Archived ALL ABOARD THE CRAZY TRAIN!

[Cat]

I had a guy come in (around 18 or 19) and followed me around for a good chunk of my shift, asking me questions, personal and shit. I mostly ignored him. He asked me where the posters were at one point. I made the mistake of giving him directions and pointing (I was in electronics helping three other guests so I couldn't go to domestics) and he screamed at me "NO I DON'T WANT YOU TO POINT WHERE IT IS, I WANT YOU TO SHOW ME WHERE THEY ARE!" When I finally got him down there he waved his hands at me in a "go away" motion. Such a lovely guy.

 

[emayf]

This didn't happen at my store, but once I went shopping at a different Target and I heard a guest screaming "HELP!!!!!!!" over and over again. She then screamed "I NEED A TARGET WORKER!!! ARE THERE ANY TARGET WORKERS NEAR BY?!" I figured she was having a medical emergency or fell and hurt her self. Apparently all she needed was something for her phone! She wasn't even in electronics she was in stationery. She didn't even try to find someone to help her she just started screaming for help in the middle of stationery.

 

[Flabbergasted]

Two of my favorites from my Spot store:

1) A guy who stopped by a few times a week, always to return things, and would not touch receipts. He would keep his receipts in a plastic bag and shake them out. He would then give everyone within earshot a long lecture about how the receipt paper has so many carcinogens that everyone who has ever touched receipt paper, even once in their entire lives, will get cancer. He was very proud to say he has never touched any receipt paper and would be laughing at us mere mortals when we all get receipt-paper-cancer and die. I had been meaning to tell him to loosen up his tinfoil hat a little bit.

2) An older woman with some kind of mental illness who spent thousands on useless crap (only to return it all days later), always talking to herself and to team members about how her daddy's in the mob and she's worth millions and she has 7 warrants out for her arrest and is banned from entering Canada. She once went up to our ETL-GE, who was LOD at the time, and started SCREAMING her head off for no reason whatsoever about how everyone in the store is a government agent and is trying to kill her. This woman had a lot of stories she pulled out of thin air. The one that had TPS removing her from the store is when she claimed she had three lesbian landlords who break into her apartment every Tuesday night and force her into sex and that she wanted to enact revenge by forcing the cashier to have sex with her. I felt really bad for her. She's schizophrenic or something.

 

[TallAPGuy]

Two of my favorites from my Spot store:

2) An older woman with some kind of mental illness who spent thousands on useless crap (only to return it all days later), always talking to herself and to team members about how her daddy's in the mob and she's worth millions and she has 7 warrants out for her arrest and is banned from entering Canada. She once went up to our ETL-GE, who was LOD at the time, and started SCREAMING her head off for no reason whatsoever about how everyone in the store is a government agent and is trying to kill her. This woman had a lot of stories she pulled out of thin air. The one that had TPS removing her from the store is when she claimed she had three lesbian landlords who break into her apartment every Tuesday night and force her into sex and that she wanted to enact revenge by forcing the cashier to have sex with her. I felt really bad for her. She's schizophrenic or something.

Well then.

 

[queencat]

We have a handful of "crazies". One is a guy who buys things, wears them, and returns them. They're obviously worn because they REEK of cologne but all the tags are intact and he has all the receipts. Apparently we tried denying him previously but something happened and he called corporate and now we just defect out anything he returns. He worked at our store 10ish years ago, and has SEVERE OCD or germaphobia or something and had a mental breakdown and left.

Another one is Greg. I hesitate to call Greg crazy, because he's not, but he's really weird. He has....something wrong, he constantly twitches and shakes and stutters but he's otherwise really nice. Pretty much the only annoying things are he always wants to know your name and will repeatedly say your name (which isn't too weird but makes me really uncomfortable) and he needs his hand held through everything, asking really obvious questions and stuff like that.

 

[doxiemama]

I hadn't thought about this for a long time, but we used to have an elderly guy who required the smart cart. But if he didn't like what you had to say or even how you looked at him, he would run right over your feet. Most didn't jump out of his way in time because 1) we didn't think those carts could move that fast and 2) who expects some cranky older guy to run them over with a smart cart? I was at the fitting room and another SL TM was putting away stuff on the floor. He wanted to know where something was so she went to show him. Apparently, that wasn't what he had in mind, so he quickly put his cart into reverse and we're all convinced, he intentionally tried to deck her. He did run over her toes and she was hurting. You could just see it in her face. We called AP, but apparently so did a few other people because of incidents in other parts of the store that same day. From that day forward, he was banned from the store.

