Target Customers Exposed to Secondhand Smoke

Our local Target store PROHIBITS their employees from smoking near or
around the front entrance to the store and have signs posted reading
as such.
Their employees are to go to the rear exits of the store or a side
exit NOT located near a customer entrance if they choose to smoke.
The reason some choose to go to the main entrance is because it is
closer to where they work usually customer service or the registers.

I assume since Target would take into consideration that their
customers who have to go through the smoke to get to the stores find
this uncomfortable let alone a health risk.

I often have the Girl Scouts in front of my store.

I had to send one troop home packing after I caught the troop leaders
puffing at my front entrance in front of my customers but also the
children!!!

I get alot of different troops so with every request I told them not
to do this, because of this happening quite frequently.

You can never protect your children from "toxins". Someone is going to
smoke in front of them, Im not saying its right to, but it will
happen.

I personally think its worse to be sitting on an airplane with a guy
that probably smoked his whole pack before he got on his flight,
knowing he couldnt in the air, than walking through a quick puff.

I respect your endeavor, but be ready to write notes and make phone
calls to many businesses, schools, Girl scout troops, etc.

Good Day

Good Day

I am a smoker! (condemn me now) ...

But!!

I agree whole-heartedly with you! I ***DO** have the right to smoke
with money I earn.. however.. I also know that my rights end..where
your's begin!

I don't drink..and I can't stand folks who try to "force" a drink down
my throat. I feel I do the same when I blow smoke around a person who
doesn't smoke.

Employees have a break area for coffee..lunch,..etc..they should also
have a designated area for smoking..away from the entrance door. Most
buildings here..require at least 50 feet from the entrance. If it is
in the back.so be it!

It does not look professional for employees to stand by the door
smoking.. period.

For everyone saying that the smokers should be forced around the back
of the building because somebody might be offended.

If one of the employees were, say, Arab or African-American, would you
be saying to force them to use a back entrance because someone might
be offended?

Forcing smokers out of sight is creating second-class citizens.

I'm more than a little tired of the moral judgments that people seem
more than happy to make of a person simply because they smoke.
Smoking does not make one a bad person. They are more than that.
Please open your eyes and see.

And no, I'm not a smoker.

I agree! I'm personally allergic to smoke and avoid places where I
know it will occur (bars, clubs, bowling alleys, etc.). For those
that say walking through that 3 second smoke cloud won't hurt you I
give you this...that smoke then clings to your hair, your clothes...it
follows you home. I avoid those situations whenever possible because
i'll have to shower ASAP if I do walk through that cloud...to get the
smell off of me, or else by the next day i'll be sick. Just because
smokers want to smoke doesn't mean they have the right to object me or
my family to it, have some respect for others who don't share your
lifestyle choices...walk away from entrances to buildings before you
light up!

Some of the replies to the OP's letter have been awesome and I decided
to add something else.

I feel that the right to smoke is the same as your freedom of speech -
Yes you have the right to say whatever you want until the point of you
offending someone. Yes I have the right to free speech, but I'm not
going to call my boyfriend or his family "spic's".
Similarly you shouldn't smoke where it offends. My family does not
smoke, therefore I do not smoke at family functions. When I'm at work
I smoke out by the dumpsters because I don't want kids to see me
smoking. Cartoons no longer have the characters smoking.
Yes, smoking is legal, but so is drinking - and we only do that in
designated areas and times as well.

Just a thought.

I used to smoke, but I have to agree with Sarah. Honestly, I don't
think that the ashtrays should be placed right in front of the doors.
When I smoked, I respected other people's rights and if I was smoking
before entering the store, I would put my cigarette out first and then
put it into the ashtray. I think that they, along with the other
major retailers, should move the ashtrays to the farthest right-side
of the building. Additionally, employees should only be allowed to
smoke at the back of the store.

