MEGATHREAD 2018-2019 Store Modernization Megathread

[seasonaldude]

What about the areas that aren't A&A, electronics, beauty, or grocery? Do those areas have a dedicated team too? They don't at my store. The same TMs push the truck in certain areas, but I'm not sure they're all consistent.

I'm told the person responsible for pushing an individual section will become responsible for doing everything in it. I asked what would happen if that TM got sick and had to call out for the week? The answer I received was, "If you need something to do, go process the ship to store in." While I thought that a tad bit unresponsive, my ETL-LOG seemed to think it settled the matter. 🤷‍♂️

 

[OneArmedJesus]

my store has had success implementing these new processes

Come on J, literally EVERYONE

 

[REDcardJJ]

I'm told the person responsible for pushing an individual section will become responsible for doing everything in it. I asked what would happen if that TM got sick and had to call out for the week? The answer I received was, "If you need something to do, go process the ship to store in." While I thought that a tad bit unresponsive, my ETL-LOG seemed to think it settled the matter. 🤷‍♂️

better be a pretty serious illness if [person] would need to call out for a whole week

but TLs, and especially ETLs do exist for a reason

 

[seasonaldude]

better be a pretty serious illness if [person] would need to call out for a whole week

but TLs, and especially ETLs do exist for a reason

It's called the flu. Tends to go around college campuses and the workplaces that employ college students.

It's relevant as we do currently have 3 TMs and a SrTL out on medical leaves of absence. We've got a car accident, another freak accident that I can't really describe, another out for chemo, and another out for I forget what. And, on top of that we have another TM who tore his ACL so he's picking up his hours watching SCO on a stool.

 

[Yetive]

Low volume stores will feel the pain first and slowly succumb to the burden created. Then stores with operational issues will be next. It will definitely thin the herd.

I don't know. My store is low volume. We did sort and stock through q4, and it went ok. No rolling trucks, no missed SFS goals, no impassable backroom. Yes, we didn't always get all of the backstock done every day, but more often than not, we did. In Jan, we started with DBO in HL. Still working on it, (price change seems to be the hard part), and making pretty good progress. I think maybe higher volumes might struggle to keep all the balls in the air. Of course, chronic poor management will make it impossible for some stores to succeed regardless of volume.

 

[PackAndCry]

It's sad when their best way of trying to dress this up is "a couple of stores did okay, most crashed and burned, but we're going through with it anyway because fuck you".

 

[Black Sheep 214]

I'm told the person responsible for pushing an individual section will become responsible for doing everything in it. I asked what would happen if that TM got sick and had to call out for the week? The answer I received was, "If you need something to do, go process the ship to store in." While I thought that a tad bit unresponsive, my ETL-LOG seemed to think it settled the matter. 🤷‍♂️

ETL-LOGs seem to inhabit their own little worlds. They must be issued a very special kool-aid with a delusional chaser...

 

[scbman]

It's sad when their best way of trying to dress this up is "a couple of stores did okay, most crashed and burned, but we're going through with it anyway because fuck you".

And it's not even "a lot of stores" or "many stores", its "some stores". If I went to the doctor for an operation and they told me "we've seen some people make it through it", I'd probably reconsider unless it's life or death.

 

[essie]

Has anyone read the Q1 guide? They literally said some stores win at this because they focused on culture changes.

Where would I find this Q1 guide?

 

[rog the dog]

So I can answer a lot of these questions actually, nothing I've read so far has been drastically different than what's been going on in my pilot store. So, here's a short list of things LIKELY to be true for stores in the future.

-Team members (Inbound Team) will be starting truck at 6am now, and will do the normal truck unload process at that time. The team members who've always done truck will do truck and will be assigned a specific area to push, audit, backstock, etc.
-General Merch TM's (formerly hardlines) will come in throughout the day to get the truck completely finished if it's a larger truck. If no truck to push, then those General Merch TM's will either do reshop or set POGs, depending on the team member.
-There are General Merch TM's who will generally always be setting rather than pushing truck, this will likely be your former POG Team.

-"Style" or "Specialty sales" (Beauty, Electronics, Apparel) have an additional workload in addition to taking care of their own push, backstock, etc.
-These Team Members are now entirely responsible for their own revisions, signing, sign audit, display audit, everything. They own their "Business" and are expected to know their Sales, Sales Goals, and what's trending in their area among other things such as promotions / other projects.
-Team Members in these departments should be partnering with their Lead (TL) or Leader (ETL) semi frequently to ensure everything is being communicated, and missing signage, fixtures, everything is being ordered on SAP.

-The front end has not changed too much. Titles have changed, but everything functions essentially the same. Team members grab reshop whenever needed for their area and work on it as necessary, still a hyper focus on redcards, especially now more than ever since it's hard to get people to sign up since Apple Pay and all other mobile payment functions now work in Target Stores.

