From another thread:
RunForACallBox said:
God if I hear “non negotiable” one more time... 🙄
This is honestly a dispiriting theme of the upper leadership in Target.
You see, most stores are struggling with these changes in some way, and they do not get caught depending on how quickly they can shift their focus to the newest idea someone has!
The sad thing is that they are so unaware of their own bad ideas that they do not realize how much damage each new focus and “non-negotiable” hurts us.
You start by gutting logistics and telling stores to work tons of freight while the store is open, and you cut payroll in that transfer of responsibilities. Stores refuse to accept this fully and keep working freight before open because they get blasted on visits when the store is messy. This keeps getting pushed until the store starts to just go with the flow and try it out.
Stores start to struggle getting everything done, and suddenly upper leadership is concerned about freight and back stock not getting done and apply pressure. The store, knowing their resources are limited and working freight till early evening give up something. Some stores give up on some of their pulls (why pull things out at 6am, 1pm and 3pm when you have a line full of freight still?). Others give up on zone and reshop, letting the store brand fall apart.
Suddenly the company wants to know why pulls are not getting done. Stores, unsure of what to do, focus back on auto and caf pulls, and we start over with the floor being a mess with tons of freight laying around since we can’t have 2000+ piece trucks and 1000+ in pulls staged and fitting back there. The stores are going to get blasted by leadership again for having too much to work on their floor, and be told the guide is the answer to our problems.
This all stems back to, at the end of the day, payroll. Target cannot splurge because, even with a sales increase, cannot fund the growth. They are increasing in sales by spending money (remodels, brands, online investment) so profits are not increasing. Their operating model can work if payroll was not kept as low as before (back when stores spent all their hours on trucks and just no coverage during the day), but they can’t afford to do it financially.
Thanks
Rock lobster