MEGATHREAD 2018-2019 Store Modernization Megathread

[band_rules16]

Last night was the first night I didn't finish everything. Why? Because I had to constantly pick up other's slack. Beauty hid in the backroom most of the night and I had to help guests find things in HBA since it's close to market. Had to help another guest in sporting goods because there was no one around. Made a bale because no one else does. I barely finished my defectives and I NEVER have time to clean the ambient room due to others pushing milk too early on other nights (leaving me with a million holes to fill). The mid didn't fill any produce, so I had to do most of it, which is usually fine, but due to everything else, I didn't finish.

I'm tired of team members blaming each other when they're not doing anything. I'm tired of the impossible tasks. I've got roughly 10 weeks left at Target, but I'm ready to leave now. I only can't because I want to eat this summer. (I will be teaching full time in the fall and hopefully saying adios to being a TM forever now.)

 

[Rarejem]

Can someone please explain the logic of exf’ing lows and outs when there’s a good chance that merchandise is on your u-boat coming off the truck while you’re scanning?

We don't scan until our freight is done. If you have to do it beforehand, your best bet is to skip the items that have OH counts. Those are the items that are most likely on your u-boat. If they are still empty the next day, fix the counts in EXF and audit.

 

[Rarejem]

That's crazy. It's not like TMs can decide what products to sell or control the supply. The DCs either send Airpods or they don't, for example. If they don't, that's going to affect electronics' sales negatively. The electronics TMs shouldn't get a lower raise because of it.

Of course, pay increases next year will probably be pointless again.

While this is true, they won't send them at all if your capacities, SFQ, and audit are not either done or correct or they will send so much that you will eat the loss in clearance prices.

 

[ShortTM]

While this is true, they won't send them at all if your capacities, SFQ, and audit are not either done or correct or they will send so much that you will eat the loss in clearance prices.

If we have items that say zero on hand and the DC still isn't sending, do you know if an audit would help us receive more? We've been out of a few items for over two weeks (when I took over my area) and every day its empty and says 0 on hand

 

[flow4areasonuno]

Something else I learned... (I don't THINK I already posted about this, sorry if I did, it's been a stressful few days and I have a shit memory) I talked to a TL, one of three or four who'll have different areas in the store that they're in charge of (aka there will be DBOs under them). She said they didn't think it made sense, but they're not the ones in charge, sooooooooooo...

One goal is apparently to have no closers (tf???????? Why??)

Also, there are no training hours for pricing, POG, etc. Apparently, we were supposed to have been doing this since last year, so we get zip. "Training" will consist of shadowing someone else doing POG/etc with you, in much the same way cashiering seems to work. Imagine what pricing is going to look like...

This isn't going to bite them in the ass at all, I'm sure.

 

[balthrop]

People have explained it as getting dated product out of the back, which makes sense for market, but not necessarily office or beds. I pulled 6 bottles of glue for an EXF today. Know what was in one of my repacks and ended up having to backstock? A case holding 6 bottles of glue 😑

if the system pulled the oldest product first, I've checked it doesn't. with the current disaster state we are in the only thing that would be able o fix this specific issue would be to go back to acknowledging and scanning the truck. Then lots of hours to put the backroom back in order.

 

[Rarejem]

If we have items that say zero on hand and the DC still isn't sending, do you know if an audit would help us receive more? We've been out of a few items for over two weeks (when I took over my area) and every day its empty and says 0 on hand

Yes, it will. I toggle between EXF, Item Search (page 2... "on the way"), and Audit. My department gets replenishment within a couple of days if needed. My monthly sales comps are up more than 30%.

 

[Overadecade]

Ok sounds great how is it Getting completed when people get 4 hour shifts with out pushing freight to the next day? You also not figuring in backroom ownership of your areas aisles, reshop, cashier back ups, guests service, sales planners and pogs, price change. Just wondering how all this gets done in a 3-4 hour shift if anyone knows I would like to tell my team how. As of now it's impossible

My store had TMs (not in my area) staying WAY past their shift times to get things done and bump their hours when this rolled out. We added a staggering amount of payroll in just one week, like, I literally thought there was a computer error.
So they started seriously cracking down, and then it was pretty split between TMs who just stopped caring and leaving a mess, and TMs that would work off the clock. Didn't Toys R Us get nailed for that, years ago? TMs didn't have enough time to finish their jobs, so were doing all their trash and backroom stuff off the clock?

 

[Go2TL]

Something else I learned... (I don't THINK I already posted about this, sorry if I did, it's been a stressful few days and I have a shit memory) I talked to a TL, one of three or four who'll have different areas in the store that they're in charge of (aka there will be DBOs under them). She said they didn't think it made sense, but they're not the ones in charge, sooooooooooo...

One goal is apparently to have no closers (tf???????? Why??)