-Small thing, but Assets Protection is now basically a separate entity than the store itself. AP does their own thing and doesn't really report to STL for anything anymore.


That's all I can think of at the moment, I'm sure I left some stuff out, but this is very similar to what is going to be rolled out company wide. Stores will always have slight variations.

*As far as headcount goes, multiple TL's will keep their former positions, but they will all be called either a "General Merch" Lead (Hardlines, POG, Truck, Pricing, Backroom) or a "Style Lead" (Electronics, Beauty, Apparel)

 

[flow4areasonuno]

-These Team Members are now entirely responsible for their own revisions, signing, sign audit, display audit, everything. They own their "Business" and are expected to know their Sales, Sales Goals, and what's trending in their area among other things such as promotions / other projects.

How the bloody hell are people meant to do all of this in one day? Most TMs I know are not given more than 3 days a week. Knowing and furthering sales goals is above the pay grade--even if the pay is going up, this is manager's/TL's/whatever work.

There's no way in hell I could manage to do all of this in one day--and that's in a standard 8 hours, not the 5 hour HARD LIMIT we're getting right now. Only if everyone was made fulltime could I see this even beginning to work...

 

[Rolling CAFS]

The Genius at my store who seems to think his title gives him a I know everything attitude is waiting until BTS is done to start this process 🙄 He seems to think it will help BTS scores 😂🤣😂Team is gonna roast him regardless because he sucks...period! Just wonder if anyone knows if STL/Store Director has the choice on when to start.

 

[MajorChomp]

dont

So I can answer a lot of these questions actually, nothing I've read so far has been drastically different than what's been going on in my pilot store. So, here's a short list of things LIKELY to be true for stores in the future.

-Team members (Inbound Team) will be starting truck at 6am now, and will do the normal truck unload process at that time. The team members who've always done truck will do truck and will be assigned a specific area to push, audit, backstock, etc.
-General Merch TM's (formerly hardlines) will come in throughout the day to get the truck completely finished if it's a larger truck. If no truck to push, then those General Merch TM's will either do reshop or set POGs, depending on the team member.
-There are General Merch TM's who will generally always be setting rather than pushing truck, this will likely be your former POG Team.

-"Style" or "Specialty sales" (Beauty, Electronics, Apparel) have an additional workload in addition to taking care of their own push, backstock, etc.
-These Team Members are now entirely responsible for their own revisions, signing, sign audit, display audit, everything. They own their "Business" and are expected to know their Sales, Sales Goals, and what's trending in their area among other things such as promotions / other projects.
-Team Members in these departments should be partnering with their Lead (TL) or Leader (ETL) semi frequently to ensure everything is being communicated, and missing signage, fixtures, everything is being ordered on SAP.

-The front end has not changed too much. Titles have changed, but everything functions essentially the same. Team members grab reshop whenever needed for their area and work on it as necessary, still a hyper focus on redcards, especially now more than ever since it's hard to get people to sign up since Apple Pay and all other mobile payment functions now work in Target Stores.

-Small thing, but Assets Protection is now basically a separate entity than the store itself. AP does their own thing and doesn't really report to STL for anything anymore.


That's all I can think of at the moment, I'm sure I left some stuff out, but this is very similar to what is going to be rolled out company wide. Stores will always have slight variations.

*As far as headcount goes, multiple TL's will keep their former positions, but they will all be called either a "General Merch" Lead (Hardlines, POG, Truck, Pricing, Backroom) or a "Style Lead" (Electronics, Beauty, Apparel)

My store doesn’t have a Lead over Electronics/beauty respectively per se, we have 3 hardlines TL which we divided the sections in the store somewhat equally, one of them overseeing electronics which is on one side of the store and another beauty which is on the other side of the store, and then we have our two softlines TL who oversees A&A. I’m curious as to how my store is going to incorporate this new model between our current hardlines TL, our backroom TL and our two Softlines TL into this new Style Lead and GM Lead roles. I feel like someone’s getting axed in this process, i wanna say I’m 99% sure we’re one Lead above head count for my store.

 

[OneArmedJesus]

How the bloody hell are people meant to do all of this in one day? Most TMs I know are not given more than 3 days a week. Knowing and furthering sales goals is above the pay grade--even if the pay is going up, this is manager's/TL's/whatever work.

There's no way in hell I could manage to do all of this in one day--and that's in a standard 8 hours, not the 5 hour HARD LIMIT we're getting right now. Only if everyone was made fulltime could I see this even beginning to work...

It's not a hard concept tbh

Some of those don't even need to happen all in one day.

 

[rog the dog]

How the bloody hell are people meant to do all of this in one day? Most TMs I know are not given more than 3 days a week. Knowing and furthering sales goals is above the pay grade--even if the pay is going up, this is manager's/TL's/whatever work.

There's no way in hell I could manage to do all of this in one day--and that's in a standard 8 hours, not the 5 hour HARD LIMIT we're getting right now. Only if everyone was made fulltime could I see this even beginning to work...

