--Please read this review if you care to change this place for the better--
The RACISM at this Target is out of control.
(Please note that someone found this review FUNNY. Racism is Awesome!)
Mind you, some of the people that work here are really great. But others, not so much.
I've lived in West Hollywood for four years, and I've been coming to this place since I first moved here. In the beginning, it wasn't so bad, but in the last couple of years it's gotten progressively worse.
Just today, I was in the store buying the exact same thing I've been picked up twice a week for who knows how long when I noticed there was a clearance sale on blankets. I was in the aisle for a while trying to figure out which one I wanted, and I noticed one of the workers was restocking some of the shelves. She moved out of the aisle when I came, presumably to give me room. When I moved to another aisle to see if there were any more blankets, I saw here there so I decided to go back to the first aisle to get out of her way. After a few more minutes, I went to check another aisle and saw she had moved into that one. Once again, I moved to get out of this person's way so she could do her job, and went back to the first blanket aisle. --A few minutes later there were two male Target workers around the aisles, clearly not doing anything else but snooping around me--
I know the drill here, so I picked up a blanket and followed the larger man so he could see that I wasn't trying to steal anything. When I looked at him, he did not return my eye contact.
Could I have been wrong about what I thought I saw? Possibly. Except:
--This is not the first issue like this I've had there--
-I've had workers checking shelves give a funny look and tell me they were 'on break,' when I asked for help.
-Late last year, I had a smaller girl with a walkie-talkie not so subtley accuse me of trying to get a free coffee at the Starbucks when I was having an issue with one of my cards. When I called to complain, I was told that the store manager, Simone, would reach out to me. I never received that call. I have since seen this girl giving me weird looks on more than one occasion.
-I've had people repeatedly follow me into aisles.
-I've gotten more than my fair share of abnormal behavior since they've been doing the self-checkout. Mind you, some people are great here. One guy even bagged my items for me this afternoon. Unfortunately, last night the girl working the checkout made it a point to turn her head as if she didn't notice I was there. No telling what that was about...
-Once, I took a phone call near the entrance and was standing near the door for about ten minutes. A security worker started eyeing me and then made it a point to stand near the exit door facing me with his arms folded. --This was extra depressing, because he was black, too...
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I'm really not sure what is going on in this place, but it would be nice if there was some kind of sensitivity training or maybe a workshop to help make some of the workers less unconsciously hateful. I think Target gets the misconception that they won't have this type of problem because they hire a relatively diverse staff. This could not be further from the truth, and I hope someone will acknowledge this as soon as possible.
I also wonder why the people who are doing this stuff don't ever think about how they would feel if they were treated this way. In their own neighborhood no less. Add to that, you find yourself ignored when you try to speak to one of the few people who could potentially alleviate the problem.
Once again, there are A LOT of really decent and friendly people that work there, too. But at this point, they're about neck and neck with the discriminators.
Something else that makes no sense: Have ANY of these people ever actually seen someone shoplift or become violent? How many times have you seen it happen? If the answer is 'No' or 'I don't know' or even 'Not that many', then these people really need to check in with their attitudes about reality. Why do you think you know what a suspicious person looks like? Is it because of anything you've actually experienced? Once again, if the answer is 'No' or 'I don't know', then they need to acknowledge just how crazy what they're doing really is.
Anyone who reads this post, please recognize that it wasn't just for black people. It's for anyone who has dealt with discrimination or unfair assumptions. It's also for people who really just want to feel comfortable wherever they are, and not have to worry about random people blowing their day.
--Please make it a point to be more mindful of the way you treat people you don't know or know anything about.--
And to the Target management, please do something about these people. NO ONE should have to deal this type of nonsense. read more