Tweet Target: The Store, Not the Movie

As all of you know-it-alls already know, I'm sure, Target stores are in the process of taking over the Zeller's department store chain up here in Canada. Last week they got the final approval to do so from the federal government.

In a move extremely unusual for the Darwinist Party that currently enslaves this country, Target was ordered to include some Canadian content in its stock. Reports in the media then attempted to explain how CanCon rules might apply to a department store. These reports described Target as selling chiefly books, DVDs, CDs and other entertainment stuff.

I have never been in a Target, never even seen one from a distance. My understanding was that it is a junk shop that makes Walmart look like Tiffany's, and sells everything under the sun, including possibly the sun itself (or a discounted facsimile thereof).

I also thought that if it specializes in books, DVDs, and CDs, it is already a dinosaur doomed to extinction before it finishes converting its first ex-Zeller's. Why not also sell phonographs, typewriters, and rotary phones? Or do they already do that?

Could some of you kindly offer your thoughts and/or experiences with Target, particularly as it pertains to said books, DVDs, and CD's? Would I be able to find A Modern Musketeer and Little Elf on its shelves?

Jim

Target is probably on the same level as Wal-Mart in terms of their overall collection of stock... inexpensive clothes, housewares, pots and pans, a little bit of sporting goods and automotive supplies, drugstore stuff, and low-end electronics. There are people who won't shop at Wal-Mart (because it's evil, right? All their goods come from China, right?) who will shop at Target, which of course probably gets all of its goods from the same places.

In terms of DVDs, Blu-Ray, and music, Target has the popular mainstream stuff, and they don't have much. They may have The Artist, (for a short while) but they won't have Wings.

I shop at Target on occasion, but Wal-Mart is closer to me. I browse the DVD shelves if I'm in the store, but I wouldn't make a special trip there to look for a film unless I heard beforehand that they had something I wanted.

Target is a cheaper sort of department store, a bit better than Wal-Mart (I never see expired food there). For DVDs, they used to have popular titles plus a few off the beaten path, but now it's mainstream only. It's only of use for me to buy prescriptions (cheap and they carry medications Costco and Wal-Mart doesn't) along with a few odds and ends.

Well, I'm sorry to hear that Zeller's is going away. I loved going to one of their Winnipeg locations.

That said, there isn't *that* much of a substantial difference between what you'll find in Walmart and what you'll find in Target. Social attitudes towards the two stores, however, are actually the opposite of what you've heard about. Target is usually perceived to be more *upscale* than Walmart, regardless of how much that's actually the case, to the point where it's sometimes jokingly referred to as "Tar-zhay". In the public mind, very often Target = affluence, social progressivism, smartness while Walmart = proletarian, provincial, déclassé. Neither one of those is completely accurate--you can't necessarily make coherent judgments about the massive clientele that both chains have--these are just common pop-culture *perceptions*. And part of the reason behind them is (understandable) anti-Walmart backlash.

I'm sceptical that you'll find more exotic silent-related books or DVDs in Target--they can be hard enough to find at Barnes & Noble locations.

-HA

[Mike Gebert]

Target has some home furnishings that are more sort of Ikea-chic than you'd ever find at Wulmert. The chicness of, say, large boxes of kitty litter is probably the same between both.

The video department will carry things that get promotion from the labels, so you can be pleasantly surprised sometimes. They don't carry the specialty labels as Best Buy will sometimes.

Target's fine, I have reason to buy things there all the time including discounted blu-rays, but you know, if you want something specific you go to Amazon.

In the public mind, very often Target = affluence, social progressivism, smartness while Walmart = proletarian, provincial, déclassé. Neither one of those is completely accurate--
-HA

Not completely, yet there's something to it...for one thing, I haven't observed quite so many of the morbidly obsese in the one Target ("accent grave," as one Harold Bissonett was wont to say) I've patronized. Since it's a 100+ mile round-trip (Plattsburgh, NY) to visit either store, my trips are few & far between. The number of Quebec plates on cars parked in the Target lot suggests it isn't despised by our neighbors to the north.

