Corporate Dear Corporate...

[greatteam]

Dear Corporate,
FFS, stop changing hours with zero notice. You do realize that the schedule was made two weeks ago and when you suddenly keep us open later, we have nobody staffed to run the store that late? And it's not like guests know we're open that late, either. Give us at least a week's warning, wouldja? Then we might stand a chance of having at least a few folks there past 10/11pm.

Yeah, that one's not on corporate. That one's on your SD and HR trying to make payroll look good on schedule post day, completely relying on guilting people into staying the extra hour because "UGH! They changed our hours unexpectedly AGAIN!"

 

[greatteam]

Dear corporate, 90 minute goal times suck, oh and fuck you.

Dear Corporate,

How about we duct tape you to a treadmill set on high speed for an hour and a half and see how you feel?

Also, you have 14 registers with 14 cashiers because it's busy and a lot of people are buying stuff. You have 40-50 people in fulfillment to pick online orders and drive ups because there is high volume. Yet you have 2 people scheduled to handle giving all of those orders out and to run out into the 10 drive up spots that are constantly full. You have those same 2 people scheduled to handle: all of the returns, quarantine reshop, sorting reshop, playing operator, teaching old people how to download an app for their coupons, fixing the mistakes that your register system isn't programmed to take care of, keeping the damn desk looking like a Ritz Carlton (fun fact: it looks more like a Nature Valley granola bar), processing defectives, covering the lanes when there's not a GSTL or SE-ETL, and I could go on. OPEN THE DAMN POCKETBOOKS FOR THE SERVICE DESK, or separate OPU and Drive Up from the desk completely.

 

[jackandcat]

Dear Corporate, why can't you press your vendors to use decent-sized, properly printed barcodes - preferably against a light background? This problem includes Target-owned brands. It wastes a huge amount of time every business day when Advocates can't scan these products. It may be a couple of minutes here or there trying to read a UPC code from a very, very dark label or simply trying to find a product on our Zebras, but multiply this by tens of thousands of Advocates at Target stores across the country, each and every day!

You'd improve the guest experience as well as improve operational efficiency (i.e. payroll costs) by knocking some sense into your vendors on this issue of properly printing scannable UPC barcodes.

 

[BurgerBob]

Apple and Beats i am looking at you

 

[FlowTeamChick]

Can anyone explain why corporate suddenly hates putting things on clearance? Also, why did they decide to get rid of the clearance pricing (.98, etc.) and just keep clearance at a regular price (.99)?

I'd like to know this too. We have guests who really like to shop those clearance end caps, especially these days when so many people are having to really watch their budgets with Covid lay-offs and job cutbacks.
Happened to find a bunch of stuff yesterday that had gone salvage - never came up in my price change list to tag for clearance. It was NOP and I'd flexed it in, hoping it'd sell down. It did a little, but not enough. Am I supposed to scan through all the NOP stuff every week? Doesn't seem like the best use of time.

 

[IWishIKnew]

Dear Corporate, why can't you press your vendors to use decent-sized, properly printed barcodes - preferably against a light background? This problem includes Target-owned brands. It wastes a huge amount of time every business day when Advocates can't scan these products. It may be a couple of minutes here or there trying to read a UPC code from a very, very dark label or simply trying to find a product on our Zebras, but multiply this by tens of thousands of Advocates at Target stores across the country, each and every day!

You'd improve the guest experience as well as improve operational efficiency (i.e. payroll costs) by knocking some sense into your vendors on this issue of properly printing scannable UPC barcodes.

We tried out Aldi for the first time recently, and OMG do I have some serious barcode envy. Long barcodes that stretch all the way across the back of the box. Barcodes on every side of a box. Long barcodes on several sides of a box. Heaven!

We have guests who really like to shop those clearance end caps

Clearance always does super well at my store, and the dearth of clearance in the last, oh, year has not been good for us. Especially all of the BTC shit taking up huge amounts of space in the backroom. We're not supposed to have stuff sitting in the back room, but we're not supposed to flex, and the stuff hasn't even gone DCODE let alone clearance...WTF are we supposed to do with it?

