Archived Crazy amount of outdated granola bars

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Tessa120 said:
Assuming market is like the rest of the store, then what do you do when the amount given to push is such a ridiculous amount that you can do it right and not get anywhere finishing the push, or you have time to barely push it all without doing anything else in the process? I'm pretty sure that market is in the same boat with the rest of us when it comes to unrealistic expectations for the time allotted.
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Indeed. When I have 6 hours of pull, 15 of dry freight, and only 15 hours of dry tm scheduled, things fall by the wayside. I have 5 pallets of food coming in and 5 hours of food truck scheduled. Plus the 5 for open market where he has his own cull and freshness things to do.

And they want me doing 12 step and purge of grocery areas too......

I'm told to "figure it out" despite being able to clearly state where we are and what we need minimum, otherwise things will drop at the wayside so I can get freight moved and prevent a backup.

We can date check while pushing and pulling, but things are gonna be missed. We got a red steritech visit at 8am. The things in market that contributed were out dated product. And it was just 2 items that were one day out because we were in progress doing our check and they pulled something like 3 sections ahead of my open market guy that would have been found when he got to it.

Kinda pissed about that one. I'm making them toss 3 days out now. F that, target. I'll waste your food if this is the kind of shit you're going to pull.
 
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CrosstrainInsane said:
I know store culture around food safety varies, but 100 expired items on one pog is just unacceptable. Pushing in food means you FIFO, plain and simple. You are on food team and pushed an item but did not FIFO? Well you did not push correctly. Sorry not sorry, but that is how grocery should be run. FIFO should be second nature to anyone working in food. I know of stores and leaders who want to get stuff done and decide to cut corners and not have team FIFO. Big mistake.
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This is nnot unique to Target. Every retailer has 100s of outdates when resetting big sections of food. I spent a month at one national grocery store chain purging my grocery department. Record was 8 years old spices. Also got 3 years old mayonnaise. Pissed off the person who had to key it all out in a major way. Probably purged two pallets worth of product, not counting that the cereal aisle reset by someone else.

FIFO is great but there aren't hours for it. Anywhere.
 
Back when I worked at a low volume store I did a full audit of market and I found out of dates that were 7 years out of date across multiple DPCIs lol...

While shopping at a Target that was built in like 2010, I found Parmesan cheese 3+ years out of date back in 2014. I always check now at all retailers and I find out of dates at even the most well run stores with full staff that the stores are way better looking than Target at this point. Robots will fix this eventually... not at the dawn of robots in stores but maybe 10 years after whenever that is or less.
 
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@unknown If this all true your ETLs sound like real jerks. If I was you I would ask, just to verify, if they want you to set WITHOUT checking dates. Then they will have to say yes or no. They say no? Well there you go, you’ve done your parts. Then if a leader wants to jump down your back about FIFO, well you were just following direction.
I started on flow team, and when we got around to pushing market, I was told not to FIFO. That’s what TM handbook says? Well we don’t do that. I knew it wasn’t right but I was following my leader’s direction. Sounds like you’re a good TM under bad leadership. To be fair, your ETLs may have been given the same kind of direction. Who knows hi high up that BS goes.
 
Fluttervale said:
This is nnot unique to Target. Every retailer has 100s of outdates when resetting big sections of food. I spent a month at one national grocery store chain purging my grocery department. Record was 8 years old spices. Also got 3 years old mayonnaise. Pissed off the person who had to key it all out in a major way. Probably purged two pallets worth of product, not counting that the cereal aisle reset by someone else.

FIFO is great but there aren't hours for it. Anywhere.
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I worked in grocery for ten years before I started at Target. No store is perfect, but FIFO/FEFO/rotating are the essence of grocery. Not doing so is just bad for business. So to say the hours aren’t there for anyone is laughable, as that is literally what the hours are for. My snacks transition was just done, and guess what? Not even a top of 3 tier cart was filled up with expired product. This is a huge differed from years before when we were finding enough to fill multiple shopping carts.
 
CrosstrainInsane said:
@unknown If this all true your ETLs sound like real jerks. If I was you I would ask, just to verify, if they want you to set WITHOUT checking dates. Then they will have to say yes or no. They say no? Well there you go, you’ve done your parts. Then if a leader wants to jump down your back about FIFO, well you were just following direction.
I started on flow team, and when we got around to pushing market, I was told not to FIFO. That’s what TM handbook says? Well we don’t do that. I knew it wasn’t right but I was following my leader’s direction. Sounds like you’re a good TM under bad leadership. To be fair, your ETLs may have been given the same kind of direction. Who knows hi high up that BS goes.
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I'd love to feed the CEO and DTL a dinner made with the frozen chicken wings a coworker found yesterday. Current date: January 2019. They outdated July 2017. Yum.
 
STL told us that the expected speed for stocking freight in grocery is 1 box/minute with FIFO (or FEFO technically) with pushers everywhere. I know that is the standard for hardlines freight, but grocery? What's the expectation where you guys are?
 
