Why are Americans so obsessed with Target? | Internet Analysis
hello my dudes my name is tiffany welcome back to my series internet analysis where i like to research and discuss things relevant social issues and media today's topic is why are americans so obsessed with target i have long been fascinated by the means and the cultural obsession with target in the u.s for those of you not from this country you're probably extremely confused as to why americans would be obsessed with a superstore honestly good question so in today's video i want to analyze the intrigue the marketing and the internet discourse around target and by the way this is absolutely not an ad or an endorsement of target i will be listing the reasons why people love the store to try to get an understanding for the sake of analysis but i will also be sharing my criticisms so stay tuned and speaking of because today's video is not sponsored let's consider it sponsored by my patreon if you would like to support get some bonus content and also want to remind you guys that internet analysis is available as a video podcast on spotify please go follow give us a rating it's the exact same episodes as on youtube just more options for you now the obvious main appeal of target is that it is a one-stop shop it has everything on your shopping list in one place plus all the things you never knew you needed from groceries pharmacy items baby stuff toys home goods cosmetics and a pretty stylish clothing section rather than going to multiple stores and having to waste your time and resources many people find shopping at target to just be very convenient and enjoyable as per usual i asked my instagram followers if and why they love target so i'll be sharing some of those responses so what makes a target targets actually come in many varieties there are your standard targets then you have city targets that are generally smaller with limited options and then you have super targets which are bigger with more stuff incredible but one thing you can rely on is consistency while the layouts vary slightly from store to store the feeling of being in a target is very distinct compared to other superstores like a costco or walmart target has a warmer and less industrial warehouse-y feel it's comfy and relaxing and target's layout is extremely easy to get distracted in there is a main pathway that kind of loops around the store but on all sides there are other little sections so you might get distracted by the clothes on your way to look at kitchen appliances and like most things this is by design ikea is kind of laid out the same way it's a strategy to keep you in the store longer and to maximize the number of items that you come into contact with and might potentially buy and damn it is it effective one major meme is that you go to target with one thing on your list and then you end up leaving with 200 worth of stuff and this comfort that people say target provides is about more than just the layout it feels bright and clean and aesthetic in most targets i've been to there's minimal to no music which is really great because it makes it feel less over stimulating all of these factors culminate into a nice shopping experience you enter the store and what's the first thing you see a starbucks i'm tempted time to grab a little drink to accompany you while you're shopping it automatically puts yourself into treat yourself mode now you see that little dollar budget section right at the front oh no they've got you the knickknacks the decor the crafts you're hooked so what exactly differentiates target from any other superstore why does this particular chain have such a dedicated loyal following target is a very middle-class store the pricing is mid-tier it's definitely not a budget store but much of their stuff is considered to be generally affordable though affordability is extremely subjective it could be argued that target offers the elusive quality of premium mediocrity premium mediocre is a term coined by venkatesh rao basically something that is pretty average but is branded as almost luxury yeah you probably could get most of what's on your shopping list at walmart but target is just nicer and as every dad has joked it's target shopping at target gives the illusion of a lifestyle with more disposable income a few of my instagram responses noted target can make me feel upper middle class when i'm just regular middle class or maybe that your family couldn't afford target when you were young but now as an adult you can and therefore shopping there feels like an indulgence you can finally enjoy in writing this i really wanted to touch on the interesting class dynamic between target and walmart shoppers target shoppers do of course love the feeling of getting something good on sale or getting a good deal but for walmart it is all about the budget and in a bigger picture aside from just price points or quality of items walmart doesn't have the best reputation most people don't get excited or like brag about going to walmart as they kind of do with target hi by the way just want to add when i say quality of items target and walmart have a lot of the same items the same tech stuff camping stuff toys whatever so there probably isn't that much of a quality difference i would say the main distinctions are probably more aesthetic stylistic in the decor and clothing sections maybe but we'll save that for later and again in my instagram questionnaire many of the responses as to why people love target also included the point it's