Good old days for me were the days before Bob Ulrich was forced out because he turned 65. The man understood what made Target unique, and everything went away when he turned the keys over to Gregg Steinhafel. Once Ulrich was gone, "fast, fun, and friendly" started being an empty motto. Bye-bye "cheap chic". Bye-bye Mervyn's and Marshall Field's. We got SimpleStore, and value pricing, and anything they could do to cut costs in the stores so that the money could be sunk into Greggy's pet project, the entry into Canada. Target lost money, lost market share, lost its reputation, and they've been pulling out every stop they could to get it back ever since. The things that made Target a terrific place to work and shop are gone. Guests are constantly complaining about how the stores have "gone downhill". The company is rotting. Really now, the biggest task is masking the failings enough that the guests are as unaware of them as possible ... at least that's how it was in my store. And it's worked for a while. But eventually people burn out. They've forgotten a basic rule: happy team members mean happy guests.