Also, there are no training hours for pricing, POG, etc. Apparently, we were supposed to have been doing this since last year, so we get zip. "Training" will consist of shadowing someone else doing POG/etc with you, in much the same way cashiering seems to work. Imagine what pricing is going to look like...

This isn't going to bite them in the ass at all, I'm sure.

We are in the same boat. Management seems to think that TM's have photographic memory. 2 days of training and they've already taken off the training wheels! Yet they wonder why it's not getting done.

 

[Overadecade]

We are in the same boat. Management seems to think that TM's have photographic memory. 2 days of training and they've already taken off the training wheels! Yet they wonder why it's not getting done.

The job guide for the style team tells them to assess what clothing sizes are missing from the racks and tables while working freight, and then go pull them from the back afterwards... like... memorizing what one size is missing from potentially 500 different items is remotely possible...?
Why they stopped having the folded/POG items pull in batches is beyond me, and just the stupidest shit ever. My team either had to purge the whole stockroom all the time, put in POG batches that were 99% backstock to fill a couple of outs, or just let it rot back there until it went clearance.
Since, of course, visual standards are 1-2 of each size out there, even when running a sale.

 

[Digi_E]

We do not have full front end leadership and not enough hours to be fully cashiered. Often we have one cashier scheduled and one SCO. The reasoning behind the front end losing hours is that there will be more people on the floor to backup. Not happening. As for being efficient....if only the guests were efficient with their checkouts. I can tell you working at GS that I am very efficient, it is the guests who slow me down.

your store is not doing what it is supposed to do then. With the OP model you should now have an ETL there 10 hours a day 5 days a week, 2 GSTLS that have to be scheduled at peak times meaning 2 overlapping for 8 hours at backup times, AND the cart attenrdant, OPU, SCO TMS need to be pulled moved and managed accordingly before calling backup. At my store the moment I see a GSTL or anyone up front call for backup and i dont see any of the before mentioned already on backup it is a coaching. Sorry but 9 out of 10 stores front ends tend to be used to not utilizing their resources and saving the day with a call for backup.

 

[KindaOverIt]

All this company cares about is money for the stockholders and trying to keep up with Amazon etc.

Yup. My store is so trashy looking now, and customers (I’ll call them that because that’s how they’re being treated now) navigate around u-boats and junk to find what they want.

We used to have everything pushed by 8 AM. Then they could walk around freely. Now they’re better off at Walmart.

 

[vngoghlvr]

We've had no training, our SD said a month or so ago at a morning huddle that we all needed to learn how to do everything within a month and to get ourselves trained. On already low hours. Oh and you are supposed to have other TMs who are also low on hours show you how to do their jobs. Like it's that easy? So naturally things are a mess. Luckily I started in SFS and moved to pricing so pulling batches, audits, clearance, labels, etc... were things I was already comfortable with. I have pushed merchandise before, but not off an unsorted Uboat. Their workload times seem to be unrealistic to those of us who have never pushed and backstocked consistently, not to mention my items are generally encased in bubble wrap, styrofoam, and extra tape. I'm doing my best, but I'm worried I'm going to get written up for not finishing all the time. (only on week 2) Not to mention that my zone defender does absolutely nothing, and whoever fills in for me on my off days pushes way over capacity and flexes crap in everywhere. So when I go back I spend a lot of time fixing their mistakes. I talked to our ETL HR yesterday who was supportive and told me to talk to my ETL. Which I did, but I'm not sure that means anything anymore.

Oh and is anybody else having issues with other DBOs not answering phones or going for backup? There are several former BR and Flow people who don't answer the phones and never go to cashier. They are constantly calling up 3 of us and we are getting tired of it. The store never made sure they were trained, and now they aren't making them learn either. This is creating such a bad mood in our store and wiping out the teamwork mentality we all used to have.

 

[PaRaD0xxR]

Hey, so while I don't think our store has fully adopted everything yet, I've been getting about 25 hrs/week (5 days, 5 hrs), to push toys. As far as I know, I'm not a DBO, as such yet, tho I' think I probably will be once we get to that point. I've been trying the whole zone as you go thing, and am thankful that seemingly once a week, there's a superzone done to help. How do I check to see how toys is doing...MPM no? I go into hardlines/toys, tap on comp %. If I see 37% (in black)....that's a good thing no? I scroll day/week/month/year to date...and it's been like 35% ytd. Am I looking at that correctly? As long as I see black numbers, in the yesterday/week/month/ytd...that's a good thing, no?

 

[FredPanda3]

The job guide for the style team tells them to assess what clothing sizes are missing from the racks and tables while working freight, and then go pull them from the back afterwards... like... memorizing what one size is missing from potentially 500 different items is remotely possible...?
Why they stopped having the folded/POG items pull in batches is beyond me, and just the stupidest shit ever. My team either had to purge the whole stockroom all the time, put in POG batches that were 99% backstock to fill a couple of outs, or just let it rot back there until it went clearance.
Since, of course, visual standards are 1-2 of each size out there, even when running a sale.