MarketMonster said:
STL told us that the expected speed for stocking freight in grocery is 1 box/minute with FIFO (or FEFO technically) with pushers everywhere. I know that is the standard for hardlines freight, but grocery? What's the expectation where you guys are?
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I'd be like ... can you demonstrate that speed while backup cashiering?
 
CrosstrainInsane said:
I worked in grocery for ten years before I started at Target. No store is perfect, but FIFO/FEFO/rotating are the essence of grocery. Not doing so is just bad for business. So to say the hours aren’t there for anyone is laughable, as that is literally what the hours are for. My snacks transition was just done, and guess what? Not even a top of 3 tier cart was filled up with expired product. This is a huge differed from years before when we were finding enough to fill multiple shopping carts.
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Asants
 
MarketMonster said:
STL told us that the expected speed for stocking freight in grocery is 1 box/minute with FIFO (or FEFO technically) with pushers everywhere. I know that is the standard for hardlines freight, but grocery? What's the expectation where you guys are?
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Ours is 40 cartons an hour, including FIFO and complete zone. This is coming from my FBD. I hold my team to this. Do we always come out clean? Of course not. But I think it is a realistic expectation. The issues arise when leadership doesn’t recognize how much TMs might be doing thing like back up cashier or just helping guests on the sales floor.
unknown said:
I'd be like ... can you demonstrate that speed while backup cashiering?
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I get this question all the time from TMs, and it is a legitimate one. I tell my team that expect them to strive for 40 cartons an hour, so they should always maintain efficiency (this means many things). However they are still on the sales floor and guests should definitely come first. It falls on the leadership in building to work together and either make some changes to ensure that TMs pushing truck are able to stay on task as much as possible to get truck done, OR they better have a plan for the next day because truck might now get done. Can’t prioritize tasks over guests. What I am saying is that it should never fall on a TM if they are working according to best practice and doing their job. Leadership should be in tune with what is happening on the sales floor and back room at all times. This doesn’t mean babysit or micromanage everyone and everything, but be aware.
 
1 box a minute is totally different from 40 boxes an hour. And as you said, guests. The amount I often walk around helping just one guest is roughly the same distance as pfresh to lunchbox snacks and back a third of the way. How do you expect your team to do 40 boxes an hour when they get a walkie call to go from one end of the market area all the way to the other end for a guest, guest #2 spots your TM and waits patiently until guest #1 is done, wants help finding something that Google says Target carries but Target actually doesn't, leading to having to search if the item is actually in store and then having the guest argue that we must have it, and then on the way back to the task guest #3 stops the TM and asks for a box of cereal from the back room? It happens all over the rest of the store all the time, I doubt market is exempt from going back and forth a lot of guests, including a couple trips to the back room.
 
Tessa120 said:
1 box a minute is totally different from 40 boxes an hour. And as you said, guests. The amount I often walk around helping just one guest is roughly the same distance as pfresh to lunchbox snacks and back a third of the way. How do you expect your team to do 40 boxes an hour when they get a walkie call to go from one end of the market area all the way to the other end for a guest, guest #2 spots your TM and waits patiently until guest #1 is done, wants help finding something that Google says Target carries but Target actually doesn't, leading to having to search if the item is actually in store and then having the guest argue that we must have it, and then on the way back to the task guest #3 stops the TM and asks for a box of cereal from the back room? It happens all over the rest of the store all the time, I doubt market is exempt from going back and forth a lot of guests, including a couple trips to the back room.
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40 cartons per hour = 1.5 minutes per carton, so really not that different. That’s 90 long ass seconds. Some cases will take longer than that, but some won’t take half that long. So if you’re telling me that this goal is unrealistic, well we could really start a whole other thread for that debate. As for the rest of what you said, I believed I addressed that in my previous comment.
And you don’t need paint a scenario. I live and breath it with my team 5-6 days a week. Like I said, it all falls on leadership to be aware of what the teams are doing.
 
CrosstrainInsane said:
40 cartons per hour = 1.5 minutes per carton, so really not that different. That’s 90 long ass seconds. Some cases will take longer than that, but some won’t take half that long. So if you’re telling me that this goal is unrealistic, well we could really start a whole other thread for that debate. As for the rest of what you said, I believed I addressed that in my previous comment.
And you don’t need paint a scenario. I live and breath it with my team 5-6 days a week. Like I said, it all falls on leadership to be aware of what the teams are doing.
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I just love when it's broken down this way. What about 41 carrots per hour? What about 42?

As long as my focus is split 4 ways, I can't be held to any time limit.

My example: getting carts. Since we have no hours for a cart attendant, the gstl has to ask over the walkie for volunteers. You go up to get carts. Then you ride in an electric cart a guest left outside. Were talking a minimum of 20 minutes.

Then backup cashier. And there's the guest who wants help choosing a lightbulb.

So yeah, it's easy to say, x cartons an hour. But add in guest interaction, that plummets.
 
