MEGATHREAD 2018-2019 Store Modernization Megathread

[can't touch this]

Save that money because when the $15 hr pay rolls out, you can kiss those hours bye bye. Not negative, just a voice of experience as I was a manager at Michaels when Brian Cornell was throwing the ax down there. As a leader we were given a script on how to play our employees. I’m still scraping the muck off my soul from all the deceit I threw upon my employees. I feel a need to repent now. Not mad at you for being so golly-gee willikers chipper, although it makes me gag a bit. It’s just YOUR negative attitude putting people down that you don’t even know by implying they are negative and lazy. Is it wrong to be concerned about their livelihood?

I'm curious, do you know if things at Michaels stayed bad after he left or did it get better?

 

[Llamanatee]

I understand that. I just don’t understand why there are so many negative people on this website. If you don’t like the changes then instead of waisting your time being negative and instilling these negative thoughts in these people’s heads either try your best to bring these people up or leave the company and find a new job, simple.

People are allowed to vent.

 

[band_rules16]

I got the talk last night about all of this from my TL. We basically boiled down it to there are going to be questions and hurdles. It's not all going to work magically. I'm all for efficiency if the team knows what it's doing. I even asked what happens when there are no hours, and he wasn't sure on that. That's fine, I don't need to know that now.

From what I understand, a lot of stocking is being pushed towards during the day. While people will have areas and all that, from what I understood was freight will be pushed all day instead of mostly being stocked before the store opens. I can see that as problematic, but it could work, too. I forgot to ask if night time zoning goes away (but I assume it does). I'm not sure I like "zone as you go", but if they have a method of how to do it, perfect. Train me and I can do it. Because right now I just go "LOL I can stock the shelves but there are more vehicles of product to be pushed and I can't do the whole aisle at this moment".

I am also curious has to how many backroom TMs we will lose when that workcenter goes away. Some of them work back there because they like it and it works for them. So it will be interesting to see.

I'm not saying I'm supporting it one way or the other, but I just hope that they aren't gearing for immediate results.

 

[tholmes]

I forgot to ask if night time zoning goes away (but I assume it does). I'm not sure I like "zone as you go", but if they have a method of how to do it, perfect. Train me and I can do it.

Well, the short answer is yes, in theory night zones go away. The hardest part of this is embracing it and sticking to it. My store struggled with it for a couple months, then hit fourth quarter and folded on it.
I can personally attest to the zoning as you go bit, it works for most sections of the store. The idea we went with at my store was if you stocked a product from freight/pull/abandon, you zoned the 4 foot section it went in (yes, even if it turns out to be backstock). The theory is, somewhere between 50-75% of shelves in the store will see some sort of replenishment on a daily basis, and from that 50-75% of the area you own is zoned.
In practice, it didn't quite work, but mostly due to leads panicking early in the night and breaking the teams back to the old way or breaking them off to strictly zone a section.
It really just takes a team that isn't scared to try it and roll with it. Once you get it rolling, most areas stay pretty well zoned throughout the day without having to spend an hour or two strictly running a zone.

 

[Jayrod1994]

Sorry, I'm not going to have faith and be positive when I watch almost all of the TLs get cut to 24 hours for nearly two months straight when company policy is supposed to guarantee them a minimum of 32. I'm not going to give people a false sense of hope when I spent almost 20 years working for a company just to watch some half assed buzzword completely demolish the logistics process.

You keep claiming everything is sunshine and rainbows at your store so instead of acting high and mighty, why don't you share how your store is handling it? Start with answering a few basic questions:
What volume is your store?
Is your store a Super Target or PFresh?
What is your store's ETL and TL headcount?
How many trucks do you get a week?
How big are those trucks on average?
How is your store's payroll allocated?
Do you know if your store is stealing hours from other stores in the district? (My store lost a ton of hours to prop up another store and their flow team was twice the size of ours despite being the same volume)
How many hours does your store spend on unloading, working, and backstocking a truck?
How many SFS/OPUs/whatever the current acronym is does your store get daily?
How many hours does your store spend filling them?

Then we can go on to more detailed stuff:
What's your store's turnover rate; especially in flow and backroom?
What is your store's BRLA?
Why hasn't your store abolished the backroom team yet and moved them to the floor like most stores that have "modernized"?
Do you still have dedicated price change and planogram teams too?
How many people do the unload?
How many people are pushing and in what areas?


I could go on and on. It takes more than "have faith" and "don't be negative" to make a process work. Get off your high horse and try actually being helpful if you want people to be more positive.


Exactly what I did.

