Gavin Got Kicked Out of Another Facebook Group… [Target-Gate]

Gavin just can't seem to keep out of trouble.

This story might be interesting to maybe like 4 people, but based on the Facebook responses I received around this "controversy," I decided to go ahead and share this incredible story of passion, betrayal, and people getting butthurt because I might be a narc.

Let's start at the beginning: I was born on Feb. 8th, 1987 at St. Mary's Hospital... OK, maybe that is too far back. On Sunday night, I was hanging out with my buddy Dan while watching The Walking Dead. Dan and I both collect Funko POPs because we are adult men with disposable income. We also belonged to a local Funko POP Facebook group to buy and sell stuff, as well as getting leads on where hard to find POPs might be. While we were both on our phones (because we have the perfect friendship where communication is implied), we noticed something a little peculiar in one of the posts. Here is what was posted:

Now, I blocked out the picture because I don't have permission to use the photo (and after you get to the end of this, you'll realize there isn't a chance in hell I'd get that permission), but the photo depicted 4 Target Exclusive Weapon X POP Vinyls behind the electronics counter (the "east side" referring to the Lloyd Expressway Target).

What up, half-naked Wolverine collectible?

If this seems a bit off, that's because you typically aren't supposed to hide merchandise from customers. I worked retail for many years and we'd get in huge trouble if we did this. I'm not too naive to realize that it still happens, but you certainly don't advertise you are doing it on the good ol' internet. Because when you do, I do this:

Attached to this post, was the screenshot from above. Shout out to Target for getting back to me super fast and they did actually respond to the email that I sent. Now, the reason I sent Target a message in the first place was because I really didn't know if this 1 per person policy was a store policy or the work of a rogue Target employee, taking Funko POP law into their own hands. I asked because: 1) You can't just do that, regular non-manager Target employee and 2) Again, you can't just do that, regular non-manager Target employee. You also can't "lock-up" merchandise out of the view of the regular, non-Facebook customer.

According to Target's response, the 1 per person policy is a real thing that is based on the manager's discretion. Which I'm completely fine with. However, once my tale of posting to Target got back to the group, here is an accurate representation of how things went:

I was accused of being a hypocrite because I posted this blog about people reselling POPs and making it difficult for collectors. Because of this, they claimed that the Target guy was just trying to help the collector community. Well, yeah, it's great to help out collectors but what about the collectors that aren't in this particular group? What if you are just a casual collector looking for that POP? Are they screwed because they aren't in on what's going on? In this case, the favoritism went too far in the other direction. You can't just cater to the hardcore collectors, just like you can't cater to just the jerks who are looking to make a quick buck. The 1 per person policy is great, but locking stuff away from regular folks isn't the way to go about it either. When asked about what the employee meant by "locked in the counter," they said they didn't REALLY lock them in the counter. Basically, the Sean Spicer "He didn't really mean WIRETAPPING" defense....

And yes, I realize that this entire piece is over an $8 collectible. I never said this blog would have mass appeal. And to kind of wrap things up, the employee didn't get fired or anything like that. I was legit just curious as to what the policy actually was which is why I posted on Target's Facebook in the first place. Regardless of this defense, I did get kicked out of the group (and privately messaged by the "brass" that runs the group) I guess for being a snitch or something. If being a snitch means that I rectified an unfair situation, then I guess I'm guilty as charged. Thanks for reading, nerds.