# Target vs. Wal Mart vs. K-Mart etc **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 25, 2002, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-vs-wal-mart-vs-k-mart-etc/138775 "2002-11-25T23:30:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-vs-wal-mart-vs-k-mart-etc/138775/41 "2002-11-27T08:37:03Z")
> [@](#): > > _ **Malandry** said:_ > I always seemed to get in line behind someone paying for $200 worth of groceries with a combination of food stamps, travelers’ cheques, and Canadian money Who would have _both_ traveler’s cheques/foreign currency _and_ food stamps? > [@](#): > > _ **Mr Pud** said:_ just wanted say that I make a point of pronouncing it “Targ�t”, and it amuses me to no end. Actually, that would be pronounced “Tarzhay”. 🙂 We had a Royal Commission or something up here headed by a guy whose name was pronounced “forzhay” but spelt “Forget”. What was it about? I don’t remember… I don’t go to Wal-Mart. I find the greeters just a little too creepy. And I can’t stop thinking of sweatshops in east Asia whenever I’m there, even though the average dollar store is far more likely to have sweatshop-derived merchandise IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-vs-wal-mart-vs-k-mart-etc/138775/42 "2002-11-27T10:56:00Z")
The only cool thing K-mart has is the self-checkout lanes. If the other stores would do that… mmmmm! ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-vs-wal-mart-vs-k-mart-etc/138775/43 "2002-11-27T13:49:05Z")
I must live in some sort of never-neverland where Target isn’t so good. For some reason, the Targets around here are usually out of stock on numerous items. Once, I went in with a shopping list of 6 unrelated items, and _all_ of them were out of stock. The underpants section is usually 75% empty. The checkout lines are interminable, too. I’ve found some very good clothing items there, however. I don’t go there if I actually need to buy utilitarian stuff, but I will go there to browse. And the staff seems more helpful than in similar stores. Kmart, as others have said, is dirty and disorganized. A few years ago, it was a lot better, but it’s the pits now. I haven’t been in a Kmart in a very long time. Walmart is just painful. From the greeters to the receipt-checker at the door, every employee seems to have something very wrong with him or her. Do they require that all of their employees have sub-normal intelligence? I only go to Walmart to buy the acrylic yarn I need for my charitable knitting projects. I think I’ll stop going there for even that, because somehow it usually ends up taking 45 minutes to buy a skein of yarn. I guess the upshot is that I rarely go to any of these 3 stores anymore. Most of the stuff I need is available at local (non-chain) stores and the supermarket. As I said, I’ll make the occasional trip to the Target, but I can’t count on being able to actually buy anything there. ---
**Author:** ![butter\_pie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aca169/32.png) [@butter\_pie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butter_pie)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-vs-wal-mart-vs-k-mart-etc/138775/44 "2002-11-27T14:44:15Z")
I love Target – I have quite a few clothes from there, and would buy more if I had extra money to be spending on clothes. I go to Walmart to buy frozen meals for lunch at work because they’re cheapest there, and to get shampoo and toothpaste and stuff like that. I haven’t had a problem with Walmart yet, but I tend to go later at night or in off peak times. I don’t care for KMart, but there’s one down the sidewalk from where I work so I end up going in a couple of times a week to buy a drink or something for lunch from the refridgerated case. I do think the self-checkouts are pretty nifty. I always blast through them at lightning speed because I’ve used them so much. And I like watching other customers kind of dawdle and boggle over them. Maybe it makes them appreciate the human cashiers a bit more. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DaToad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@DaToad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaToad)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-vs-wal-mart-vs-k-mart-etc/138775/45 "2002-11-27T15:02:02Z")
They’re all the same to me: crowded, cheap goods, understaffed with cranky rude employees, and dirty. I love 'em all. ---
**Author:** ![zenith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zenith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zenith)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-vs-wal-mart-vs-k-mart-etc/138775/46 "2002-11-27T15:18:15Z")
K-mart has the best deals on film developing. We don’t venture far from the film dropoff, however, due to the fact that they don’t give you cash refunds for returned items–just gift cards that make it impossible to take the money elsewhere to find a non-defective version of what you took back. Cleanliness and clutter are variable there. Just before they pissed me off over the gift card thing , they looked as sharp as they did when the store was new IMHO. That might last through the Chrismas holiday and then they’ll gradually dinge down again. Target is OK, but they’re a little too far away. Shopko is nearby. Other than the fact that there’s virtually no Automotive section there any more, the store’s as good as Target with prices somewhere between Walmart/K-mart and Target. Walmart Supercenter is open 24 hours. I work 11-to-7 and don’t want to have to stay up til 9 a.m. just to buy a loaf of read or some milk or catfood. For serious grocery shopping, I stick with my trusty local stores. Yesterday, however, their Automotive section pissed me off. we had ice and snow and I broke one of my wiper blades trying to unstick it. Walmart did not have a single winter wiper blade in stock. I waited til 8 to buy blades at O’Reilly’s, whose price was just 2 cents higher than Wally’s, but whose stock people were definitely more on-the-ball. Actually, Walmart has been a lot more slipshod in its selection and its stocking levels since Kmart declared bankruptcy. Someone needs to shake their complacency. As for Kohl’s, I don’t buy shoes at any other discounter. ---
