's a new thing for that Target to be half empty, and I remember Macy's in on Fulton to be just as lacking last winter.

It's also not a new thing that these big-box stores are poorly managed, and "help" poorly trained. At minimum wage I almost can't blame these kids for hanging out instead of working. Costco seems to be a big-box retailer that somehow manages to employ decent people, keep the store well stocked, and overall running smoothly. That could also be a reflection of the retail structure: you need to pay a membership fee to shop there.

Big Box retailers seem to cycle through every 15 to 20 years. Target was going strong as a "cool" competitor to Walmart, but it now seems to be having the same problem as every other store on this format, poor inventory control, dirty stores, non-existent "help". When your primary appeal is price, there isn't a lot of room or motivation to have something like a well-trained staff. Walmart will probably be the last left "department-store" big-box standing, but I predict that even that will eventually fall to Amazon.com.

Thankfully I don't have to rely on stores like Target that much, but if I did I would be shopping online. Being able to shop on my sofa, or from my desk even beats out price in my book.

BKChickie wrote:
Thankfully I don't have to rely on stores like Target that much, but if I did I would be shopping online. Being able to shop on my sofa, or from my desk even beats out price in my book.

Yes for some things, no for others. I find it hard to get an online experience of tactile qualities like texture, density, material composition. So linen, tableware...

And Target A.C. actually saved me this *mas when we lacked one out of four presents for four siblings that Amazon couldn't deliver in time even though it had cheap/free shopping on all the others. But it was truly insane there. Call me old-fashioned, but sometimes it's useful to have physical merchandise available locally.

I have not gone to that suck ass target in years! After my horrible experience there with their rude and surly staff (incl managers and security), I vowed to never go back.

I'm glad nothing has changed. I can only hope that the dump gets shut down!

The Brooklyn College location is a great improvement.