Archived What's the grossest thing you have ever seen/ found at target?

[Bored Food Aver]

This was one of my first posts as a member on this site:

My store is located near one of the areas that was hit really badly in the April 2011 tornadoes. I work at a Super Target, and we lost power at about 6PM. The store closed early that night, and we were able to all make it home safely. The next day, the store was running on a generator, so everything was just peachy.

The power still hadn't been restored, so we closed early again (6ish) and the by the next morning, everything in town was dead, the store included. Everything perishable in the store had ruined by this time: everything in deli, meat department, dairy, frozen, Starbucks' refrigerators, produce that needed to be refrigerated, etc.

Target got a bunch of dumpsters lined up out back and everyone in the food team joined together and started cleaning everything out. We emptied out the freezers and meat products on the floor, the produce, the deli, and then came the hard part: the meat department and dairy cooler. Keep in mind that this stuff, by this point in time hasn't been refrigerated in about 3 days. I had to help with both rooms. The meat stuff wasn't so bad, a lot of it was packaged and sealed. The problem was that some of it wasn't sealed properly.

Bags of chicken that had little tiny holes in them were oozing chicken juice all over the place, meat turning bad, but the worst part had to be the meat department's QMOS bin.

Oh, the horror...

I still have 'Nam flashbacks about it to this day.

The meat dept. TM who was supposed to throw the QMOS'd meat left early for a vacation the day the power went out, and it was sitting in the rolling cart for 4 days at least. Green, spoiled bacon, green shrimp, packs of hamburger meat and steaks that were leaking and adding to the awful stewing mess... The deli TL and I had to wear masks just to get through it.

The dairy cooler wasn't as bad because after the meat QMOS bin debacle, I wore my mask in there too.

It smelled bad, but nowhere near as repulsive as the meat cooler.

After all that was said and done, Food Avenue was the only department who had survived the power outage (everything in my freezer was still at a food safe temp) thanks to the generators that they brought in after day 3.

 

[targetismylife09]

This was taken in the ladies room at my old store, if I remember correctly the cart attendant that cleaned it up was given free lunch and a $15 Target gift card for his heroism
NSFW: http://imgur.com/rQE7HH2

We have had several just like that at our store in the past couple weeks alone! We are in an area with a lot of elderly people,maybe that explains why we have so many?

 

[redeye58]

Guy shoplifted a shirt into the men's restroom, tried to flush his down the toilet. When he didn't succeed, he took a dump on top of it & tried to flush again.
I was the CA at the time & I had to shut down the men's room for nearly an hr to clean the overflow.
The other time was when we pulled up a gondola deck because of a smell: some dried dog food had fallen down there which attracted a rat. Rat ate the food but was trapped underneath whereupon he expired & was in turn eaten by maggots.

 

[oath2order]

OH.

During the big health reset about a year back, we found a dead mouse under a basedeck.

Another time, on the powdered water flavoring stuff, there was something in a plastic Target bag that smelled so bad that ETL-AP and STL refused to open.

Whatever it was, we either defected or QMOSed out everything on the shelves underneath it.

Edit: Oh right and then there was the pile of crap on the floor between mens and shoes.

 

[babytrees]

nothing I ever see/smell at Target can compare to the room I went in to clean (I was a housekeeper) in Florida.....2 maids had to go home early and so did the maintenance person who ended up doing the brunt of the clean up. It was nasty smelling, looking...there was vomit, poop, used condoms, food wrappers, food....EVERYWHERE!!!

 

[ZombiePanties31]

I went in the "ladies'" room last week and noticed there was pee in one of the toilets. I go to flush it, and, lo and behold, there is a fucking huge ass turd in there (like, unnaturally large). The worst thing was, there was was piece of corn right there on the top, gleaming like a jewel. People are so disgusting.

 

[Kovac Washington]

We had two walkie calls recently.

"Team, can I get assistance cleaning up a spill in soft lines? "

Then...

"Team, I'm going to need additional assistance. This thing's going halfway around the store."

Never have I been happier to not be spill cleanup certified.

 

[lovecats]

There was one time a tm told me about a used condoms behind the boxes of glasses. None of us would even touch it and the one etl even refused. It did eventually disappear.
Then there was a cup of Jamba Juice that I found under a rack in girls that had mold growing on it.
But the worse one was when I had noticed fruit flies coming from the locker under mine. They had gotten really bad so I went and told our etl-hr. She came and opened the locker. There was one of those boxes of Clementines in there that had been there so long they had turned black. We figure the locker wouldn't open for some reason and the tm whose they were just didn't tell anybody. They ended up cleaning all the lockers out all around that one.

 

[mrknownothing]

I guess I've been sheltered at my store. And now I'm really glad a bunch of our basedecks got cleaned out last year.