**Author:** ![Landshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/77aa72/32.png) [@Landshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Landshark)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-vs-wal-mart-vs-k-mart-etc/138775/47 "2002-11-27T15:20:34Z")
My experiences with these stores mentioned in the OP that are near me has been mixed. There is a Walmart quite close to me. I find it handy for buying pants because I have an odd-number inseam size, and they’re one of the few places I can consistently find reasonably good looking pants with that particular inseam size. It’s also been handy for things I am in immediate need of. BUT, it attracts huge numbers of people, especially weekday evenings and weekends, so I’ve learned to try to go there on my way to work weekday mornings. There is a Target a few more miles away from me that I went to much more before the Walmart AND a Costco were built real close to me. I still shop there occasionally because it’s on my way home from work. The one big aggravation I have with it is the checkout lines. I always seem to find myself in line behind several people while I watch several registers standing unattended and multiple staff people standing around the manager’s booth not appearing to be doing much of anything. And the Kmart near me is just depressing, especially since the corporation went bankrupt. One P.S. Just remembered there are no Super Walmarts in my area, but there recently have been noises that Walmart is starting to look at areas around here to build them. Which has sent the local groceries into a panic, convinced they will be hugely underpriced by the Super Walmarts. But from what I’ve been reading here, I may want to avoid groceries there anyway! ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-vs-wal-mart-vs-k-mart-etc/138775/48 "2002-11-27T15:24:35Z")
Speaking of understaffing, maybe an actual K/W/T employee can chime in, here (or ex-employee, if Guinistasia is reading this) … When there are only a few lanes open and lines all over the place, is this the result of there not being enough people available to work those lines OR of a conscious management decision to have only a certain number of lines open at any given time? ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-vs-wal-mart-vs-k-mart-etc/138775/49 "2002-11-27T15:54:40Z")
I can answer that, sort of. I’ve never worked at one of the super-discounters, but I have worked at a chain drugstore and in many other retail settings. You are right on both counts, actually. It is a conscious management decision not to have enough people available to work those lines. There is an advantage to having fewer lines open, in that there will be fewer registers to reconcile, but mainly they understaff the registers because they can. Because they know people will wait in line. Because they know their customers are either so price-conscious or so lazy that they won’t go anywhere else. Occasionally, a store will be temporarily understaffed because of sick-calls, etc., but if a store consistenly has long lines and few registers open, you know it is because it was a conscious decision to do it that way. In the places I’ve worked that have been truly customer oriented, the management has done whatever possible to keep the maximum number of registers open, including having managers man registers at peak times. Frankly, I think the understaffing is penny-wise and pound foolish, because people hate to wait in line. If customers have an alternative, they will choose to shop where they don’t have to wait. I think this is part of the reason that Kmart got in trouble. At Kmart (and Target), I have put down my things and left because I wanted to leave more than I wanted the items. That’s a straightforward case of lost sales. I do my grocery shopping at the Pathmark rather than the Shop-Rite, because the Pathmark seems to have a strong commitment to short lines. At peak hours, almost every register will be open, and at all times there’s usually cashiers just waiting for customers. Why would I go to Shop-Rite, where I can buy the same thing for the same price, but I have to wait to do it? p.s.Frequently, those people you see “standing around” aren’t really just standing around, but you since you don’t know why they are apparently doing nothing, it presents an annoying appearance. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-vs-wal-mart-vs-k-mart-etc/138775/50 "2002-11-27T15:59:16Z")
Other than having fewer registers to reconcile, why would store managers have fewer registers open? If I’m waiting in line, I’m not more apt to buy more things while I’m waiting - I’m simply waiting there. So I guess I’m not seeing how it benefits them financially, except that people are probably more likely to stay IN a line once they’ve gotten in one, thereby guaranteeing they’ll make their purchase there rather than give up and go elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-vs-wal-mart-vs-k-mart-etc/138775/51 "2002-11-27T16:07:33Z")