 

[Firefox]

I hadn't thought about this for a long time, but we used to have an elderly guy who required the smart cart. But if he didn't like what you had to say or even how you looked at him, he would run right over your feet. Most didn't jump out of his way in time because 1) we didn't think those carts could move that fast and 2) who expects some cranky older guy to run them over with a smart cart? I was at the fitting room and another SL TM was putting away stuff on the floor. He wanted to know where something was so she went to show him. Apparently, that wasn't what he had in mind, so he quickly put his cart into reverse and we're all convinced, he intentionally tried to deck her. He did run over her toes and she was hurting. You could just see it in her face. We called AP, but apparently so did a few other people because of incidents in other parts of the store that same day. From that day forward, he was banned from the store.

Fuck everything about that. Those carts are heavy, you could easily break a bone by running over people's feet with that thing.

 

[LipstiKick]

We have an old lady who comes in every now and then who will buy tissue boxes and after getting them bagged and checked out, will go to an empty lane and proceed to put them into several more bags - the big ones. Then she'll leave, and then come back a few hours later to buy something similar and overbag it herself afterwards. Then come back again a few hours later to do the same thing. As far as we know, she doesn't even leave the parking lot. She'll also spend a lot of time in the bathroom doing God knows what. I followed her in once out of curiosity and slammed the door to make it sound like I'd walked out. She was rummaging with the toilet paper in a stall, but I couldn't tell if she was stealing it or what. She knows she's not supposed to be doing whatever-it-is-she's-doing though because she didn't start until she thought I left.
Weirdest part is if you talk to her, she seems completely normal. Maybe she just likes taking our bags and TP. But I keep an eye on her when she comes in because she makes me uneasy, and a few weeks back she actually came through my line, and we had an exchange like this.
Her: "I see you like to watch people."
Me: "Yeah it's fun."
Her: "I hope you just can do a good job while you're watching."
Me: " I do a good job. And I always watch."
Then we had a stare off until she cleared her throat and walked away.
I'm watching you, you sneaky bastard.

 

[doxiemama]

Maybe she just likes taking our bags .

I know that I do. They're perfect for removing your dog's poop from the yards of your neighbors. We go through 4-5 bags/day.

 

[3LetterDevil]

I know that I do. They're perfect for removing your dog's poop from the yards of your neighbors. We go through 4-5 bags/day.

We have a guest who just asks for them because she uses them for her dogs. Much less "sketchy" than just taking them.

 

[doxiemama]

Or...you could encourage guests to buy stuff to put into them. Win-win situation for everybody - Target, Guest, Guest's Dog, Neighbors who get offended by another dog's poop;

 

[3LetterDevil]

Or...you could encourage guests to buy stuff to put into them. Win-win situation for everybody - Target, Guest, Guest's Dog, Neighbors who get offended by another dog's poop;

I should have said, "she asks for extras when she makes a purchase." She doesn't just come in for the bags~lol!

On that note, though....I was out in my yard pulling weeds and someone was walking their dog. They let the dog crap in my yard and just kept walking! I said something to the lady and she got pissy with me!

 

[redeye58]

I'd have turned the hose on her & her dog.
"Just rinsing down my lawn & they were too close...."

 

[HardlinesFour]

I'd have turned the hose on her & her dog.
"Just rinsing down my lawn & they were too close...."

This is why I love redeye

 

[TallAPGuy]

Why, oh why am I the one that attracts all the crazies?
Yesterday I was called to the service desk by the STL for a subject having a fit, sitting on the ground and digging through his stuff and yelling incoherently. I go talk to him, and he's rambling about needing to find his receipt so that he can return a bike he has. I tell him that he needs to do that outside because he is causing a disturbance, and he goes into hysterics. I calm him down, my ETL grabs his bike and carries it outside, and we get him outside, and he finally finds the receipt from his purchase. I tell him that he can do the return, but then he'll have to leave the store for the rest of the day, and he happily agrees, so we go back iinsid, I stay with him as he waits at the service desk, and he starts rambling on about some misadventure in San Francisco involving being tackled by security. He stops suddenly, tilts his head sideways while looking at me and says in a different voice
"I commute with God. God is great. God has a plan for everything and everyone. God has told me that he is happy with you, and that you are a part of God's plan, and that you are following God's plan. You have been blessed by the Patron Saint of Target [indecipherable name], and when you move on from this life to the next, you shall take over and become the next Patron Saint of all Targets!"
Hey then starts talking normally again, and does the return and leaves.
WTF?
To be continued...

