MEGATHREAD 2018-2019 Store Modernization Megathread

[REDcardJJ]

So are we not getting reviews this year? Isn’t this when they are supposed to happen?

Reviews are still happening.

 

[YourPPTL]

Dude we're out there "advocating" people to get redcards duh.

exactly. a good POG TM knows how to pull, backstock, set, do revisions, and push. literally all essential skills for a TM in a modernized work center

Yes... My team.

 

[CeeCee]

Anyone’s store with LED salesfloor lights have a feature that uses the lights to direct guests to what they’re looking for from the app? I’ve heard of this but not sure if it’s been implemented anywhere yet.

My store has them. When you are shopping and look at the Target app there is a link under “cartwheel offers” that says “cartwheel near you”. Click it and it shows a map of the store. You are a colored dot and the cartwheel offers on the aisles next to you are different colored dots. Tap a dot and it will bring up the offer so you can locate it and add it to you list.

This has currently been replaced with the “Easter Egg Hunt” where you are a bunny and you have to wander the store to get close to an egg. Once you are close enough it cracks open and you find you get a special cartwheel offer that isn’t in the normal list. Like 25% off of skittles jelly beans.

 

[Militantagnostic]

This has currently been replaced with the “Easter Egg Hunt” where you are a bunny and you have to wander the store to get close to an egg. Once you are close enough it cracks open and you find you get a special cartwheel offer that isn’t in the normal list. Like 25% off of skittles jelly beans.

Woah! It's like playing an augmented reality game but instead of suckering you with in-game purchases they get you with in-store purchases!

 

[RhettB]

My store has them. When you are shopping and look at the Target app there is a link under “cartwheel offers” that says “cartwheel near you”. Click it and it shows a map of the store. You are a colored dot and the cartwheel offers on the aisles next to you are different colored dots. Tap a dot and it will bring up the offer so you can locate it and add it to you list.

This has currently been replaced with the “Easter Egg Hunt” where you are a bunny and you have to wander the store to get close to an egg. Once you are close enough it cracks open and you find you get a special cartwheel offer that isn’t in the normal list. Like 25% off of skittles jelly beans.

Woah! It's like playing an augmented reality game but instead of suckering you with in-game purchases they get you with in-store purchases!

I believe it only works on Apple.

 

[BigEyedPhish]

this is what I am waiting for. this one might get us a new STL or whatever the Brave New World title is.

Their title doesn't matter, as they will be LOD to us, forever, now....

 

[skrepo1977]

I disagree with you to a point. Can it be replicated exactly how they did it, no. Can some parts be replicated and tailored differently to different stores, yes. There have been a lot of changes lately and my store has been one that has kept ahead of the game with them. At first it was a challenge since my store had a lot of tenured team members that were used to the old ways of having double the hours, having the store more of a sewing circle compared to a business. Now, people are starting to realize that things are changing and its this way or the highway. I honestly thought we would never be able to accomplish this in a million years with the current team but it is slowly starting to take form. Those that don't follow suit will end up having multiple conversations with.

As for your store, it could be mixed. I personally feel as though it will be easier because people are not set in their ways. You have a team member that you can mold the way you want to compared to someone that is stuck in stone and won't budge at all. In the end it will be up to the leaders and how much they want to manage their team. It will come from the top down so long are the days where a team lead or etl could just pass things on and wait till one of the super stars was working.

At the end of everything, things need to change to keep businesses afloat. If they dont, they will become like many of the other retailers that have started to close their doors. If you don't believe me check this out: Sears Was the Amazon of Its Time—Until It Made Preventable Mistakes - https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/10/amazon-sears-mistakes/541926/

