So, earlier I showed up at the Silverdale, WA Target to get some coffee, since the commissary is a ghost due to the
shutdown, and, in front of my two daughters, 8 and 6, am asked to sign a
petition against gun control. After actually reading over the petition,
I declined, and entered the store. To my surprise, this individual was
still at Target when I left, asking customers who are registered voters
in WA state, to sign. That's when I snapped the attached picture.
This is problematic for the following reasons:
1) the pressure to sign something without even actually understanding
what you're signing, because you're in a hurry and don't want to say no,
thus wasting more time, is a really crappy way to get your political
agenda advanced. I understand this tactic is used frequently, but Target
should have removed this person before he had enough time to use it.
2) Approaching Targets customer's in front of their children about extremely charged political issues is flat-out wrong.
3) This person was less than five feet from the doors of Target,
approaching every person who entered or exited. Leaving him to ask for
signatures is tantamount to telling every customer who entered the store
your company's stance on gun control.
4) I come to your store,
a paying customer, and should never be put in an uncomfortable position
of choosing between proving my political opinion is different than
those who may currently be signing the petition, or sacrificing my
opinions in order to prevent any possible confrontation. Refer back to 2
as to one of many reasons that this is wrong.
5) You are
supposed to have a security team that prevents this. Managers that deal
with it. Cops that could be called if necessary. Instead, your employees
either agreed with his stance, allowing him to continue against company
policy, or were incapable of following it, or your company policy is to
allow this sort of behavior. No matter which of these three options it
was, it's completely countermand to good policy.
Because of
these reasons, I personally won't be returning to at least this store,
if not another Target. Frankly, I don't really care whether I had been
in support of or against the petition, I refuse to shop at a store that I
may or may not be approached, again, about another political issue.
The attached picture, while fuzzy, was intentionally taken to NOT
identify the individual. That's not what this post is about. What it is
about is the fact that you can tell, based on the background, that it IS
in fact a target, and this individual WAS in fact there.
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