Anyone running a successful shoe department in chain format?

[StyleMaven1]

I ran a huge shoe section as one of my departments years ago when team leads were directly responsible for departments instead of this new weird half step between tl and etl. I recently hired back in and shoes is struggling quite a lot. I get over there and superzone a few aisles when I'm able, but I need something for my dbo to aspire to. He's kind of low energy and I'd like to be able to show him a well taken care of shoe department in images if possible, because it's currently a disaster. We're still chain format, not remodeled. 22 aisles plus the long back wall, full height gondola. There are plenty of pics of nice shoe departments that are 2.0 format out there but not chain. Anyone?

 

[Ringwraith917]

How to know if shoes is chain or 2.0? Our shoes are good, but the shoe DBO is about to transfer out so im afraid it'll go to hell real quick.

 

[StyleMaven1]

That's a remodeled department 😁 mine has straight aisles made of gray metal with gray shelves. They're about as tall as hardlines aisles and the endcaps have a wire grid to peg items on.

 

[Ringwraith917]

Eww

 

[Noiinteam]

The problem, as I see it, a shoe dbo, is with your dbo. It doesn't matter if you had a remodel or not. I did shoes before and after remodel. As crazy as this sounds, you have to have someone that wants to do shoes. It is not rocket science. I do a complete zone 1st. Get rid of any reshop. Go to guest service and fitting room for shoe reshop. No paper is showing, boxes pulled forward, covers on. Everything on pegs is hung properly. I love what I do and have leadership support to get it done. I'm comping up 23%. I work as little as 25 hrs a week to 35. Depends on truck push. Lastly I was just given a "B" person to zone some nights. Last week with the bogo sale it could take 2 hrs just for the zone. This person also has an eye for detail. Good luck!

 

[SigningLady]

That's a remodeled department 😁 mine has straight aisles made of gray metal with gray shelves. They're about as tall as hardlines aisles and the endcaps have a wire grid to peg items on.

Damn! I would have thought everyone got rid of those fixtures ages ago. We scrapped ours before 2012 and that was after our PFresh remodel of 2010. We had a special project just to swap these out to the newer style fixtures. Crazy to think they are still out there in use! Vintage Target now, lol.

 

[60SecondsRemaining]

That's a remodeled department 😁 mine has straight aisles made of gray metal with gray shelves. They're about as tall as hardlines aisles and the endcaps have a wire grid to peg items on.

Gondolas are fairly modular. There's no reason why you can't have a few people deconstruct the top half of the gondolas and use regular 4ft shelves to create a reasonable presentation, you would just need the shorter uprights, which with a little SD/DM support shouldn't be hard to get. I did this many times when I managed remodels.

That being said if you still have the super old metal slatted style you're kind of out of luck.

If your shoe dbo is low energy, the problem isn't the format it's the person owning it.

Shoes are the most straightforward item in the store, it's literally pure zoning and merchandising. Not saying it can't be insane but if it's properly maintained it's not a monumental task. It's also insanely profitable if run correctly because low-cost shoes are high margin and fall into impulse buy category for most people.

 

[gsa4lyfe]

Damn! I would have thought everyone got rid of those fixtures ages ago. We scrapped ours before 2012 and that was after our PFresh remodel of 2010. We had a special project just to swap these out to the newer style fixtures. Crazy to think they are still out there in use! Vintage Target now, lol.

We still have a store in my district with the old metal ones. They don’t have A&A 2.0 or Pfresh.... but they’re the only store under 30 million

 

[Sushi2Go]

We have Next gen shoes dept. Kind of nice because the only signing are the CSE

 

[StyleMaven1]

It's SO vintage! We were slated for a remodel next year but got pushed back. We're a Super and have been killing sales in A&A even though all of our floorpads are trashed. We have a lot of potential, I just need to get the right people in the right positions. I just changed the way my entire team is scheduled so that's a good start, most of my dbos were schedule opposite me, which was baffling. It's hard to train and motivate a team when you only have maybe one or possibly 2 team members on the same shift as you.

Anyway! Yes, we still have the full height metal slatted gray gondola with the perforated shelves. Where back in the day there were shelves all the way to the top, some time ago the top shelves were removed, leaving just the ones at display height and open space above. It looks so weird though, the endcap grids are full height and you can see the framework of how the shelves attach in the aisle. Agreed about my dbo, he's already on corrective action. I have my eye on some of the new seasonal hires for potential replacement. It's a real beast, and I need someone who is motivated and can both manage their time well and can understand how to remerchandise correctly.

 

[happygoth]

I was the shoe manager for three years at my previous job - maintaining a shoe department takes constant diligence. Let things slip one day and the place is trashed.

We have one part-time DBO who takes care of shoes properly. When they aren't there, zoning basically consists of taking everything on the floor and throwing it on the shelves.

 

[oath2order]

We have Next gen shoes dept. Kind of nice because the only signing are the CSE

My store has the shoe department split between kids shoes in one area, women's shoes in another, and men's shoes in a third.

Because of where the departments are on the floor, there's no signing (including CSE) at all.