Target: Tylenol

After I got off work today, I went to Target.

as usual, I went in muttering strict instructions to myself to buy the one thing I was there for, and NOTHING ELSE. I ended up with a $140 tab. The original item I went to Target for - $29.

Well, you know how you're supposed to learn something new every day? Today I learned two new things at my neighborhood Target.

1) There is a massive Tylenol recall and nobody knows about it. At least, I had no idea.
I probably stood in the "painkiller" section of the pharmacy for a good while scanning the shelves, looking for the signature red, yellow, and white packaging, until it finally occurred to me that I should ask for help. When I was able to flag down a nice young employee, she pointed to a section of the shelf that I was directly in front of (of course) and directed me to the purple and white boxes of generic Target acetamenophin She looked at me plainly and said, "All the Tylenol's been recalled."

What?? Tyelenol? Recalled? After gawking for a good beat I finally grabbed a 100-count bottle of generic acetaminophen and threw it into my cart, along with the other $110 worth of impulse purchases. I figured I'd just Google it later.

2) My neighborhood Target totally racial profiles!
After I paid for the egregious amount of unintended (and possibly unnecessary) items, I pushed my cart - ha, what a hapless fool I was to start out with a mere basket intending to just "run into Target and grab one thing" - toward the exit whilst artfully stuffing the guiltily lengthy receipt into my wallet and fishing out my keys, I noticed a Latino family with a small child already playing with a just-purchased toy getting waved over by one of the red-and-khaki-clad Target employees. He asked for their receipt, which they promptly gave him, and began to survey the items in their cart and comparing it, seemingly, to their receipt.

Just behind the Latino family was a Caucasian male with very obviously one single item. When he realized this was going to be an official exit checkpoint a la Costco or Frys, he too fished his receipt, which he had just stuffed into his pocket, to have it ready for the Target employee. I, too, after seeing all this, heaved a mighty sigh - took my wallet back out of my purse, unzipped it, and took out the receipt I had just put away.

BUT. ALL WAS FOR NAUGHT.

For as soon as the employee had checked the Latino family's receipt and waved them out, he swiftly walked back to what I then realized was his normal post, standing in between the entry and exit doors - observing all the incoming and outgoing customers.

Apparently, a three-year-old Latino boy with a small toy was the only threat here. Caucasian bachelors and Asian shopaholics were not a problem.

I thought about that whole scenario as I drove home. The employee must have been watching them for a while, for them to have piqued his suspicion. And if that were the case, then wouldn't he have watched them go through the checkout line and made sure that all the items were scanned and that the toy the little boy in the cart was holding wasn't skipped? Odd.

Anyway, back to Item #1, when I came home I Googled the whole Tylenol thing and apparently Johnson & Johnson did a "phantom recall", which is when a company uses a third party to buy out all the inventory already on store shelves, and skips the public announcement of an "official recall".

Oh, and if generic medication is supposedly just as good and oftentimes made at the same facilities as the name brand ones, shouldn't I be concerned about the generic meds I just purchased too???

It's a mystery...

So I guess I didn't actually LEARN anything at Target today - I just came up with more questions!

Well, maybe I learned one thing: to limit myself to 2 Target trips a month, no matter what I think I "need" and especially if I just need "one thing".