Was this Target return in poor taste?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Before our vacation I went to Target and grabbed a bunch of various travel toiletries, went home and we all filled our Ziploc bags with whatever we wanted to bring. There were leftovers, either things we decided we didn’t really need and/or that didn’t fit. Today I stopped by Target to return the leftovers, about $15 worth. The woman at the return counter asked me if there was anything wrong with them to which I replied no, we just bought too many. She huffed and said we “shouldn’t do that” because all health items just get thrown away when returned, and “what a waste” it was.

Were we wrong? I don’t know why I’m allowing myself to feel anything about this or let it take up space in my head.

Ask to see her manager, report, and possibly get her fired so that the next person does not have to put up with her out of line judgy attitude.

[Anonymous]

OP is being hammered here for having the thought it may have been in poor taste. Thousands people do ish like this daily and are so self-absorbed they think nothing of it. What a world to attack the person who's second guessing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP is being hammered here for having the thought it may have been in poor taste. Thousands people do ish like this daily and are so self-absorbed they think nothing of it. What a world to attack the person who's second guessing.

The OP clearly knew it was in bad taste, was hoping someone would say no.

[Anonymous]

I dont think it was in Poor taste! Geez. The cashier was in the wrong, not you, OP!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I dont think it was in Poor taste! Geez. The cashier was in the wrong, not you, OP!

Oh, the cashier was right in her sentiment, even if she was rude in her delivery.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Not your fault and she was rude to say that. If you are environmentally conscious though, now you know and can avoid doing it again, so that’s a net positive. But it’s not like people would just know that.

She was rude. She could've said, 'just so you know, for future reference' but Target people aren't paid enough to care. I sure wouldn't.

I got told this by costco customer service over returning some food that didn't agree with me.

Why bother? Just compost it and move on with your life.

It was frozen food that tasted godawful

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Not your fault and she was rude to say that. If you are environmentally conscious though, now you know and can avoid doing it again, so that’s a net positive. But it’s not like people would just know that.

She was rude. She could've said, 'just so you know, for future reference' but Target people aren't paid enough to care. I sure wouldn't.

I got told this by costco customer service over returning some food that didn't agree with me.

Why bother? Just compost it and move on with your life.

It was frozen food that tasted godawful

You're making a stronger and stronger case for composting it and moving on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You have enough money to travel and enough to buy mini toiletries just for travel, but you have the time and energy to return stuff for $15 instead of just using it another time?

This couldn’t possibly have been a good use of your time.

NP, but "time and energy" isn't really a factor here. Returns at Target take about 30 seconds. And I'm often at the customer service line/area k anyway to pick up an online order (which saved me time shopping).

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:14 pages in and the conclusion is that you still shouldn't buy what you don't need and if you know something is just going to be thrown out if you return it, you might as well keep it and use it.

14 pages and people still can’t grasp that OP didn’t know this beforehand.

LOL this. It’s an idiotic policy- not OP’s fault.

You don't like that Target accepts returns?

I think she means that they discard the items instead of donating or otherwise not wasting them.

We've gone over this.

For target it's a cost/benefit issue.

The profit on those items is super small. Accepting the return makes it smaller, having to inspect it to make sure it's fine to put back on the shelf is going to require another employee, and one who is not a total minimum wage dullard, then it has to be restocked, go through the cost of keeping it in inventory, etc. AND put on top of that, the financial risk that some Karen finds a toothpaste that actually WAS open already, and then you've got a viral TikTok thing that Target supports kiddie fiddlers who are tampering with toothpaste for nefarious Hillary Clinton related purposes... and they were only going to make a few cents on it anyway.

So, not worth putting it back on the shelf. As far as donating, there's no one organization that can handle all the donations and inspect them and sort them, and if every local target location had to search out organizations to accept the donations... and no non-profit wants a target truck pulling up every week and dumping a shipping container full of mini deoderants that *probably* haven't been tampered with.

Return it with the understand that it's jsut going to be dumped and admit you're a disgracefully wasteful person, or just put it in your bathroom closet and before you buy anymore deoderant, handsoap, toothpaste, just use it.

