How do rednecks see Target or Meijer?

[Dan]

It's a given that on Cyburbia, and any other bulletin board, there will be plenty of Wal-Mart bashing, some of which noting the clientele that dominates the aisles. You know ... even far from the heart of Dixie, you'll see white working-class blue-collar folks with a rural Confederate cultural orientation.

Go to Target, OTOH, and the clientele is completely different. The mullets and feathered hair disappear. No crying babies. No obese moms beating their kids for no reason. Nobody shouting out for their homies, except young teenaged gangsta wannabes. No Dale Earnhardt shrines in the parking lot. The clientele has a more Northern middle-class outlook. I've been in Targets in the deep South, and still mullets are rare. The Meijer I visited once (I'm very jealous, folks in Meijer country) seemed filled with middle-class appearing couples and families, more so than Target where I've found more singles and young couples.

We bash Wal-Mart all the time but ... the Wal-Mart shoppers that are an object of our ridicule, the "rednecks" for lack of a politically correct substitute - what do they think of Target, Meijer, Fred Meyer or any similar chains? Do they see those chains as high falutin' upscale boutiques filled with the pretty people of society, much the way a middle class person might think of Neiman-Marcus?

 

[H]

Oui, oui, vous means Le Tar-Jay?

 

[Plannerbabs]

Target's real expensive and got all that fancy stuff that an ordinary person don't need like that Michael Graves stuff. And they don't sell no guns nor ammo either, so when a person's got to stock up for huntin they got to go to Wal Mart. Target don't sell cigarettes neither, but Meijer does. And Target has that foofoo coffee what cost me $2 a cup the one time I bought some. Was bitter, too. The coffee down at the 7-11 is better n that yuppie junk. Meijer does have all kind of truck stuff for my truck and oncet I even found an Earnhardt sticker for the wife's T-Bird.

(based on observations on a Meijer and a Target in an area that is still very mullet-oriented despite efforts to be otherwise).

 

[Planderella]

I have never heard of Meijer and Target is only one year old in the metro N.O. area. Target is much cleaner and their products are better merchandised than Wal-mart. Since I'm no redneck (THANK GOD), I can't really answer the question.

 

[Jeff]

....all dems rich folk hang out at dem dare target store.

I went in there once, me and my cousin Skeeter. We's a thought they'd sell some targets in dare, for like shootin' ya know?

Ain't gots no targets in Target, so we shoots at empty cans of Budweiser instead. Yup, thats what we did.

 

[Big Easy King]

I agree that you do see more middle to upper-middle class patrons in Target and similar retail establishments. My fiancee and I enjoy Target because of the inexpensive quality items.

I guess Target to mullets is like Disneyworld to a first-time-going child...overwhelming!!! "Clean-up on aisle 6...damn mullets!" ;-)

 

[Tom R]

fleas

There's an indoor flea market in an old Ames store south of here. It's full of prime specimins, the best NE Ohio can offer. I think I know where the term "flea market" comes from. Of course, they can't compete with those found farther south.

 

[pandersen]

Answer:
As often as possible and usually from the cab of a rusted out pick-up truck!

 

[Duke Of Dystopia]

If you need general decent quality merchendise, Wal-Mart is GREAT!. If they had no redeeming features, they would not be so successful.

Put it this way, if you need a plain black t-shirt, you know you can get it at Wally World any time of the year for almost half the price of somewhere else. If you want snacks, kitchen ware, bedding for your collage bound kid, colorful thong underware for the ladies! Its the best place to go. Ocasionally you will find other neat stuff cheaply.

This is not hard to understand really. With the nation constantly loosing higher wage manufacturing jobs and switching to a lower paid service economy, cheaply retailed basics will be further in demand.

Yeah, you find Necks at Wal-Mart they don't quite deserve the scorn heaped on them any more than your average yuppie type that sees the products and where they get them from as status symbols.

 

[Plannerbabs]

If you need general decent quality merchendise, Wal-Mart is GREAT!. If they had no redeeming features, they would not be so successful.
Yeah, you find Necks at Wal-Mart they don't quite deserve the scorn heaped on them any more than your average yuppie type that sees the products and where they get them from as status symbols.

