primitives shop at Target

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4280085

Oh my.

TwoSparkles  (1000+ posts)        Tue Oct-21-08 12:20 PM
Original message
 
My Target clerk said, "We're supposed to say...."

I just came from Target, and it was like a tomb in there. Our once-bustling store
now feels eerie (just in time for Halloween, I guess).

As I was checking out and making chit chat with the clerk, I said, "Wow, it's
really quiet in here today, and I the only one in here?" The clerk said, "Oh,
it will pick up during the noon hour. It always gets busier later." Then she paused
and said, "At least that's what we're supposed to say."

I said, "So it's been dead and if we ask about it, you're supposed to deny it and
put a positive spin on it?" She replied, "That's what we were told to do at
the last meeting."

I know this is anecdotal, and just what one clerk said to me. However, I thought
it was pretty interesting that the store was so dead--AND according to this
clerk, the company line is to lie about how it will pick up and that the store
really is busy.

Is every darn thing related to our economy--from what our government says to what
the local check-out-girls say---a bunch of smoke and mirrors?

How much longer before our propped-up-house-of-cards economy comes crashing down?

The economy would be on firmer ground without the parasites eroding it away from underneath......such as the subway cat, among many other governmentally-dependent primitives.

smiley_glad_hands (1000+ posts)      Tue Oct-21-08 12:22 PM
Response to Original message
 
1. "How much longer before our propped-up-house-of-cards economy comes crashing down?"

It's crashing now.

Jim__  (1000+ posts)        Tue Oct-21-08 12:22 PM
Response to Original message
 
2. Coming soon - Christmas shopping. 

We'll see what happens with that.

TwoSparkles  (1000+ posts)        Tue Oct-21-08 12:32 PM
Response to Reply #2
 
15. Yes, Christmas will be interesting...

Many businesses aren't even profitable until Christmas, and they rely on those
vigorous holiday sales to survive.

It will be interesting to see what happens. Will people really reduce their spending this holiday season? Or will people suck it up and put it all on their credit cards, one more time?

I know that we are drastically scaling back.

It will be interesting to see what happens.

TwoSparkles  (1000+ posts)        Tue Oct-21-08 12:27 PM
Response to Reply #3
 
9. I don't think the crash has happened...

...Most people are unaffected and have not had to make serious changes to their lifestyles or budgets. Some have. Most have not.

However, most everyone will have to make drastic changes.

The catalyst will be when the credit bubble pops, and I'd love to hear anyone's predictions on that one.

JitterbugPerfume  (1000+ posts)        Tue Oct-21-08 12:23 PM
Response to Original message
 
4. my daughter works part time at Walmart (give her a break. it was the availble job)She said she has never seen it so quiet . Usually at this time people are doing xmas shopping

SmokingJacket  (1000+ posts)      Tue Oct-21-08 12:24 PM
Response to Original message

5. That's interesting.

I work a retail job, too (bookstore) and customers really do comment on the perceived state of business -- all the time. My boss is cool and would never have us lie to make things look better, but I can see where the desire to do that comes from.

And yes, things SUCK right now. It IS and has been smoke and mirrors, for a while now...

madaboutharry  (1000+ posts)        Tue Oct-21-08 12:25 PM
Response to Original message
 
6. I have to say that I really think things are completely in the toilet.

I am constantly getting coupons in the mail and in email for huge amount of money off of clothing and accessories from expensive stores. The other day, I got a coupon in the mail for $50 off of a Coach handbag. That just seemed kind of odd to me.

Things go on sale before you can blink. 

Democrats_win (1000+ posts)      Tue Oct-21-08 12:27 PM
Response to Original message
 
7. Interesting to see a major chain doing this. I've seen it in smaller companies.

The managers worry that their customers will see that we aren't doing very well and will become so concerned that they'll take their business elsewhere. It's sort of like the credit crisis. No one wants to get stuck holding the bag.

