Corporate Does Target truly care?

The only time I can remember anything positive resulting from the survey was years ago when we had an HR ETL who brought in an intern she knew from their college days. The intern was awful - "too good" to push truck for example. There was a lot of negative feedback that year. This was when we still had those "group chat" things and I spoke privately to the STL about it after the chat ended, which was all about the survey results and the surprise felt about them.
No clue where the intern eventually landed and that HR ETL didn't stick around either.
 
Target is a company. They are in a dog-eat-dog competitive business. Unfortunately, they are sacrificing the fundamentals which made Target so brilliantly successful for quite a few years.

IMHO, those fundamentals include:
1) Quick checkout with a real human being who helps create a low-friction purchase experience. No lengthy, long lines. Multiple checkout lanes open.
2) Uncluttered, spacious "racetrack" main aisles. No big displays blocking shoppers and their carts from savoring the total shopping experience.
3) Accurate price tags adjacent to merchandise. Expired sale tags removed immediately after sales expiration.
4) No expired food products in market. Routinely pull outdated items from the shelves, special emphasis on dairy products. No spoiled produce -- there should never ever be tacky unsightly overripe bananas, and other fruit and vegetables which are visually and obviously spoiling. Also, NO dented cans or damaged-looking cereal boxes, please!
5) Actual cleaning of the restrooms as needed during the day -- not just having somebody "check the boxes" on the restroom inspections supposedly every hour, without actually looking in depth for stuff needing attention (overflowing toilets or lack of TP, anybody?)
6) Easy-to-understand promotional sales. Clearly indicate which specific brands, sizes and styles are for SALE prices. Don't expect the guest to understand the fine-print exclusions.
7) Apparel, shoes, bedding and linens should all have price tags or bar codes attached.
8) All merchandise on the sales floor is brand-new and in undamaged packaging. Returned clothing only put out if it's literally unused. See this from the guest's perspective.
9) Low-friction guest service experience. Have enough staff available to handle busy periods at the service desk, as well as OPU and drive-up.

Target does many things very well and remains a desirable place to shop, IMHO. The problem though is that actual customers around America are becoming annoyed. Few guests have went on social media about this, but the elimination of the 1% rewards bonus for Circle users didn't help foster guest loyalty. I notice more guests seem irritated when I gotta ask if they participate in Circle, they gotta press the "Not Now" button in order to finish the purchase.

Far too many chain stores which once had been massively successful have disappeared. Linens-N-Things, Jo-Ann Fabrics, Radio Shack, Sears, K-Mart, Pier 1 Imports, The Good Guys, Computer City, Circuit City and now Rite Aid. You can't predict future success based on the past. I don't think you can replicate the way Target was before 2008 or whatever. But Target should revisit exactly what made our stores and business incredibly successful, providing a brilliant and attractive value proposition for American families and households from all walks of life -- Democrat, Republican, Socialist, straight, gay, married, divorced, single father, single mother, child, teenager, student, retiree, plumber, electrician, elementary teacher, car repair specialist, salesperson, Evangelical Christian, mainline Christian, Jewish, Mormon, Muslim, agnostic, atheist and so on. For six decades, Target has become the store of middle America's dreams, providing affordable and appealing goods. Target can't fix the problems of our larger society, they really need to recapture some of Target's original "secret sauce" while providing truly exceptional shopping experiences and staying relevant and contemporary. By focusing on the excellence of the business and less emphasis trying to appease social and political causes, Target will benefit far more Americans.

And so for your original question, "Does Target truly care?" It's a huge company and I think there is some of that in our stores today (I honestly would say that about my own store). I just don't know if the Minneapolis corporate HQ folks understand that your question is being asked by some of their own TMs, not just from guests (customers).

 
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4) No expired food products in market. Routinely pull outdated items from the shelves, special emphasis on dairy products. No spoiled produce -- there should never ever be tacky unsightly overripe bananas, and other fruit and vegetables which are visually and obviously spoiling. Also, NO dented cans or damaged-looking cereal boxes, please!
Our poor abused market puller found stuff from 2024 on the sales floor. Completely blasé about it. Ended up pulling more of the same product expired from the Backroom.
 
Our poor abused market puller found stuff from 2024 on the sales floor. Completely blasé about it. Ended up pulling more of the same product expired from the Backroom.
Anytime I get a chance to ever check expiration dates on products furthest from the front they are nearly always from 2024. Once last month I found cereal bars that had a best by date of sometime in late 2023
 
Target is a company. They are in a dog-eat-dog competitive business. Unfortunately, they are sacrificing the fundamentals which made Target so brilliantly successful for quite a few years.

