Fun With Department Store PhonesDepartment Store Phones. They’re everywhere. Well, okay, not everywhere but they’re in department stores, right? Like K-Mart, Target, Wal-Mart, Fred Meyer, etc. These phones can provide an individual with hours upon hours of good clean-cut entertainment if you know how to use them. You can talk to different departments in the store, you can dial out of the store and you can even yell anything you want over the intercom. Next time you’re in a store, find yourself a phone in a secluded isle and prepare to have lots of fun with it. In some stores, such as Target, they encourage their guests to use the courtesy phones so you don’t even have to hide yourself so well. But in just about any other store, store phones are never meant for customer use. Most employees that see someone using their phones will think nothing of it, but other employees like to pretend that they’re important and will ask you what the hell you’re doing. The correct response is a swift kick in the employees groin. In most stores, the “all store page” button is marked clearly on the phone because store managers know that nobody in their right mind would pick up a store phone and say anything rude for the whole store to hear. Or would they? This is actually a useful thing to know because if you’re with a friend and you get separated, you just pick up a store phone, hit “PAGE” and tell your friend to get his ass to the department that you’re in. But even more importantly, you can say anything you want to the entire store. From making up your own in-store specials to reading poetry, the audience of the entire store is at your mercy. And guess what happens when the employee or manager finally catches you? They tell you to cut it out. Especially if you’re bigger than them, which I usually am. At the very worst, you’ll be asked to leave the store. Which really isn’t that terrible of a punishment, is it? In the mid-90’s, we even figured out how to get on the overhead paging system from our house at Fred Meyer. We simply called the store and asked them to transfer us to the extension for paging. Once we were on, they couldn’t seem to kick us off and we remained on their intercom for hours at a time. Keep in mind, we were miles away from the store so it was impossible for them to know who was responsible. You can read the details of our remote hijacking by clicking here. If you hang out in a store long enough, you’ll hear a voice overhead asking certain departments to pick up certain lines for customers. Such as “Housewares, you have a call on 230.” Whenever you hear this, you should immediately race to the nearest phone and dial the extension that was announced. Usually it’s not too hard to pick up a line before an employee gets to it. Once your connected, the customer on the other end thinks that you’re an employee. Using your best employee voice, say something like, “This is Jake from Housewares, can I help you?” If you’re unsure which department they’re on hold for, pick up and say, “Which department are you holding for? Hardware? Well that’s me! What can I do for you?” But that should be the extent of your friendliness. Use the conversations below to help guide you in the art of customer service… Me: Who are you holding for? An interesting phenomenon here is that as soon as you hang up, about two seconds later another line will light up… Weird. So you pick up the phone. Me: (in a different voice) K-Mart, this is Big Bob. The trick is never to let them have the last word. You’d probably have a good laugh now by going to the Service Desk or operator’s desk (aka fitting rooms) and listening to her call back and yell at the operator for a bit. Me: Thanks for calling Wal-Mart, how can I help you? Me: Hardware, how can I help you? Me: Garden Center. If you’d like to hear some actual calls of our customer service hijinks, visit our Fun at Wal-Mart page. You can listen to about a dozen sound clips of us being as rude as possible to customers. If you have the time, you can sit at a store’s phone and manually scan for other “departments” that aren’t listed on the phone or even known to most employees and managers. In the past, I’ve found the extensions to different phones in store rooms and offices around the store, I’ve been magically transferred to other offices in different states (speed dial?) and I’ve gotten lots of weird sounding noises and computer carriers and fax tones. I’ve also been thrown out of alot of stores. Figure out what the extensions are for most of the departments in the store. Most stores have them written on the phone or next to the phone. If not, just call the operator and ask for the extensions. Using all the extensions you’ve gathered as sort of a template, start making up similar extensions and see what you can find. Then start dialing totally random numbers and see what you get. Continue to do this until you see an angry store manager standing behind you. In some stores, the operator will notice that the phone you’re using keeps going on and off. This will either make her suspicious or drive her crazy and in both cases, she’ll send someone over to investigate. Really, though, the worst thing that could happen is that you’ll get kicked out of the store. Oh darn. But even that’s pretty unlikely. Just tell them you were trying to figure out how to get some help in that department, then ask if they have any Tickle Me Elmo dolls left.