Well my store is actually quite a bit further along in the process than most so I’m not going to give out misleading info considering no one knows what’s up for sure until the stl’s get back from their meetings. Right now all the stores are confused so we are just trying to get things done the best we know to do so. This time of year everyone’s hours are going to be low, it’s retail. My store was a mess for a while until we started trying new things. Give it a bit longer. Once our STL’s get back from their meetings, you will understand why I am so positive. It’s worth the wait 🙂

 

[Backroom81]

If you don’t mind it being deliberately vague, give me a day and I’ll send an outline of how it’s broken down. I’ll just have to obfuscate it a bit as I probably reveal way more about myself and my store on here than I should.

No worries. Even ballpark figures give us great insight.

 

[Backroom81]

Don't know why I'm replying to a deactivated account but...

Well my store is actually quite a bit further along in the process than most so I’m not going to give out misleading info considering no one knows what’s up for sure until the stl’s get back from their meetings.

Considering this process has been getting implemented for well over a year now, I doubt you are any further along than anybody else. If your store is, you can give out the info on what you currently do without it being misleading.

Right now all the stores are confused so we are just trying to get things done the best we know to do so.

Having leadership whose guidance amounts to "figure it out" doesn't help. That's a big reason we have so many pissed off people here. All you are doing here is basically saying "We have it handled at my store! Why so angry?"

This time of year everyone’s hours are going to be low, it’s retail.

Well no shit Capt Obvious. In 24 years of retail, 20 of which with Target, I have never seen TLs cut below the guaranteed minimum like this until last year.

My store was a mess for a while until we started trying new things.

And my store was clean until we decided to "modernize".

Give it a bit longer. Once our STL’s get back from their meetings, you will understand why I am so positive. It’s worth the wait

You're either a corporate employee posing as a TM, or you're full of it. The reason I say that is that you are implying you know something about the full implementation that STLs are just beginning to learn.

Speaking from the bottom levels, it's not going to be worth the wait. The ultimate goal of "modernization" is to cut payroll expenses as much as possible. This translates into smaller paychecks, less chances at getting benefits, and more stress. Nothing has been implemented (that most of us has seen) so far has streamlined the flow process in a way that justifies the hours that were gutted.

 

[MavDog]

I know they are starting to salvage clearance the week of a transition so it doesn't need to be moved to endcaps. Saw it mentioned in the Stationery transition communication.

I don't like this idea. It doesn't give the endcap shoppers a chance to buy the stuff. We have a lot of those types of guests at my store. Honestly, this might just pressure me to have everything set 1 week ahead

 

[BackroomOG14]

Actually be ready for phase 2 lol. PTM is going away as are MPG labels. expect the company to move everything around so you set right off a truck directly, we have been piloting something like this at our store as of recent

How has this worked out? Some POG sets are days of work, not 5 hours

 

[SigningLady]

I don't like this idea. It doesn't give the endcap shoppers a chance to buy the stuff. We have a lot of those types of guests at my store. Honestly, this might just pressure me to have everything set 1 week ahead

Hadn't thought of that, but my plan is to start setting early on this one. That way, new merch can flow off the truck directly to it's new location. A lot of our stationery clearance is selling down quickly right now, so hoping to only utilize 2 endcaps tops.

 

[Bullseyes]

Payroll cutting is a misconception of modernization. Hours don't get cut they get reallocated. someone is either not scheduling to the op model or not allocating right. Even on a non truck day at the low volume stores in my district the style team has at minimum 4 tms plus the lead.

Listen, I loved most of what modernization has in store for us because on a smaller scale, it’s being done in softlines and it works. We are always ahead on pogs, vmgs and even pricing for the first time in YEARS (also because i own it now 🙂 )))
we are one of the highest comping stores in my district, and have less hours than previous years. I keep allll my records after making the schedule which has every work center. Yes hours are reallocated but it’s still less Than before and it’s because they think all the extra footsteps they are cutting out took more time.

For an example, for softlines- the Vmgs will be... 60 for a week... an ulv will receive 210 hours when I usually get 180. because I should be setting the vmg while pushing off the truck. It doesn’t matter that we have a high comp, that we kill it in sales or that have an extra truck. We always- at the minimum have 4 people scheduled in sortlines. Hours just may be shorters.

for my LV store modernization has a few hiccups but it’s working. The problem is the TMs who are so engrained in the old style or just can’t keep up the pace.

(you have an extra truck, most of the time you don’t ever see the payroll)

(Hours should be reallocated to style and grocery from logistics.)

