COVID-19 During emergency, suspend the price-match policy, and other suggestions

[jackandcat]

Dear Corporate, here are some suggestions for best practices during an emergency:

1. It's entirely reasonable to suspend price matching. Price match is a courtesy offered to guests, it's not an entitlement during a national emergency. The policy as written does allow it to be suspended for business reasons, and in emergency situations like this it takes up excessive amounts of time which (under the circumstances) needs to be focused on the well-being of ALL guests.

2. Please suspend goals or quotas placed on stores for Redcard signups. With millions of Americans facing actual or imminent job loss, very few guests want to apply for a new credit card or debit card. This does not improve the guest experience. Don't waste the precious goodwill of our guests at this time of unprecedented stress.

3. Please disable the compulsory Circle signin/optout on the checkout POS. Once again, don't waste the time of our TMs and stressed-out guests.

4. Disable the cash-back feature at self checkout lanes. This is because under periods of heavy usage, our SCO machines are occasionally prone to running out of currency or coins or malfunctioning. Every time this happens, it's a time-consuming interruption to completing guest transactions. Under emergency conditions where we may have moments of abnormally long lines, why run the risk that an SCO machine is out-of-order for 20 to 30 minutes (or longer depending on staffing) due to this easily-avoidable issue.

Dear Corporate, please take these suggestions to heart. These will reduce potential anxiety and friction at the checkout lanes, SCO and service desk. We want guests to have positive memories of shopping with us during this national emergency, rather than remembering having to stand in line for 15 minutes while another guest made ridiculous price-match demands with Amazon or being asked to apply for a Redcard the day after they lost their job.

 

[bikebryan]

Federal government agencies are suspending things - their employee's rights. Very aggravating.

 

[fox80]

They have already disabled the Circle sign out on the checkout POS last week.

 

[desertcoyote]

I was told they suspend RedCard goals a couple of days ago. In fact not one Leader said a thing about RedCards all day yesterday.

 

[Tarshitsucks]

Good thing that these are being suspended. Nobody wants to waste time with all that nonsense guest or team member.

 

[mizl]

They can't eliminate RedCard goals but they have been "significantly reduced", I believe the communication said.

 

[jackandcat]

They have already disabled the Circle sign out on the checkout POS last week.

Not at our store. We still have to prompt most guests to login or skip. It's a PIA.

 

[jackandcat]

Price match still ought to be suspended, excepting target.com. We are in an emergency.

 

[daemon]

They have already disabled the Circle sign out on the checkout POS last week.

Yea, I noticed total clears the screen. Saddly other issues have cropped up like if you hit total while they are entering their number, it moves on without accepting it. Also the patch from a couple weeks ago introduced that it will kick out all cards entered while the circle screen is still up. Can't tell you how many times I had to tell the guest not to put their card away. That is wasting time.

 

[greatteam]

I disagree about the price matching. At this point, if someone finds the item cheaper somewhere else then we should be giving it to them for that. People are losing their jobs and income, it’s not a good time for us to demand they pay full price. Besides, most people aren’t even thinking about price match because their only concern is making sure they get the item.

 

[Poofresh]

I don't know why but I think as food person, we should limit at least TWO per guest. And One for the important ones, eggs, milk, rice, meat.

 

[SallyHoover]

Not at our store. We still have to prompt most guests to login or skip. It's a PIA.

I just automatically do a inquiry/back and then if they ask to put in their phone number I use f7. I will stop if I get counselled on it.

 

[RTCry]

Follow Costco’s lead and modify the return policy.

 

[jackandcat]

I disagree about the price matching. At this point, if someone finds the item cheaper somewhere else then we should be giving it to them for that. People are losing their jobs and income, it’s not a good time for us to demand they pay full price. Besides, most people aren’t even thinking about price match because their only concern is making sure they get the item.

During an emergency, it makes sense to make whatever small margin can be earned to cover the increased costs of doing business. If a guest is going to nit-pick over finding an item cheaper during an actual emergency, then tough luck. If supplies are extremely limited on an item, and some guest decides they don't want to pay the posted price, someone else will buy it when there's an emergency. Another situation where I can see suspending price match is during an extreme heat wave, why the h**l are we price-matching on fans and air conditioners when plenty of folks will pay the everyday value price. I for one am fed up with the entitlement mentality of a handful of so-called guests, fortunately they are extremely small in numbers, but when there's an emergency, why should we pander to their selfishness and self-greed over other guests who are desperate to get things they need for their families?

 

[jackandcat]

The Target Circle payment-pad prompt still is popping up. If it's been disabled at your store, you are lucky.

 

[Poofresh]

Suspend returns so people can stop hoarding. Have cashiers inspect every single product for damages or opened and tell costumer if they still wanna buy it because we will not be accepting any returns until summer. This will curve traffic, hoarding, and bringing back products potentially infected.
Albertsons also stopped accepting BYOB. They must buy a new bag or bag their own products

 

[FlowTeamChick]

Really hope we go along with Costco on that return policy. (Rice? Are people buying 25# bags of rice - or however large their bags are?)

