MEGATHREAD 2018-2019 Store Modernization Megathread

[OPINION] How do you feel about these changes?

  • I like them.

  • I dislike them.

Results are only viewable after voting.
Guests are fickle. They want employees on the floor but they don’t want freight in their way (tm doing anything).

Here’s a solution : no pallets/uboats/cardboard on the floor, guests happy.
Tm must detrash in the backroom and push/set/price using only a two-tier on the salesfloor. Yes, more trips to the backroom and yes, it will take a bit longer. But, you seriously can only work so much at a timeanyway, why have the whole pallet sitting there ?
We will be on the floor while guests are shopping to be available for assistance and we will not be in guests way blocking aisles. =. Guest focused.

Modernization requires every tm to be busy every second and allows guests to see lots of tm during the day.
The old operating model had tm busy overnight and others not being as productive during the day, maybe zoning/doing re-shop.
 
Last edited:
Far from newbie said:
Guests are fickle. They want employees on the floor but they don’t want freight in their way (tm doing anything).

Here’s a solution : no pallets/uboats/cardboard on the floor, guests happy.
Tm must detrash in the backroom and push/set/price using only a two-tier on the salesfloor. Yes, more trips to the backroom and yes, it will take a bit longer. But, you seriously can only work so much at a timeanyway, why have the whole pallet sitting there ?
We will be on the floor while guests are shopping to be available for assistance and we will not be in guests way blocking aisles. =. Guest focused.

Modernization requires every tm to be busy every second and allows guests to see lots of tm during the day.
The old operating model had tm busy overnight and others not being as productive during the day, maybe zoning/doing re-shop.
Click to expand...

“A bit more time”? Lol so you think we should detrash an entire 2500 piece truck in the back and take little by little out at a time? How big are your back rooms? What’s the volume of your store? And what area do you work? And have you ever even been apart of an unload process? Sorry for all of the questions but it seems like you don’t have a clue how long all of that would take and how much surface area that could cover. I’m really not trying to belittle you in anyway but it seems like you have unrealistic view point to how all of this works
 
And we are already busy every second of your shift if you work inbound and it’s still not getting done. I haven’t taken a 15 in well over a year because of modernization and we are constantly busy and behind
 
Vince said:
“A bit more time”? Lol so you think we should detrash an entire 2500 piece truck in the back and take little by little out at a time? How big are your back rooms? What’s the volume of your store? And what area do you work? And have you ever even been apart of an unload process? Sorry for all of the questions but it seems like you don’t have a clue how long all of that would take and how much surface area that could cover. I’m really not trying to belittle you in anyway but it seems like you have unrealistic view point to how all of this works
Click to expand...
I probably do. Wearing Rose colored glasses always.
Just saying if all work gets done overnight then additional payroll is needed for during the day AFTER the work is done to help the guests.
Maybe a compromise . Overnight team for messy truck and dayside team for autofills, audits, price change, presentation etc. But isn’t that the way it was anyway ? I thought modernization was one team not a bunch of little teams.
 
Far from newbie said:
I probably do. Wearing Rose colored glasses always.
Just saying if all work gets done overnight then additional payroll is needed for during the day AFTER the work is done to help the guests.
Maybe a compromise . Overnight team for messy truck and dayside team for autofills, audits, price change, presentation etc. But isn’t that the way it was anyway ? I thought modernization was one team not a bunch of little teams.
Click to expand...

Now we are talking. I’ve thought about that too. Not an entire overnight process like before but definitely having a team of 10-12 studs come in overnight and unload and push freight and occasionally do revisions and zone. That’s it. Then still have DBO’s come in the early mornings and do auto fill, abandons, elf, audit and focus on guest by 8 and not have to worry about clutter and freight. Best of both worlds because right now it’s just madness and impossible. I notice you didn’t answer any of my questions and that’s ok if you know my reaction
 
Vince said:
Now we are talking. I’ve thought about that too. Not an entire overnight process like before but definitely having a team of 10-12 studs come in overnight and unload and push freight and occasionally do revisions and zone. That’s it. Then still have DBO’s come in the early mornings and do auto fill, abandons, elf, audit and focus on guest by 8 and not have to worry about clutter and freight. Best of both worlds because right now it’s just madness and impossible. I notice you didn’t answer any of my questions and that’s ok if you know my reaction
Click to expand...

