Some of you may know that I worked at Target for about a year and a half when we lived in Pennsylvania. I despised it. It was supposed to be something to get by until I could find a job utilizing my degrees, a few months at most. I figured that we were right outside of Philadelphia and that it would be easy to find something using history and historic preservation degrees because it was Philadelphia, where our nation was born. Well, that was in the fall of 2008, when the economy was at its worst. I was looking for a job in the sixth largest metropolitan area in the nation, but so were so many, more experienced folks with my degree in the area. So, you can guess who got those jobs and my tenure at Target turned into much longer than I anticipated.
One of my favorite places in Center City Philadelphia.
I decided to try to make the best of my situation and if I was going to be there awhile, then I was going to work my way up and not be a lowly team member anymore. I was promoted to a Guest Service Team Leader and transferred stores from one 10 minutes from our apartment to one 1.5 hours away during rush hour. Was it the smartest decision? Not really, for a number of factors - the commute, the pay and the stress of it all being some of the major ones. However, I did meet some cool people at that store and I do miss them. Hard to believe it's been five years since I worked there!
Just something I used to see on my commute.
Anyway...on to the whole point of this post. What's up Target? First a 40 million credit card security breach over fourth quarter that includes PIN numbers and this morning I read that 40,000 gift cards that were purchased over the same period weren't activated.
Not cool Target. Not cool at all. Luckily, I didn't receive any gift cards from there this year. However, my husband and I are definitely amongst some of the 40 million card users that likely had their data stolen. It's so much fun having to monitor our accounts for who knows how long to come. I do still love the store, but it definitely makes me think twice about shopping, not just there but anywhere using anything but cash.
But, with that being said, I feel so bad for those poor Target employees that have to deal with this in store. It's not their fault that these incidents happened, yet they're the ones that suffer the wrath of consumers. When I was a GSTL, it used to make me so mad that I had to deal with people who were angry about things that were completely out of my control and I couldn't say anything back to them about it (don't even get me started on that..). They're just the pegs in a much much larger machine.
So, if you're out and about tonight or in the near future, please be kind to your retail employees. I feel for them, I really really do.
But, with that being said, I feel so bad for those poor Target employees that have to deal with this in store. It's not their fault that these incidents happened, yet they're the ones that suffer the wrath of consumers. When I was a GSTL, it used to make me so mad that I had to deal with people who were angry about things that were completely out of my control and I couldn't say anything back to them about it (don't even get me started on that..). They're just the pegs in a much much larger machine.
So, if you're out and about tonight or in the near future, please be kind to your retail employees. I feel for them, I really really do.
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