not walmart while you might go to walmart because you need to it's practical many want to go to target shopping at target feels both productive and indulgent at the same time walmart has its warehouse style with massive shelves and pallets of stuff and sometimes the stores can be a little bit messy a little disorganized whereas target feels fresh and clean neat and there are other cultural distinctions do you remember that era of walmart people content like horrible collections of photos and videos mocking walmart shoppers people of walmart launched in 2009 featuring user-submitted photos of walmart customers considered to be socially awkward or undesirable by users of this site these posts are typically very fat phobic classist and often racist this content sucks it is never okay to take pictures of people in public without their permission and especially to then post those pictures online publicly in order to mock those people just very very gross behavior i think the general cultural narrative is like people are weird at walmart people are acting weird they're acting off they dress weird whatever that means all of the implications that come along with that but for some reason in target people are quiet and classy it's a regular ass store but for some reason we tend to have these shared cultural expectations of behavior for target as if it's some exception the locations and demographics of these stores are significant as well walmart is one of the largest sources of ebt expenditures and is a critical resource for many low-income families and also for many walmart is the only superstore within any distance of their home so that's the option while target shoppers can shop at walmart if they want to many walmart patrons cannot afford to shop at target they can't afford to spend more than what is necessary and by the way i don't mean to imply that the only people who shop at walmart are low income people of all incomes shop at walmart but of course a budget friendly store will naturally cater to people who want to buy budget items for the record please don't interpret this as me saying that walmart is some great thing for low-income people it actually sucks walmart does not pay their workers nearly enough despite the owners the walton family being one of the richest families in the united states many walmart workers themselves have to be on federal assistance in order to survive because their wages are so low and hey target you aren't safe either but we're going to talk about that later so stay tuned anyway i don't think the super fans of target are consciously being elitist or hateful toward walmart shoppers there's just a difference in preference of like aesthetic of the store and the quality of the items you're looking for and also the target shoppers generally are more privileged and have more disposable income to pay those higher prices bottom line walmarts are just not cute trendy or aesthetic target really doesn't have an equally relaxing or trendy superstore competitor it's pretty unique in the sense that people love the experience of shopping there so much that some people go there multiple times a week let's get into nostalgia and comfort according to my instagram responses for many target is a comforting and familiar place that reminds people of their childhood you know going along for shopping trips with their parents for me i do distinctly remember if i ever went to target with my mom all i cared about was getting one of those little pizzas from their old food spot or an icy i usually didn't get them but that was always my main motivator for wanting to go along so some of this comfort that people talk about comes from the branding the layout some of it does come from nostalgia and otherwise going to target for some reason is just an activity you're gonna take a leisurely stroll around the store a lot of responses noted that they basically treat target like them all so like teens and young people are going to hang out at target with their friends and it does function pretty similarly you know you've got like the mini tiny food court area you've got a starbucks you've got the clothing section who needs to walk through a half empty mall with sad shuttered stores when you can just go to target but it's not just teens target is popular with a pretty wide demographic gen x parents millennials and gen z target is a true unifier and this brings me to something i had to mention which are these let's target ads that i remember being all over twitter in like late 2019 one was a sponsored vlog of emma chamberlain and angela kinsey shopping together at target the combination of an iconic gen z influencer with a beloved mom figure aka angela from the office hello a match made in marketing heaven [Music] thank you for that i needed that i do need some cleaning stuff so okay this is your thing i'm all about getting a savings see i'm i don't know why i snapped that was me that was me trying to be cool working getting a savings a savings though the video is pretty obnoxious and the editing is very try hard it actually works better than it should i think emma and angela are very charismatic very charming and as they joke multiple times it kind of feels like watching emma go on a shopping trip with her own mom overall though this video does exemplify the typical shopping trip to target getting excited and distracted grabbing your essentials and being sucked into some trendy or unnecessary things that you don't need but now you must buy and we must touch on over