The real reason you see those giant red balls outside of Target stores isn't what you think.

We all love a good Target run. Whether you are in there for groceries or just shopping around for clothes or home items, the store has a lot to offer. One of the most recognizable features of a Target store, other than its red target logo, is something that we all walk by whenever we walk into the store. The giant red concrete balls.

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Many believe that they are just there for branding and decoration. Others like to use them as something to sit on. Kids will tend to climb on them and jump off. However, the real reason that Target places these on the sidewalks outside of their stores is for the safety of you, the customer. According to FamilyHandyMan.com:

The giant concrete balls, called bollards, serve as safety precautions for keeping cars from driving into the storefront doors and potentially harming shoppers.

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Bollards are commonly seen in front of many businesses for that reason. While most of them are shaped more cylindrical, Target has theirs shaped like a sphere for branding purposes. If you were to visit say, a Walmart, you would see bollards that look like this:

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Safety expert Cathy Pedrayes also explains why Target has those balls near the doors of their stores on TikTok.

https://www.tiktok.com/@cathypedrayes/video/6959652642289143045?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

The crazy thing is that most people never even gave those concrete balls much thought as to why they were really there outside of Target. Now you know!

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