What exactly are you accomplishing? As for the article it is a two-way street. It is great to expand and be "obsessed" with your customer using any of a variety of metrics, which Target is great doing in ad nauseam, but you also need the logistical side to accomplish this. Simply telling people to be more efficient rings hollow when devices do not work, there are no tubs, smart karts, etc. to use, or when corporate is very focused on what stores need to do but tone deaf when people are waiting on them. Yes change is always needed but if you are responding to every finicky need that a customer wants, you need the staffing to do that. I will give you an example in regards to yogurt. Back in the day there was only about 6 different flavors of yogurt, with Strawberry Banana being the most exotic if you can believe that. Now today you are looking in upwards of around 50-60 different flavors/variations of yogurt. The same goes with milk and its many alterations of Almond, Cashew, Organic, etc (Im sure Target will start selling a Cage Free version soon ). There is even one Silk Milk that is Light Vanilla, Vanilla, and Very Vanilla. You are talking about dozens of DPCIs to simply sustain one section shelf section in pfresh. These are multiple movements that take time. I am not even including the backstocking, zoning, and the researching part in my argument. To go "Lean" corporate needs to better organize their distribution systems especially their pallet setups and go by the model cited in the article for Walmart "Walmart’s obsessive focus on low prices was aided by an obsession with understanding exactly what products to order—and no more." Walmart is obsessed with their customers and their workflow. Target on the corporate end is nowhere near this. They need to step up themselves and be real of what they need to do and bring it to the table.

 

[phibot]

I believe it only works on Apple.

This is correct.

 

[No I in Team]

I disagree with you to a point. Can it be replicated exactly how they did it, no. Can some parts be replicated and tailored differently to different stores, yes. There have been a lot of changes lately and my store has been one that has kept ahead of the game with them. At first it was a challenge since my store had a lot of tenured team members that were used to the old ways of having double the hours, having the store more of a sewing circle compared to a business. Now, people are starting to realize that things are changing and its this way or the highway. I honestly thought we would never be able to accomplish this in a million years with the current team but it is slowly starting to take form. Those that don't follow suit will end up having multiple conversations with.

As for your store, it could be mixed. I personally feel as though it will be easier because people are not set in their ways. You have a team member that you can mold the way you want to compared to someone that is stuck in stone and won't budge at all. In the end it will be up to the leaders and how much they want to manage their team. It will come from the top down so long are the days where a team lead or etl could just pass things on and wait till one of the super stars was working.

At the end of everything, things need to change to keep businesses afloat. If they dont, they will become like many of the other retailers that have started to close their doors. If you don't believe me check this out: Sears Was the Amazon of Its Time—Until It Made Preventable Mistakes - https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/10/amazon-sears-mistakes/541926/

You like our other team member had tenured team members. They have carnal knowledge of Target that makes changes easier since they often possess experience of working with Target's systems and language (targetese). There comes a certain amount of cohesiveness and most important, trust within a group that has been together that cannot be measured during times of change. They can be very valuable at times like this.

You stated that your tenured team members were slow at the beginning. Your "... that were used to the old ways..." is more of a reflection of been there and it never happened syndrome that is common with most tenured team members at Spot. I ran into that one a few years ago and what do you know they were right. Spot has a long history of a "new things" that never really materializes to full implementation. So their skepticism was not without merit. Once they realized it was going to happen, they were more inclined to get on board.

I also acknowledge the existence of "old dogs, new tricks" too. Some people can be a real pain in the aXX during times of change.

You don't want to necessarily mold people in jobs like these. You want to put together a process with a functioning system that allows for easy entry and exit so as people change, the movement is seamless. Whether it be shift or attrition, any team member change has to be as seamless as possible.

Tailoring merchandise or lengthening the amount of service provided to a guest experience to a geographic area is to be expected. But the other 99% of how you operate has to be the same as everyone else. If not, you cannot accurately measure activity which leads to unrealistic expectations for the group. Not to mention, change is all but impossible for a large company like ours with ASANTS.

As for the change and Sears article, I understand that and have referenced that in other threads. It's a lot more than what that article briefly touched on too.

The whole reason this store modernization/e2e thing is such a drag on resources is that it bloats our payroll by being inefficient on resource allocations. Like I said in an earlier post, once corporate support for hours go away, so does the hours to support the process. You don't gain anything from it, or the process would support itself through the gains in efficiencies (a measurable increase in that specific area of sales along with more task completed).

It drags on HV stores, but it is less noticeable due to the sales volume.

 

[RhettB]

Their title doesn't matter, as they will be LOD to us, forever, now....

Kind of hard to believe when the STL is in their office more than they aren't.

 

[Amanda Cantwell]

Reviews are still happening.

They’ve started? That’s good. I’m actually excited to get mine because I didn’t get a 90 day review so I want to know what they think of me. I’m fairly sure it will be mostly positive, but I am curious what they want me to work on.

