Nelson wonders if customers at the Lake Street store would feel empowered enough to complain, adding that Target would “never get away with this in Edina.” ![]() She said she had made her distaste for the new system clear to store managers several times.ĭespite Target’s assertion that the quest for a “superior shopping experience” is driving the experiment, Nelson and others are puzzled why it’s taking place at a location that serves a predominantly urban, minority and immigrant clientele. Nelson, a Minneapolis resident and urban professional, said she used to do 90 percent of her Target shopping there, and wouldn’t have come back had she remembered how much she disliked the experience. “I object to having to line up and wend my way around the aisles filled with more stuff. “It’s not at all customer-friendly,” said customer Shirley Nelson on a recent trip to the test store. He said the test is “designed to find out what the overall feedback would be, and what makes sense for our team members and our guests.”īut, so far, several customers I spoke with - in the checkout line or afterward - challenge the wisdom behind the experiment. He confirmed the experiment is being conducted only at the Lake Street store, which was chosen because “it’s the closest Target store to Target headquarters that has a similar size, layout and transaction size of the type of stores that benefit from an organized queue.” Target spokesperson Antoine LaFromboise says the test will be in place through the Christmas shopping season. The clerk bags the scanned items, and once that bag is full, you need to put it back in your cart to start another bag because there’s no room on the platform. ![]() If the items are too large, like a big box of diapers, once it’s scanned, you’ll immediately have to put it back in the cart to make room for the other items. So, you must place your items on the platform one or two at time, depending on size. Instead, the platform appears to be less than half the size of the typical conveyor space. Once you’ve arrived at your assigned checkout counter, you’ll notice there are no conveyor belts. It’s a little disorienting at first, but just like a guinea pig in a maze, you figure it out, step by step. Then, you pull ahead, into a narrow aisle that is created by two rows of checkout stations lined up on the left and on the right. Once there, you wait until a hanging flat screen posts - and speaks - a number for the next available cashier. You finally make it to the front of the line. The queue snakes one, two, three turns around big product displays filled with gum, candy, magazines and the like. Rather than choosing your lane or cashier, you are funneled into one line, like at airport security. ![]() You’ve got a box of diapers, a dress, toothpaste and bananas. The new prototype the company is testing could be described as a hybrid of the experience one has at airport security checks or while waiting in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles.
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