Yeah. I'm sure I'm not the only person who is working in a section near the front of the store, gets a walkie call that a guest needs help at the opposite end of softlines, the guest needs something that's not on the shelf so off to the backroom, then guest #2 spots a red shirt and needs help nearby, once that's done while en route back to my assigned duties another guest spots a red shirt and needs help in a section that has a 50/50 chance of taking me farther from my cart and duties, decent chance that any of those guests will need something off a mannequin or tracking down an obscure item in an area recently reset so I have to circle a bit or saw something on Google or another store that we don't have but insists we do or a second trip to the backroom, and it's 20 minutes later before I get back to my cart.
 
Tessa120 said:
Yeah. I'm sure I'm not the only person who is working in a section near the front of the store, gets a walkie call that a guest needs help at the opposite end of softlines, the guest needs something that's not on the shelf so off to the backroom, then guest #2 spots a red shirt and needs help nearby, once that's done while en route back to my assigned duties another guest spots a red shirt and needs help in a section that has a 50/50 chance of taking me farther from my cart and duties, decent chance that any of those guests will need something off a mannequin or tracking down an obscure item in an area recently reset so I have to circle a bit or saw something on Google or another store that we don't have but insists we do or a second trip to the backroom, and it's 20 minutes later before I get back to my cart.
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No excuses. Don't you know there's a truck to process. But guests first.
 
My store is saving payroll by having one person close all of hardlines. So, answer any phone calls for the entire section, deal with the crazy old lady guests that we get at night, backup electronics when the one closer there is doing consumer cellular, cover OPUs as needed, backup cashier, do carryouts, answer the call boxes for the entire section, make a bale when flow left without making one again, do all the reshop, cover breaks/meals for electronics, and on and on.

If they tried to get on me about speed goals for any push or pulls that I'm left to deal with, I'd have to laugh. Doesn't matter what the goal is. It's not going to happen. I don't worry about speed at all. I just get done what I can until the closing LOD calls me over the walkie and says, "Hey, seasonaldude, can I get you to transition to zoning?" With pleasure.
 
There was a guy at my store whose favorite saying was "We get paid by the hour" basically we get paid for the time we're here, not by what gets done. It used to annoy me so much whenever I heard it, it seemed so lazy. Over the past few years that phrase has started to feel more and more..correct I guess.

For the 4-8 hours that I'm on the clock I'm doing something, if I didn't get the number of vehicles they wanted pushed or amount of pogs or revisions they wanted set, oh well. It's not for lack of trying. Even on the slowest day there are still guests that need help and a random rush at the registers.
 
Sally fifos and thus only works 2 boats her entire 4 hour shift. She gets coached.

Rebecca doesn't fifo and pushes 4 boats in her 4 hour shift. She gets a raise.

Obviously fifo should be a priority, but Target just doesn't make it one. It's not an ethical failure at the store level. It's just a poorly rolled out plan.
 
CrosstrainInsane said:
40 cartons per hour = 1.5 minutes per carton, so really not that different. That’s 90 long ass seconds. Some cases will take longer than that, but some won’t take half that long. So if you’re telling me that this goal is unrealistic, well we could really start a whole other thread for that debate. As for the rest of what you said, I believed I addressed that in my previous comment.
And you don’t need paint a scenario. I live and breath it with my team 5-6 days a week. Like I said, it all falls on leadership to be aware of what the teams are doing.
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That 40 includes stocking, backstocking, zoning in the area, upper and lower shelves to the product that is being stocked and the dumping of the trash that corresponds to the pushed item. God forbid you have to pull any flex off than timeline gets even narrower beyond just guest interaction.
 
Shadowski said:
Indeed. When I have 6 hours of pull, 15 of dry freight, and only 15 hours of dry tm scheduled, things fall by the wayside. I have 5 pallets of food coming in and 5 hours of food truck scheduled. Plus the 5 for open market where he has his own cull and freshness things to do.

And they want me doing 12 step and purge of grocery areas too......

I'm told to "figure it out" despite being able to clearly state where we are and what we need minimum, otherwise things will drop at the wayside so I can get freight moved and prevent a backup.

We can date check while pushing and pulling, but things are gonna be missed. We got a red steritech visit at 8am. The things in market that contributed were out dated product. And it was just 2 items that were one day out because we were in progress doing our check and they pulled something like 3 sections ahead of my open market guy that would have been found when he got to it.

Kinda pissed about that one. I'm making them toss 3 days out now. F that, target. I'll waste your food if this is the kind of shit you're going to pull.
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Ugh, Steritech. They give me Red-Party-Conservative-Christian-Fire-and-Brimstone-Hellfire fear-based control vibes. I hope Target can get a better business partner in the future, especially as part of the company-wide modernization/store appearance update.
 
I’ve seen this for years. When there is not enough time allowed to work freight, when case freight comes in short dated and when there is a team with no leadership this will happen. Funny thing is all the flow tms were replaced to take care of the problem but in ?? years with modernization nothing appears to have improved. (Complaints about granola but applies to so much more)
 
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