I work for Target as a part time job, and I have to chime in - Target isn't that bad for a discount outlet. Please don't compare us to the Evil Empire.
We ARE more pricey. But it's a sacrifice you have to make on a personal level. Target offers more in the way of the customer's ease and experience coming into the store. There are reasons we aren't as cheap in prices as Walmart. It all balances out.
**First and foremost, compare a Super Target store and a Super Walmart store in terms of cleanliness. Your average brand-new Super Walmart still isn't as clean as a four-year-old Super Target.
**We don't sell tobacco products because the founder's daughter died of lung cancer.
**We don't sell sewing fabric, paint, or a lot of automotive items, strictly for this purpose, I am told. Target doesn't want to put the small business - out of business.
**The clothes at Target are better quality. We even carry a few name-brands. They hold up in the wash better.
**Target and Walmart's pay and benefits are comparable. But minimal? For a part time job, I feel like I hit the jackpot. Mimimum wage is what now, $5.15? Target starts out at $7, and that's for a no experience needed, regular day-to-day part time position. I also get good medical and dental benefits - my dental plan pays 75% of most anything - even comestic surgeries - on about $1 a week.
**A major difference between Target & Walmart is that Target doesn't mass-hire to cut hours and benefits given. Target usually keeps everyone they hire. We don't mass-hire and lay off after Christmas. I was told as part time, I'll get anywhere from 25 to 40 hours a week and that's never changed.
**Usually, our lines are smaller. We have the staff and we use them. Have you ever heard the computer voice in the Super Target store "additional cashiers to the front lane, ___ side" go off? Every employee on the floor is trained to use a register and if the lines get backed up more than 3 in line, it's Target policy to set off that alarm and bring people to the front to help out. I've never heard one of those in Walmart. I HAVE seen where they bring out a scan gun and scan people in line, to get you through faster. You get scanned, get your total and still have to wait in line to get to the cashier to make the transaction - that doesn't really cut your time in line, it just makes you think so. It doesn't compare to bringing five employees off the main floor and putting them on registers.
**Target *doesn't* sell it's own brand of "censored" cds. We carry the original deals. You won't find explicit lyrics in Wal-mart. That may be o.k. for most but to some of us, that's annoying.
**A percentage of your purchases on your Target VISA goes to the school of your choice. They also send 10% discount cards along with that almost every month. We volunteer for housing projects, building playgrounds, etc.
**The biggest thing that I am glad of (working at Target) is that - we don't have that loud-ass intercom - speaker thing. Our employees aren't screaming at each other over it. It's much nicer and quieter at Target. Our team members communicate through walkie talkies. It equals out for a lot less noise-pollution on our customers and quicker communication between US. We don't have to run to a phone everytime we need something.
**Our cart attendants, at most stores, have the help of an electric vehicle that pushes the carts from behind. It operates manually and also from remote control. It's an expensive toy, but it will save your life if you are ever the only cart attendant on shift. All they have to do is load the buggies onto this thing in the parking lot and steer them into the store. No heavy pushing for an 8 hour shift.
There are quite a few more differences that I haven't listed that I just can't recall right now. I wrote a paper on this earlier this year.
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Actually, there is one certain aspect for BOTH that I have a distaste for. Baggers (don't laugh). Notice, neither have them. It's a downside in two ways.
It's my raising to believe that, when you involve groceries, you involve a service. When someone is coming in and buyin' $300 worth of groceries, I think that bagging their groceries for them and helping them out to their car should be included in that service. As a cashier at Target, I bag these groceries as I scan them and sit them on the counter behind me - and the customer is expected to pick them up and load them into his/her cart by themselves.
???
So, they shop for an hour, load 100+ items up onto the belt, then have to load the 100+ items back into their buggy, push the buggy out the car and unload the 100+ items into their car, unload the 100+ items from the car into their home.
That's not right.
Walmart does the same thing. They have the rotating bag thingee where the customer is supposed to pull the bag of items from themselves.
I think that the job of bagger is good for high school kids. It gives for good work experience, teaches them what to expect and how to behave in the workplace, etc. It also gives them a little income and keeps some off the streets. It's really sad that most of these places are cutting baggers out of the equation.