(we're flexing it out where we can, but there's limited space even for that. ugh)

 

[Rarejem]

I'd like to know this too. We have guests who really like to shop those clearance end caps, especially these days when so many people are having to really watch their budgets with Covid lay-offs and job cutbacks.
Happened to find a bunch of stuff yesterday that had gone salvage - never came up in my price change list to tag for clearance. It was NOP and I'd flexed it in, hoping it'd sell down. It did a little, but not enough. Am I supposed to scan through all the NOP stuff every week? Doesn't seem like the best use of time.

Have you store tied it? I found that when the NOP was tied to a location it dropped into my price change.

 

[Dream Baby]

A Home Depot near me has lockers that customer's can pick up their orders that are away from the check lanes and customer service. You just walk in and scan your phone or type the password in and get your order. It's great for small items.

The Walmart nearby has a kiosk with a waiting area (away from the cash registers). An associate then gets your item from you from a lock box or storage area.

Neither of them have to be manned the majority of the time.

 

[FlowTeamChick]

Have you store tied it? I found that when the NOP was tied to a location it dropped into my price change.

Yes, I store-tie everything I flex out and sometimes it does drop into price change. Having it tied helps me find it again when the price changes, but that doesn't always seem to be a trigger. So annoying. Doesn't seem to matter if it's product we ordinarily stock or if it's stuff the DC sends us by mistake.

 

[MrPerfectNot]

Hey Corp - need a way to identify "who is working which cart" for OPU and SFS, especially with just 90 mins to complete OPU. Like provide the initials of the TM beside the cart name when looking at active carts. Something like this would help on days where we have 15 OPU carts going and we are calling on a walkie trying to find out who just paused "QB" with 13 mins left and 5 items unpicked.

 

[MrPerfectNot]

Hey Corp - need a way to identify "who is working which cart" for OPU and SFS, especially with just 90 mins to complete OPU. Like provide the initials of the TM beside the cart name when looking at active carts. Something like this would help on days where we have 15 OPU carts going and we are calling on a walkie trying to find out who just paused "QB" with 13 mins left and 5 items unpicked.

Oh, AND mark which are fresh vs regular OPU so we can keep better track in managing the balance of staffing.

 

[Dead and Khaki]

And make it so we can finish carts paused by other people without suiciding our own numbers.

 

[IWishIKnew]

Hey Corp - need a way to identify "who is working which cart" for OPU and SFS, especially with just 90 mins to complete OPU. Like provide the initials of the TM beside the cart name when looking at active carts. Something like this would help on days where we have 15 OPU carts going and we are calling on a walkie trying to find out who just paused "QB" with 13 mins left and 5 items unpicked.

I cannot for the life of me understand why this isn't a thing. All I hear all night these days is "who has cart XX?" and it's fucking annoying. You know damn well that they could show that info (maybe lock it to TL and above or something if you don't want others to know, but really, who gives a fuck?), why make it so painful that we can see cart activity but not who is assigned to the cart?

 

[IWishIKnew]

Side question--why do they give the ability to pause carts if "nobody is to pause a cart for any reason?"

Either you give people time to help guests and hunt around for items before INFing them or you give them the ability to pause their batch so they don't wreck their numbers. Can't really have it both ways, unless you have people who aren't on a timer on call to help find things or help guests when the pickers get stopped.

 

[Bosch]

Side question--why do they give the ability to pause carts if "nobody is to pause a cart for any reason?"

Either you give people time to help guests and hunt around for items before INFing them or you give them the ability to pause their batch so they don't wreck their numbers. Can't really have it both ways, unless you have people who aren't on a timer on call to help find things or help guests when the pickers get stopped.

Yep it is so bad on the radio with the constant micromanaging. Who has cart XX, why are you paused? And it is on repeat constantly. Heaven forbid you need a bathroom break..

 

[seasonaldude]

Side question--why do they give the ability to pause carts if "nobody is to pause a cart for any reason?"

Either you give people time to help guests and hunt around for items before INFing them or you give them the ability to pause their batch so they don't wreck their numbers. Can't really have it both ways, unless you have people who aren't on a timer on call to help find things or help guests when the pickers get stopped.

Pausing a cart does nothing for your numbers. The productivity clock keeps on ticking unless the batch takes over two hours to pick, in which case it doesn't count. Pausing is important so we can glance at the queue when needed.

 

[IWishIKnew]

Oh, ok. Then why is it such a big deal when a cart is paused?

