Target

Gregg W. Steinhafel, CEO
Target Corporation
1000 Nicollet Mall #2950
Minneapolis, MN 55403

6/9/13

Dear Mr. Steinhafel,

It is with dismay that I write to you about my recent visit to your store at 360 Waterfront Dr E in Homestead, PA. I am typically a big proponent of Target stores and have shopped at them for most of my life with my family. However, upon my recent visit, I can't help but feel that the chain has a sense of inherent disdain and disrespect for its customers.

My girlfriend and I were shopping at Francesca's earlier that day, and she bought a new dress. Francesca's didn't have a nice sweater/top that matched it, so we went over to Target to try to find one. Upon selecting a few things to try on, we took them back towards the dressing rooms. The woman manning the dressing area documented every item before allowing us in as if we were a couple of vagrants or teenagers.

This alone I found disrespectful, but if it is the company's policy, I don't resent her for doing her job. However, when we walked back towards one of the dressing rooms, the woman barked out toward me in an aggressive tone, “You aren't allowed back here, sir!” Now, give me a break. I can't stand outside a dressing room and look at my girlfriend's outfits after she tries each one on? What kind of con job does Target think we are running here? Somehow my presence outside the room to help her select an outfit is going to interfere with the item count the store already documented?

I don't know what Target thinks I am – a thief, an ogler, a teenager? – but it sure has hell doesn't think of me as a paying customer. If it were me alone in the store being treated like this, I would have thrown down all of the items and left. Luckily for you, my girlfriend wanted the outfits, and I'll admit they are nice, but I can't stomach shopping at a place that doesn't respect its own clientèle. I thought you were running a department store, not a bail bond agency. We are your livelihood. We deserve to be treated with respect. I hope for your sake that this is an isolated case of a store having to resort to these tactics because it's located in a relatively bad area. If this is an undercurrent running through the whole chain, I can't believe people continue to shop there.

With regret,