SQUID GAME USA

'Insult to injury': Target workers fume after company hands out fortune cookies that seemingly mock meager pay raises

Bob Brigham
October 12, 2021

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Target employees in Michigan felt insulted by the company following news that would not be receiving the pay raises they had asked for.

And then, reports WWMT-TV's Maria Serrano, the company added "insult to injury" by handing out fortune cookies that contained messages that seemingly mocked the meager raises they were receiving.

Serrano interviewed employee James Campbell, who described the fortune cookies they received.

"Not one of those that I read was uplifting, positive," Campbell explained.

"I see money in your future; it is not yours though," read one fortune.

"The fortune you seek is in another cookie," read another.

Another fortune said the cookie had fallen on the ground.

Campbell noted the timing came after Target announced they would only be getting a $2 hourly raise during the holiday season.

"And then we received the cookies a day later," said Campbell. "It felt like a direct stab to the employees that work here, especially when I can leave, come back and make more money than I currently am. It just doesn't quite feel right. The employees seem pretty disgruntled and disappointed by this and the fact it took the news getting involved to get any kind of apology."

To demonstrate employees had reached their breaking point, Serrano crushed one of the cookies on-air.

Target denied that the cookies were a cruel joke.

"We provided snacks to the team this week, including fortune cookies with pre-printed messages inside. We've looked into this and are confident target did not have any hand in choosing the written fortunes; they were simply the messages that came in the fortune cookies," spokesperson Brian Harper-Tibaldo said.

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This undated photo released by Netflix shows a scene of contestants vying to win the Dalgona Korean candy challenge in a scene from "Squid Game." Squid Game, a globally popular South Korea-produced Netflix show that depicts hundreds of financially distressed characters competing in deadly children’s games for a chance to escape severe debt, has struck a raw nerve at home, where there’s growing discontent over soaring household debt, decaying job markets and worsening income inequality. (Youngkyu Park/Netflix via AP)