Maybe Target is worried about how it's creditors view the lack of customers so they try to make it seem like they're busy.

seemslikeadream  (1000+ posts)        Tue Oct-21-08 12:27 PM
Response to Original message

8. There is a BIG slow down on the shipping dock where I work

It is a company that ships all over the world

QuestionAll  (1000+ posts)      Tue Oct-21-08 12:28 PM
Response to Original message
 
10. home despot people are as friendly and helpful as can be.
i go there several times a week, and the place is usually a dead zone during the day.

ogneopasno (564 posts)      Tue Oct-21-08 12:29 PM
Response to Original message
 
11. This isn't uncommon in retail.

This doesn't surprise me at all.

tom_paine  (1000+ posts)        Tue Oct-21-08 12:30 PM
Response to Original message
 
12. Yes. It was bad before. Now it has gotten REALLY BAD. The entire totality of Amerikan Life, nearly every aspect of it and in nearly every public and most provate corners of it...is a lie. An illusion. A Hologram. (tip of the hat to Joe Bageant)

Nearly every window on reality has been bricked up by our Corporate Masters, that we may be blinded to history and to reality itself, thus to make us more pliant, apathetic, and obedient.

It works every time, at least in the beginning. (in the case of Impeial Rome, it lasted 5000 years and more)

And 99% of people seem evermore clueless.

I believe you now understand life as it has been the last decade. I am afraid to ask how long before that it was already building and well-advanced.

A person needs SOME illusions, at least.

Imperial Rome lasted 5000 years?

Can somebody fact-check this for us?

Five thousand years?

ProudToBeBlueInRhody  (1000+ posts)        Tue Oct-21-08 12:30 PM
Response to Original message

13. What's the point?

If you are going to go to Target to buy something, would people be turned off if they knew no one comes in all day? then again, retail "experts" are loony anyway with the crap they make you say.

My local K-Mart never has anyone there. No cars in the lot (outside of employees) or anything. There's a Wal-Mart next door and everyone goes there. It's sad, but I will still shop at the K for general household stuff.

dorkulon (1000+ posts)      Tue Oct-21-08 12:32 PM
Response to Original message
 
14. Bought some stuff at Circuit City the other day...it was a ghost town in there, more employees than customers. I mentioned it to the guy handling my sale, and he got a real worried look. "It's been bad," he said. I mentioned that Christmas probably wasn't going to be quite the spending bonanza it usually is, and he agreed. "People might even have the same money they did last year, but they're unsure about the future, so they're hanging onto it."

To be honest, I think this country's been insanely spend-happy for years, and I wouldn't really mind a return to relative sanity in the way my friends and family handle their money.

TwoSparkles  (1000+ posts)        Tue Oct-21-08 12:37 PM
Response to Reply #14

18. Yes, there is a ceiling on how much money...

...people can put on their credit cards. I think our heads are now grazing that ceiling.

People spent like drunken sailors, and I think those cards are maxed out. Either that, or people are worried and they're in "pay off" or "save" mode. Also, the credit card companies are putting the squeeze on customers---lowering their lines of credit and raising their interest rates.

These combined behaviors will drastically affect our economy--that has been propped up on credit-card spending for the past two decades.

babylonsister  (1000+ posts)        Tue Oct-21-08 12:34 PM
Response to Original message
 
16. Just great. I wonder if Targets will still be open after the holidays? I was on my way out the door to buy some Target gift cards for some grandkids; now I'm not sure that's a good idea.

godai  (1000+ posts)     Tue Oct-21-08 12:38 PM
Response to Reply #16
 
20. I think Target and Walmart would be the last to go.

They're making profit still and have 1000s of stores. If Target goes bankrupt, things will be shockingly bad.

And if Wal-Mart goes bankrupt, things won't be shockingly bad?

Oh, I forget. 

The primitives love Target and Hate Wal-Mart.

Now, I am greatly confused.

For years and years and years, ever since January 20, 2001, the primitives have been wishing, hoping, even praying, for bad times, so as to bring down George Bush.

I doubt if bad times are here, but the primitives think they are, and so since the primitives are seeming to get their wishes coming true, how come the primitives aren't popping champagne corks and blowing those paper whistles?

Damn, the primitives can be confusing, in their contradictions.

[Ralph Wiggum]

So your Target store was relatively empty on a Tuesday morning.  Oh noes!!!!!!!!!!

[dutch508]

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor, Augustus. The 500-year-old Roman Republic, which preceded it, had been weakened by several civil wars. Several events are commonly proposed to mark the transition from Republic to Empire, including Julius Caesar's appointment as perpetual dictator (44 BC), the victory of Octavian at the Battle of Actium (2 September 31 BC), and the Roman Senate's granting to Octavian the honorific Augustus. (16 January 27 BC).