In the mid-90’s, we figured out how to get on Fred Meyer’s overhead paging system from our home phone. We simply called the store and asked them to transfer us to the extension for paging. Once we were on, they couldn’t seem to kick us off and we remained on their intercom for hours at a time. Keep in mind, we were miles away from the store so it was impossible for them to know who was responsible. You can read the details of our remote hijacking by reading our Fred Meyer Hijacking page. When we did this, the overhead paging extension was 1800. After awhile, Fred Meyer changed the extension in all of their stores to 1810. We’ve checked the extension in many stores in recent years and it seems to be 1810 everywhere we’ve tried now. Unfortunately it can’t be done remotely anymore. You have to be in the store to get on the paging extension, as far as we know. Wal-Mart always seems to have a combinations of regular phones and fancy electronic phones throughout their stores. The electronic phones will usually have a paging button on them. But if you come across a regular phone with no speed dials or anything on it, you’ll have to dial the paging extension manually. The extension is #96. Just dial that extension and listen to your voice echo throughout the store. #980* picks up lines, * being the line number.
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Matt from Canada says, “To page its (Feature button) 630, manager is 641, and that was about all the good ones the rest were to different phones which will vary. Usually start with 23x.” Home Depot uses a Lucent phone system, plus mobile phones for the employees to carry around. The operator can be reached at extensions 452 and 453. The paging extension is 7#80. You can also dial directly into other Home Depots by dialing 1-700-888 and then the store number of the Home Depot you want to reach. More information coming on this one….I SWEAR. More information coming on this one….
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For staples or any other Meridian phone system.
Got to a phone and try this, Fonction **266344 (**config)
you will then be ask for password, 266344 is the default password and most of the time the installation crew don’t even change it.
Once our in, you got them by the balls…
My staples does not use the Nortel/Meridian system anymore. They used to, I think they use 3Com NBX now. I am not completely sure what is is. Anyway, there is a page button on the phones. I haven’t looked at all of them. I don’t know what the code is for the 3com nbx systems.
Target’s paging code is usually 522, 52#, or #52.
I know how to access Home Depot’s paging system from home. I have tried this with other home depot’s and this will not work. Call 732-617-7102. Press 2. Dial
ext. 700. You will get a message saying to Enter Zone Code. All Page is 000. You hear some other words and then a beep. After the beep, say what you want. About 2-5 Seconds later, your message will come out of the speakers. This is the Marlboro, NJ store.
The Target extension for the team member walkie system is 789 from any phone. Once dialed, all team members will hear what you have to say…I’ll leave the rest up to you…
789, huh. I’ll try it. It’s more fun to go on the P.A. though
try saying this over the intercom”uhhhh attention wal mart customers please do not buy any of the meat i repeat DO NOT BUY ANY OF THE MEAT!!”
lol ;*
This information is priceless. I’m currently starting a subvertising campaign based in Alabama. This information is exactly what we needed.
i too have not much of a life and play at random stores.. just a suggestion for all u who wanna have some entertainment.. learn the security codes.. then u can send them lookn for “”emergencies”" and have all the fun u want..
Often used store intercom extensions:
WalMart: #96 or #03
Target: 52#
Shopko: 50
K-Mart: Feature 630
Home Depot: 676# for direct overhead page, 7, wait, zone code is 00 for recorded page.
Lowes: #39 for override page, 777 for “code pages”*
Menard’s: 559
Boston Store: 70
BestBuy: 60
In most stores, they will also mark the paging system access as a speed-dial button on the phone. If you press this and get beeps or a tone or a dial-tone, but aren’t connected to the system, you can usually dial a bunch of zeroes until you hear them echoing overhead.
*about Lowe’s paging: #39 will generally cut off a current page and override it, or will make a regular page that nobody else can override. Dialing 777 connects you to the Indyme callbutton system, where you can dial the code that you want paged (for example: code 3, which means extra cahsiers) and follow the prompts. Once you hang up, the canned voice will announce a code three overhead. Do this when the store is dead, and watch the cashiers figure out why it happened.
