{"id":129943,"date":"2026-02-11T12:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T12:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/129943\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T12:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T12:07:08","slug":"store-clerks-can-keep-their-phony-smiles-letter-to-the-editor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/129943\/","title":{"rendered":"Store clerks can keep their phony smiles (letter to the editor)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Target store<\/a> in Staten Island has mandated a new policy. Store employees must flash smiles at customers if they are within 15 feet of them. And if within four feet, they must engage in conversation welcoming them.<\/p>\n

I used to go to Target, but stopped years ago when they didn\u2019t put Christmas decorations in the store during season.<\/p>\n

Customers, as well as some store employees, don\u2019t agree with the new policy.<\/p>\n

When I walk in any store, I don\u2019t need anyone flashing a phony smile at me.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that I\u2019m anti-social. It\u2019s if I don\u2019t know you, then I know you\u2019re forced to talk to me.<\/p>\n

There have been times when I needed to find an employee to check on a price and no one was around. Some stores have a call system buttons in the store. Press the button and an employee will respond to your call in person.<\/p>\n

Right. The check is in the mail. Never happens.<\/p>\n

Some stores have store greeters at the front entrance.<\/p>\n

\u201cHello; How are you?,\u201d some say.<\/p>\n

Do they really want to know?<\/p>\n

\u201cCan you help me? I\u2019m returning a misfit item and I don\u2019t have the receipt.\u201d<\/p>\n

The smile fades. \u201cNot my job, Bro.\u201d<\/p>\n

Or how about when you pay for your items at checkout, get your change, thank the cashier, and they say \u201cno problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

What problem? I didn\u2019t come in here with a problem.<\/p>\n

If I ever go to Target again (not likely), I don\u2019t want swarms of employees tailing, flashing smiles at me that I might misconstrue.<\/p>\n

(Joseph Valente is a South Beach resident.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Target store in Staten Island has mandated a new policy. Store employees must flash smiles at customers if…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-129943","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}