MEGATHREAD 2018-2019 Store Modernization Megathread

[Dead and Khaki]

Today I was told that effective immediately Presentation and Price Change Teams cannot be scheduled before 8am anymore. We apparently can only be in the store while it is open in order to assist guests.

Is this company-wide or just your store?!!

 

[Go2TL]

Is this company-wide or just your store?!!

It's going to become company wide. They started scheduling presentation at 8am at my store a month ago. Anything earlier than that needs approval of the DTL. Apparently they(DTL/District) monitor the schedule before it's posted (Big Brother watching). And even after that, we can't ask TM's to come in early or have an unspoken rule that although they are scheduled at 8am you'll bring them in at 6am. It's a big fat NO! Told to figure it out on how to get 300 hours worth of workload done during business hours. ASININE!! AND FRUSTRATING! Seems like it's time to do what we can and shrug our shoulders when POG's and Revisions start falling to the wayside since "Guest Come First!" All the processes are battling each other. I want to hear from a store that is completely MOD, are 100% successful, have everyone onboard, on the same page and not overspent on payroll. Speak up please so I can have insight on what my store is doing wrong. I pretty sure it took you over a year or two before you found your routine, your rhythm and the right people. So forgive me for being a little sarcastic!

 

[can't touch this]

Lolololololol I'm still going to get scheduled under salesfloor for presentation shifts at 6am, you mad corporate?

 

[Dead and Khaki]

Fuck that with a rake. Why us? There is literally no job in the store that is more disruptive to guests than ours.

 

[qmosqueen]

just hit a guest's shopping cart with my uboat and startled the hell out of her. She was fine but shaken up.

I just hope she doesn't report me to guest service or higher ups.

 

[seasonaldude]

And having sufficient time. You can't stock at the same moment you are giving 100% of your attention to a guest. There needs to be at least some additional time given. Otherwise it IS a good idea.

It takes more than competent leadership and time. It takes everyone having the proper tools, using them correctly, and having a way to hold people accountable for stuff more meaningful than having their U-boat within 3 steps at all times unless Guests!!!! Like what if team members had a handheld device and what if there were enough working ones for every TM to have one at all times? You could have a little rule like anytime a TM puts any item on the shelf, be it push/pull/reshop they are required to first scan the shelf. There would then be a little pop-up prompt that has team members enter how many items are on the shelf after they are done stocking it. If they have stocked over capacity the thing shouldn't be able to go on until the TM fixes the issue. If the TM reports an amount of product that is less than capacity, nothing should be done with that information immediately. It should generate no action. It can be saved until later in the day when the person in charge of push certifies that it is done for the day. Then, when pulls are done another person in charge can certify that they are done. Finally, you could make it so that the capacity can be changed at anytime if it is off because you are generating constant updates on how much product is actually on the shelves at anytime. If you want to prevent anyone from screwing with the capacity inappropriately, you can just make it so that only one TM per section has the ability to change it.

Now, I've added a few seconds to every stocking action, but I've saved everyone so much time in unnecessary pushes and pulls that we come out ahead. But, what do I know? I'm not corporate and don't have the galaxy brain to design an inventory system that assumes my shelves are never overstocked by TMs who try to squeeze as much product on a shelf/peg as humanly possible no matter how bad it looks.

 

[Dead and Khaki]

Corporate: that's it, no more vehicles of any kind on the salesfloor. Team members who are stocking must carry one box at a time from the line.

 

[can't touch this]

Corporate: that's it, no more vehicles of any kind on the salesfloor. Team members who are stocking must carry one box at a time from the line.

DON'T GIVE THOSE FUCKERS ANY IDEAS

 

[Go2TL]

Corporate: that's it, no more vehicles of any kind on the salesfloor. Team members who are stocking must carry one box at a time from the line.

You do realize then freight will "NEVER" get pushed! TM will come across a guest, put the box down where they encountered the guest then forget where they put down the box and go get another box. It'll be like a trail of repack boxes all over the store and no one will push it because "no one" will own up to leaving it there.

 

[can't touch this]

What the actual fuck is going on up there at HQ, has someone checked on them recently? I feel like if you opened the door at the board room the first thing you'd see is a bunch of orangutans flinging poop at each other

 

[Black Sheep 214]

What the actual F***

I think it’s a kool-aid overdose, super strong and super sized...😂

 

[Dead and Khaki]

You do realize then freight will "NEVER" get pushed! TM will come across a guest, put the box down where they encountered the guest then forget where they put down the box and go get another box. It'll be like a trail of repack boxes all over the store and no one will push it because "no one" will own up to leaving it there.

*Whoosh*

 

[SitSpotSit]

*Whoosh*

Yes, but at this point I'd believe almost any dumb idea, too, because some of what we already do is confounding.

 

[RightArm]

Our style team was just told that they should do their price changes while they push truck. No. I'm not joking.

They don't expect to come clean of truck every day, do they? We're not there yet but I'm sure it's going to happen. I'd just like to be able to actually OWN my areas. So tired of helping inbound with truck break out and having to zone EVERYWHERE before I can even do ONE thing for the area I am supposed to own. HOW do you set extensive VMGs for a large area when you can only work on it maybe one hour a shift? I'm not resistant. In theory this idea is a good one but in practice it sucks like there's no tomorrow. I'm not resistant, I just don't understand HOW to make it work.