So, if we use a polite time of say, 44 BC and add 5000 years...

5000 years
-  44 years (ie: 2008 AD plus 44 BC would be 2052 years since the founding of the Roman Empire)
_____
4955 AD

Hmmm....

BLA BLA BLA...Therefore, it is difficult to give an exact date when the Roman Empire ceased to exist, but this article will focus on the empire from 27 BC to the permanent division in AD 395.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Rome

[thundley4]

We have a Target here inside the city limits ,(never been there), but the parking lot is empty compared to the Walmart just a mile away.  I don't suppose it has anything to do with the Target being in the city limits with a 1 1/2% higher sales tax than Walmart, though. 

[PatriotGame]

seemslikeadream  (1000+ posts)        Tue Oct-21-08 12:27 PM
Response to Original message

8. There is a BIG slow down on the shipping dock where I work

It is a company that ships all over the world

Wow! It looks like the DUmmy's "Not one damn dime day" was an astounding success. Now people are losing their jobs over it.

Go figgure....



 

[Toastedturningtidelegs]

Imperial Rome lasted 5000 years?

Can somebody fact-check this for us?

Five thousand years?

It lasted about 1200 years actually! 

[franksolich]

It lasted about 1200 years actually! 

Well, yeah, if one considers it lasted until the fall of Constantinople in 1453.

But I suspect the painful primitive, who doesn't know excresence about history, was referring to the original, and the western, Roman empire, which lasted circa 500 years, give or take a century or two.

In fact, it's highly doubtful the painful primitive is even aware there was once an eastern and a western Roman empire.

[Toastedturningtidelegs]

Well, yeah, if one considers it lasted until the fall of Constantinople in 1453.

But I suspect the painful primitive, who doesn't know excresence about history, was referring to the original, and the western, Roman empire, which lasted circa 500 years, give or take a century or two.

In fact, it's highly doubtful the painful primitive is even aware there was once an eastern and a western Roman empire.

I wonder if he's counting Ancient Rome as part of Imperial Rome!

[franksolich]

I wonder if he's counting Ancient Rome as part of Imperial Rome!

With what the pain in the ass primitive knows about history, he probably thinks the French and Indian War was fought in India.

[Toastedturningtidelegs]

With what the pain in the ass primitive knows about history, he probably thinks the French and Indian War was fought in India.

Actually Frank I think I was wrong as well. I found this

ROMAN  "IMPERIAL"  PERIOD     27 BC  to   565 AD

http://www.legionxxiv.org/imperialtimeline/

[jinxmchue]

As I was checking out and making chit chat with the clerk, I said, "Wow, it's
really quiet in here today, and I the only one in here?" The clerk said, "Oh,
it will pick up during the noon hour. It always gets busier later." Then she paused
and said, "At least that's what we're supposed to say."

I said, "So it's been dead and if we ask about it, you're supposed to deny it and
put a positive spin on it?" She replied, "That's what we were told to do at
the last meeting."

What a load of bullshit.

[LadyLiberty]

I didn't make it past this one:

4. my daughter works part time at Walmart (give her a break. it was the availble job)She said she has never seen it so quiet . Usually at this time people are doing xmas shopping

This is utter horse dung. Sales there are up, because more people are shopping there, because their prices are lower, which could explain why it was so "quiet" in Target.

"October 08, 2008

Bentonville, Ark.—Net sales for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. increased 5.8 percent to $36.22 billion for the five weeks ended Oct. 3, compared with $34.23 billion for the same period last year, the company reported on Wednesday.

For the 35 weeks ended Oct. 3, net sales increased 9 percent to $263.37 billion, compared with $241.72 billion for the same period last year.

Total U.S. same-store sales for the retail giant, excluding fuel sales, increased 2.4 percent for the five weeks ended Oct. 3, and 2.9 percent for the 35 weeks ended Oct. 3."

[LadyLiberty]

What a load of bullshit.

Of course  Same shit coming from the same donkey.

[GOBUCKS]

It works every time, at least in the beginning. (in the case of Impeial Rome, it lasted 5000 years and more)

Wow. 5000 years ago, the pharoahs were in the early stages of ruling Egypt and beginning to build the first pyramids. So the DUmmy version of Imperial Rome predated the earliest Egyptian rulers. I did not know that.

I believe the DUmmy may be making reference to Rome, Georgia.