Now in my opinion if it was 30 seconds of exposure to a toxic gas
(like H2S)I'd be very upset, however... I have yet to see any studies
proving that a low occasional exposure to second hand smoke will hurt
anyone.

Plus the area is very well ventilated - can't any better than the open
air.

but... yes, forcing employees to walk around to the back of the store
(especially if it's not well lit) could be very dangerous.

However, if the sight of someone doing something legal is that
reprehensible to enough people... I suppose the best answer would be
to provide a small smoking gazebo in a well lit area.

The Target I go to has a good spot in the front that's far enough away
from the main doors that customers wouldn't be walking by it normally.
Yes they could probably still see the gazebo... but hey to totally
escape the sight of cigarettes you'd have to get rid of television,
movies, and stop going to any store that sells them... so I'm sure
people would survive seeing the gazebo.

... provided the people who use it clean up after themselves.

That's my *only* smoking pet peeve - people who think the rest of the
world is an ashtray. Those people should have every butt they throw
on the ground magically follow them home and sit on their kitchen
floor.

The ones who clean up after themselves of course would likewise get a
magical bonus.. say a magically cleaned floor.

Where's that D20 when I need it most...

ironically though I don't smoke and like to breath... however ... I
also acknowledge that these employees are all humans. I don't expect
them to be robots who never smoke or drink, as long as they do it
legally

If your state has an anti-smoking law, they could be in violation of
that law. In Minnesota, I believe the says that you have to stay at
least 25 feet away from building entrances when you smoke.

(I like the comparison to the girl scout cookies!)

I agree that smoking employees are disgusting....put them outside and
behind the building.

I agree; this hasn't happened to me at Target, but just a few weeks
ago while exiting Wal-Mart there were 3 employees smoking directly
outside the door. I don't have children but it bothers me personally.
I think it's very disrespectful and a bad image for the store.

Have you tried contacting that particular store's manager directly?

When I worked for Origins, everytime we attended a training we went to
the Bachman's corporate headquarters in Minneapolis. Any of the
Origins associates that smoked were instructed by our educator that
they were to smoke behind the building out of view of customers, and
they had to remove their Origins aprons so customers would not
associate smoking with the Origins company. They were also encouraged
to remove their aprons before smoke breaks back at their own stores,
again so smoking and Origins wouldn't be linked. I think all companies
should encourage, if not enforce, their employees that smoke to do it
in the back of the building, out of consideration for their customers,
and to keep the company image up.

at the walmart i work at we have a dedicated smoke room right off the
breakroom which has its own air filtering system and roof vent

Good point in general, the drama kind of bothered me;
"my 7 month old daughter will be forced to breathe in the thousands of
poisonous chemicals emitted from second hand smoke."
While annoying, walking past a smoker will do little harm unless she
has a medical condition.

That aside, I do agree with your basic point that there should be a
smoking area away from the entrance. In my area, you must smoke 25
feet away from the door.

This has been discussed here before; I think the store was WalMart.
People offered responses ranging from the store offering smoking
cessation classes to theft-by-employee out the back door concerns to
having a smoking room (yuck).

I hold my breath when I walk through these clouds. It is a momentary
disturbance. It is unsightly and unsettling to see these smokestacks
lingering near the store entrance, kind of like walking past a prison
and seeing the inmates standing around. Smokers have been pretty much
shoved into the ashtray of society, and I am thankful for the freedom
of clean air I can enjoy in most all places. I find the smell very
annoying myself, though I think the health impact over a few seconds
of smoke are small.

While I agree that employees of any establishment should not be
smoking by the front door, it always kind of bugged me that normal
health people act like they are going to keel over because the walk 3
seconds through a cloud of smoke. I know it smells nasty and all the
rest, but I don't think a couple seconds of exposure can cause any
health problems for a healthy person.

Wow Sarah thats horrible! You should check your state laws about that
because in Maryland you have to be fifty feet from an entrance to a
public place to smoke. Not that that ever happens - but charges can be
drawn up against the buildings owners for violating the law.