Granted, but Wally has a few strikes against it. The quality of the stuff, never mind where it's made, isn't as high as at Target (it's about the same as Meijer) and not really much cheaper in a lot of cases. And then there's the matter of how Wally treats its employees, especially those who are different in any way. They are trying, and I give them credit for that, but they just aren't up to the same standards as some of the other discount department stores. It's a bit sad really, they're promoted as being the cheapest place to get stuff, and quality-wise it's true, cost-wise, it isn't really, so people who go there thinking they're getting the best deals aren't always.
On the other hand, they do sometimes have strange things other places don't have, and they are kind of fun at 2 am.

 

[Zoning Goddess]

I'm sure one reason Rednecks don't go to Target is that they feel it would be rude to do all their shopping with a cell phone glued to their ear (hear that, Yuppie moms?).

I love Target. But I don't feel the need to carry on conversations, on the phone, in the store.

 

[Super Amputee Cat]

I hate Target. The have the most lamebrain commercials I have ever seen. One I saw recently glorified 12 year olds talking on cell-phones.

They contribute to sprawl and pullute too.

It's scary to think what kind of losers they are targeting in these commercials. If Wal-Mart is targetting white trash, then Target must be targetting white trash with money.

 

[Bangorian]

Frankly, Meijer and Wal-Mart are pretty much the same thing... especially since the creation of the Super Wal-mart. Meijer just isn't as pervasive, and does not have a corporate policy of TARGETING small towns and driving the downtown out of business, though I'm seeing it happen with them more and more. Generally Meijers are seen in larger areas, places that can support a few big boxes AND a downtown. But its been a couple years since I've been in the midwest - perhaps things have changed.

As far as merchandise, we all need to admit to ourselves that the stuff you buy at Wal-Mart is just junk. You get what you pay for. Save $2 on that black t-shirt and it'll be gray after 10 washes. Save $1 on groceries and you can bet that its not only irradiated, but is also GMO. Save $10 on that CD player and it will break after a year. Not all of us want to be part of the disposable society (BTW, the Wal-Mart in New York I used to be forced to go to would not let me refuse a bag - talk about waste! If I'm buying a birthday card or picking up film, I DO NOT need a plastic bag)!

Everything I've ever bought at Wal-Mart has disappointed me, either in terms of quality, durability, or in having to buy something that isn't quite what I was looking for simply because there is no other choice (everyone else in town is out of business!). I've not experienced it to this degree with anywhere else but K-Mart, which is in bankruptcy, for basically that reason.

And yes, I agree, Target is for the white trash with money. So where do all the enlightened folk shop? Downtown, baby (that is, if Wal-Mart hasn't outcompeted it yet)!

 

[Downtown]

I'll admit to loving Target. They have THE MOST comfortable underpants there. A good greeting card selection (for greeting card addicts like myself). Cute women's (and maternity) clothes, adorable baby stuff. We do a lot of gift shopping there. There is never more than three people in any line (unlike the local walmart where I've literally stood in line for 25 minutes), never any boxed crap in the aisles, and the restrooms are super clean. But - you're definitely going to spend more on toilet paper and deodorant and dog food at Target.

 

[Jeff]

I'll admit to loving Target. They have THE MOST comfortable underpants there. .

You white-trash with money Target underwear shopper you.

Seriously, we don't want to hear about "comfortable" underpants. Dental floss, thats what guys want to hear about.


OT:

Where the hell have you been? Any babies yet?

 

[Downtown]

You white-trash with money Target underwear shopper you.

Seriously, we don't want to hear about "comfortable" underpants. Dental floss, thats what guys want to hear about.


OT:

Where the hell have you been? Any babies yet?

Hey - those comfortable underpants have kept me out of the seriously un-sexy maternity underpants! not that it would matter, because with the giant belly, i haven't seen my own underpants in about two months. now is THAT tmi?

And work has been really insane to the point that i haven't had any time to even indulge my cyburbia habit. but thankfully, i'm back on the cyburbia pipe and work has eased up a bit.

and no babies yet. 10 more f***ing weeks to go. christ, i'm tired of being pregnant.

