People have been asking me what it is I do at Target.  Well, the short answer is I stock shelves. I'm also a backup cashier, answer guest questions (they aren't customers, they are guests), answer phone questions, and stand on my feet for 7 hours at a time.

And really, the stocking shelves part is my favorite. Not that I choose to do it all the time every day, but if I had to choose one of those tasks to do for 7 hours, stocking shelves would be it.

It's not brain-working work. I get to zone out a bit while I… zone. Zoning is the “technical” term for the majority of my job. It just means that I pick up abandons (you know that stuff you grabbed earlier and have now decided you don't want so you drop it on a shelf on the other side of the store from where you got it? abandons) and face all the product on the shelves.  Which includes putting things back in their correct spot, moving the stuff from the back to the front, and facing the labels forward so you can tell what it is without touching it.

The other week I found myself zoning in the baby/infant section. A big chunk of the section is eaten up with car seats, bumbos, potty chairs, and diapers. Which is nice because that means there are fewer packages to touch on those aisles as compared to, say, the baby food aisle. Which is jam packed with those small glass jars and packets and bottles of those weird melt in your mouth rice puffs that all need to be moved to the front, stacked, and faced. That aisle takes a really long time. It's as tedious as the vitamins and toothpaste.

So while I'm moving down the aisle adjusting all the baby food, I'm really only half paying attention to what I'm doing since I only need part of my brain power to do this. (On a side note, this zoning task really fits my personality as I like things all in a row and straight and facing the same direction. I think I'm the ONLY employee that likes the isles with all the towels. Did I say like? I meant LOVE.) Since I'm not really paying attention, I'm also not really paying attention to the product I'm touching. So when I glance at a label that says “harvard juice”… I really didn't think too much about it. 

But my brain kept returning to it. This is about how that train of thought went…

Harvard juice. That's interesting. I wonder if it really does make kids smarter. That's interesting that Harvard would let their name be used by Gerber for a juice product. Wouldn't that be cool? If all it took was a certain juice to make your kid smarter and increase their chances to getting into college. Why is this product not advertised more?! It's genius!! Wait…

Then I went back and double checked the name on that bottle of juice. And sure enough…

It says HARVEST juice.

Duh. Harvard juice. Sheesh.