I read an article last week about Target’s plan to win back “busy families.” And it made me chuckle because…
Hey Target. It’s me. I’m your busy family.
I’m exactly who they are trying to win over and get back into their stores. The truth is I never really left. I just backed away from shopping at big box stores when I can.
These days, I walk into stores and I can’t help but think to myself ‘This all ends up in a landfill.’ So much plastic junk that isn’t good for me or my family. Clothing made from plastic that is so cheap (I live for a good deal) it feels wrong not to buy it. But I know with one wash it will be disfigured or the kids will bust a hole in it and refuse to wear it.
Chemicals in attractive packaging saying “Buy ME!” “I’m CLEAN!” “I’ll make you pretty/younger/skinny/healthy!” “I’m good I swear!” “Trust me!”
It feels like dodging those sketchy sales guys in the mall kiosks selling potions that tell me ‘there’s hope’ for the bags under my eyes. You know the ones… they practically chase you down trying to smear god knows what on you.
And the food… WHY. WHY. WHY??? Why is ALL the food in plastic? Do we really need all our fruits and veggies in plastic? Does everything need to be in plastic? Don’t get me started with the granola bar aisle parading as healthy. Most of those boxes contain more sugar than a package of cookies.
So by the time I get to the deodorant aisle I’m feeling like I’ve just walked the gauntlet and am looking for an easy decision. But it’s the worst… on average there are 200-350 choices for deodorant alone.
Is it any wonder I feel paralyzed to make a decision?
Something that should be so very simple has become so very complicated.
The Lie we’ve been sold
Somewhere along the way as consumers, we were told that more options gave us better choices. That more information we had would empower us to be smarter consumers.
But I can tell you from first hand experience that’s not what it feels like. The more options I have to sort through the more decision paralysis I have. The more claims and marketing I ingest standing in the aisles the more confused I am.
I don’t feel informed when I shop anymore. I feel overwhelmed.
Big Box stores aren’t the villain.
Big retailers exist for a reason.
Where else can you go in and get underwear, glue sticks for a school project, dog food and chicken breast for dinner?
I do appreciate the convenience and accessibility of the big box stores.
My time is so valuable and the ease of one-stop shopping in between soccer practice and theatre pick up is not lost on this ‘busy mama’.
But these stores are built on their ability to scale, not to provide clarity for their consumers.
Much of their business model and bottom line rely heavily on the buying lifecycle.
They need us to continue to come back to their stores and purchase everyday buys, impulse buys and seasonal merchandise.
And they are good at marketing all the things.
Most brands on the shelves are owned by massive parent companies with massive marketing budgets. Products are constantly being ‘reformulated’ and smartly marketed to woo us into tossing them into our carts.
Are they the best products for our families? It’s anyone’s guess at this point. But they do make sure their methods move products off the shelf quickly.
While the things on the shelves look better, it’s become so hard to understand what you are buying amid the noise.
Small Brands aren’t the easy answer
I thought by being intentional and looking for small brands, founder-led companies and cleaner alternatives that it would solve my problem. It certainly feels better to me to purchase products that I believe are clean for my family.
But often the small brands have trade offs. Usually the prices are higher, the quantities are smaller or it doesn’t work as well as the big name brand. As a consumer I don’t mind paying a little extra or that it doesn’t work the same as a big brand as long as it aligns with my own buying values.
Let’s be honest, small brands are hard to find in stores and they are even harder to vet.
Increasingly I’ve found that big brands are mimicking these values (because they know I’ll buy them) in new brands they release. Making it that much harder to buy from small brands.
It really makes me crazy when I think I am doing my due diligence and buying a small brand from a founder-led company just to find out it’s owned by a giant conglomerate.
And just because it’s a small brand doesn’t necessarily mean it’s better. Hence why it makes it that much harder to make a decision… you have to be willing to be a test case for the product.
My issue with conglomerates.
Once upon a time, someone told me a story I haven’t been able to shake.
It was about a company that had invested in building more sustainable product lines, so much so that they built out an entire facility to support it.
And then, according to the story, someone looked at the numbers.
Not just the cost of the new product lines…but what it might do to their existing one. Because if the more sustainable option worked… What would that mean for the product lines already making them millions?
And the story goes, they pulled back. From what I was told… it never made it out of the building.
I don’t know all the details.
But I do know this: It changed the way I think about big brands.
The real problem…. Where is the filter?
As a consumer this is the piece that bothers me the most. Where is the filter? Who can I trust to help me make decisions between the deluge of information flooding my senses to finding smaller alternatives that don’t have the platform or voice those million dollar brands have.
Oh sure I know, there’s an app for that. My daughter scans all the things. There’s certifications on the packaging. I know, I know… but it doesn’t tell me the story. Who owns these brands? The packaging often doesn’t tell you who the parent company is. Why should I buy this over the other 1000 products in this aisle?
It turns out I don’t need more options, I need better filters. And currently big box retailers present all the options and let the marketing do the work.
I’m just a mom, stuck in the deodorant aisle.
Current Status:
Like I’ve mentioned before… I’ve been on both ends of this. The mom who went nuts in 2010 and threw out the contents of her pantry, and then gave up and gave in to ‘whatever’ shopping.
I don’t actually want to research everything I buy. I just want to trust it, understand it, buy it and move on with my life.
And I know I’m not the only one.
I’ve come to realize it’s not us. We’re navigating a system that was never designed to make this easy. Sure there are some initiatives being taken by the big box stores to address some of these issues.
But if I’m 100% honest it feels like a giant pacifier. Their self proclaimed standards. The old ‘Trust Me’ campaigns. To quote my kids ‘It’s giving side eye.’ lol
Maybe the goal is not to shop perfectly. Maybe it’s just to shop with a little less noise and a little more clarity.
~Christy
PS. Hey Target… I’ve read the preliminary ideas you’ve floated to win me back… some good, some I know is just fluff… I’ll be watching with my Red Card.
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