 

[biscuit]

... Target must be targetting white trash with money.

That would be me.

In a lot of towns there are no other options other than Wal-Mart and/or Target and when having to pick between the two I'll pick Target every time. Yeah I may have to pay more for Speed Stick but the store is always cleaner, less crowded, and lacks the bare-foot children and mullets so pervasive at Wal-Mart. Plus, they don't censer their music department.

 

[mendelman]

Wal-Mart vs. Meijer

This is a uniquely Michigan, Illinios, Indiana, and Ohio thing.

I prefer Meijer over Wal-Mart. The Meijers I have been in usually have a clientele I most easily identify with.

But I usually go to Wal-Mart when I need to feel superior. Whenever I would go home to Alpena during college, in Ann Arbor, MI, I always liked to go to Wal-Mart at about 7pm, in order to be reminded that not everyone has a Master's degree or has wealthy parents.

But.....rednecks usually stick with Wal-Mart, while the middle class bargain hunters prefer Target or Mejier or the other amazing phenomenon, of the people driving new Cadillacs and shopping at.....Aldi.

 

[Lyburnum]

I am from a working class, southern background and for me and mine shopping at Wal-Mart is a given.

The orignal poster wondered how rednecks see Target. Putting words into the mouths of the people in my hometown (which doesn't have a Target), I think they would say Wal-Mart is just as good, cheaper for some products and is more convenient. I don't think any of them would care if the majority of the clientele dont have master's or even bachelor's degrees or about unfair labor practices or anything like that. I doubt many of them (excluding the more pop culture-savvy) know what a mullet is - even if they have one!

Sure Wal-Mart's books and music cater to the lowest common denominator but how can some Windex or a garden hose or name brand pens bought at Wal-Mart be any more inferior than the same items bought at Target or anywhere else? I don't shop there for books or music, but a lot of people do and I know where to go if I want other types of books or music.

I had a professor who used to complain about always seeing the ever-present fat woman beating her kids but its not something I've noticed there more than at a similar setting...I know it could just be an exageration to illustrate a point, but what bothers me is how some people who probably, maybe, see themselves as enlightened have these ideas about people 'stupid enough' to shop at Wal-Mart. I know no one here has called them stupid but its easy to read between the lines. They are just people trying to live their lives with limited means and they are going to go where the price tags have the smallest numbers.

Anyway, I enjoy reading/learning about Wal-Mart because I myself have this love/hate relationship with it. I am a cheapskate and I shop there all the time but I also dislike what we all know this corporation has done to small businesses all over.

 

[Bangorian]

a short rant

Sure, when you buy a certain brand at wal-mart it is obviously the same as a certain brand anywhere else. But a large, large portion of the merchandise WalMart stocks is its own brand, or brands that one does not see anywhere else. Now, since I shop there so rarely, and as a last result, it somehow works out that everytime I'm there I do not walk out with a nationally recognised and merchandised everywhere (i.e. Windex) brand - I'm carrying a Wal-Mart or other brand, and this is where I've experienced the lack of quality I was speaking of.

In terms of having limited means and making ends meet: I make only $10k / year, (in a 'compensated volunteer service' program which shall remain nameless, due to the somewhat controversial nature of this subject), so I can be counted among some of the lowest of the employed low income - I don't even make minimum wage. I shop at Reny's, which is kind of a closeout store, but is admittedly the 'Target' of the closeout stores. Its a nice place, and their prices ALWAYS beat Wal-mart's by at least a buck. And its downtown, and its a local company. Lots of towns have similar places, but without the slick commercials and mass-mailed advertisements that WalMart has.

When I said that the enlightened folk shop downtown, (and apparently made the assertion that only unenlightened people shop at Wal-Mart), I was alluding to the awareness that that Wal-Mart and all the other sprawl that inevitably springs up around it costs everyone extra thousands on dollars in taxes and transportation costs every year. I didn't mean the people that shop there (or Target) were dumb or didn't have a master's degree or whatever is , I am just saying that if they knew how much money and municial services it took to support Sprawl-Mart and its offspringing sprawl, and realized that more than half of every dollar they spend there goes to Arkansas, and that its employees almost always require social services to make ends meet (because they aren't allowed to work 40 hours and get benefits), they might think twice about supporting the Mom & pop downtown and paying a nickel more for a bag of chips.