 

[HRZone]

Your store allows bike returns?

 

[SalesFloorSylph]

I may or may not have posted about this but a long time ago this lady at the check lanes was throwing the biggest temper tantrum about the chip reader. Instead of calmly listening to the instructions she launched into a tirade about how "TARGET SHOULD STICK TO ITS GAME!!!!" and how "THIS IS AGONY!!". She banged on the keypad so much that it froze up the card reader and that did NOT help. Oh and her daughter looked like she was ready to deck her

 

[redeye58]

I always get the digitally-challenged who fight with the card/chip reader.
I wait until they're done ranting & they ask the same. damn. question: Why did they CHANGE THIS?!!
I give them a level look & say "Two words: credit breach."

 

[SalesFloorSylph]

What about crazy team members tho?
This guy from another store was apparently very desperate to transfer to ours and he called us maybe no less than 20 times in a row one day. The fitting room operator ended up ignoring him for the rest of the day

 

[slegab21]

I had a guest today who walked up with one item - during peak time with full lines at every open register. While I rang him up he proceeded to announce "who's ready to vote for Trump?!?!?". I gave a weak smile and told him his total. He kept talking to me and the guest in line behind him about the corrupt Democratic party, the wall Trump is gonna build, etc etc. Regardless of political opinion - it was baffling! No one wants to hear that with a cart full of groceries or 6 more hours on the clock! Move on your merry way, sir.

Not to mention there's really no appropriate response I don't think. As employees, we can't really express political opinions - I feel that would cause way too much conflict.

 

[SalesFloorSylph]

Another favorite:
This man asks a guy working in men's softlines where something is. The tm shows him. Then he asks where something else is. The tm walks him over and the man finds what he wants. THEN he asks where something else is and the tm tells him but doesn't walk him over. Apparently that was a bad idea.
The man starts screaming at the poor kid and insisting that since he doesn't shop at Target much someone should be his personal shopper the entire time. He then proceeds to randomly yell at this girl from the flow team for some reason and then he yelled at everyone in the front end. He legit took time to find everyone in red in khaki just to yell at them.
Weirdly enough, based on the description the tm gave me, he may have been the same guy who hunted down every team member he could find just to yell at us for not being a pfresh store.

 

[slegab21]

Gah, I'm back - can't avoid the crazies! Yesterday morning an old, cranky couple came up to my register with three items. A bag of Halloween candy - already opened and they were eating some, a set of Optics solution, and a beach towel. I scanned the towel and the clearance price didn't pop up, simple fix (the clearance price was written on the sticker), but they were very upset about it. I proceeded to scan the solution, followed by a coupon they had for it. The coupon was rejected. I explained that it was because the coupon gave the $1.00 discount if you purchased TWO bottles. They were furious, demanding I speak to my "superiors". The old man kept half-yelling that he was a Korean war veteran and deserved more respect. So I turned my light on and continued with my job while I waited for the TL to come over. The bag of candy was $5.99. The old man kept trying to say it was $3.00 and that they didn't want to purchase it at that price. Meanwhile, I'm looking at them like ".... you already started eating it".

My manager finally arrives and the old couple takes the floor, starting off with the TOWEL price, as if that was my fault. Ridiculous. Long story short- the TL honored the coupon and gave them the discounted candy price. They got everything they wanted. Ugh. After my other TL told me specifically that Target isn't allowing us to override coupons anymore. It's frustrating.

At the end of the transaction the old lady told me how much she hated Target and I didn't even smile at her as I gave her the receipt. Ha. Take that. (my only defense to rude guests lol)

 

[Deli Ninja]

At the end of the transaction the old lady told me how much she hated Target and I didn't even smile at her as I gave her the receipt. Ha. Take that. (my only defense to rude guests lol)

Too bad we can't say, "Me too! I'm here because I have bills to pay... so why are you here?"

 

[CeeCee]

At the end of the transaction the old lady told me how much she hated Target and I didn't even smile at her as I gave her the receipt. Ha. Take that. (my only defense to rude guests lol)

Thank you so much for that update. Have a wonderful day!

 

[lurker]

Had a women with a check and close to $300 in product. Her check was turned down since she had never had a transaction that big. She was afraid to use her debt card because of the breach. I sympathized with her while I listed all the stores who have had breaches (and maybe some that hadn't ) until she finally used her debit card!