For OP it’s a cost/benefit issue. She doesn’t need the items, doesn’t care to store them and have unnecessary clutter in her bathroom, was in Target anyway, and used the money she was refunded from returning the unwanted and unused items to buy items she did want and will use.

Just admit that by allowing returns on unopened items and then immediately throwing said items in the trash, Target is a disgracefully wasteful corporation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP is being hammered here for having the thought it may have been in poor taste. Thousands people do ish like this daily and are so self-absorbed they think nothing of it. What a world to attack the person who's second guessing.

The OP clearly knew it was in bad taste, was hoping someone would say no.

She’s in luck, because I say no!

[Anonymous]

If you want to return something you bought too much of, and the store allows, I would not even second guess yourself. We all are not swimming in money. It is the store policy to accept the return. Why should you feel guilty, when Target does not. They made the policy - to encourage buying. But they also likely have to abide by health codes or whatnot that prohibit reselling certain items. So... perhaps the onus should be on the store to create a process that gets these types of returns out of the landfill and into the hands of those that need it. They could really do a lot of good if they did this, and it would not be a de minimus contribution of one person, it could be huge.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:14 pages in and the conclusion is that you still shouldn't buy what you don't need and if you know something is just going to be thrown out if you return it, you might as well keep it and use it.

14 pages and people still can’t grasp that OP didn’t know this beforehand.

LOL this. It’s an idiotic policy- not OP’s fault.

You don't like that Target accepts returns?

I think she means that they discard the items instead of donating or otherwise not wasting them.

We've gone over this.

For target it's a cost/benefit issue.

The profit on those items is super small. Accepting the return makes it smaller, having to inspect it to make sure it's fine to put back on the shelf is going to require another employee, and one who is not a total minimum wage dullard, then it has to be restocked, go through the cost of keeping it in inventory, etc. AND put on top of that, the financial risk that some Karen finds a toothpaste that actually WAS open already, and then you've got a viral TikTok thing that Target supports kiddie fiddlers who are tampering with toothpaste for nefarious Hillary Clinton related purposes... and they were only going to make a few cents on it anyway.

So, not worth putting it back on the shelf. As far as donating, there's no one organization that can handle all the donations and inspect them and sort them, and if every local target location had to search out organizations to accept the donations... and no non-profit wants a target truck pulling up every week and dumping a shipping container full of mini deoderants that *probably* haven't been tampered with.

Return it with the understand that it's jsut going to be dumped and admit you're a disgracefully wasteful person, or just put it in your bathroom closet and before you buy anymore deoderant, handsoap, toothpaste, just use it.

For OP it’s a cost/benefit issue. She doesn’t need the items, doesn’t care to store them and have unnecessary clutter in her bathroom, was in Target anyway, and used the money she was refunded from returning the unwanted and unused items to buy items she did want and will use.

Just admit that by allowing returns on unopened items and then immediately throwing said items in the trash, Target is a disgracefully wasteful corporation.

oh target is a total POS. No arguments.

And if you are one of those people who thinks they can't use deoderant... lol...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you want to return something you bought too much of, and the store allows, I would not even second guess yourself. We all are not swimming in money. It is the store policy to accept the return. Why should you feel guilty, when Target does not. They made the policy - to encourage buying. But they also likely have to abide by health codes or whatnot that prohibit reselling certain items. So... perhaps the onus should be on the store to create a process that gets these types of returns out of the landfill and into the hands of those that need it. They could really do a lot of good if they did this, and it would not be a de minimus contribution of one person, it could be huge.

I don't think you're wrong about if you need the money, you gotta do what you gotta do. It's obvious the money wasn't the issue here.

What I will take issue with is the idea that just because a corporation whose only interest is improving profits for shareholders allows something doesn't mean it's a good idea.

They sell all sorts of things that you wouldn't buy because you have your own standards and interests and you would certainly reject the idea that "just because Target has it" means it's worthy of you or your family.

[Anonymous]

How is this a matter of taste?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How is this a matter of taste?

In that vein, as my teen would say, you thought you ate, didn’t you?