 

[RightArm]

Also, I'd like a third option for the poll: I'd like them, IF they worked. lol

 

[seasonaldude]

I think it’s a kool-aid overdose, super strong and super sized...😂

'Tis the Kool-aid flavor called "I'll get my section done faster if you stop having morons try to help me." I actually caught a TM jumping so they could double-stack something on top of what was already on the top shelf today. Here's how that conversation went:

Me: Hey, don't overfill that.
TM: Huh? What's that?
Me: *Walks over with zebra and scans the shelf* This shelf fits 4. There are 4 there. When you put more than 4 there it messes the entire inventory system up.
TM: [Trainer] told me to put as much of the stuff on the shelves as will fit.
Me: As will fit. That won't fit. Check the capacity. There's a second location for that. Check it. It's probably full, but check it. If it's full backstock that. Just don't overfill the shelf.
TM: Second location? The box only says one location.
Me: That's what the distribution center does on the boxes, but at the store level I have an end cap that goes too. That's why you need to be scanning things and not just looking at the label on the box.
TM: [Trainer] told me that I don't need the device and to just use the label.
Me: That's not going to work in toys. We have multiple locations for everything that corporate wants to sell the most. If you are going to grab a toy push, you need to have a zebra so that you can make sure everything is done right. Don't just fill the shelves as you see fit and send everything to backstock that won't fit.
TM: But they get mad if I put a bunch of stuff in the back.
Me: Yeah, they're pissed off because the inventory is screwed up because people keep overfilling the shelves. It makes more work. Do it right.

Of course, I saw the same TM obviously overfilling something else about 10 minutes later and died inside. And, of course, I'll be held responsible if a lead walks by and notices it screwed up on the shelf. *sigh*

 

[essie]

The process in and of itself is a fantastic idea that makes sense. The problem starts in resistant leadership which bleeds down to resistant TMs. This can absolutely work, and is working in stores in my district. Leadership has to be on board and on point. Talent management is key. Train and support people to work to their full potential. If they are unwilling to adapt, promote them to guests and train new employees correctly with high expectations. We've been fighting the "this will never work" attitude. But the right leadership and the right people in the right positions makes it run smoothly and efficiently. The idea of owneership of an area makes the team experts and confident in th"e area. If they own it and are held accountable and you praise them for their good work, they will take pride in the area. It's all about competent leadership.

I'm nominating this for the Best Corporate BS Response Ever award: littered with cliche keywords and oozing with condescension. Well done.

 

[Black Sheep 214]

I'm nominating this for the Best Corporate BS Response Ever award: littered with cliche keywords and oozing with condescension. Well done.

I’ll second that. A true masterpiece of propaganda covered in kool-aid.🙄

 

[countingsheep]

'Tis the Kool-aid flavor called "I'll get my section done faster if you stop having morons try to help me." I actually caught a TM jumping so they could double-stack something on top of what was already on the top shelf today. Here's how that conversation went:

Me: Hey, don't overfill that.
TM: Huh? What's that?
Me: *Walks over with zebra and scans the shelf* This shelf fits 4. There are 4 there. When you put more than 4 there it messes the entire inventory system up.
TM: [Trainer] told me to put as much of the stuff on the shelves as will fit.
Me: As will fit. That won't fit. Check the capacity. There's a second location for that. Check it. It's probably full, but check it. If it's full backstock that. Just don't overfill the shelf.
TM: Second location? The box only says one location.
Me: That's what the distribution center does on the boxes, but at the store level I have an end cap that goes too. That's why you need to be scanning things and not just looking at the label on the box.
TM: [Trainer] told me that I don't need the device and to just use the label.
Me: That's not going to work in toys. We have multiple locations for everything that corporate wants to sell the most. If you are going to grab a toy push, you need to have a zebra so that you can make sure everything is done right. Don't just fill the shelves as you see fit and send everything to backstock that won't fit.
TM: But they get mad if I put a bunch of stuff in the back.
Me: Yeah, they're pissed off because the inventory is screwed up because people keep overfilling the shelves. It makes more work. Do it right.

Of course, I saw the same TM obviously overfilling something else about 10 minutes later and died inside. And, of course, I'll be held responsible if a lead walks by and notices it screwed up on the shelf. *sigh*

Oh so typical target trainijg big surprise. Instead of pushing those coporate papers maybe look into actually training people there is a thought. Now go back to your water cooler and laugh with your fellow pencil pushers while we all try to keep this idiotic floating disaster above water. Shoo away with you.

 

[redeye58]

Quite bit of experience coming from a 'seasonal' worker or have you been here long enough to have worked both processes?

 

[seasonaldude]

Quite bit of experience coming from a 'seasonal' worker or have you been here long enough to have worked both processes?

Nope. It's just been explained to me many times as a result of the dysfunctional management team at my store. They've all decided it's a big enough problem at the store that it has to be addressed, but they can't decide whose responsible to fix it let alone how. But, they could agree to assign the new guy to the section that has the biggest problem and put him in charge of fixing it so they have someone to blame if someone above them bitches at them for it to see if he can fix it.

 

[can't touch this]

I'm just in awe that Target has actually managed to hire a seasonal with above average intelligence (I assume it was accidental)

 

[can't touch this]

 

[REDcardJJ]

i mean you could also just change the capacity...

 

[seasonaldude]

i mean you could also just change the capacity...

I do that when I can and it makes sense. Many things seem to be always stuck in being replenished or recently received mode. Unfortunately, it's not just a matter of corporate's capacities being unreasonably low, which some are. I'm not too concerned about those. As long as the shelf still looks nice, I'm not going to bitch if someone overstocks those. I have a mental list of the worst and check them every shift to see if I can fix those capacities. The problem is people stocking beyond any reasonable capacity. Stacking products up instead of having them forward facing so they put more there, filling pegs to the point that breathing on them will cause the product to fall off, putting things on the next peg or shelf space, and just in general finding ways to jam as much on the shelves as they can. That's where we have big problems that need fixing.