Bloggy Moms

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Target and My Special Needs Child

Here in America, Target stores are pretty much a required store for lots of families.  Heck even Buzzfeed made a really cool video about women going to Target.
 In our town, there are at three stores. The closest one to me is West Fullerton Target. I've been going there since it first opened about 15 years ago. When Princess was an infant, I used to push our jogging stroller there several times a week just to get out of the house and get a little exercise. Princess even learned what the sale sticker looked like and schooled her grandma on it when she was around four years old. I'll be the first to admit that there are some days that I go there more than once a day.
The great thing about our particular Target is that there is a low turnover rate. That's awesome for us because my outgoing child has cashiers and stock people who know her by name. Our favorite cashier is Susan. Susan always has a warm smile and a hug waiting for Princess. If Princess is not with me, she will ask how she is. She knows that Princess has her struggles, but she loves her just the same. Another long time employee is Mimi. This lovely gal is a little person. Princess connected with her right away. It was as if she knew something was different about her, but she just treated her like everyone else. I think Mimi knew that Princess had her own challenges long before I shared them with her. When Princess had her first hospitalization back in 2012, Mimi somehow felt in her gut that something was amiss because I kept going to the store without my shopping buddy. I shared with Mimi a little of what was going on in our world. This precious lady went out of her way to bring a necklace from home for Princess. She kept it in her pocket until she saw us one day. Then she presented it to my daughter. She told her that when she saw this necklace, it made her think of Princess. Out of all of the people that she knows, she thought of my daughter. She took the time to make her feel special.
There are other  wonderful employees who work there as well. Amanda is one of the managers. She keeps her employees happy and focused. I never see them chatting with each other or on their cell phones like I do in some other stores. There's another employee who has the same name as my daughter. (Her real one) She's friendly and professional.
All of this to say this store knows my child and I. If I did not get excellent customer service, I would not keep going there.
On a recent outing to our local Target, Princess was distracted. It was a few days before Valentine's Day. We were at the store picking up a few gifts for staff members at Princess' school. I thought Princess was right next to me, but she had wandered off to look at something else. I saw where she was, but she didn't see me. After realizing she'd lost sight of me. she headed over to customer service. They were just about to call me, when I showed up. It was a relief to hear the young ladies behind the counter say that they recognized my daughter and knew she belonged with me.
Targets are like your local neighborhood school, if you like yours, you feel blessed.
I know that not every single Target is like mine, but I'm glad to know its customer service shines.
This motto is definitely true of the West Fullerton Target

2 comments:

  1. I have a target experience too. A couple of years ago, at age 9, we had almost made it out, had gotten as far as actually paying, and my daughter went nuclear. We wound up sitting in a restraint in the floor at the end of the checkout lane. Five minutes of this and sure enough, here came the security guard. I thought, "OK, here we go, I've avoided getting arrested so far in life, but I don't know if that's going to happen here." But (over the screaming) I told him, "She has Asperger's; this is sensory overload."

    And he said, "Right ,you need a quiet dark room."

    He knew what to do. And either somebody had trained him, or he had experience with kids on the spectrum, because he got us moved to the staff room, turned off the horrible florescent lights, and called my husband because there was no way I could drive her home.

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    1. Aww! What a sweet security guard. Thanks for sharing.

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