Target has some home furnishings that are more sort of Ikea-chic than you'd ever find at Wulmert. The chicness of, say, large boxes of kitty litter is probably the same between both.

The video department will carry things that get promotion from the labels, so you can be pleasantly surprised sometimes. They don't carry the specialty labels as Best Buy will sometimes.

Target's fine, I have reason to buy things there all the time including discounted blu-rays, but you know, if you want something specific you go to Amazon.

Hrrmmpphh!! The large boxes of kitty litter I buy are the last word in chic!

I shop at Target all the time, although not for foodstuffs. Quality is mid-level, better than Walmart, not as good as Nordstrom's, prices reflect that. I've never purchased dvds or books there.

I've bought a wide variety of things there, and never had a problem with anything. It is more upscale than Target, because they've had upscale, top designers such as Isaac Mizrahi, Missoni, etc. do short term clothing designs, pillows, or other such home style things, and some of these have sold out immediately. Clothing styles are up-to-date, quality is good on home design products.

I visit Wal-Mart's when I visit my parents in small town Texas, and their products look out of style and cheap.

There's a Target near me that has a surprising number of DVDs and blu-rays of classic films. The prices are very good. You won't see any Kino, Flicker Alley or any of the smaller labels, it's mostly the majors.

[silentfilm]

As someone who darkens the door of both Target and Wal Mart at least once a week, I must disagree. Target stores are much cleaner, with much wider aisles. You go to Wal Mart if you want to pay the absolute lowest price. Sometimes Wal Mart's quality is good, sometimes not so good.

Target has a very good selection of BluRays and DVDs. They usually carry the older Warner Brothers titles like Casablanca and Gone With the Wind.

Wal Mart's stock varies from week to week. They always have a giant "bargain bin" with tons of DVDs for $5 or less. Usually these are straight-to-video titles, but sometimes you can find a bargain on a good title. Wal Mart also sometimes has classic titles on sale. I recently got John Ford's The Horse Soldiers on sale for $8.88 on BluRay.

I visit Wal-Mart's when I visit my parents in small town Texas, and their products look out of style and cheap.

This I don't doubt...yet everything is relative (so I've been told). Far away and long ago it so happened that I, too, inhabited "small town Texas," where everything in the small local stores was "out of style" but not cheap.
Then one of the "original" Wal-marts opened--barely one-fourth the size of current ones. Words can't express what a breath of fresh air it was--a corucopia of plenty at astonishing prices. My fond memories of that store, however, don't blind me to present realities.

Target is fine. The selection of DVDs and CDs varies by location-mine carries very little-never even has advertised Target exclusives, I had to buy my Target exclusive Andy Williams Christmas CD used at Amazon. Visiting my local Wal-Mart is like going to a third world country (if you can't read the size on a package of bed linens just rip it open and unfurl it) -the locals push further outside the Chicago city limits for a more pleasant shopping experience. I go to Sam's Club instead of Wal-Mart (same company) and they still have a large DVD section at good prices whereas my Costco has almost none these days. Target has always reminded me of Woolworth's, same basic mix of stuff (clothes, small appliances, knick knacks, records) and even a luncheonette-or what passes for one these days.
This story spells out the whole "Tarzhay mystique" http://www.startribune.com/business/139065819.html
I seem to remember reading that after Dayton Hudson/Target bought Marshall Fields they used a lot of the artistic/creative talent from Fields to start the upscaling of their stores.

Fascinating responses -- thanks, everyone!

Target actually sounds just like Zeller's -- i.e., slightly better than Walmart in quality and style, comparable in price and variety, less saddled than Walmart by negative public perceptions. Around here, The Bay is the upscale department store, with prices to match. I had a $15 voucher for The Bay recently and still couldn't afford to buy anything there ... not that I saw anything I wanted, either.