But the shoppers can't really be blamed for not knowing this, anymore than I can be blamed for knowing the language of ethnic Djiboutians. They just haven't been exposed to it. The media is really who's to blame, for not allowing 'anti-big box' ads / PSA's for fear of losing advertising dollars!

 

[iamme]

I don't shop at Walmart for reasons too lengthy to list. I like the style of products at Target but I don't shop there. It's not a matter of being "better" or more "enlightened" as some think, but the cost of their products is just too high.

P.S. - I'm not talking about the price.

 

[tsc]

I hate Target. The have the most lamebrain commercials I have ever seen. One I saw recently glorified 12 year olds talking on cell-phones.

I listened to a speaker on Marketing... who was really quite good. Target aims their marketing at the X-generation. Baby-boomers just don't get their commercials, while the younger ones do.

The tide of marketing is really changing....and the differences between the markets is really quite dramatic. Target aims to sell an image...not a product.

My father hates the Target commercials... to him they just dont make sense. I fall on the border of being just within the X-Gen. I think they are better than some dumb smiley face with a whip slashin down prices.

 

[michaelskis]

I can deal with a Target, because it is too fancy for some people.

Wal-Mart on the other hand... I was standing in line at the service desk, and some woman (I think 415lb.) Was sitting in the food area, with her 5 kids, yelling at them as they ran around screaming, bumping into people, while she waited for her boyfriend to get out of the rest room.

I was just thinking to my self, THANK GOD I am not in that situation.

Target on the other hand, does have some nice things. I bought a DVD player, and some other gifts from there one time.

 

[michaelskis]

The tide of marketing is really changing....and the differences between the markets is really quite dramatic. Target aims to sell an image...not a product.

Many people in Reading would agure that Gen - X is not the people to target. But then again they think that the Railroad that once created this city, will save this city.

 

[plankton]

Hey michaelski:

Based on several of your recent posts, it sounds like you're pretty happy about leaving Reading, PA, so congrats.

Did I read that you're heading to Portage, MI?

I've got a good friend who lives there. He's a huge Red Wing fan too. Maybe you could slap him with a bogus zoning infraction some time. ;o)

I refuse to shop at Wal Mart. My mother-in-law was treated like total dirt as an employee there (no surprise, eh). The lines are ridiculously long and their land use antics (see Hood River, OR, many others....) are repulsive.

 

[Zoning Goddess]

Target has better clearance sales.

 

[michaelskis]

Hey michaelski:

Based on several of your recent posts, it sounds like you're pretty happy about leaving Reading, PA, so congrats.

Did I read that you're heading to Portage, MI?

I've got a good friend who lives there. He's a huge Red Wing fan too. Maybe you could slap him with a bogus zoning infraction some time. ;o)

Thank you, and yes, I am moving to Portage, MI. and as you can guess, I am also a Wings fan. As for your friend... I will see what I can do.

 

[Super Amputee Cat]

I listened to a speaker on Marketing... who was really quite good. Target aims their marketing at the X-generation. Baby-boomers just don't get their commercials, while the younger ones do.

The tide of marketing is really changing....and the differences between the markets is really quite dramatic. Target aims to sell an image...not a product.

My father hates the Target commercials... to him they just dont make sense. I fall on the border of being just within the X-Gen. I think they are better than some dumb smiley face with a whip slashin down prices.

That may be true, but glorifing 12-year olds talking on cell-phones is totally unacceptable. As bad as cig ads in my eye.

 

[Super Amputee Cat]

That would be me.

In a lot of towns there are no other options other than Wal-Mart and/or Target and when having to pick between the two I'll pick Target every time.

