Tar-jay and Me...our love-hate relationship

Target has never been one of my favorite stores, mostly due to their rigid return policies. I am notorious for misplacing receipts...even though I try to be careful and put them in the same place each time. Some kids claim the dog eats their homework, I SWEAR my dogs have a secret affinity for eating receipts.

Sure, I like their brightly lit stores, wide aisles and many of their proprietary-designed products too. Also, their customer service is usually great. Associates are easy to find and knowledgable. When they don't know an answer, they press a button, talk into their headset and beam the question around the store until someone who knows the answer comes to our rescue.

Not so long ago, I even had an associate spend close to an hour helping me call around to almost all our local stores to locate as many BritaxMarathon car seats as she could  because they were marked down from $297 to $97 to clear out the 2012 models and make room for the 2013's. Even though I drove around 150 miles from store to store to retrieve the last few in our region, I saved a boatload of money and was pretty happy that day.

Still, on the few occasions I need to return something and cannot find my receipt, I suddenly remember why I don't prefer to shop at Target.

Another thing I don't understand about Target is their pricing policies.

If someone orders something online and returns it to a store, it's sometimes hidden within the department and marked down to an unbelievably low price. For example, last week in the stroller section (and NOT in the car seat aisle) I saw a brand new Chicco Keyfit 30 that normally retails for $179 marked down to $139. I like that policy - avoids having to ship it back and a lucky consumer gets a great deal.

These "treasure-hunt" trips to Target are fun to me because I never know what I might find.

One thing I don't fully agree with is that Target won't match their own prices. When I asked why,  one associate explained to me was that their pricing varies from region-to-region, and even between stores within a region depending on the neighborhood demographics. I can attest to this as I have three Targets within five miles of home and another two within five miles of work, and I have seen different prices for the same item at different locations.

A couple weeks ago, I took G to the supermarket with me and, now that she started sitting up on her own and can support herself without falling over, was going to put her in the cart until I saw how filthy and gross it was. So, I carried her in my baby sling instead and vowed to buy a shopping seat cover the next time I went to a store where I thought they might carry them.

As you assumed, I impulsively bought one in Target. Later that day, out of curiosity, I scanned it in Redlaser (an iPhone app that scans bar codes and shows the lowest price - both online and in local stores) and saw it was a few dollars cheaper at Target online.

Since I don't pay for shipping and pass a Target on my commute to work, I decided to order it online and return the first one (trust me, I would have preferred to have them refund me the few bucks, but since they wouldn't and it wasn't out of my way, I did it this way).

During the transaction, I saw the clerk place a special red sticker on my returned item and explained that I never even opened the box. He replied "Oh, that doesn't matter. This one is going in the trash."

Not believing that I heard correctly, I said "The trash? Not even your clearance aisle?"

He said "Yup, the trash. If someone else purchased this and their baby got hurt, we might be liable. So, we put items like this in the trash instead of reselling them."

So, not only did I contribute to global warming by making Target ship me a new one, but now I know the old one is destined for a landfill!

I feel guilty and hope Mother Earth forgives me for my environmentally wasteful actions and understands I did not do this intentionally. Now I know better...and I promise to be less wasteful next time. Thank you!