Working at Target: the Experience

For those of you that don’t know, this summer I’ve had two jobs- working at Bath and Body works, and working at Target, where I’ve worked since I was sixteen years old.  As I write this, I am sitting at my current job – the Target fitting room.  The best part of the job?  The down time.  This, ironically, is also the worst, because we are not supposed to be doing anything during this time.  Yes, right now I’m breaking the rules.  Oh well.

What does this particular task involve exactly?  It means I get to answer phone calls, hand out numbers so “guests” (or customers) can go try clothing on, and sort through clothing to be put back out on the floor.  While the job itself can be disgusting at times, I at least have the benefit of being able to sit down once I’ve finished my tasks, unlike my coworkers.

But while they often are the source of my complaints, and the work-related migraines that I often get, the customers, or “guests,” as Target calls them, have the potential to be the most entertaining part of my job. 

What do I do when I’m not spending my time working in the fitting room?  Running around on the sales floor in an attempt to keep it organized and clean.  And believe me, this is no easy feat.  While the task sounds simple, you learn something very quickly when doing this job: people are slobs.  When shopping, people could care less that it took you an hour to fold that table of shirts to make it look perfect and organized by size and color; they’ll just throw the shirts around just to get the one item that they want.  People will put items where they don’t belong, just so they are not inconvenienced, will throw things on the floor and treat the employees as if they are their own personal shoppers. 

But despite all of the negative that comes with being on the sales floor, it has given me the opportunity to develop friendships with the people that I work with.  Working on the floor with other people allows me to work with another person, where in the fitting room, I’m all by myself.  At work I’ve made some incredibly close friends, some of whom I still speak with today.

As I come up on 5-years at Target mark, I’m still shocked at how long I’ve been with the same company and store.  Never did I expect that I’d be working there when I originally got the job while in high school.   The experience has definitely had its ups and downs, but at the end of the day, this type of job is not going to be my career, it’s just a job.