consumption i searched on tick tock about target and i found basically target fan accounts dedicated to posting about the latest drops whether it be the home decor or the clothing many of them say run to target and get this you need this what they're talking about a cute but simple five dollar crop top or a little knick-knack should i literally run to my local target to get it what's the rush this reminded me of a swell entertainment video about the raiden obsession at t.j.maxx the limited edition items create this false hype you have to go get the thing right now or it might be gone and again with a constant rotation of new stuff coming into the store we feel this pressure and this risk of fomo all the time it's very effective but one more thing about these target fan accounts at first i was like okay who loves target this much to where you'd want to like take pictures take the time to make content and post it and also do they really like these things that much but i noticed that these fan accounts all have their affiliate links so you can shop their feed and this is honestly a genius business decision i mean you get to be a faceless account promote target items to target lovers and get your kickback so it doesn't really even matter whether or not you personally like the items all that matters is that you're reaching the people who do absolutely fascinating again some people go to target multiple times a week so if you're seeing this kind of content you are more likely to look for that stuff when you're there next time target is an extremely effective consumerist trap i understand going to target and buying lots of things that you do need oh i forgot i need new shampoo i need batteries gotta get soy milk but we always end up grabbing things that are just not essentials especially the trendy clothing and home goods these sections are dangerous referring to some more responses it's aspirational lifestyle decor on a budget helps me feel like i can keep up with trends cute stuff that's bland yet palatable enough to fit into a bunch of aesthetics it feels high-end without being high-end let me touch on their home decor very quickly because it does get me target tries to appeal to everyone's tastes with their home decor and furniture stuff it's very pinteresty it's very trendy they try to imitate higher end styles at a much more accessible price point you have hearth and home which collaborates with chip and joanna gaines they have that minimalist farmhouse black and white aesthetic that is very popular and no i do not like farmhouse i feel like i keep mentioning that in every video i need to calm down but i will say still the displays in the stores are very pretty and for some reason i can't resist walking up i check stuff out i check the price and i go oh nope these sections feel like walking through pinterest it is really hard to resist wanting to redecorate your entire place when you're surrounded by all this cute home decor alright side note through editing this and trying to find examples i definitely don't think that every bit of b-roll i've included is my personal taste so take it with a grain of salt i also don't want to give target too much credit because i feel like there is an element of like just getting overwhelmed by the consumerism and being like oh another fake plant another soft blanket a candle it's like is it really cute or am i just falling into the consumer's trap the answer is yes and it's probably not that cute you probably don't need to buy it save it for later think it over anyway and the clothing section of course targets clothing is still fast fashion they're constantly creating new collections whether it is casual clothing work attire trendy pieces swimsuits they've got a women's section juniors kids men's fun for everyone their prices are pretty good again not cheap but somewhat affordable in that middle class way much of their popular wild fable section which is geared toward teens and young women averages about fifteen to thirty dollars per piece from what i've seen online the most expensive clothing items tend to be jackets which can go up to about fifty dollars there are lots of target hauls and shop with me videos online i feel like there's been this awakening in the last few years like target clothes are cute so you get people trying them on shocked at how nice they are shocked at the quality shocked at how trendy they are so you have these somewhat accessible price points and especially the convenience you know i'm shopping to buy my nose strips then i see the swimsuit section and i'm like oh my god wait do i need a swimsuit no but it calls me one response said that target is the only easy place to buy clothing that's not online and i found this very interesting obviously many of us do shop online frequently now but obviously again going to one store where you're already picking up other things it's just so easy to go over to the clothes section start browsing around it's a lot less effort than going out of your way to have to go to dedicated clothing stores and that's how they get you and in terms of trends it is very hard for stores to keep up with the pace especially with micro trends literally trends have been coming in and out of style within a week how can anyone compete with the likes of sheen dropping thousands of new items every week with super super cheap prices and again fast fashion extremely low wages for the garment workers terrible working conditions terrible practices but i do totally understand why people want