Well, if you have no choice I see no problem going there. I had to go to Meijer today myself. What I hate about Target is that their vacuous, mind-rotting commercials are marketed toward a certain segment of our society that gets all chubby/moist from what is being depicted in those moronic ads. As a result of being dumbed down by these ads, and unable to think independently, shopping there has become the be-all end-all of their existance. So many shoppers fit into this profile, that it brings in more and more money for more and more advertising.

It's a vicious cycle that keeps perpetuating itself.

 

[Jeff]

.....must go to target....must .....

 

[Plannerbabs]

As a result of being dumbed down by these ads, and unable to think independently, shopping there has become the be-all end-all of their existance.

you mean there's more to life than Target? Heresy!

 

[tsc]

That may be true, but glorifing 12-year olds talking on cell-phones is totally unacceptable. As bad as cig ads in my eye.

that one isn't so swift... but their general color theme commecials are as goofy as the Mentos commercials and have a touch of creativity. I did like their holiday commercial that featured Rosemary Clooneys's "C'mon My House" ... but partially because I just love that song!

I prefer the more subtle commercials to the "WERE SLASHING PRICES" and this in on sale.. and that is on sale.....of the wal-marts....

 

[SkeLeton]

Hum.. Why exactly hate one store because of their ads? If you had to hate stores or products because of their idiotic and mind numbing ads, you'd hate pretty much everything... at least here... I have come to believe that publicists are lobotomy patients or sexual maniacs (or both) JMHO.

 

[Dan]

I listened to a speaker on Marketing... who was really quite good. Target aims their marketing at the X-generation. Baby-boomers just don't get their commercials, while the younger ones do.

This is just based on casual observation, but this is what I've noticed about customers at the big box department store chains:

* Target - Middle class Gen-X and Gen-Y of all ethnic groups, some younger baby boomers, lots of singles.

* Kmart - Primarily elderly. In Buffalo, there was one Kmart that was very popular among Jewish shoppers. Why, I don't know, but I'm told that Kmart is seen as the "old Jewish lady" store in the NYC area.

* Meijer (based on the two I've visited) - Baby boomer families, recent retirees, some Gen X, lots of couples, few singles.

* Wal-Mart (outside the Great Lakes region) - working and middle class whites of a rural, Confederate cultural orientation; lower income minorities.

* Wal-Mart (in the Great Lakes region) - exurban and rural blue collar middle class families.

YMMV, of course.

When I lived in New Mexico, Kmart and Wal-Mart were seen as Hispanic stores, while Target was where Anglos shopped. It reminded me of the Coors/Budweiser ethnic split. Folks joked about large family reunions at Wal-Mart; often, you would see large extended families with 10 or 20 people all parking together, entering the store, and wandering the aisles as one large group.

 

[pete-rock]

This is just based on casual observation, but this is what I've noticed about customers at the big box department store chains:

* Target - Middle class Gen-X and Gen-Y of all ethnic groups, some younger baby boomers, lots of singles.

* Kmart - Primarily elderly. In Buffalo, there was one Kmart that was very popular among Jewish shoppers. Why, I don't know, but I'm told that Kmart is seen as the "old Jewish lady" store in the NYC area.

* Meijer (based on the two I've visited) - Baby boomer families, recent retirees, some Gen X, lots of couples, few singles.

* Wal-Mart (outside the Great Lakes region) - working and middle class whites of a rural, Confederate cultural orientation; lower income minorities.

* Wal-Mart (in the Great Lakes region) - exurban and rural blue collar middle class families.

I think you're on target (no pun intended) with this one, Dan. I've always viewed Target as a discount alternative to upscale department stores like Marshall Field and Macy's. Meanwhile, Wal-Mart is like a much larger version of Woolworth's from 30-40 years ago, or K-Mart from 20 years ago, where cost is paramount.

 

[SlaveToTheGrind]

Hey - those comfortable underpants have kept me out of the seriously un-sexy maternity underpants!

Downtown, that reminds me of the time my wife and I were shopping for her just before our second baby was born. She wanted some new pajamas to wear at the hospital and while looking in the store, came across "maternity thongs". We both laughed and she said "those two words should never be in the same sentence."

WM in these parts attracts most everybody. However, Target does not draw the low income and minority populations like WM.