Target stores are less crowded, cleaner, better stocked, brighter and layed out better than the others. I don`t care about the “lowest” price if my experience is pleasant. I prefer Target, but my wife likes Wal-Mart, so we go to Wal-Mart. ---
**Author:** ![beagledave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@beagledave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beagledave)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-vs-wal-mart-vs-k-mart-etc/138775/52 "2002-11-27T16:11:03Z")
I like the SuperTarget we have in town…like others have said…the prices are a “bit” higher than others…but not too bad. We sometimes get groceries there. That said, it’s on the other side of town and not close for quick needs. We have a K-Mart close to our house, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised. It’s clean…has self service check out (very quick)…usually has what I’m looking for …and reasonable prices. We also get our scripts there…cheapest prices in town, and hardly ever a wait. We just a new Mega-Ultra-behemoth-WalMart fairly close to the SuperTarget. I checked it out to see what the fuss was all about…less than impressed. ---
**Author:** ![annieclaus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5a626/32.png) [@annieclaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/annieclaus)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-vs-wal-mart-vs-k-mart-etc/138775/53 "2002-11-27T16:13:19Z")
Target is the only one of the three that I can actually go into without getting physically sick. I don’t know what it is, but the other two turn my stomach! ---
**Author:** ![Nightsong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nightsong/32/3083_2.png) [@Nightsong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightsong)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-vs-wal-mart-vs-k-mart-etc/138775/54 "2002-11-27T16:55:59Z")
Let’s see… K-Mart: Urrrg. Usually their stores feel ‘off’ to me: the only ones that haven’t were the ones in Hawai’i. Wal-Mart: The one in the Wolfchase area (Memphis, TN) has the self-checkout lines, which are catching on fairly quickly. Now, if only I can get my parents (I normally run errands with them) to use them, we’d stand a chance of getting out of there in less than three hours. Target: Only go here when I see something in their weekly advert that I need/want, and if I don’t care much about the quality (or lack thereof). All of the above I don’t go to if I want something high-quality: they normally just don’t carry stuff like that. For the not-quite-national (U.S.) stores: Kohl’s: I’m used to this being a grocery store, not a department store. 😃 No better or worse than the others. Fred Meyer’s: I’m neutral on this one: the one we went to, when we lived in the area, was an older building and definately had seen better days. But, the deals were good. Meijer’s: Whooo boy. Can we say ‘price wars’ boys and girls? (At least in Chicagoland.) Quality isn’t always there, but eeeh, at those prices you can get a cheapy one to tide you over until you found something better. * * * \<\< Dum-de-dum-dum… \>\> ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-vs-wal-mart-vs-k-mart-etc/138775/55 "2002-11-27T16:57:44Z")
**dan** Fewer registers = fewer cashiers = lower payroll. Simple as that. Apparently, they figure that they save more in payroll than they lose in business by doing it that way. I’ll reiterate that even if you see people that appear to be doing nothing and wonder why they aren’t put on registers, there may be a logical explanation. Like that they are on break or 5 minutes from the end of their shift, or that they aren’t trained to be cashiers, etc. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-vs-wal-mart-vs-k-mart-etc/138775/56 "2002-11-27T17:01:04Z")
Oh, I know, Miss Bean. I see people hanging around, and I do wonder why they can’t help me out, but they might be doing something that’s not obvious to me, or they may be on break, or they might not even be qualified to cashier. Still, if a manager is hanging around watching things and notices there’s a huge, huge line, he/she should either find someone to open up a new line or open one up himself. When I was in retail, we weren’t allowed to have more than two people waiting in a line (it was a video store, though). ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-vs-wal-mart-vs-k-mart-etc/138775/57 "2002-11-27T18:41:19Z")
Yeah, he should. And he doesn’t. And that tells you right there that “customer service” is just lip service at that type of store. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-vs-wal-mart-vs-k-mart-etc/138775/58 "2002-11-27T19:29:38Z")
Because they don’t have to pay more in wages. That’s why. Sometimes, if they’re standing around-they’re waiting for a DRAWER to be available. You can’t just hop on a register-you have to be signed in, and your money till is exclusively your’s-for accounting purposes and the like. And sometimes, I’d be waiting almost a half an hour for a manager to get me a till with people screaming at me. _shudder_ (Gosh, even now I’m starting to feel defensive-even though I don’t WORK there anymore!) ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-vs-wal-mart-vs-k-mart-etc/138775/59 "2002-11-27T20:10:53Z")
🙂 That I know firsthand. It’s not like the old days when registers were manual - they want you to be electronically signed into one so that they know who to blame if the till is short. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-vs-wal-mart-vs-k-mart-etc/138775.md?page=2)