target-- love it or...hate it?

there is a new target at cascade station, in east portland. i have a love-hate relationship with target and i've been to this new location a few times now.

as they've recently opened, i've found the store to be remarkably clean and full of eerily-eager 'team members.'every five feet a team member is lurking, jut waiting to ask me if i need help finding anything.

except in electronics, where i actually do need help. i don't need help finding anything, mind you, i just need them to unlock for me the flash drive i would like to buy. it's on sale and the main reason for my trip to target this day. i have to search through the aisles to find a team member. i finally find a few, huddled together in one place, talking about what they'll be doing that evening. how rude of me to interrupt this social session. i get a young woman's attention and let her know i need her to unlock a flash drive for me. she asks me what aisle it is on. i don't know, for god's sake! whatever aisle the flash drives are sold on! she seems paralyzed by my lack of knowledge of the exact layout of this store. so i lead her there.

"oh, it's locked," she says. umm...yes...that's why i've spent the past ten minutes searching the store for a team member. (that's ten minutes i'll never get back, by the way.) because it is locked! she needs to call someone with a key.

ok. so i wait. and wait.

until a young man arrives. he must be very important as he is unable to give me his attention right away-- he needs to finish barking orders at the younger men following a few strides behind him. turns out none of these young folks have keys, either. i'm not kidding. so we call for someone with a key (sound familiar?).

finally, another young man arrives. with a key! he asks me if i want red or pink. "pink," I tell him. "or maybe you want red AND pink," he offers. kill me. really? he is trying to upsell me at this point? he's lucky i didn't leave fifteen minutes ago. finally, he unlocks it, takes the pink one down and...doesn't hand it to me. apparently i'm not able to leave the electronics section without paying for the $18 item. even though surrounding me are hundreds of items equally as small and comparably priced. but, you know, that is the policy.

i mention that i want to grab a few more things and that i had actually purchased this same flash drive at this same store just days ago and the young person 'helping' me that day did not require me to pay on the spot. he just looked at me blankly. so i gave him my $18 and got the hell out of there, minus my other purchases.

what a hassle. i wish i could tell you i wouldn't be back because of this ridiculousness, but i would know i was lying. because i have a love-hate relationship with target. i just keep going back.