FIPS UNDERCOVER: Target, Atlantic Center Mall [The Seventh Level of Hell]
Erica | Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 9:06AM
This is part one of our four part series in which we attempt to uncover, once and for all, why the hell Target at the Atlantic Center Mall sucks a big dick.
(see part TWO here)
We double dawg dare you to try to conjure up a more poorly run, haphazardly stocked, woefully understaffed shit show of a retail establishment...a-n-y-w-h-e-r-e. Brownstoner wondered if the big box retailer's empty shelves over the holiday season signified the end of the global recession!
HAAAAAHHHH!
The only thing that shit signified was: Saturday.
Even if you can dig back into the deepest, darkest, furthest reaches of your mind to come up with a more fucked up store, it won't fly...cause dudez! This is Target! Tar-jay!
You're supposed to walk into Target, anywhere, and know exactly what you're getting. This place always looks like downtown Baghdad post Bush/Cheney special sauce bombz.
So here's what went down: we hauled our asses into the store on a typical Saturday afternoon and documented what we saw (and no, it was not pretty). I asked as many Target employees as I could find, one simple question: where are the duvet covers?
Hilarity ensued.
Please note: we have not manipulated or "reused" video in any way here (except to blur out faces). We shot endless rows of empty aisles and did not simply recycle shots of one poorly stocked aisle. This place actually sucks this hard.
Stay tuned for Part 2 next week!
Target, Video, business gripes 
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Reader Comments (59)
I've braved the Atlantic Center many times for it's Target, and I agree that the place rots. However, wtf do you expect?!! They've dropped a pristine big-box beacon from suburbia onto the grimy anus of Brooklyn. If you walk around the corner from Target, there's guys with funny hats who never shower selling Osama Bin Laden posters. Have you ever eaten a Reese's cup in the Summer while wearing white mittens? You should be glad you didn't walk out of there with a festering bullet wound.
I love you.
My Target Story contribution. I'm there with my mother who is visiting from out of town. There's not one single shopping cart in the whole f-ing store available, yet the red-shirts have 10 half-empty carts by the elevators with junk to re-stock. I ask if I can use one that has two small items in it, explaining that no others are available. Her response. "No."
I've lived in 5 major cities in my life - and the Target in Atlantic Center Mall in Bklyn is the absolute WORST place I've ever been forced to shop in. So rude and completely terrible every single time I've tried to shop there. Once I went there to see if they had a material/crafts section (like every other Target I'd ever been to) and the first person was very busy and shrugged me off and told me to go to the 3rd floor. I went to the 3rd floor - no avail - asked someone else there who was completely offended that I had asked... sent me back to where I started. Went back there and asked someone who IMMEDIATELY pointed me to another co-worker 1 aisle away who immediately said to her "FUCK THAT - WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU POINTING AT ME FOR? DON'T DROP THAT SHIT ON ME!"
Sigh. So much for customer service. The many other products that I had picked up on my way and had intended to buy were dropped... immediately... in the dollar bin on my way out. Fuck that.
And yes.. (as above). I can't WAIT for the Pathmark blog. :)
Fuck Target for a duvet cover.
Try going to Bobby's on church ave in brooklyn, its fairly close to this shitty target but they have most of the same stuff at a fraction of the price. its a closeouts paradise.
Once upon a time at the Atlantic Target:
A young couple arguing heatedly about the decor for the baby's room: the changing table pad needs the match the curtains which need to match the throw rug which needs to match the diaper bin liner, etc. Somewhere in the midst of their discussion, the actual baby strapped in the cart starts to fuss upon which the mother promptly smacks it, swears at it and tells the bd he's a bastard for knocking her up. Then they talk about hand towels for the bathroom. Dante could not imagine this level of hell.
I thought it couldn't get worse than the Marshalls in Atlantic Center. There seems to be a never ending pile of crap that people dump haphazardly because they're sick of waiting in line for 30 minutes for 2 cashiers (one of whom announces that they're going "on break" even though there are 40 people in line). And all in the name of a pair of 24.99 fake Uggs and some "slightly imperfect" 400 thread count sheets. Target is just as bad. "Design for All"? Yeah, if I could find it! The whole Atlantic Center should just be gutted and made into oh, I dunno, a library? a rec center? A parking garage? Anything but this mismanaged, poorly designed clusterfuck!
