Target General Merchandise Associate reviews

3.4

50% would recommend to a friend

(2,223 total reviews)
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Michael Fiddelke

21% approve of CEO

33% positive business outlook

General Merchandise Associate employees have rated Target with 3.4 out of 5 stars, based on 2,223 company reviews on Glassdoor. This indicates that most General Merchandise Associate professionals have a good working experience there. Target is rated in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) by General Merchandise Associate professionals compared to other employers within the Ventas al mayoreo y al menudeo industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

2K reviews
2.0
Aug 12, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Decent pay You'll usually have a couple of great co-workers and at least one manager who are willing to assist you and are positive even when it feels like the store is collapsing around you. Sometimes flexible with work hours, this varies from store to store.

Cons

No healthcare under 40hr/weeks. Mostly to be expected. Dysfunctional equipment, barely enough equipment to do our jobs such as back-stocking, making calls/receiving calls, or auditing. Constantly having to share and wait on other team members to finish work in order to get a working device to do your own job. The rate of work to increase of pay is astronomically imbalanced towards far more work for a very small pay raise. You are expected to do multiple jobs that would've been their own department before "modernization" in the same, or less hours. Also expect to cover people's absences often, including managers, and expect to deal with people, problems, and various other items outside of your 'dedicated business', even though you've been told that you are only to focus on your own 'business'. I was with a Target long ago that did overnight work for their stockers. We got done quickly and the store looked 'Great by 8'. Occasionally we helped the backroom team get backstock done because everything would be set quickly. Now, things are out of stock/misplaced everywhere, we cant unload everything in time on many days because we are constantly missing people, new hires come and go due to the cutthroat requirements, you have to run around the to assist with anything from getting carts outside even though you are in the far back of the store, to getting heavy items off the backroom shelving with electric pallet jacks for guests, to covering calls and making calls for guests to every possible target store in the area, if that's what they want, and much, much more that would be too exhausting to list in addition to the work you are supposed to get done for the day. Expect very little reward for breaking your back to meet expectations, because there will always be more for you to do if they see you breaking your back for them. Overall, It seems as punishment for their own decision to go to $15/hr, they are squeezing out everything they can from a skeleton crew. I have worked other jobs making more than $15/hr doing far, far less work, both manually and mentally (and would've stayed at those if life matters permitted them). In Target's current state of flux and chaos, I can no longer recommend them as a first, in-between, or last job, but your store experience may vary, there are a couple places with excellent teams who are able to pull it together, but on a district level, a very small percentage of stores are actually able to meet expectations per management's comments. A couple team members lost could throw your store into the same chaos as everyone else's own. Training is very much trial-by-fire as well, which does not help keep the store staffed.

2.0
Aug 8, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

When I started, I would have rated this place 5 stars. However, my list of cons have grown over the past 2 years. 1. The team is absolutely excellent and friendly, we get along like family. 2. Flexible scheduling that is accommodating for anyone's needs. 3. You're allowed to express yourself. Target doesn't care about tattoos, piercings, gender identity, background, really anything. You be you, which is really refreshing.

Cons

1. Overbearing managers: There are several managers who refuse to listen or change their ways. I once had a fight with a manager because I told them my working conditions were left unsafe and I needed to clean rather than pull more product. Management, to my knowledge, did nothing about this. 2. Corporate doesn't care if you're struggling, "just do it": I've spoken with both present and former managers and they've confided that management far up the chain will often send aggressive and threatening emails, text or phone calls telling them things the equivalent of them not caring 3. Hours fluctuate more often than not: Some weeks you're getting 40 hours, some weeks you're getting 10-20. I know this is how retail works, but Target takes it to the extreme. Which leads me to the next part... 4. Healthcare benefits unlock once you start averaging 30 hours: You can lose those benefits if you dip below the average of 30 hours, which is crucial for some people. 5. The workload is absolutely insane and you're not offered much help. This is icing on the cake. More often than not, you're struggling to finish. If you're in General Merchandise, you're expected to: unload the truck, pull all your product, push your product, set revisions for aisles, pull your clearance items, print labels and price each clearance item, push the clearance, do your cardboard, take guest phone calls, do cardboard bales, backup to register, grab and push "reshop" (Any item discarded before purchase, returning it to its correct aisle), backstock any items that do not fit on the shelves, help guests, assist other team members (which is frowned upon by the "modernization" plan), take care of the backroom audit. 6. The backroom is a safety hazard, and at the many stores I've visited and worked in, it remains true. There are few backrooms in this company that are actually meeting the demand they're given. The aforementioned "modernization" plan is designed for small format stores (flex-format as they're called internally). They're not designed for stores making more than a million dollars a day. Because of this, we're often flooded with freight that we have no time to get to. 7. The pay doesn't make any sense. Going back to #5, I make the same as a cashier starting today even though I've been here for 4 years. 7a. You get merit raises every year based on performance, usually in the range of 10-80 cents. However, if the company raises the minimum, you lose all your merit raises. Meaning that someone starting the same day they raise the minimum, you start making the same as some kid off the street. I understand why this is, but I am insulted that a company worth multi-billion dollar company can't let us keep our 10 cents in addition to the minimum raise. It makes you feel as you have no incentive to actually work hard, because it will be stripped from you the second the company wants to look like a hero and raise the minimum. 8. Equipment is not functional. There are several times that your scanner will stop working for no apparent reason. It's frustrating and sometimes makes you miss your goals. This has been going on for years and it seemingly gets worse with every update. Which leads me to... 9. Technology and culture changes happen too frequently. Often times, you're trying to learn something and Target will change it overnight making you lose all progress. 10. There is no training or mentoring. Often times, I have to learn things on my own. I'm not even certified to operate any machinery in the backroom because of the failure to train, though I know more about every piece of machinery than anyone in the building. 11. This goes with any customer facing job, but sometimes "guests" are really difficult to deal with.

4.0
Aug 3, 2019

Good people

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great atmosphere, friendly people

Cons

Too much change too fast.

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