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.
InboundGrunt said:
Is there a breaking point? ...... When does this spill over into the guest experience? What happens when most of the institutional knowledge from experienced TMs is gone because they all became fed up and quit? Corporate can talk all day about having a super happy and upbeat attitude up front but if the shelves aren't stocked and stuff is in the wrong places/lost in the backroom on a pallet somewhere, this will eventually catch up to us. The toxic environment they've created will infect the Guest experience. ..... Morale is in the toilet. I dread what Holiday 2019 will look like, it will be retail end times.
*This isn't to make fun of new TMs or anyone still learning the store layout, this is just to point out what a dire turnover rate we've dealt with.
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Good points about how this can affect guest experience. Our District was one of the later ones to begin store modernization so these problems are just starting to really show up. We've had a couple of nights with NO TMs in softlines: only one TM was scheduled for that day to clean up the day's mess and reshop everything, and they called out so it was frantic. What happens on days when staffing is so thin, and you get one or two callouts, plus others who might step in really can't b/c of compliance (would need an extra lunch) or can't stay late due to other commitments (i.e. another job or lack of childcare)?
 
I think it's already spilling over into the guest experience. I have guests constantly asking why shelves aren't fully stocked, market is empty, people are pushing freight up until closing, and our seasonal/entertainment/luggage area is almost always inaccessible due to uboats, flatbeds, and pallets of repacks placed there to make room in receiving. Guests hate it. I apologize and tell them to complain to corporate, that they decided to switch up our process and cut our hours. Facebook is full of similar complaints in tons of stores.
 
flow4areasonuno said:
Mind describing why you think that is? I mean I know modernization is related, but...
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I think it’s because Target under Modernization is a PITA for guests. The guest who comes to the store to shop finds empty shelves and has to run an obstacle course over u-boats to get to anything. There are few TMs to help them because of hours cuts, and when they do find someone to help them it’s often a newbie who is too poorly trained and/or stressed to meet deadlines to be of much assistance. Spot seems to have extreme difficulty keeping a lot of items in stock, and even if the items make it into the store, if they aren’t pushed to the floor in a timely manner due to unrealistic timelines and hours cuts the result is the same: empty shelves for the guest. So the guest can get only half of the stuff they came in for and have to go to Spot’s competitors to finish their shopping. Spot not only loses those sales, but also future sales because some of them don’t come back.
Then there’s the OPU guest who shops online. Sometimes all goes well and the guest can order all of the items that they need, go in to the store and pick up their items with no issues, but a lot of the times there are obstacles to this also. Some items are out of stock at the chosen store, some aren’t available for OPU, sometimes the order or some items from the order are INFed, or the guest comes in to pick up the order, it can’t be found and ends up being cancelled. So that guest ends up unhappy and going to the competition as well.
For both OPU and drive up orders, a lot of guests picks up their orders and leave without looking around the store. Same thing with SFS guests, they don’t have to even come near the store. Goodbye impulse buys that increase basket size...
Then there’s the guest can’t buy what they need because their local store is out of stock, so they decide to do an SFS order. They go online only to discover that the item they want is “no longer available for shipping”, or “only available with $25 orders”, or only available with restock orders, or is out of stock. And that $5 or $10 gift card that the guest gets for buying five HBA items or whatever deal is going on? Well, they don’t get that unless they do an OPU or buy in store which they couldn’t do because their local store is out of stock, which was the reason for the SFS order in the first place.
Speaking of SFS orders, a lot of guests were all over Facebook complaining about issues with their holiday orders, and if only half of those who swore that they will never order from Spot again are true to their word, that is a significant number of lost sales.
Team members are some of Spot’s best guests, but people whose hours are cut don’t have the discretionary income to be able to buy tons of extra stuff, so Spot can kiss those sales goodbye, too.
The recent system outage also negatively impacted sales. Not to mention that it didn’t really inspire confidence in Spot with guests. Especially those guests who experienced the event firsthand...
Corporate may proclaim Modernization from on high, stamp out all dissent, bury their heads in the sand and declare this debacle a success, but guests know a shitshow when they see one, and are voting with their feet. Just saying.
 
And clearance never gets activated, never sells even if it happens to make it to the salesfloor. And salesplanners and revisions aren't happening, so new product stays in limbo (although at my store, regular POGs are happening because our Presentation team has about a millennium of combined experience--but don't tell corporate, because experience is a detriment to modernity). And...
 
Dead and Khaki said:
And clearance never gets activated, never sells even if it happens to make it to the salesfloor. And salesplanners and revisions aren't happening, so new product stays in limbo (although at my store, regular POGs are happening because our Presentation team has about a millennium of combined experience--but don't tell corporate, because experience is a detriment to modernity). And...
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Hard to sell clearance when it's not marked. There's a reason why we used to ticker clearance. But corporate said nevermind that! Just let it all sit on the shelves.
 
Dead and Khaki said:
And clearance never gets activated, never sells even if it happens to make it to the salesfloor. And salesplanners and revisions aren't happening, so new product stays in limbo (although at my store, regular POGs are happening because our Presentation team has about a millennium of combined experience--but don't tell corporate, because experience is a detriment to modernity). And...
Click to expand...
Was the Sun Squad and ODL clearance an absolute shitshow at anyone else's store? We're like 2 days behind with our BTS set solely because none of the clearance was ever ticketed or even activated, and so the POG team has had to spend most of their time marking and remerching clearance instead of, you know, actually setting. Especially Sun Squad, which was overpriced to begin with, and should have been marked down like a week sooner.