You guys trying to feel superior about it really should know that Target does not sell silverware. They sell flatware. There's a difference. So stop being so snooty.
I have to say, as bad as Target can be, your choice of the word "duvet" (common on the West Coast) is partly to blame. It's a less common synonym for "comforter," which I'd bet, you would have had much more success with, had you tried it.
Maybe this actually just shows your inattention to your surroundings and cultural context, rather than Target employees' stupidity.
Wow. You truly have nothing better to focus on than the store's recession-spurned lack of proper inventory and the perceived "incompetence" of Target employees.
Take that tone of entitlement and condescension out of your approach and maybe you might have been more warmly received.
So bump your Gangstarr on your blog as you criticize employees and, perhaps, former residents of this now overrun community, rife with petty, gentrifying assholes, such as yourself, who bitch and moan about no duvets.
Pay a visit to your hometown Walmart next time you find yourself in East bumblefuck-or whatever suburb you crawled out of-for the holidays to spend some time by the fire with your rents.
Or we could happily invite Walmart into your happy little community and shut down all the hard working mom&pop coffee joints, local shops and restaurants so you no longer have a place to sit on 7th Ave sipping your chai latte, bitching-poetic about people you do not have the audacity to criticize in person.
When the revolution comes...I'm coming after yo' ass FIRST.
Listen. It's the holiday season, we're in a recession, and shit happens. If you can't find your little "duvet" at target you should stop complaining like an annoying, entitled, gentrifying little bitch and go to another fucking store like everybody else. I would also like to venture that, inevitably, the mere presence of you and your kind have wreaked havoc to once stable communities in this city. Those workers probably had to take a train for an hour to get to work because your ass kicked them out of their apartment with your parent's checkbook just to listen to you bitch and moan about some fucking "duvet" Get real, bitch. You want the real Brooklyn? Here's an experiment. Talk all this shit on your blog to these people's face. The lovely ass-kickin you get would make you feel right at home.
BROOKLYN WAS HERE WAY BEFORE YOU ARRIVED. YOU'RE NOT FUCKING "EDGY" YOU DUMB HIPSTER BITCH!
Wow, the Brooklynites who posted comments make me wonder WTF is up with Brooklyn. I mean, GOD you gentrifying FUCKS, why should anywhere be nice? Let Brooklyn be a slum!
I mean, god forbid the residents of Brooklyn have access to the niceties other working-class people all over America enjoy. Apparently they prefer tremendous rudeness, poorly trained employees, insane levels of disservice, and absolutely no products to be found anywhere.
Because if you suggest they deserve better, then "yo' ass is FIRST" after all.
Memo to working-class people: I grew up on WIC, Head Start, and was dirt-poor. BUT, I don't CHERISH being poor or having bad service or being treated like dirt like you apparently do. Let go of your disgusting post-modern hipster-like obsession (oh yeah, you're hipsters, too, only worse) with "keeping it real" by continuing to live like scum when you could have better lives by getting out of the way of people who want to make things better. And get over yourselves.
Umm, the first young man was very helpful and gave you the proper directions up to domestics. You chose to continue wondering around in a condescending matter asking a question you already had the correct answer to and blaming the Target employees for your stupidity. I'm embarrassed for you. If I had to put up with people like you all day, I'd be rude to you too.
All those empty shelves mean that there are plenty of other satisfied costumers. Who cares what you think.
So the first employee tells you to go up the escalator and to the left, but instead you stay on the same floor, go to health and beauty and wonder why there are no duvet covers there??!! Can you not follow directions? You guys are worse that Geraldo.
Jesus Christ:
*For everyone who is posting with bullshit about how its Christmas and that's why the shelves are not stocked; or that they were moving departments or whatever, STFU. You have obviously never been to this store. It is ALWAYS like that. The shelves are never stocked, no matter what day or time of year you go.
*For everyone who says this is racist cause they asked for a "duvet": are you fucking kidding me? Black people don't know what duvets are? I'm brown and I've got a duvet...its not that complicated.
*For everyone who is suggesting that they were stupid for looking for duvets there in the first place: uhm, do you think that they were REALLY looking for duvets? I don't. I think that they were trying to show the colassal incompetence of everyone who works in that store.
*To anon 11:37: are you really that stupid? Yes, my guess is they can follow directions. They were asking all the employees they could find the same question in order to show the colassal incompetence of everyone who works in that store.