to or need to shop at stores like target it's very convenient and very accessible anyway somehow target does typically hit the mark in terms of trends a lot better than other comparable stores we've got shorter hemlines cut outs more out there colors and prints usually this line is a hit for young women but sometimes it has some big misses like the little house and the prairie moment that happened a few months ago years i don't know what is time and another reason why many people love target's clothing is for its pretty decent size inclusivity generally plus size fashion can be very hard to find sizes are often sold out or not available in stores or the plus size offerings are just not very cute or trendy so it is really important that shoppers can reliably go somewhere like target and be able to try clothes on in store and find items that do fit their style though to be clear i don't want to give target too much credit because as much as i've seen people say that they like target's offerings and that they think they have suitable stuff for them and extended sizing i've also seen plenty of people say the opposite and say that their store is not well stocked and that they do struggle to find things in their size either way all stores should be doing better hello it's 2022.
to get to the closest walmart from where i live it is about a 40 mile drive they didn't have anything so then i'd go to the next closest walmart that's another 22 mile drive they didn't have anything from that walmart to the closest target two and a half miles didn't have anything so i've already driven sixty four and a half miles and now i have to drive eight miles to the mall and hope that i can find something that i like and that fits me that i can also afford because i am low income that's why i'm so frustrated 60 miles so far and nothing to show for it now we must address another big meme or joke online is making fun of how much girls and women love shopping at target or shopping in general girls love shopping and they spend too much money on pillows it is true that for many of us when we go to target we do end up spending more than we anticipated okay but behind these jokes there is a lot of sexism there's a whole genre of content of basically men complaining about how much money their wives spend at target you went to target for one candle and you came back with all this i got a candle how much did you spend like 250 fifty dollars you went for one candle what'd you buy when the hub says don't spend too much in target [Music] laugh out loud my husband said that i should go to target and spend two hundred dollars today actually what he really said was that he's out of body wash but i chose to hear what i wanted or wives joking about needing to ask their husband for spending money or hiding receipts or purchases from their spouse some of this stuff is good spirited like i get what they're trying to joke about but a lot of this is like hetero marriages where the wife has little to no control over the family finances or is made to feel guilty for buying anything for herself or the implication that women are inherently bad with money there's a lot of trad wife stuff in this content a lot of it came from like christian couples christian dads and they're clearly promoting that very traditional way of thinking those very clear domestic roles and i obviously don't vibe with that another layer that i thought about is the idea that for a lot of these women or mothers who go to target multiple times a week they treat this like a treat it's like a break often it is one of the few times that they get to spend without their children they get some time alone so really a trip to target does feel luxurious maybe mom finally gets to grab a little coffee have a nice walk around look at all the pretty things feel the pillows is that so bad sorry are you upset are you having to talk without you did you already cry a little how long were you there like 10 minutes i didn't even lie was there anything i didn't even like it it honestly speaks to like the desperation how often women feel trapped in their domestic roles and they're given so little opportunities to enjoy themselves it's very hard to do that guilt-free so my biggest takeaways from this section are these one shopping is domestic labor running those errands picking up groceries all the things that the household needs that's part of domestic labor and domestic labor is labor it's unpaid but it is a ton of work it's exhausting and it's constant whether you are a stay-at-home parent or a working parent your child care and your help in managing a household is valuable necessary work hi me again wanted to apologize for all of the heteronormativity in this section a lot of the content i'm referring to is specifically sis husband wife couples hence why i was referring to them this way but also this doesn't just apply to parents either child free people child free couples still obviously have their own domestic labor you're still running your household and even without kids that is a lot of work still to maintain second general point even if one partner works and the other stays at home that working spouse should still contribute to child care housecare chores errands thank you and three let's not act like men don't spend money on things that they enjoy too just because men like cars or fishing or sports whatever doesn't make their interests more valid than women who would like to buy home decor or candles and finally let's get into final thoughts i've