Or maybe Rome apples.

Because surely he knows the Roman Empire did not exist 5000 years ago, and certainly didn't last for 5000 years.

Or maybe his history teacher was DUmmy greenbriar.

[Miss Mia]

Who would imagine a store not being that busy on a Tuesday morning???   

[Toastedturningtidelegs]

With what the pain in the ass primitive knows about history, he probably thinks the French and Indian War was fought in India.

Actually Frank this thread reminds me of one a couple of years ago. I believe it was HorseWithNoName who thought that we had destroyed the Hanging Gardens Of Babylon when we invaded Iraq! She got mad at me when I informed her that they were actually destroyed by several earthquakes in the 2nd Century!

[Bondai]

Stores are quiet because people are holding onto their money since they won't have any after Obama the one is done taxing us back to the stone age.

[formerlurker]

Where is this Target because the ones around me seem to be packed no matter what time I go - as is every other store I go to.

[Wineslob]

Where is this Target because the ones around me seem to be packed no matter what time I go - as is every other store I go to.

Exactly what I was going to say. In the nearby town of Chico (biggest/closest to me with a pop of roughly 100K +) Walmart, Target, Lowes, ect... are always busy.

I call total bullshit.....no bongs.

[jtyangel]

Oh my..perhaps I should drive the 2 miles down the street from me then to tell all the construction workers and such that what they are building here is imminent danger of shutting....business can't be good if they are building new stores after all.  Cease and desist! DU says the end of Target is imminent!!!









(btw, the Target we have now, it just depends when you go like the girl told her...about 10 am you'll get some traffic from the sahm's there for whatever reason and then in the evening, it's never as busy as say a Walmart, but Target does ok). The neighborhood it is in now too and location is awkward and not the greatest. I have a feeling just like when Kohl's moved up here by us, it will pick up quite a bit once..ok, I'll say it..once it moves to where the money is, but the shrink is FAR lower . Oh and Target felt no desperate need to open up by xmas either. They will be opening this store in the Spring sometime.

[Georgia Bulldog]

Must be a different Target from the one I worked at. I know we've had to cut back hours but the store I work at is busy as ever. In fact today was really busy for a Tuesday, which is normally one of our slower days. Even on our slow days it picks up around noon. I call b.s. on that story from the DUmp.

[Toastedturningtidelegs]

Oh my..perhaps I should drive the 2 miles down the street from me then to tell all the construction workers and such that what they are building here is imminent danger of shutting....business can't be good if they are building new stores after all.  Cease and desist! DU says the end of Target is imminent!!!









(btw, the Target we have now, it just depends when you go like the girl told her...about 10 am you'll get some traffic from the sahm's there for whatever reason and then in the evening, it's never as busy as say a Walmart, but Target does ok). The neighborhood it is in now too and location is awkward and not the greatest. I have a feeling just like when Kohl's moved up here by us, it will pick up quite a bit once..ok, I'll say it..once it moves to where the money is, but the shrink is FAR lower . Oh and Target felt no desperate need to open up by xmas either. They will be opening this store in the Spring sometime.

It's probably already been said in this thread but discount stores like Target,Walmart and Kmart will probably do quite well when the economy is bad!

[LadyLiberty]

Must be a different Target from the one I worked at. I know we've had to cut back hours but the store I work at is busy as ever. In fact today was really busy for a Tuesday, which is normally one of our slower days. Even on our slow days it picks up around noon. I call b.s. on that story from the DUmp.

Yup, the one I go to most of the time is the one in Buford, and that is always busy.

[whiffleball]

Target, Walmart, KMart, the malls around me are all steady with business when I visit.  Anyone who's ever worked retail knows custom often comes in waves and is subject to local activities.  We have three major universities here with any number of sports going on, the state fair and community fall celebrations.  All of these plus affect the time shoppers are in the stores.

[jtyangel]

Target, Walmart, KMart, the malls around me are all steady with business when I visit.  Anyone who's ever worked retail knows custom often comes in waves and is subject to local activities.  We have three major universities here with any number of sports going on, the state fair and community fall celebrations.  All of these plus affect the time shoppers are in the stores.

Yep! Go into any store during an Ohio State Football game around here and it is DEAD. The few people who get out at the behest of family to get something forgotten, usual look about for a tv or listen for a radio which the employees at the store usually have on somewhere with the game.