Safeway stores are easy to mess with. Especially if they have a floral department in them. At the Floral kiosk right behind the counter with in arms reach is the phone. Pick it up, hit the button marked “PAGE” and you have the entire store listening to you. The reason the Floral department is the best place is because after 6pm at most stores, no one is there and not many employees pay attention to the department. There aren’t any special numbers to push to get the intercom, they call it VoyCall there. Just push PAGE. Fun things to say:
* We need a courtesy clerk to aisle 4 for a wet and dry clean up, paper towels and soda all over the floor!
* LP (loss prevention) suspect is on the move, (describe any customer you are looking at and give their position in the store)
* Override on checkstand 8
* Manager to the back room, the doors are stuck and produce can’t get out
* Hewwo? HEEEEWWWOOOO? Is anybody there?
And of course anything else you might want to say. My friend immitates that lady from MadTV that clears her throat alot and says “UGHGHGH GAWSH THATS CUTE”
Inside Home Depot (my store atleast) you can pick up anyphone, dial 7, then 00 for the ‘zone code’. Speak your peace and hangup. A few seconds later you can be heard on the PA. I /think/ that 670 is realtime paging (your page is heard as you speak it), but I haven’t tried it as I don’t want to get fired or anything :)
Anyone know Wegman’s paging code? Only the phones behind the counter at customer service have a page button. I’ve seen some employees use the aisle phones (which wegmans has a ton of) to get in. There has to be a code.
i almost got in to wegmans intercom. a customer service phone was facing the wrong direction, away from the cctv cameras, so i picked it up and hit page. the lcd screen went blank and music was still playing. maybe i shouldve pressed the button that has the ext number on it first? My plan was to hit page, wait for the lcd to display the code, run to an aisle phone, and punch it in. Oh, and by the way, they use meridian centrex at all their stores.
CVS Pharmacy’s phones are all behind the counters, but if a part of the counter is empty, turn the phone in that area around and hit PAGE for the intercom. Oh, and some fun things to do on any intercom:
say “Tasty Corn, Tasty Corn, Tasty Tasty Tasty Corn”
sing sir mix alot’s “baby got back”
“Clean up in aisle 3, a 5-year old puked”
“Security to register 3, the register became alive and is going to kill me.”
“Attention shoppers, on of our unadvertised specials is taking place right now, we’re taking 75% off the entire store for the next 15 minutes. You can even take the employees home for 75% off!”
HELP!!! I live in Philadelphia and I need the paging codes for the Sears stores in the following malls:
King of Prussia Mall (PA)
Moorestown Mall (NJ)
Freehold Raceway Mall (NJ)
Woodbridge Center (NJ)
These are the only ones I go to.
PLEASE POST THE ANSWER. Oh, and do all Sears stores have the same code???????????? HELP!!!!!
Lol i love the tasty corn thing. One of my favorites is to go to a walmart phone and say in a really shrill voice “OH MY GOD! THEY KILLED KENNY! YOU BASTARDS!”
Target’s is only 52. The # is used to bring attention to the announcement. Also some other useful extensions:
209 - AP (Assets Protection or Loss Prevention)
201 - Usually the STL (store manager)
236 - Service Desk
300 - GSTL office (the cashier’s boss) or GE ETL (guest experience executive team lead who is the GSTL’s boss)
For most newer Toshiba phone systems, some easy fun can be had…
to forward the phone, dial #6011, pause, then the extension to forward to… you should hear some beeps and hang up.
if you were able to get an outside line from the phone by pressing 9 (disabled sometimes), you can throw that into your dial string.
all page on Toshiba is #30, emergency page is #37
Actually, my target is different. I hit 52 and AP comes to arrest me. It only goes through if you dial 52# (at least in Mt. Laurel, NJ) I’ve tried 522 and i was threatned to be arrested by AP, same thing with 52. 52# seems to be untraceable and works. Here’s how.
Go to a phone. Not a red customer phone. Usually a grey trimline or other basic household phone. Never use a register!
Pick it up and dial 52#. You’ll hear ’bout 4 beeps. When they are over talk and hang up. There is a slight chance of them calling or threatnimg to call AP, depending on if the area of the store has a security camera.
