MountainMornings

Let’s face it, I miss Target.

Ever since a friend back in NJ told me to call it “Tar-jay” I’ve been addicted. It’s lost the French cachet long ago, yet I’m still drawn to the red bullseye. It’s kind of a happy place, is that the appeal? The friendly salespeople and cashiers, the Starbucks right at the entrance, the great selection of toys for the Grands? It’s been almost a year since I stepped foot in a Target.

Two years ago, when we moved Great Grandma Ada down to Nashville after she broke her hip, we had a little “incident” at Target. It was our first outing together and we were both looking forward to it since Target provides huge, red, motorized Smart Shoppers (electric carts with big baskets) for people with mobility issues. I knew that Ada had used these carts back in NJ at Costco, and I thought this shopping expedition would help her to feel more independent.

Unfortunately, she accidentally went forward instead of back, and rammed me into the men’s shorts I was scanning for Great Grandpa Hudson. It must have been forceful since I ended up in her lap with two broken ribs. I’d never seen so many red shirts appear at once and it didn’t help that one young woman said, “Don’t worry, this happens all the time!”

Ada didn’t want to go near Target again, and would carefully avoid me at the Nashville Zoo on a motorized cart. But that wasn’t my first rodeo with the discount chain.

I was a newly transplanted Yankee who was surprised to see signs on stores and restaurants in Virginia about allowing or NOT allowing guns into their premises. I’d never seen so many signs about guns in my life. And right after I started my wedding blog to inform friends and family about the Bride and Groom’s wedding plans in the Blue Ridge, there was a big social media push to ban guns from shops like Starbucks and Target.

Naturally, I got involved because Target was slow to buy into the idea of not letting guys in camo roam freely with their rifles slung over their shoulders like so many Rambos. I joined the boycott of Target, writing #Target! I missed it then too. It was before one would even think of buying something online after all.

When did Target become a bastion of Liberal ideology? Is it so wrong to not want a child to reach into his mother’s handbag, while she’s looking at shorts, and pull a trigger? When did Democrats decide that this was the one and only place to shop for paper products, or dog food? It is one of America’s largest Publicly Traded Companies that started out as a high-end private department store named Dayton’s:

“Target Corp. engages in owning and operating of general merchandise stores. It offers curated general merchandise and food assortments including perishables, dry grocery, dairy, and frozen items at discounted prices. The company was founded by George Draper Dayton in 1902 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, MN.”

https://www.forbes.com/companies/target/?sh=64e6650e5274

I double-downed on my commitment to Target once they saw the light and decided to ban guns from all their stores. And here in Nashville, there are two Targets within a 5 mile radius!

Now I know I could’ve used Shipt to deliver things from Target, like we do with Publix groceries, but that’s not the point after all. It’s more of an experience, like the time I spotted Reese Witherspoon in a Draper James dress and sunhat!

After hugs from the Bug and Pumpkin, will Target be my very first post-pandemic trip? Here we are in a Bateau Mouche on the Seine; we were visiting the Bride in Paris for the Millennium.