Obviously it's up to Leadership to delegate responsibility on an official level, (who does what revisions on what day, who audits what on what day), but knowing sales and sales goals is actually something that's for sure going to be pushed. It's not hard, just check MPM 2.0 on the zebra and go to weekly sales for your area, boom, done.

It's not as daunting as it sounds, most stores have a daily plan for their specialty areas, stating stuff like "this area of the store gets audited on this day, new release is done on this day".

and like @OneArmedJesus said, these things are phrased on like, a weekly level.

 

[Frontlanegirl]

It's called the flu. Tends to go around college campuses and the workplaces that employ college students.

It's relevant as we do currently have 3 TMs and a SrTL out on medical leaves of absence. We've got a car accident, another freak accident that I can't really describe, another out for chemo, and another out for I forget what. And, on top of that we have another TM who tore his ACL so he's picking up his hours watching SCO on a stool.

There are also things called vacations. Or, deaths in the family

 

[OneArmedJesus]

Obviously it's up to Leadership to delegate responsibility on an official level, (who does what revisions on what day, who audits what on what day), but knowing sales and sales goals is actually something that's for sure going to be pushed. It's not hard, just check MPM 2.0 on the zebra and go to weekly sales for your area, boom, done.

It's not as daunting as it sounds, most stores have a daily plan for their specialty areas, stating stuff like "this area of the store gets audited on this day, new release is done on this day".

and like @OneArmedJesus said, these things are phrased on like, a weekly level.

Exactly. It also helps that my store only has 4 trucks a week, so Tuesdays are our revisions day.
Just do certain things on certain days. Not too hard

 

[REDcardJJ]

in this thread:

DAE MODERNIZATION IS BAD?

or

MODERNIZATION CAUSED MY HERPES?!?

 

[flow4areasonuno]

Well we can't complain too much at work, the managers don't like it.

Most of my TLs and such hate this new system too, but you can't to complain too much or you get written up for not being a team player.

 

[Black Sheep 214]

The Truth is out there. Unfortunately Spot doesn’t want to hear it.

 

[Antennae]

So how exactly is the store going to be split for "Owning your area?" And will it be something where someone for that area will be there most of the day or will any time after 5pm just continue to be the way of limited hardlines TMs that have to know about everything everywhere?

 

[A234]

It's not a hard concept tbh

Some of those don't even need to happen all in one day.

I agree but with a lot of the current flow and hardlines team at my store I wouldn't trust them with this process. I'd trust the Team Leads and the 2 rockstar TMs, the rest don't seem to grasp the scope of the idea.

A lot of the flow is either remnants of what used to be the overnight crew and work second jobs later in the day or are very limited in the English department. I'm not saying this to be mean, but they are going to be severely challenged to meet these kind of expectations. Now the response to this is to hire new more adequately skilled staff, but we are in a booming economy with record low unemployment in a city that has seen exceptional employment outcomes in the past decade. Anyone who has shown potential in the workforce is not working retail for $12/hr. Maybe in the next economic downturn Target can capture some of the more skilled labor force as they are laid off, but modernization at my store will suck until then.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

You’re still on greenfield? Green day rolled out to our store last week, the dookie version is pretty sweet, time of your life

You are correct, it's Green Day.

 

[Llamanatee]

K. But I see some not fitting well within the choices listed. Seems like fewer TL than before yet rumor was there would be more.

That's actually more TLs than my store currently has. 😂

 

[seasonaldude]

Team members (Inbound Team) will be starting truck at 6am now, and will do the normal truck unload process at that time. The team members who've always done truck will do truck and will be assigned a specific area to push, audit, backstock, etc.
-General Merch TM's (formerly hardlines) will come in throughout the day to get the truck completely finished if it's a larger truck. If no truck to push, then those General Merch TM's will either do reshop or set POGs, depending on the team member.
-There are General Merch TM's who will generally always be setting rather than pushing truck, this will likely be your former POG Team.

To me this doesn't sound like what corporate is going for with modernization. What we've been told is that the same TMs who do the truck push for a section are also supposed to be responsible for any revisions and price changes in that section. That's the whole ownership model so the TMs are experts in the section and can offer better guest service, blah, blah, blah.

On paper your store has disbanded the old teams, but in reality if the same team members are still doing the same old tasks instead of being end to end over a particular area and doing everything in it, then the old teams aren't really dissolved at all. I won't even begin to disagree that your store's way of doing it is much better and it can likely fool any visitors into thinking modernization works as advertised if those visitors are inclined to think that way.

But, if other stores get surprise visitors that start asking questions of TMs who aren't familiar with all of the processes, they could run into issues. Something as simple as asking a former POG team member doing a reset how much freight is left in the back could be a very quick way to learn that the store isn't really following all of the dictates of the new system. If that visitor is overly fond of Kool-Aid, there are going to be problems.