Open Letter To Target
To: Whoever Is In Charge
This is to let you know that I will not be returning to your store with the intent to purchase clothes following my experience this weekend.
As you may know, a recent study indicates that almost 65% of adults suffer from obesity in the United States and in Maine the percentage of obese adults is nearly 24%. [“Obesity up in almost every state” (WebMD)] So why is it that in your South Portland store, the size of the Women’s department is less than 10′ x 10′?
To make matters worse, the Women’s department is in the back corner next to the changing room and several racks contain the discarded clothes from the changing rooms. Furthermore, on my visit yesterday, more than half of the Women’s department was taken up with clearance racks for the Misses’ department. The choices for purchase where extremely limited and was mostly exercise clothes. I guess that is a sublte hint that instead of working or going to parties, anyone of a larger size should be at the gym.
When I could not find any shorts that weren’t meant for the gym, I approached an employee with a name tag at the changing room. I asked if there were any shorts left in the Women’s department as it appeared the Winter clothes had already been put out in mid-August. She waved in the general direction of the clearance racks and told me if there were any shorts left, they would be mixed in with those. She was rude and unhelpful and I certainly had the impression that she felt I was wasting her time.
So, until you realize that anorexic teenagers aren’t the only ones who shop in your store, that the adults are the ones who really spend the money there, and that your employees need a lesson in how the customer is the reason they have jobs, I shall be shopping where the clothes fit and the employees are friendly.
Thanks for wasting my time and gas yesterday,
N. Mallory
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on August 28, 2005 at 4:40 am
Andy said:
I too am on the large size. A few years ago I went into Marks and Spencer’s men department in my local city (UK) - M & S used to sell clothes big enough for me but in recent years they have gone more ‘trendy’. Anyway - couldn’t find anything so I asked the assistant if they had stopped doing trousers in my size. She told me yes they had. And then gave me some advice. “You’ll just have to lose some weight won’t you?”
on August 28, 2005 at 5:49 pm
n. mallory said:
Isn’t that just the rudest?
I ended up going to Catherine’s which is a national chain of “Women’s”-sized clothes. They didn’t have any shorts left either, but the sales clerk told me to check L.L. Bean, which has it’s Motherstore two towns from me. Sure enough, they still had shorts, but I had to order through their catalog, but if you go to the store and they don’t have what you want, often they’ll ship for free.
Mind you, I do have every intent on relosing the weight, but not until after my summer vacation.
on August 28, 2005 at 6:55 pm
Andy said:
I’ve lost three and half stone (you can do the math) in the last year and want to lose another half before my trip to the States at the end of September. Then I can relax whilst trying out the local Tennessee cuisine! I guess it might be a good idea to stop smoking before I come as well - especially as I haven’t found a hotel that actually allows smoking anywhere on the premises!
Have fun on your vacation in your new shorts.
on September 8, 2005 at 1:01 am
Matt Van Dusen said:
As an employee of Target, I am appauled at the rudeness of the fitting room attendant you witnessed.
However, you cannot hold that particular employee or even store accountable for all the shorts being removed from the rack, to be replaced with the winter clothing. Often, team members at Target are given no notice of when a change will be occuring to the set - they just come in the next day and find it different.
That still doesn’t excuse her unhelpful attitude, and even though I live, work, and go to school in the Denver area, I would like to offer my apologies for this team member.
on September 8, 2005 at 12:32 pm
n. mallory said:
Really, it wasn’t so much a lack of summer clothes that bothered me but a lack of clothes in Women’s sizes. It’s already upsetting that I’ve gained weight to begin with but to discover that the space for Women’s clothes is probably less than my cubicle and that it’s been taken up by skinny people’s clearance clothes?
Not to mention the really rude sales woman…
I’m sorry but the average American woman wears a size 14 or 16. This means that half the female population wears a larger size than that. Plus, probably 90% of those are the adult population which are more likely to have money to spend than the teenie boppers the rest of the clothes section caters to. I think it’s an poor planning for a retail store to alienate half of the female adult population.
on September 10, 2005 at 1:27 am
Matt Van Dusen said:
Yes, but there is only one person one can blame for this situation with the clothes.
That one person is the ETL-SL for the company. That person (I don’t even know who it is) makes all the decisions about the clothes the stores will carry, and the sizes and colors.