 

[Nauzhror]

Dear Corporate, here are some suggestions for best practices during an emergency:

1. It's entirely reasonable to suspend price matching. Price match is a courtesy offered to guests, it's not an entitlement during a national emergency. The policy as written does allow it to be suspended for business reasons, and in emergency situations like this it takes up excessive amounts of time which (under the circumstances) needs to be focused on the well-being of ALL guests.

2. Please suspend goals or quotas placed on stores for Redcard signups. With millions of Americans facing actual or imminent job loss, very few guests want to apply for a new credit card or debit card. This does not improve the guest experience. Don't waste the precious goodwill of our guests at this time of unprecedented stress.

3. Please disable the compulsory Circle signin/optout on the checkout POS. Once again, don't waste the time of our TMs and stressed-out guests.

4. Disable the cash-back feature at self checkout lanes. This is because under periods of heavy usage, our SCO machines are occasionally prone to running out of currency or coins or malfunctioning. Every time this happens, it's a time-consuming interruption to completing guest transactions. Under emergency conditions where we may have moments of abnormally long lines, why run the risk that an SCO machine is out-of-order for 20 to 30 minutes (or longer depending on staffing) due to this easily-avoidable issue.

Dear Corporate, please take these suggestions to heart. These will reduce potential anxiety and friction at the checkout lanes, SCO and service desk. We want guests to have positive memories of shopping with us during this national emergency, rather than remembering having to stand in line for 15 minutes while another guest made ridiculous price-match demands with Amazon or being asked to apply for a Redcard the day after they lost their job.

I see no reason to suspend price matching. It doesn't take long at all. It doesn't add stress and anxiety. Stress would be arguing with guests and telling them that that we're currently not doing price matches. You'd spend more time arguing with guests about why we weren't doing the price match they wanted than we'd ever have spent just doing it for them.

The Circle thing should be turned off, but it's not because of the time it takes to hit "Skip", it's because we shouldn't be requiring every guest touch a touchscreen that every other guest has also touched.

There's also no reason to disable cash back. Filling the SCO machines once or twice a day is not a time consuming process.

 

[greatteam]

During an emergency, it makes sense to make whatever small margin can be earned to cover the increased costs of doing business. If a guest is going to nit-pick over finding an item cheaper during an actual emergency, then tough luck. If supplies are extremely limited on an item, and some guest decides they don't want to pay the posted price, someone else will buy it when there's an emergency. Another situation where I can see suspending price match is during an extreme heat wave, why the h**l are we price-matching on fans and air conditioners when plenty of folks will pay the everyday value price. I for one am fed up with the entitlement mentality of a handful of so-called guests, fortunately they are extremely small in numbers, but when there's an emergency, why should we pander to their selfishness and self-greed over other guests who are desperate to get things they need for their families?

Because to do that is to hold the consumer hostage. Target would get bad press for putting their profit over the needs of their guest, and the brand would take a hit leading to distrust and decreased hours and pay.
It’s called doing the right thing. Maximizing profit during an emergency never the right thing, taking care of people is.

 

[Tessa120]

The only reason for disabling price match is because the speed at which items become out of stock means there's no easy way to ensure an item is available to buy.

But there's reason now to suspend that part of the rule (within reason), and keeping price matching reassures people that no price gouging is creeping in.

 

[Reshop Ninja]

• Limit all items in store to two per guest.
• Suspend INF metrics until supplies stabilize or until they fix the God damn inventory system.
• Get more cashiers up front for stores that still have heavy traffic.
• Suspend save the sale metrics for Style and Electronics. Traffic in Style has greatly dwindled in many stores and Electronics will likely follow.

 

[SallyHoover]

The Target Circle payment-pad prompt still is popping up. If it's been disabled at your store, you are lucky.

It still pops up but if you press total, it will disappear. They don't have to tap on skip. Don't forget if they ask to put in the phone number and you already pushed total you can go back into the order then F7 and the phone prompt will re-appear.

 

[JAShands]

The MyCheckout devices are not to be used to save the sale. That was an all store commutation. Again, it’s to eliminate multiple people touching things.

 

[JAShands]

It still pops up but if you press total, it will disappear. They don't have to tap on skip. Don't forget if they ask to put in the phone number and you already pushed total you can go back into the order then F7 and the phone prompt will re-appear.

I’ve walked several guests on how to add their receipt to the app. If they think something was on promo with Circle I ask them to ballpark the amount, round it up, and store coupon it. Makes them happy and gets them out the door. Oh and of course educated them just a little bit more 😉

 

[Louiethe3]

The even number registers still require the guest to press/type something on the keypad in the odd number ones you can just total through it.