That's basically what we were doing during the time other stores were piloting modernization. I called it the "hybrid modernization" and I think it worked pretty well, for the most part. We were at least coming clean with the trucks and I don't recall any major issues like empty shelves and tons of unlocated product in the backroom.

I assume it didn't quite save enough payroll to pay for the bumps to 13/14/15 though. Which is the real driving force behind this modernization system - trying to figure out a way to increase base pay to $15/hr without actually increasing total payroll costs. Maybe even decreasing them if they can get away with it. I can certainly see some young business school graduate dying to be able to say "Not only did we generate good press and brand image by increasing our minimum wage to 15/hr, but we also lowered our overall payroll costs by over 15% at the same time!", with them calling it 15by15 or some other stupid name.
 
RE: your questions.
I simply agreed with you that :
‘I probably didn’t have a clue how long it would take and surface area it would take”
Since I have worked in EVERY area of the store EXCEPT flow/inbound
I did run a truck unload once - when the ETL & TL we’re out on the same day. Honestly, just about killed me.
I agree, it’s hard/hot work, and lots of it.
I was just suggesting an improvement to guest perception if we broke it down into smaller bites.
 
Far from newbie said:
RE: your questions.
I simply agreed with you that :
‘I probably didn’t have a clue how long it would take and surface area it would take”
Since I have worked in EVERY area of the store EXCEPT flow/inbound
I did run a truck unload once - when the ETL & TL we’re out on the same day. Honestly, just about killed me.
I agree, it’s hard/hot work, and lots of it.
I was just suggesting an improvement to guest perception if we broke it down into smaller bites.
Click to expand...

Fair enough. I wasn’t trying to be mean at all just put into perspective how impossible that would be. I’ve been apart of/ran an unload 5 days a week (6 in 4th quarter) for over 5 years now. Never taken a vacation and rarely called out. Not trying to self praise but I I know the ends and outs of what it takes to make it work and like you said it is not easy and physically demanding.
 
Ok so our store is going to have AM people that just do freight, mids to do sales planners, price change, etc.., and closers to zone. We shall see
 
vngoghlvr said:
Ok so our store is going to have AM people that just do freight, mids to do sales planners, price change, etc.., and closers to zone. We shall see
Click to expand...
This is what I was told was the plan. Still waiting to see it happen. I'm the early person - do EXF and first pull of the day, push the truck, back stock. I so wish my area would be zoned before close and I have no clue who's doing sales planners, etc.
 
I like when people come up with alternatives to modernization and is just the way things were done before, 🙃.

Having certain people do certain things like pricing, presentation, and pushing was how it was ran before and apparently someone thought it would be better to cut man power and have one person do all that for one section of the store but in 4 hours. 🤷🏽‍♀️
 
Far from newbie said:
Guests are fickle. They want employees on the floor but they don’t want freight in their way (tm doing anything).

Here’s a solution : no pallets/uboats/cardboard on the floor, guests happy.
Tm must detrash in the backroom and push/set/price using only a two-tier on the salesfloor. Yes, more trips to the backroom and yes, it will take a bit longer. But, you seriously can only work so much at a timeanyway, why have the whole pallet sitting there ?
We will be on the floor while guests are shopping to be available for assistance and we will not be in guests way blocking aisles. =. Guest focused.

Modernization requires every tm to be busy every second and allows guests to see lots of tm during the day.
The old operating model had tm busy overnight and others not being as productive during the day, maybe zoning/doing re-shop.
Click to expand...
Ummmm... zoning and reshop equals not being as productive? That hurts - I honestly feel that this is the mindset of a lot of leadership and it bothers me big time. Zoning is probably the most important and most productive thing a TM can do. Speaking as someone who loves to shop and has been doing it for decades, in all kinds of store environments, I can say with certainty that a messy store is a huge turn-off. And contributing to that messiness is piles of reshop overflowing at GS and the fitting room. I feel like reshop gets no respect from most of the leaders in my store, which makes no sense to me because reshop is merchandise that is waiting to be sold, just like truck push. I can't tell you how many times I've worked reshop and there is one item left on a rack because the other four or five are in reshop hanging on an overstuffed fitting room rack or chilling at the bottom of a pile of returns at GS, getting nice and wrinkled.