IMHO, those fundamentals include:
1) Quick checkout with a real human being who helps create a low-friction purchase experience. No lengthy, long lines. Multiple checkout lanes open.
2) Uncluttered, spacious "racetrack" main aisles. No big displays blocking shoppers and their carts from savoring the total shopping experience.
3) Accurate price tags adjacent to merchandise. Expired sale tags removed immediately after sales expiration.
4) No expired food products in market. Routinely pull outdated items from the shelves, special emphasis on dairy products. No spoiled produce -- there should never ever be tacky unsightly overripe bananas, and other fruit and vegetables which are visually and obviously spoiling. Also, NO dented cans or damaged-looking cereal boxes, please!
5) Actual cleaning of the restrooms as needed during the day -- not just having somebody "check the boxes" on the restroom inspections supposedly every hour, without actually looking in depth for stuff needing attention (overflowing toilets or lack of TP, anybody?)
6) Easy-to-understand promotional sales. Clearly indicate which specific brands, sizes and styles are for SALE prices. Don't expect the guest to understand the fine-print exclusions.
7) Apparel, shoes, bedding and linens should all have price tags or bar codes attached.
8) All merchandise on the sales floor is brand-new and in undamaged packaging. Returned clothing only put out if it's literally unused. See this from the guest's perspective.
9) Low-friction guest service experience. Have enough staff available to handle busy periods at the service desk, as well as OPU and drive-up.
10) fitting rooms. Actually open with an attendant available at all times. Used to always be someone scheduled in the fitting room to keep it cleared out, and process the reshop (hang it back up neatly, fold and/or sort correctly.)

11) salesfloor. Uncluttered with uboats/flats and had actual team members available to help answer questions. Freight used to be stocked early in the morning (or overnight) vs. all day. In the past, during the day, team members zoned, helped guests, and put away reshop while teams handled POG, pricing, flow/freight etc.
 
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10) fitting rooms. Actually open with an attendant available at all times. Used to always be someone scheduled in the fitting room to keep it cleared out, and process the reshop (hang it back up neatly, fold and/or sort correctly.)

Give them a chair while at it, too.

11) salesfloor. Uncluttered with uboats/flats and had actual team members available to help answer questions. Freight used to be stocked early in the morning (or overnight) vs. all day. In the past, during the day, team members zoned, helped guests, and put away reshop while teams handled POG, pricing, flow/freight etc.
Also help with back up. I'm actually more concerned about this than I am with sco.

There used to be at least two sales floor team members who work during the day and maybe about 10 who work at night.
 
The exodus has begun at my store. For the first time in my 10+ years there, we have an awful SD. TMs have been putting up with an HR ETL no one much cares for and getting short hours. But all three of those not-great things together and some TMs have decided enough is enough.
Lost one of our best Fulfillment TMs and my own TL quit within the last two days. I know of one TM who's been offered another job and will almost certainly take it. Another Fulfillment TM is looking. I heard that the Fulfillment TM who already left talked to someone at the district level, warning them that a lot of TMs were unhappy with the SD and were talking about leaving.
It's going to be an interesting time.
 
Target absolutely does not care.

Target is in the multi decade process of going out of business and this is something I've been saying for about 10-15 years. There is no real business strategy other than to cut costs, which eats into store brand and morale and leads to further decreased sales. This is what happens when MBAs take over companies that don't care about long term success and or they don't understand what made the company successful in the first place. They might not end up closing until 2040 or 2050, who knows when. Maybe 2060. Is it even important what the date is? Does anyone truly believe Target will still be here in 100 years? Wal-Mart will. Target? No. They aren't going to stick around because of blind greed at the top of the corporation. Ulrich was the last time the company was truly expanding. I fully understand that e-commerce has eaten into sales and consumer shopping habits have changed but the only strategy can't just simply be to cut payroll over and over, as that very obviously only ends one way.

Steinhaffel and Cornell were absolute disasters for long term success regardless of external industry wide pressures.

Gregg Steinhaffel? Majored in business.
Brian Cornell? Majored in business.
I read that Michael Fiddelke is next in line. And guess what? Majored in business, lol.

Ulrich is the last CEO that they had that did not major in business and truly understood how important the in store experience is to differentiate Target from Wal-Mart.

Shareholders won't accept lesser short term profits in the form of increased payroll expenses. Target is fucked and they are in the same slow death spiral they've been in for 15 years.

It is a truly sad state of affairs that every time I go into a Wal-Mart, which I hate btw, it is a better experience than Target both on the floor and at checkout. Insane.
 
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