Just another reason to love Target stores...
My Dear One lives in the Houston/Galveston area. He also works at the Target there in his small town. Before Ike hit, he promised to be in touch after it was all over. Aside from a quick text message to assure me all was well, last night was the first chance he had to call. He's fine. His loved ones are fine. As he puts it, "there's very little of Galveston left." Still, he's well and even back at work.
Something I had never considered before was the fact that getting a store open as quickly as possible after a major event is a good idea. If you're the first one open, you're the first place people are going to spend their money. Smart business sense. So, naturally, Target wanted to get reopened as quickly as possible and they were, indeed, one of the first stores open again. But here's what they did differently...
A Target warehouse in another, very close town had somehow managed not to lose power. Target had the warehouse ship over one of those huge refrigerated trucks full of bags of ice. My Dear One spent his first day back at work packing up grocery bags of nonperishable foods, jugs and bottles of water and bags of ice. Every single person who walked through his Target's door was given a bag of food, fresh water and a bag of ice for their coolers. Every. Single. Person.
Given. As in free. As in no profit to Target. And remember, it came from a warehouse that still had refrigeration. The ice wasn't going to melt. They could've held onto it until all the stores had power and then simply restocked the shelves. They didn't. They actually put their communities first.
My Dear One's Target did hold back several bags of food, a pallet of ice bags and a pallet of water jugs...to send home with the workers who showed up that day. Because their workers are part of the community.
Is Target perfect? Probably not. I'm not sure there's a major corporation out there these days that is. But their claims about giving back to the community and taking care of their people? That's not bullshit.
Those are Pobble Thoughts. That and a buck fifty will get you coffee.
8 comments:
YAY TARGET! It's nice to see news like this considering the torrent of yuck lately. Glad your friends are safe, and I'm really glad a lot of people evacuated for this storm.
A truth learned from cheesey science fiction and fantasy films:
The greatest horrors bring out the noblest of our potential.
Our community is isolated and everyone runs on either wood or propane heat. One Christmas, the FN Band finished negotiating a settlement against a large corporation for wrongs done in the past. They socked some away, they planned to invest some... and they payed off everyone's grocery bill and filled everyone's propane tank. Sometimes we get to see what money is REALLY for.
Yeah, I remember hearing about that, a couple of my friends were the lucky ones who went to Target that day. It helped out a lot.
as if i needed another reason to love target...
Zoooom ~ YAY indeed. For all those things.
GOML! ~ Stories like this one and yours are what keep me from becoming an Absolute cynic. Thanks.
Dreamer ~ It's nice to hear from the other side of it that it really was appreciated, too.
Lovely Cats ~ I know, right?
I've always loved Target. I wish there was one closer than an hour away...
OH! I've waited in water and ice lines. You just don't know how precious a case of water is until you've waited two hours to get it!!
Target is my happy place.
Post a Comment