Target wins Facebook praise after employees chip in to pay for Victorian bushfire victim’s Christmas shopping

Target employees have made one woman’s Christmas by chipping in to help cover the cost of her shopping after she lost all of her gifts for friends and family in the Victorian fires over the weekend.

The kind act was relayed to Target’s social media team by a customer who witnessed the transaction at the Target store in Ballarat, winning the retailer and its staff praise.

The customer described how Target employees assisted a woman who appeared to be “exhausted and emotional”.

“She had two trolleys worth of shopping,” the customer wrote on Target Australia’s Facebook page yesterday.

“The Target team completed the sale and then told this lady that they were significantly reducing the cost of her shop. She immediately began crying and it was then that an employee explained to another employee that this lady and her family had lost their home on Saturday evening and all of the Christmas shopping she had already completed for her family.”

The woman praised Target for supporting the community.

“You deserve a cheers,” she wrote.

“You have literally made this customer and her family’s Christmas possible.”

The post has since gone viral, snapping up more than 33,000 likes and 1400 shares.

More than 400 people have since commented on the post, praising Target for sharing the Christmas spirit.

A spokesperson for Target Australia told SmartCompany this morning three team members at the Ballarat store each donated $50 out of their own pockets to pay for the women’s purchases after one of the staff recognised the woman and knew her family had lost almost everything in the weekend’s bushfires.

Nicole Reaney, director of InsideOut PR, told SmartCompany Target should be commended for spreading some Christmas cheer.

“Unanticipated and genuine kindness of brands is usually what generates waves of positive social content and sentiment,” Reaney says.

“Brands are so focused on commercial gain with the festive period – with Christmas themes and decorations up as early as September. For some people, the holiday period is not always a positive time and it’s great to see a company supporting people in need.”