 

[signingminion]

I know they are starting to salvage clearance the week of a transition so it doesn't need to be moved to endcaps. Saw it mentioned in the Stationery transition communication. I'm not sure how well that would work for areas with a 100% change though. Mini and Seasonal would be hard to do that with because of the amount of product coming out. As it is, we end up salvaging about 2 pallets worth after everything has gone to 90% off. Imagine how many pallets that would be if we didn't let it sell down first.

150+ at last count of christmas we didn't get pushed... similar idea for counting purposes. Imagine our comp if we could find stuff for guests and sfs.

 

[unknown]

How has this worked out? Some POG sets are days of work, not 5

Listen, I loved most of what modernization has in store for us because on a smaller scale, it’s being done in softlines and it works. We are always ahead on pogs, vmgs and even pricing for the first time in YEARS (also because i own it now 🙂 )))
we are one of the highest comping stores in my district, and have less hours than previous years. I keep allll my records after making the schedule which has every work center. Yes hours are reallocated but it’s still less Than before and it’s because they think all the extra footsteps they are cutting out took more time.

For an example, for softlines- the Vmgs will be... 60 for a week... an ulv will receive 210 hours when I usually get 180. because I should be setting the vmg while pushing off the truck. It doesn’t matter that we have a high comp, that we kill it in sales or that have an extra truck. We always- at the minimum have 4 people scheduled in sortlines. Hours just may be shorters.

for my LV store modernization has a few hiccups but it’s working. The problem is the TMs who are so engrained in the old style or just can’t keep up the pace.

(you have an extra truck, most of the time you don’t ever see the payroll)

(Hours should be reallocated to style and grocery from logistics.)

Always ahead on pogs. Always. For how long now? A week? A month? A year? 5 years?

 

[jenna]

I know they are starting to salvage clearance the week of a transition so it doesn't need to be moved to endcaps. Saw it mentioned in the Stationery transition communication. I'm not sure how well that would work for areas with a 100% change though. Mini and Seasonal would be hard to do that with because of the amount of product coming out. As it is, we end up salvaging about 2 pallets worth after everything has gone to 90% off. Imagine how many pallets that would be if we didn't let it sell down first.

Where can I read about this?

 

[gsa4lyfe]

Where can I read about this?

“Stationary transition communication”

 

[Signingmitch]

Where can I read about this?

Sweet Jesus and you guys think you all deserve team lead pay.

 

[SigningLady]

Where can I read about this?

Click on the General Merch link on the top of WorkBench. The link will be in there as well as other General Merch news, links, and tools.

☝Teach and train moment right here.

 

[gsa4lyfe]

Click on the General Merch link on the top of WorkBench. The link will be in there as well as other General Merch news, links, and tools.

☝Teach and train moment right here.

It would have been if they asked where the transition communication was not asking where to read about it....

 

[Vince]

I'm a bit behind on terminology since it's been almost a year since I left Target, what's PP1 and PP2?
[/QUOTE]

Priority 1 and Priority 2

 

[flow4areasonuno]

Basically "you still come in at a reasonable hour where you can help unload and get things done, 0-dark thirty in the morning" and "fuck you, you're working when the store opens and woe befall you if you slow down because of helping guests", that's P1&P2.

But our times are getting pushed two hours later, so it's getting worse. I assume because of full implementation of modernization.

 

[Bullseyerc]

As a GSTL, I do about 90% delegation and 10% task. Works for me.

I have built a very strong , self sufficient team since arriving at my new store.

They respect me as a boss because they know I am in charge and would also never ask them to do anything I wouldn’t do.

It’s all about knowing the basics of great performance management, and not carrying the team but actually leading them.

I’ve replaced a couple of GSTLs, and the ones who carried their team.. were the ones who were termed/performanced out.

 

[band_rules16]

Serious question: if you're supposed to take your U-boat with you everywhere, does that include when you help back up at the lanes?

I can only imagine a busy Saturday with U-boats all over the lanes...

 

[jenna]

Sweet Jesus and you guys think you all deserve team lead pay.

🤨

I most likely make more than some of the TL’s in my store.

It was a simple question. No need to be an ass.

The break room site is a known resource especially when stores are terrible about communicating with team members.

 

[jenna]

Click on the General Merch link on the top of WorkBench. The link will be in there as well as other General Merch news, links, and tools.

☝Teach and train moment right here.

This is the answer I was looking for, not some smart ass comment. Our workbench changed. I haven’t had time to search around. We are also not E2E.

 

[Bullseyes]

For softlines? We are 1-2 weeks ahead for about a year now, maybe longer, I was Plano/pricing TL for years so it’s something I make sure happens.. and if you set earlier than you push right to the floor and don’t waste time backstocking.