‘When Target gaslights you’: Target shopper orders item for drive-up. She has to go in store herself

Target drive-up customer and TikToker Bri (@beantown.bri) has a bone to pick with the store. In a viral TikTok with over 433,000 views, Bri vents about having to go in the store herself after the picker for her order marked her items as "out of stock."

"When Target gaslights you and tells you they're out of stock of an item you buy through drive-up," she writes in the text overlay of her video, which was viewed 436,000 times.

In her text overlay, Bri says she felt forced to go into the store to look for the two boxes of Wondershop Christmas lights. And lo and behold, the items weren't so out of stock after all. She films herself with the boxes in hand as she walks through the store.

She adds in a caption for her video: "Make it make sense?! This has happened more than once to me."

How could this happen?

The first explanation for this is that Target has online inventory discrepancies. "From working at target most of the time the inventory is inaccurate. sometimes is says we have 30 when we have 3 or the opposite. it sometimes is right but things always mess up with the app," one viewer suggested.

A Redditor griped about an opposite-case scenario in which Target claimed online that it had an item in stock. The item was nowhere to be found in the store.

"Target App needs to stop showing stuff as 'in stock' when it’s actually 'on hand'," the Redditor wrote. "Do you know how many times I have to tell people we don’t actually have something. Because it says it’s on hand, and then they say 'BUT IT SAYS ONLINE.'"

Target notes on its site that item "availability changes quickly," which is why the online availability vs. in-store availability differs.

To ensure an item is in stock, Target recommends calling ahead of time to confirm.

The second explanation is that the Target worker tasked with finding the item either could not find it or didn't bother to. And that's what many viewers suspect happened. Viewers who are familiar with Target's online order system say workers are under time constraints and have to meet certain goals.

"I work in fulfillment and it’s all timed so they probably were panicking on missing their goal OR in general they just couldn’t find it anywhere, it frustrates us when we have to INF an item," one shared.

"As a past retail worker myself I understand but then again when they’re picking orders they’re on a time limit to. And the sales floor and back room look like a bomb went off around the holidays," another added.

@beantown.bri Make it make sense?! This has happened more than once to me.. ???? @target #target #targetdriveup #inconvenience #onlineshopping #holidayshopping #holidayshopping #shopping #christmas #fyp #momtok #frustration #christmasshopping ♬ sonido original - Jess González

The Daily Dot has reached out to Target via email and to Bri via TikTok comment for further information.

Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.

The post ‘When Target gaslights you’: Target shopper orders item for drive-up. She has to go in store herself appeared first on The Daily Dot.