Call these guys racist if you want (though I don't agree), but for anyone who is ACTUALLY trying to make the point that this branch of Target is not that bad, you need to go back to smoking your crack pipe. It's the worst. WORST.
why blame target's customer service employees for the lack of organization of the store. perhaps if we looked higher up the chain, into management's role in training their employees, providing a pleasant work environment, benefits and incentives, maybe we would see reason behind the store's overall feel. if corporate wants unhappy customers, they sure know what to do. but let's be realistic, they pay marketing experts millions to design a store, brand, and environment people want to frequent. something is missing along the chain. pointing fingers at the underpaid sales people and stockers isn't going to help.
WHERE ARE THE TIM TAM COOKIES??!!
welcome to Targettho....
Agree with many of the other commenters that this particular Target is awful, and that has nothing to do with my social class. The store sucks. I no longer shop there if I can help it, and prefer to buy my Target goods online. The Atlantic store is consistently out of anything I actually need to buy. It's a crapshoot. Half the times I've gone there, the cart escalator is broken, and good luck with getting an employee to direct you to the elevators. (BTW, recycling garbage bags-- I don't think they sell them there. I've gone at least a dozen times over the past few years and have never seen them.) The only worse big box store I can think of is the Bedford/Nostrand Home Depot someone mentioned in one of the comments. In terms of customer service, that store is hands down the worst I've ever witnessed. And really, Trader Joe's is heavily trafficked but they still manage to keep friendly and helpful employees despite the chaos. And they're out of stock of a lot of the time but they are constantly replenishing. At least they give a crap.
To fizzy,
11:37 here.
I know exactly what they were doing. They made it look like the first employee sent them to the Q-tip isle, when he didn't. Trying to make him look less competent. It's misleading, hence the Geraldo comment.
I know that store very well. The shelves aren't normally that empty.
I hope the next installment isn't so misleading.
try pathmark next door. it makes target look luxurious.
see, you got it all wrong. It's all in the wording in Brooklyn.
You should have said :
mofo duvet.
Why are some of you guys making ANY excuses for A.T.'s Target perpetual sub-mediocrity?
Just because a Target is in Brooklyn, we should resign to the fact that it's going to suck and "that's just the way it is?" Should those of us who actually want to shop at a decent chain store in our area just shrug and look the other way because the A.T. area has historically been poor?
Give me a break.
I'm a former Target employee. What you see in this video is the direct result of egregious mismanagement and a lack of employee training. I'm surprised the District Manager hasn't shut this store down from what I hear about it. The DM in my region would literally fire us if one thing was out of place when they visited the store.
However, you have to understand during the holiday season that the amount of customers that shop at these stores, even during a recession, simply outnumber the minimal amount of employees the store allows to work at one time. I'm sure this store is running on a skeleton crew like my former store is now, and they can't do everything at once. Plus, the customers who shop at this store, from what I hear here, aren't the sharpest crayons in the box either, which could contribute to the store's state of chaos due to them leaving unwanted items where they didn't find it, etc.
As others said, the woman in the video shouldn't have been so detailed with what she asked for. Iinstead of saying "Where can I find the Mossimo Extra-Wide Pump Heel Loafer Slingback Espadrilles?" to an employee across the store who is not familiar with the items, you can easily say "Where are the womens shoes?" which would result in a higher chance of finding what you want, and maybe *gasp* go down each aisle until you see what you want. It's simple logic.
Regarding empty aisles - You will recall in the video one aisle that was empty on both sides. This is what a regular holiday clearance aisle looks like after it was heavily shopped. Go to any Target and you'll find the exact same thing in the Seasonal department as those were the last bit of decorations that were sold. I saw it the other day in my former Target store. You can even see the red clearance sign on the aisle in the video. Sometimes employees consolidate random items left on bare Clearance shelves elsewhere and leave the old aisles empty until new stock comes in. I'm sure you would've seen that if the camera went to the next aisle.
With that said, they should have filled all of those empty spaces in the Health/Beauty aisles when the store was closed, even if they were transitioning it, even during the holiday rush. They should have a planogram team that moves items to new locations. There is no excuse for having them as bare as they were during regular business hours with no obvious team of employees hard at work moving items.
misleading? really? um, no. this store looks like this on any given sunday through saturday, july through june, no matter what.