 

[yebabee]

As an SFT at a super t for 11 years and worked at 20+ stores you don't want to know

 

[morepaytoday]

A soft lines team member brought me a "period" swimsuit bottom that was in the fitting room.

 

[Bosch]

We had two walkie calls recently.

"Team, can I get assistance cleaning up a spill in soft lines? "

Then...

"Team, I'm going to need additional assistance. This thing's going halfway around the store."

Never have I been happier to not be spill cleanup certified.

Luckily when we have had those, it was laundry detergent, or coffee. Slow leaking bottle, made a lap around the store.

 

[HardlinesFour]

You know those Packages of lunch meat, in those white plastic containers? During one of our remodels, we found a package, I think in the automotive area, that had been shoved in between a shelving unit.

I don't know how long it'd had been under there, but, the expiration date was 2006, and it was 2009. But, Someway, Somehow, the stuff didn't stink, nor did it have any sort of well, mold or growing stuff. It looked just fine, like it normally would. I couldn't help but think, that, if it was in the refrigerator, you couldn't even tell the difference.

To this day, that still sorta freaks me out a bit..

 

[Bored Food Aver]

You know those Packages of lunch meat, in those white plastic containers? During one of our remodels, we found a package, I think in the automotive area, that had been shoved in between a shelving unit.

I don't know how long it'd had been under there, but, the expiration date was 2006, and it was 2009. But, Someway, Somehow, the stuff didn't stink, nor did it have any sort of well, mold or growing stuff. It looked just fine, like it normally would. I couldn't help but think, that, if it was in the refrigerator, you couldn't even tell the difference.

To this day, that still sorta freaks me out a bit..

When I first started working at my store, I had to make the Food Ave sandwiches and the only lunch meat (ham and turkey) that would get shipped to us was Tyson branded, in a 2 pound pack. The packs were always full of water and juices and the meat always came out slimy and disgusting. Tyson should stick to chicken.

 

[Dreamwolf31]

There was one time a tm told me about a used condoms behind the boxes of glasses. None of us would even touch it and the one etl even refused. It did eventually disappear.
Then there was a cup of Jamba Juice that I found under a rack in girls that had mold growing on it.
But the worse one was when I had noticed fruit flies coming from the locker under mine. They had gotten really bad so I went and told our etl-hr. She came and opened the locker. There was one of those boxes of Clementines in there that had been there so long they had turned black. We figure the locker wouldn't open for some reason and the tm whose they were just didn't tell anybody. They ended up cleaning all the lockers out all around that one.

For some reason this reminded me of when I was in high school and some kid kept old milk cartons, orange juice, Gatorade and food wrappers in his locker. He was a few down from mine and it always stunk so bad in that area. I remember the superintendent came by and smelled it. He pulled the kid from class and had all the students line up in the hallway to watch the kid clean out his locker. I think that was the last time he ever did that lol....

 

[MrGSTLman]

In no particular order:

• The "Multi-Stall" in the mens room where a gentleman proceeded to tell me someone (him) had an accident. I walked in and saw not only the floor covered in poo, but the wall, the toilet paper dispenser, the door, and just a small smear on the toilet. As if that wasn't gross enough he decided to move to the next stall and leave me his poop-stained shorts in a ball in the corner. It was the first time I ever had to wear a biohazard suit to clean the bathroom.
  
• The homeless guy who came in and had an incident in his pants while walking through the store. The, um, incident fell out of his pants and landed on the floor by the checklanes. Worst part, one of my cashiers at the time walked over and stepped in it (side note: he then bent down and smelled his shoe, gave me and my ETL a huge laugh). Same guest, the next night, came in again and pooped all over the men's bathroom (I walked in on him cleaning himself in the nude... no joke). We banned him from the store that night.
• The 4am Black Friday MASSIVE poop in the men's room which clogged the toilet and had little bits and pieces of someone's Thanksgiving dinner in it. Fun times.
  
• A non-bathroom story... some dumbass decided to try and steal a knife from Sporting Goods, and then sliced himself open in the process. I found a small drop of blood on the cart wipes, and followed a trail to Sporting Goods where the entire aisle was covered in blood spatter. Myself, and another GSA had to clean it up, and then defect all of the blood-stained merchandise out.

So glad my time as a GSTL is over.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

http://www.thebreakroom.org/index.php?threads/gross-stories.198/

 

[Ember]

The other day while working changing rooms...bathing suit season... period blood in a freshly tried on bikini bottom. No protective paper, (found that stuck to the wall in changing room). Instant damaged, what a waste. Seriously.

 

[KhakiPants]

So, the fact that I have two different pee stories might be a bad sign about what I do for a living.


First, I once had a lady return a three pack of reusable swim diapers. The bag had been opened and one was messed up, It had just looked like it was quickly opened, just to check size. I didn’t bother to open it past that, I could see all three were in there, just completed the return and sent the guest on her merry way. I set it aside to refold the one messed up there in a bit, after I took care of some other guests. By the time I had gotten to it, the guest was long gone. I opened the pack. The smell was so bad I almost threw up on the spot. She had returned a pee soaked diaper!