Zeller's has the luncheonette, too, Lamar. Some better than others. The Zeller's resto in our Bayshore mall is a beautiful 1950s "soda shack", all chrome and bright lights and Chevy-backseat booths, with surprisingly good food. The one in our Hazeldean mall (closest to me, and slated to become the very first Target in Canada) is 1960s dreck, fake-wooden trim with back-of-the-bus booths and assembly-line tasteless food. And the one in Bell's Corners, about a 10 minute drive away, is frozen in the worst 1930s hash-house cliches. Same prices, though!

Jim

Zeller's has the luncheonette, too,

Targets usually have a snack bar in the front. One of the best things is they have fresh popcorn that you smell as soon as you walk through the door. I always have to get some!

Zeller's has the luncheonette, too,

Targets usually have a snack bar in the front. One of the best things is they have fresh popcorn that you smell as soon as you walk through the door.

...except when they burn it. This happened at my local Target about 2 months ago. The whole area from the pharmacy to the checkout aisles reeked of that smell.

Amusingly enough where my Target is, a Grant's store used to sit in the '70s. There isn't a big difference between the two, either.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Target is teaming up with Neiman-Marcus to sell the same clothing line in both stores at the same time. So is Target going upscale or is N-M going........?

The Wall Street Journal reports that Target is teaming up with Neiman-Marcus to sell the same clothing line in both stores at the same time. So is Target going upscale or is N-M going........?

To the dogs? In a hurry, if this is true, but it's hard to believe. However, I haven't seen the inside of a Neimans in 20 yrs, so maybe it's already a far cry from what it once was.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Target is teaming up with Neiman-Marcus to sell the same clothing line in both stores at the same time. So is Target going upscale or is N-M going........?

Be wary. When Target's parent ran Chicago's Fields, they cheapened the Fields brand by offering, for example, much the same clothing at both Target and Fields, while maintaining the higher prices at the Fields stores...

Sometimes both Target and Wal-Mart will have exclusive editions of classic movies. I got a deluxe blu-ray set of West Side Story that supposedly was only for sale at Target (unfortunately, it was still the version where they screwed up the transition from overture to the start of the story), while Wal-Mart had the lone John Huston/John Wayne collaboration The Barbarian & the Geisha on blu-ray which I had to get via eBay since they didn't carry it in Canada. But I did manage to get one of those cheap Horse Soldiers blu-rays while at a Wal-Mart in Maine, but overall, classic films are few and far between. It is nice when you can get one of those TCM four-films-in-one-set collections for $10 though, like the Jean Harlow set or the horror set with Freaks in it (it was cheaper to buy the four-film set than to buy Freaks on its own). You don't see those turn up as much in Canadian stores either.

It is nice when you can get one of those TCM four-films-in-one-set collections for $10 though, like the Jean Harlow set or the horror set with Freaks in it (it was cheaper to buy the four-film set than to buy Freaks on its own). You don't see those turn up as much in Canadian stores either.

Are you kidding??? Those four-fers are all over the place in Canada! They're even in pharmacies and groceries, for pete's sake! What stores are you hanging around in, Stephen?

Jim

Are you kidding??? Those four-fers are all over the place in Canada! They're even in pharmacies and groceries, for pete's sake! What stores are you hanging around in, Stephen?

Oh, I see them around, but not usually the ones I'm looking for, or for $10. Although I did recently score a Katherine Hepburn one (Bringing Up Baby/Philadelphia Story/Adam's Rib/Pat & Mike) for a sawbuck at some independent store.

Whatever others here opinions of Walmart, I was only able to buy my Magnavox 515 HDD DVD recorder at Walmart. Walmart was the only store selling this great device, at a good price point for me. This recorder (and its sister, the Magnavox 513) were, until about April 2012 when supplies at Walmart ran out, the only new HDD DVD recorders on sale in the USA able to record the closed captions on stuff like TCM movies with captioning. Target is a much better store for me but still takes second place behind Costco, a store currently selling Mt. Ranier yellow and red cherries until the supply runs out. The best cherries I ever had, even if the price has gone up at Costco this year.