I miss three per size, I wish we still did it for tables because some of the boys shorts/girls leggings just sell way too fast to be continuously filling it from the backroom.

 

[KindaOverIt]

There are several former BR and Flow people who don't answer the phones and never go to cashier.

Most of them at my store literally can’t answer the phones or go up because no one trained them! It’s amazing. Fucking place can’t even spare a few hours of training for every TM. I thought myself how to do everything basically 😂

 

[Rolling CAFS]

We are told to not call anyone a DBO. That is no longer used, it's expert, advocate and consultant ONLY . Yet we still have designated aisles that we own. Their creativity with titles is 🥴

 

[Tinkersdamn]

Most of them at my store literally can’t answer the phones or go up because no one trained them! It’s amazing. Fucking place can’t even spare a few hours of training for every TM. I thought myself how to do everything basically 😂

I can't understand how it has become such a big deal to train a tm to answer the phone. It took a ten minute huddle to train the sort team as a group. Register training can be accomplished by the team leader pushing for them for a couple of hours. A tl partnering with an ETL should be able to make it happen. This keeps everyone accountable to the same standard.

 

[inboundin']

We are told to not call anyone a DBO. That is no longer used, it's expert, advocate and consultant ONLY . Yet we still have designated aisles that we own. Their creativity with titles is 🥴

Wait seriously? My store literally just started using DBO at the start of May.

 

[ShortTM]

We are told to not call anyone a DBO. That is no longer used, it's expert, advocate and consultant ONLY . Yet we still have designated aisles that we own. Their creativity with titles is 🥴

Nobody has said anything about new titles at my store, just that we "own" areas. I put dedicated business owner on a resume and referred to it by that title during a phone interview. Sounds more impressive than saying I'm an expert.

 

[Overadecade]

We are told to not call anyone a DBO. That is no longer used, it's expert, advocate and consultant ONLY . Yet we still have designated aisles that we own. Their creativity with titles is 🥴

My store never even rolled out the DBO title, and I slipped up and used it in a chat with another leader once and got the side eye.

I'm sure there was a LOT of feedback about calling someone a "business owner" and then not scheduling them enough to actually do their damn job.

 

[Overadecade]

I miss three per size, I wish we still did it for tables because some of the boys shorts/girls leggings just sell way too fast to be continuously filling it from the backroom.

We were such a heavy ship from store location that during sales, weather changes, or style refreshes, it wasn't unusual for the flex team to completely pick over the racks before the store opened, or late at night, and we'd have to work the entire backstock out before getting to freight.

 

[Overadecade]

your store is not doing what it is supposed to do then. With the OP model you should now have an ETL there 10 hours a day 5 days a week, 2 GSTLS that have to be scheduled at peak times meaning 2 overlapping for 8 hours at backup times, AND the cart attenrdant, OPU, SCO TMS need to be pulled moved and managed accordingly before calling backup. At my store the moment I see a GSTL or anyone up front call for backup and i dont see any of the before mentioned already on backup it is a coaching. Sorry but 9 out of 10 stores front ends tend to be used to not utilizing their resources and saving the day with a call for backup.

I'd be REALLY curious to know how many stores have ETLs following those guidelines.
Not only does not a single one of mine work a second over 8 hours a shift (if that) they've taken the closing TL shift to mean they don't have to stay past 4-5pm Mon-Fri. Our closing TL was about ready to walk out the door.
If the SD doesn't hold them accountable, there's no way anyone knows what's going on outside the building, either, so they can just get away with murder.
Even on the weekends, TLs will close every 4 weeks, and most ETLs were doing every 6 if they did any at all (we had 3 that never closed post 4/1, ever.)

 

[Bosch]

[[/QUOTE]

Is everything in repacks off the truck supposed to show up as "Delivered 0 Days ago" or are we responsible for updating our counts when we get it? It's getting fuckin ridiculous to constantly get repacks where none of the stuff was marked as delivered.

That isn't your problem the truck isn't being acknowledged that is on the unload team. The count as in the on-hands should update when the truck is acknowledged. Meaning if the on hand was zero and you got a case there should be six, or 12 of that item on hand. Same with repacks.

 

[Frontlanegirl]

your store is not doing what it is supposed to do then. With the OP model you should now have an ETL there 10 hours a day 5 days a week, 2 GSTLS that have to be scheduled at peak times meaning 2 overlapping for 8 hours at backup times, AND the cart attenrdant, OPU, SCO TMS need to be pulled moved and managed accordingly before calling backup. At my store the moment I see a GSTL or anyone up front call for backup and i dont see any of the before mentioned already on backup it is a coaching. Sorry but 9 out of 10 stores front ends tend to be used to not utilizing their resources and saving the day with a call for backup.

This works well if the front end is fully staffed and the cashiers are well trained. We are using the resources that we have. However, one call out and it's hell.