felt very conflicted throughout writing this video because as i said this is not an ad or an endorsement for target i don't want to uncritically post a video just praising a major corporation that's not what my channel is about and i hope that this analysis was interesting though i know that there's obviously so much more to get into but i just wanted this video to be rather concise so the last things i wanted to touch on overall i found that target has a really great reputation obviously a lot of people love target it tends to have very liberal branding but is all of this too good to be true these are some of the criticisms i came across in my research first target's response to blm protests so target is headquartered in minneapolis minnesota the same city where george floyd was murdered by the police in 2020 and target has had this long-standing relationship with the police supporting the police along with massive funding for surveillance technologies and projects that have unfairly targeted black communities people of color and low-income people so the local community members already had a tense relationship with target prior to this and many found that target's response to the blm protests were not sufficient and also that their history of their actions and where their funding has gone just didn't add up with what they were trying to say and how they were trying to present themselves as being very supportive of blm and black communities according to this article target's law enforcement partnerships were once a matter of singular pride for the company since the protests target has made statements and commitments for diversity and inclusion as well as investing funding toward projects in the name of racial justice as many major companies have since being called to do better but the usual question stands were these just pr moves or were these more genuine attempts to support black communities and black businesses and other communities of color alicia smith the executive director of a local neighborhood organization said target can't undo the harm but you can stop perpetuating it having these initiatives is better than not but we do have to wait and see how long and how genuine these commitments actually are i do hope that target uses its immense power and reach and funding for good but again we'll have to wait and see then we've got some labor issues target on the outside seems like a pretty chill happy place to work but with recent unionization and heavy layoffs both before and during the pandemic there are major concerns about worker welfare and labor rights at the company one issue that was hotly discussed was unpredictable scheduling and not being paid a livable wage according to this article only 12.7 percent of the workers who responded said they could survive on the wages from target alone with 56 percent of workers citing they have run out of food while employed at target so they're fully employed but still facing food insecurity and 12.8 percent of workers reported experiencing homelessness some 54 of workers surveyed report management telling them not to discuss wages with other workers a classic tactic to keep people lower paid than they should be and 41.6 percent of workers report workers have been reprimanded by management for discussing workplace issues in the store or on social media you would think an almost 15 billion dollar company would treat their workers with a bit more respect and pay them the necessary wage to lift their workers out of poverty but then again megacorporations don't reach that level of success without exploitation so anyway as consumers we definitely should put pressure on corporations and if you have the privilege and ability to do so try to shop mindfully but i also do not want to make anyone feel guilty for shopping somewhere like target being a consumer is hard and it's even harder when you are trying to be conscious because there are so many layers and frankly there are just not very many businesses let alone corporations out there that are ideally ethical sustainable and good in all the right ways also capitalism doesn't really give us a lot of options it's pretty much impossible for like a small local business to try to compete with target at the end of the day i think my biggest conclusion from this is that maybe we just shouldn't love corporations no corporation deserves uncritical unconditional love just like the handful of politicians that we might like we shouldn't treat them like unproblematic heroes in terms of these stores we can like their products we can shop at their store because it's convenient and accessible to us while still constantly calling for improvements and demanding better standards for consumers and employees that's my take am i craving a little pizza and an icee yes and i've got to give a shout out to my patrons i recently changed my tiers so now more benefits are available at lower tiers because i want more people to be able to enjoy the things that i'm posting on there if you're interested feel free to check it out extra thank yous to ooh face abby hayden cassandra toner eric danielson freshly laundered jaden jackie king jill hoffman joe fernandez josh woods julie leva justin landes casey luck cat light kristen monge marty schmeichel matthew gray medcat33 nicole louise online dbt skills rebecca goodson rihanna barton stevie may tessa thompson tom walker and vivianeoldon.com thank you for watching and stay tuned for more future internet analysis videos okay thanks bye
2022-04-10 03:20