Now, the when next one happened we honestly thought was some sort of candid camera situation. It was a busy day up at the service desk and we were a bit short staffed. I had called up for backup and someone responded from softlines who hadn’t worked up there in a year or so, and of course she gets the biggest curve ball ever. An older gentleman walked up with two dvd players still in the box. I can tell the boxes look a little dirty and are ripped open in places. He goes up to the other girl and right away they establish he doesn’t have a receipt, but he’ll be right back with them. Before we can say anything else he dumps the players on us and runs off. Now we notice the boxes are little more than just dirty. They are covered in urine and some sort of animal feces. And I mean covered. They smell gross, they look gross, and the guest is nowhere to be found. I don’t know what to do with them, I don’t want to touch them. I can’t put them in the exchange bin, I can’t leave them on the counter, I can’t just throw them away. I’m praying each guest that comes up doesn’t see me gagging or ask what that smell is. About 20 minutes later, guest still hasn’t returned, so time to involve the LoD. She thankfully, personally wants to handle the guest when he returns, which is good, because at this point the situation is so crazy that I don’t think I can handle the guest with a straight face. The whole time I am just sitting here, why would someone think this is an okay thing to do? What is wrong with him. Almost an hour and a half later the guest returned, and that will forever be known as the day when we had to say “I’m sorry sir, we can’t accept this return. These are covered in feces.”

 

[Toram Jacob]

A guest took a dump in the middle of W20 in laundry detergent and just shook it out his pants....

The worst clean up ever was an elderly man dropped cat litter on her leg and broke a bone it became exposed he splattered blood all over the isle and walked up front to have us call 911 cuz he found no salesfloor help and used the cart as a crutch leaving a trail of blood everywhere.

 

[brazzlebub]

• I went to do the hourly restroom check-up. When I went in, I found the last stall covered in crap. It was all over the seat, the back wall, and some urine was on the floor. I don't think anything actually made it into the toilet.
• A turd(s) blocked a toilet from flushing and a GSTL had to break up the turd using a knife or fork.
• A guest made it all the way from the back of the store to the front and then defecated right by the checklanes.
• A kid threw up on card reader
• A guy's kid puked on the stuff in their cart. Apparently, he didn't notice the puke before he put the stuff on the belt and the cashier started to scan the stuff.

 

[xxTheDudexx]

Yeah, code browns are the worst. I would think they men's room would be worse than the lady's room. But it just isn't the case. It seems like almost every day there is some woman that goes into the lady's room and poops all over the floor and or wall and toilet. It's so disgusting, it isn't even funny. We also had a guy one time that apparently waited way to long to go to the john and there was a nasty log on the carpet right outside of the men's room last summer. He went into the stall, took his boxers off with feces all over them and just left them on the floor and apparently went commando shopping after he left. God that was a mess, it's a wonder nobody stepped on it and smeared his poop into the rug. I have no stomach for that stuff, but some kind of code brown happens at least once a day at my store. And of course you have the people that just never flush the toilet. Is it some kind of satisfaction they get or something for leaving their crap for other people to have to look at when they go to use the bathroom? You have to wonder if they do that in their own home? It's gross, people are such pigs.

 

[SwitchBlade]

A used condom covered in shit in the toilet. Somebody had too much fun.

 

[Dreamwolf31]

The worst clean up ever was an elderly man dropped cat litter on her leg and broke a bone it became exposed he splattered blood all over the isle and walked up front to have us call 911 cuz he found no salesfloor help and used the cart as a crutch leaving a trail of blood everywhere.

My lord, why didn't he yell for help?! I will remember this every time I lift a thing of cat litter off of the belt now.

And of course you have the people that just never flush the toilet. Is it some kind of satisfaction they get or something for leaving their crap for other people to have to look at when they go to use the bathroom? You have to wonder if they do that in their own home? It's gross, people are such pigs.

Remind me to never visit your store. So, I used to do maid services and I always dreaded cleaning people's bathrooms. Usually the women will wipe up things a bit and it's not too bad, but the older gentlemen would not even care what was in there. I've cleaned some pretty nasty bathrooms with pee soaked rugs, caked up urine toilets, other things I won't mention. People can be absolutely disgusting in their homes. It's not surprise to me that people do the kind of things they do at a public bathroom.

"Humans did THIS?"

 

[Aurora]

I held out my hand to give a woman her receipt and she took the receipt and plopped the gum her son had just spit into her hand into my unsuspecting hand. She smiled and said 'do you have a garbage can?' After the fact.
I still can't smell bubble gum without flashing back to that moment.
The next guest in line was very understanding about my need to rush off and wash my hands!