 

[seasonaldude]

Oh, ok. Then why is it such a big deal when a cart is paused?

I don't know. It's not a problem at my store as long as you don't abandon it.

 

[Black Sheep 214]

Dear corporate, I don’t know what the deal is with “this item can’t be shipped to your zip code” (which seems to apply to a high percentage of items lately), but my zip code is not exactly in a remote area at the end of the earth that can only be reached by dog sled or parachute drop. The Postal Service, UPS and Fex-Ex deliver here every weekday, so it seems strange that you can’t ship a package here through one of them, since Walmart and Amazon have no problem with it. It wouldn’t surprise me if a lot of red card holders (you know us, the guests who got the card for the free shipping) don’t appreciate your non-shipping policy, but I bet Walmart and Amazon do...

 

[commiecorvus]

Dear corporate, I don’t know what the deal is with “this item can’t be shipped to your zip code” (which seems to apply to a high percentage of items lately), but my zip code is not exactly in a remote area at the end of the earth that can only be reached by dog sled or parachute drop. The Postal Service, UPS and Fex-Ex deliver here every weekday, so it seems strange that you can’t ship a package here through one of them, since Walmart and Amazon have no problem with it. It wouldn’t surprise me if a lot of red card holders (you know us, the guests who got the card for the free shipping) don’t appreciate your non-shipping policy, but I bet Walmart and Amazon do...

Try living in Alaska.
Free shipping takes on a whole new meaning when you live up here, like it just isn't.
We actually get people saying we are part of the United States.

 

[Black Sheep 214]

Try living in Alaska.
Free shipping takes on a whole new meaning when you live up here, like it just isn't.
We actually get people saying we are part of the United States.

Sorry you don’t get free shipping in Alaska, I didn’t realize. Sure would be a budget buster for me.

 

[CosmicFish]

Hey Corp - need a way to identify "who is working which cart" for OPU and SFS, especially with just 90 mins to complete OPU. Like provide the initials of the TM beside the cart name when looking at active carts. Something like this would help on days where we have 15 OPU carts going and we are calling on a walkie trying to find out who just paused "QB" with 13 mins left and 5 items unpicked

At my store, we routinely do this for OPU carts. When a TM starts an OPU batch they name the cart SHPFirstnameInitial,LastnameInitial so for example, Joe Smith would be SHPJS. Helps us keep track of who is doing what. For SFS we have a yellow legal pad hanging up on the wall and every Fulfillment TM is required to write down their name, the cart they are using and the time they started their batch. So Bob Smith would log, Bob Smith, SHPQA, 10:15am. This helps the captains and TLs keep track of who is doing what and it lets the packing TMs know who picked the cart they are packing in the event any items are missing. "Hey Ann Smith, the Star Wars Lego you scanned into SHPQB isn't here - what do you know about that?"

That being said, it doesn't sound like to much of a programming enhancement to be able to add initials to any cart, SFS or OPU.

 

[JiJi]

At my store, we routinely do this for OPU carts. When a TM starts an OPU batch they name the cart SHPFirstnameInitial,LastnameInitial so for example, Joe Smith would be SHPJS. Helps us keep track of who is doing what. For SFS we have a yellow legal pad hanging up on the wall and every Fulfillment TM is required to write down their name, the cart they are using and the time they started their batch. So Bob Smith would log, Bob Smith, SHPQA, 10:15am. This helps the captains and TLs keep track of who is doing what and it lets the packing TMs know who picked the cart they are packing in the event any items are missing. "Hey Ann Smith, the Star Wars Lego you scanned into SHPQB isn't here - what do you know about that?"

That being said, it doesn't sound like to much of a programming enhancement to be able to add initials to any cart, SFS or OPU.

We pick and scan in our own carts at my store.
Though, I kind of want to give your method a try.

 

[KarmaToBurn]

Dear Corporate..A 4am or later unload do NOT work in all stores. It might work in smaller Targets but SuperTargets need to be overnight. Modernization does NOT work in any size store. So man-up, admit you made a mistake, and let us fix the mess so we can get back to what works.

It'll never happen because all the suckup DSs tell them everything is working just fine. No chutzpah in this company, just a bunch of snivelling....

 

[nicnispa106]

Quit making style 1 for 1s so awful that I have to manually pick the stuff. Why don't you just pull what needs to be pulled!?!?