Target customer rips store’s ‘tacky’ Christmas decor after company orders staff to smile in bid to boost holiday sales

Bah, humbug!

Target customers are taking to TikTok to bemoan the store’s “tacky” holiday decor after the company issued new orders to employees to smile and make small talk in a bid to boost sluggish sales.

Content creator Debbie Garces sparked debate on Saturday after uploading a clip of Christmas merchandise at her local outlet, accompanied by the caption: “Either I got older or the Target holiday decor is getting tackier.”

“Tacky at next level,” another TikTok user declared in a separate video, showing the seasonal ornaments on sale at her store this year.

However, other shoppers clapped back, praising the company for their 2025 range.

Many TikTokkers have taken to the app to fawn over Target’s Christmas collaboration with New York designer John Derian, complete with classically printed pillows and stockings.

It comes after the retailer issued a new directive mandating in-store workers smile and make eye contact and either greet or wave to any shopper that comes within 10 feet, according to Bloomberg News.

If a customer steps within four feet, then the service rep is instructed to ask whether they need help or how their day is going, the new guidance said.

The initiative, which is known internally as the “10-4 program,” is the latest effort by management to improve customer experience in the nearly 2,000 Target locations nationwide in the run-up to the holiday season.

Target’s renewed focus on customer experience follows a period of sluggish sales. The retailer reported that comparable sales fell 1.9% year over year in the second quarter of 2025, including a 3.2% drop in-store. Digital sales, however, rose 4.3%.

Executives have pledged to invest about $4 billion this year in new stores, remodels, technology, and supply chain upgrades to restore what one analyst called “the Target magic” that once drew loyal shoppers.

Target’s Chief Stores Officer Adrienne Costanzo told Bloomberg the company is “making adjustments and implementing new ways to increase connection during the most important time of the year.”