While we’ve all been laughing this week at SNL’s “Big Dumb Cups” skit ribbing the Stanley cup craze, the fine journalists at Business Insider have been reporting on a slew of sinister firings at Target in connection with the phenomenon. It seems Target Corporate has been on a firing spree, laying off workers who purchased the limited edition Starbucks x Stanley cups ahead of the public. Adding salt to the wound? Many, if not most of these purchases were made in the presence of and with approval of managers. Ay there’s the rub.
Catherine Carter worked at Target for 19 years, then Stanley came along: Every workday for the past two years, Catherine Carter would arrive at 3:30 a.m. at her Target store near Miami, where she would lead her team in preparing five departments to sell all sorts of products. She worked the overnight shift for the three years before that. She said that in all her 19 years with Target, she’d “never been written up, never called out, never been late.” On January 3, she stopped by her store’s Starbucks cafe while on break, where a barista asked her whether she wanted to buy one of the exclusive Starbucks x Stanley cups, she said. “My mama passed from breast cancer, so I always try to get as much pink as I can,” she told Business Insider, adding that her managers were present during the transaction and raised no objection. She was terminated the following week thanks to that pink stainless-steel insulated cup, which retailed for $49.95.
‘An unfair advantage’ over customers: Seven workers told BI that store leaders, including human-resources and asset-protection representatives, cited a company policy that prohibits employees from using their position to “gain an unfair advantage over guests” in order to purchase merchandise… The rule especially concerns high-demand or limited-stock items and deals, such as Pokemon trading cards and PlayStation consoles. None of the seven workers could recall a situation in which a peer in their store was terminated for violating the employee-purchase guidelines. Three said they offered to return the cup when they were informed of the problem. Their offers were declined. Almost all the workers said their store leaders indicated that the investigations were directed by Target’s corporate offices.
Fire at-will: Target didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment last week or this week. Like most retailers, Target is an at-will employer, which means it may terminate a worker’s employment at any time for any reason, or for no reason at all.
Misplacement & manager approval: Some anecdotes on social media indicate cases of flagrant violations of the policy. But workers BI spoke to said that they were either unaware of the rule’s existence or that they didn’t realize they violated the rule when they purchased one of the cups. In two cases, workers told BI they bought a cup that was improperly set aside by a colleague. In two others, workers bought cups that hadn’t been properly “re-shopped” — returned to the correct location on the sales floor — after online orders were canceled. Two, including Carter, said their managers either witnessed or otherwise expressly approved their purchases.
Fired just for supervising a sale: One Starbucks team lead in Maryland never even bought a cup but told BI she was terminated Wednesday for allowing one to be sold before the official release date. She said her store’s standard practice was to stock items ahead of schedule when other seasonal merchandise had sold out in order to avoid displaying empty shelves. In this case, all of the holiday merchandise had sold, so her manager directed her to set out the Stanleys, she said. “I don’t need another Starbucks cup. I don’t need a Stanley. I don’t need any of this,” she said.
All for a cup: In addition, each worker told BI they were one of several employees at their stores who had been fired over the cups. Four said they knew of multiple workers at other stores in their district losing their jobs… None of the seven employees BI spoke to said they expected this product could end up costing them their jobs. “I just don’t think they’re doing right,” Carter said of Target. “I mean, for a cup. Come on, a cup.”
A cup, a cup, my Target superstore for a cup! Hear, Hear, Catherine Carter — Target Corp is not doing right by you all. I remember when the Missoni collection first came out back in 2011. I got off work at noon and naively thought I could still pop over to peruse the designer wares, after all, it was the release day. I will never forget what I saw that day. Those proud Target employees were shell-shocked at the display of human behavior they’d been subjected to. Needless to say, there was no product left to shop. Target employees deserve store discounts, and any time a “special” item is rolled out their managers should be required to issue clear specifications on buying rules. This isn’t rocket science, it’s fair practice and common decency. #IDon’tNeedAnotherCup
i could watch a 10 episode documentary on the whole stanley thing pic.twitter.com/4noUykrBiq
— oatmeal influencer (@acechhh) January 1, 2024
Target Starbucks Stanley cup secured 😎 Got the very last one as they were selling 10 and I was 10th, I’m very happy! Not a moment to spare. 💕💖 pic.twitter.com/BdAnrXyEAX
— abigail 🛸 (@imrickdalton) January 3, 2024
Man, isn’t this the only point to working for these stores? It’s certainly not the high wages! I was just at Marshall’s talking to the girl checking me out and she listed everything she had on hold in the back – they got first dibs on the rare fancy skincare and makeup that arrives. Seems fair to me, they’re only making $15 an hour…
I worked at Nordstrom Rack as a stock clerk. There was a bags of items marked under $10.00, that never hit the floor. Also as I was marking down product, I was shopping. Target did their workers dirty.
Back when I worked at a Hallmark store in college (hi, I’m an old), all the long time employees would set aside some of the “limited edition collectibles” before they hit the shelves. It was one of the very few perks they had, and I swear the only reason they worked there. They probably spent their entire paychecks on the merchandise in question.
Time to unionize Target workers!
I took the day off work for the missoni release LOL. My friend and I were one of the first people in line at our target and it’s still one of our favorite memories together. She still has her mugs and my makeup bag finally broke a couple of years ago.
Wow…. What is the labour standards say about just firing people without cause? Is that just a Canadian thing?
This took place in the States. There are no Targets in Canada. And “At-Will” means you can fire people whenever you like for whatever reason. You don’t have to state a reason. All US states are “At-Will” which means any employer in that state can fire you without cause. Though there are some federal guidelines for certain employment sectors – mainly unionized.
Montana is not an at-will employment state, and there are not just federal guidelines for the other 49 states. There are many state exceptions or exemptions.
This mug is the current Cabbage Patch doll or Wii or whatever.
Beanie Babies!
@ Janes Yes, in a few years time all the charity shops will be inundated with these things and selling them for next to nothing so that they can get rid of them.
I’ve worked in the retail industry most of my life, both in store and at the corporate level, and restrictions on employee purchases (especially limited releases) are pretty standard. However, I think that reminder memos should be sent in advance of these types of launches so that noone can say that they didn’t know.
This situation is similar to pre-Black Friday where workers aren’t allowed access to the big-ticket sale items before customers. I do agree it’s up to the managers to inform team members what is restricted and what is up for grabs.
“at will employers” is why America needs stronger unions. In ANY “right to work” state, what it really means is no rights for workers.
I wanted to introduce my 9yr old nephew to Mini Brand BOOKS. These are very rare, they are sold at some Targets, not all. If they do have them, they only have one box with about 12 capsules in them. They had them at my local Target, but when I went there I couldn’t find them. I asked a staff member who was restocking and asked where they were. He said ” I have 11 of them. I can give you 3 if you want them! If I find more I can try and look for you in the store.” I was totally flabbergasted, he hadn’t even bothered to put them on the shelf or put on their site that there were “out of stock”. I had to take the 3 he was offering cause that’s all he would give up.
Former Target manager. We re-posted and re-reviewed this policy with team members before every holiday season. Believe me, they knew. They could wait their turn after store open, on a break. I feel no sympathy.
I can understand if the firing if the employees are stockpiling products and purchasing them before they go on sale to the public but this is just insanity. Firing somebody for buying ONE stupid cup??