What a nightmare.
 
PackAndCry said:
Was the Sun Squad and ODL clearance an absolute shitshow at anyone else's store? We're like 2 days behind with our BTS set solely because none of the clearance was ever ticketed or even activated, and so the POG team has had to spend most of their time marking and remerching clearance instead of, you know, actually setting. Especially Sun Squad, which was overpriced to begin with, and should have been marked down like a week sooner.

What a nightmare.
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PLU would have been nice but since some was carry over...shit show created
 
PackAndCry said:
Was the Sun Squad and ODL clearance an absolute shitshow at anyone else's store? We're like 2 days behind with our BTS set solely because none of the clearance was ever ticketed or even activated, and so the POG team has had to spend most of their time marking and remerching clearance instead of, you know, actually setting. Especially Sun Squad, which was overpriced to begin with, and should have been marked down like a week sooner.

What a nightmare.
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It was at mine, that’s for sure. I’m a GM TL and the former POG/Pricing TL at my store. Here’s my breakdown of the issues my team and I have had with the BTS set this year:

1. Clearance and timing on the clearance markdowns has been absolutely ridiculous. We just did the second markdown of all the ODL and Sun Squad stuff as we set BTS at the same time this week. Not ideal. We have massive amounts of it left that we had to consolidate as well (mostly to BTC areas because it’s mostly represented in dual locations anyway and easier to set as it sells down in a week or two). The fact that it just went to 50% the week of the BTS set is just terrible planning though. You’re not selling that stuff at only 30% off and thus stuck with colossal amounts to move when setting a complicated and massive area too.

2. Bullseye went salvage too.... after it only reached 50% off. We had tons of it left to process out. That stuff only really starts to move after it reaches 70 or 90% off. Tons of vehicles clogging up crucial areas till we could get rid of it.

3. Per usual, they screwed up the signing and shippers. They sent extra bins we didn’t need and not enough of a variety that we did need. Makes for a fun type of improv when trying to figure out how to keep the BTS product organized without the right type of bin.

4. The equipment and software..... I can’t even tell you the amount of times that MyDevices just go haywire lately. Not backstocking, screens of gibberish, kicking you out of functions, not printing PA labels... it’s just an endless list of middle fingers to anyone attempting to do things efficiently and correctly.

I think I’ll mostly get it all done (if more random vehicles of BTS/Stationary don’t just appear out of nowhere like they usually do this time of year, especially the repack ones). The sorted transition is fairly manageable and I’m lucky enough to have a good and experienced crew.... for now. And I stress that last part because I think the current workloads will create serious turnover with even the best of workers. I’ve seen it start already.... and trying to explain to anyone at a high level as to why a lot of these new processes are not a realistic way or practical way of running things.... is like talking to a wall. A smarmy, self righteous, and apathetic one at that.
 
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PackAndCry said:
Was the Sun Squad and ODL clearance an absolute shitshow at anyone else's store? We're like 2 days behind with our BTS set solely because none of the clearance was ever ticketed or even activated, and so the POG team has had to spend most of their time marking and remerching clearance instead of, you know, actually setting. Especially Sun Squad, which was overpriced to begin with, and should have been marked down like a week sooner.

What a nightmare.
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Yes. I'm front end, and none of it was marked. I just gave 50% off and hoped I was right.
 
PackAndCry said:
Was the Sun Squad and ODL clearance an absolute shitshow at anyone else's store? We're like 2 days behind with our BTS set solely because none of the clearance was ever ticketed or even activated, and so the POG team has had to spend most of their time marking and remerching clearance instead of, you know, actually setting. Especially Sun Squad, which was overpriced to begin with, and should have been marked down like a week sooner.

What a nightmare.
Click to expand...
My store exactly. Too much stuff, everywhere. No space for it. Spent SO MUCH time moving it out of the way. Freakin Salvage pergola still on floor cause no one will unassemble it to take it down. COULD have sold it one day....but no, cause ‘sorry guest, we can’t take it apart .... this week !” Valley full of clearance that we can’t set til it salvages the week AFTER set WAS due !
 
Did 4th of July bullseye stuff go straight salvage? I had a guest try to return items using her cc and no luck. Tried to do an ID return and every dcpi said item not on file. Couldn’t even find using the price change button.
 
Anelmi said:
Did 4th of July bullseye stuff go straight salvage? I had a guest try to return items using her cc and no luck. Tried to do an ID return and every dcpi said item not on file. Couldn’t even find using the price change button.
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Just salvaged in our store today
 
PackAndCry said:
Was the Sun Squad and ODL clearance an absolute shitshow at anyone else's store? We're like 2 days behind with our BTS set solely because none of the clearance was ever ticketed or even activated, and so the POG team has had to spend most of their time marking and remerching clearance instead of, you know, actually setting. Especially Sun Squad, which was overpriced to begin with, and should have been marked down like a week sooner.

What a nightmare.
Click to expand...

Yep, same situation at our store.
 

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