MOST STAPLES NOW HAVE VERTICAL INSTANTOFFICE PHONE SYSTEMS AND USUALLY HAVE PAGE BUTTONS ON THEM
Circuit Citys’ paging code for all stores is 50. 0 is the operator, and 5580 is the in company help desk. In order to access a live person from the help desk you have to give them an 8 digit peoplesoft ID. Most if not all of these IDs’ start with 10. I’m not sure if this will work from the outside because as soon as you call the store you get a machine dialing 0 gets you the operator, if you’re lucky you’ll get someone who actually knows how to transfer to extensions. Here’s the downside, the only extension in the store that’s a 2 digit code is the paging extension so what you do is ask to be transferred to 50X(make up a number). Have Fun!
What is the paging code at Albertson’s?
Best Buy - All Cashiers to the Front: Code 1
Have fun :)
if im in walmart and announce a suprise shopping spree then leave the phone off the hook could employees still pick up another phone and say something over the intercom
No kyle, at walmart, if you attempt to page while someone else is paging, you’ll get a busy signal.
This is a great website. My brother and I used to hold long conversations over the K-Mart intercom. We did this when we were not moving the blue light and announcing bogus “Blue Light Specials.” We sound very similar, but do not look much alike. We would go to opposite ends of the store, and start talking, taking turns. The store employees would come see me near a phone, thinking they had the guy, then my brother would speak, and they would leave me alone. They would find him, and I would speak,so they know that neither one of us was involved and they would look for other innocent people. We used to do this every time that we entered the store!
The other day, I used some information here to get on the walkie-talkie system at target over the phone. I blocked caller ID and from my cell phone called Target I told them I needed transferred to sporting goods and the operator inquired “why?” I told her I had questions about some fishing gear. When the sporting goods associate answered, I told her that I was from “Tech Support” and was investigating “noise in the line” and needed transferred to ext. 789. The associate said “I don’t think there is an ext 789.” I assured her that there was and it was used only by “tech Support” while investigating issues. She said “OK…I’ll try it.” I heard a beep or two and then talking from the walkie-talkies over my cell phone speaker. I announced “I need the shoe department to talk on your radio, we are investigating a problem.” I was answered with “I am the only person in shoes, please find somebody else to do it!” We played for 10 minutes with them, having people count and contact each other.
My wife was able to get on the Home Depot PA system from her cell phone. I told her exactly how to do it and then I went into the store while she waited in the car. She let our 2 1/2 year old child sing Christmas music. Everybody in the store was laughing their butts off!
At the Springfield Missouri Target the phones cant do an overhead page. Only the PA mic at the Fitting Room or at the Guest Service desk can do an overhead page. 789 is the Phone to Walkie code - you dial it and follow the instructions and your announcement goes on ALL employee walkies. Try something like “Code Red Electronics” (Repeat 3 times). See what happens. Or I suggest that you dial 52 and then see what happens….
Hey people!I need to know how to do this paging thing….maybe ill just read this thing again about fred meyer(lol) and then ill try my local superrite.The buttholes in there(acually 2 people in there)need to be thought a lesson…(because they dont let kids right the old people cars LOL)so im gonna be like “code red, i repeat code red!I might have my friend record it so i can out it on youtube…im just gonna read this again to find out this paging thingy, oh yea any1 that lives in philadelphia tell me the ext. for all the stores there, thank you
Shopko can be accessed remotely by dialing the store number and then #ext
100 will give you the internal service desk
50 will page
20X will give you cash registers numbers example: 209 for register 9, 213 for register 213
Code blue is a medical emergency and green is a manager call.
You can cause interesting situations by paging “electronics you have a call on 501, electronics, 501″ This puts the employee on the page system unknowingly.
Have fun
one time i went to walmart and we were walking around with sunglasses on, and we here this lady over the intercom “Loretta please dial 305, Loretta dial 305″ so we run over and pick up the line and the lady on the other end is like ” Loretta?” and were like “YES?” she’s llike “there are some girls walking around the store with sunglasses on and they look very suspicious” and were like “OK I’ll take care of that” lol it was hilarious…
hey hey hey!
We have an entertainment store called “hastings” here, and I’ve worked there for 2 years, it sucks, anyway, to get to the paging system, just pick up any phone and dial #30
and there you go, all store paging :)
HELP…people i really wanna try it so
bad but who now wat are the intercomextensions for a target in los angeles,ca
please tell me if u know…
if you leave a phone off the hook after a page a walmart it only cuts the overheard intercom off for 60 seconds then it automatically hangs up