As a long-time customer before becoming a TM, I absolutely noticed when the downward slide started at my store. I clearly remember walking in one weekday morning, I believe it was a Tuesday, and noticing that the store was a mess - stuff on the floor in nearly every aisle. I texted my sister and asked "What the hell is going on with Target? They used to always look great, but I'm walking around and this place is tore up!"
 
no nix nein said:
I like when people come up with alternatives to modernization and is just the way things were done before, 🙃.

Having certain people do certain things like pricing, presentation, and pushing was how it was ran before and apparently someone thought it would be better to cut man power and have one person do all that for one section of the store but in 4 hours. 🤷🏽‍♀️
Click to expand...

That person who thought that is the same person who has never done any of what we do a day in their life .Still were given total control to make nation wide changes to cookie cut the process and eliminate ASANTS thus creating a domino effect of chaos. They have no joke been telling us to slow down and speed up at the same time. This person is a joke of a leader and makes a living off of running companies into the dirt.
 
happygoth said:
Ummmm... zoning and reshop equals not being as productive? That hurts - I honestly feel that this is the mindset of a lot of leadership and it bothers me big time. Zoning is probably the most important and most productive thing a TM can do. Speaking as someone who loves to shop and has been doing it for decades, in all kinds of store environments, I can say with certainty that a messy store is a huge turn-off. And contributing to that messiness is piles of reshop overflowing at GS and the fitting room. I feel like reshop gets no respect from most of the leaders in my store, which makes no sense to me because reshop is merchandise that is waiting to be sold, just like truck push. I can't tell you how many times I've worked reshop and there is one item left on a rack because the other four or five are in reshop hanging on an overstuffed fitting room rack or chilling at the bottom of a pile of returns at GS, getting nice and wrinkled.

As a long-time customer before becoming a TM, I absolutely noticed when the downward slide started at my store. I clearly remember walking in one weekday morning, I believe it was a Tuesday, and noticing that the store was a mess - stuff on the floor in nearly every aisle. I texted my sister and asked "What the hell is going on with Target? They used to always look great, but I'm walking around and this place is tore up!"
Click to expand...

Reshop is just as important and truck push and zoning or “branding” as they want us to call it now is also important in making the store visually pleasing which can drive sales, which is why the flow of the process should be 24/7. It’s all important and we need a fluent rhythm for it all to succeed. The disruption of that rhythm has caused the collapse of the foundation that held spot together.
 
It looks like I'm possibly going to be an evening reshop/auditor/backup cashier/pushing anything left over. I can't say I'm mad about that. I much prefer a later evening schedule anyway. Me and my wife can both get proper sleep this way. DBOs got too much shit on their shoulders.

I spent most of the evening alone unless I was getting reshop or passing other people's areas.

Didn't think I could come out of this okay with things, but if things stay this way I'd be good.

I just hope they do stay this way.
 
Times Up said:
Seriously! Yet they got rid of Brand Attendants?

Another retailer I worked at years ago called it facing.
Click to expand...
At my old company they just called it straightening, but back in the 80s they used the phrase "block and feather", which obviously meant square off the boxes on the shelves and spread out the clothes on hangers. I find "finger-spacing" hilarious.
 
Vince said:
No guest do not shop overnight but that’s exactly my point. Were the shelves stocked? Were the end caps and planograms set? Was the signing up to date? Were the back rooms clean? Yes, yes, yes and yes. And I agree we should take more payroll and just have more people scheduled during the day to help guest. Guest don’t like coming into a store we’re every isle has someone pushing freight in it. They are annoyed, we are annoyed and it’s a big freaking mess. I’m not going to beat you up on it because there are some (not many percs to modernization. But you are seriously tripping if you think ultra high volume stores with a minimum 8 trucks a week can operate efficiently without an overnight team.
Click to expand...
Exactly! If you had overnight processes, the store would be easy to shop when its open. Guests would be able to find what they need because its where it is suppose to be. The shelves would be full, straightened, signed correctly and there would be no reshop. The people that are working on the sales floor during the day would be focused entirely on the people who are shopping. The way it is now, the stores are a mess, all of the "extra HaHaHa" help are rushing around to get their assigned work done and ignoring or hiding from guests wondering if we have any more product in the back.
 

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