 

[starfishncoffee]

I hear that a part of "modernization" 2019-2020 will be eliminating the Flexible Fulfillment team and just have experts from each area of the store do their own picks and pack them on the salesfloor at the spill stations.

We've been told that at our store, front end is now totally in charge of OPU. I am currently in search of a beer to cry into.

 

[SFSFun]

So are we not getting reviews this year? Isn’t this when they are supposed to happen?

You're still going to get it, but the timing just depends on your store and your TL. I usually don't get mine until around the 1st week of May.

 

[BigEyedPhish]

We've been told that at our store, front end is now totally in charge of OPU. I am currently in search of a beer to cry into.

It is not that bad, on my Keys (Work Keys), I carry around a Cart Tag for a cart to scan into.... that way I can literally use a basket, or my own hands (or if it is a big order a shopping cart) in order to pick an order. It is INSANELY useful.

 

[starfishncoffee]

It is not that bad, on my Keys (Work Keys), I carry around a Cart Tag for a cart to scan into.... that way I can literally use a basket, or my own hands (or if it is a big order a shopping cart) in order to pick an order. It is INSANELY useful.

I'm actually excited to learn. I'm thinking of coverage up front and hoping we'll be adequately staffed. Thanks for the tip!

 

[CeeCee]

I believe it only works on Apple.

This is correct.

And yet we still can’t take Apple Pay.

 

[theissueoftissue]

FWIW TL reviews are being delivered in my store this week. I got mine, team members will start receiving theirs on Friday and into next week.

 

[BigEyedPhish]

FWIW TL reviews are being delivered in my store this week. I got mine, team members will start receiving theirs on Friday and into next week.

I got mine today, 2.7%. Signing TM. Now I almost make a full dollar over a new hire, once it goes to $12.

......................................................................................

 

[theissueoftissue]

I got mine today, 2.7%. Signing TM. Now I almost make a full dollar over a new hire, once it goes to $12.

......................................................................................

Promote

 

[balthrop]

And yet we still can’t take Apple Pay.

this prolly has some thing to do with MCX or whatever nonsense Target was involved with back when Apple Pay was getting rolled out. or it could be with Target wanting to control/capture, etc the guest experience from start to finish. and lets not forget the percentage of each Apple Pay purchase goes to Apple.

 

[YourPPTL]

I would like to add that beyond the frustration and annoyance coming from this change, there has also been a lot of sadness.

Many tears have already been shed over this in my store because there is a lot of loss involved. People are losing positions, teams, bosses, or even stores. Especially for those stores where your team is like a family, this is a really emotionally taxing time. So please be kind to one another and be sensitive to the fact that this is going to be harder on some people than others.

Yes some of my team has been with me for 25 plus years others over 15 we are a family. We work well together. And we do a great job. 2019 is going to be tough.

 

[Newbie1234567]

I believe it only works on Apple.

New here..but aren’t we all. What is the future of the Bluetooth in the LED’s and such. What is spots endgame/ master plan?What are the grids’s all about? Any insights?

 

[YourPPTL]

My stores POG team... Only 2 of 7 are cashier trained. They rarely respond to lane backups, even if they are working right by the lanes. Don't help with a call box for the same aforementioned reason, and will walkie someone else to help a guest with something.

My stores POG team... Only 2 of 7 are cashier trained. They rarely respond to lane backups, even if they are working right by the lanes. Don't help with a call box for the same aforementioned reason, and will walkie someone else to help a guest with something.

Not every team is like yours.

 

[YourPPTL]

More title tidbits from my store. Most TL in my store had received their new titles and roles today. One such change for example, I work in a Super Target. Before the change, the food side had the following TL:

Market TL #1 - Dry Grocery
Market TL #2 - Paper/Chem/pet
Product TL
Deli TL
Bakery TL
Meat TL
Dairy/Frozen TL
Starbucks TL

After the change its just:
Food and Beverage Lead #1-6 (All the individual TL before are now responsible for each others departments. Everyone gets a LOD like rotation)
Food Service Lead - Separate from everyone

What about pptl

 

[Newbie1234567]

What about pptl

More specific if possible, total TL down to 2? What about Etl? Hmmmm curious