Archived Empty Shelves

[Bosch]

Personally, I've stopped trying because I know I can't finish everything. I pick one task at a time, sorry Target. Pulls first, occasionally mixed in with a reshop cart (after break or whatever), THEN zoning...sometimes I don't even get to the reshop.

The counts being wrong in the system is aggravating. I had an OPU yesterday that said we had 8 on floor, 0 in back. I go to the floor location - nothing there. Nothing in the backroom. So I had to INF it. Saturday this happened for someone else, and the guest put us through the mill because she didn't want the item shipped to her. (deodorant that was on clearance, and she mistakenly thought it would be shipped to Target so she'd have to come back.) You can cancel the order in the email, but you also get guests like this who misunderstand and yell at us about it.

This is why I tell TMs on the floor to first check the sales floor location and then see if it's located in the back. I ignore the "count on hand" in the Zebra because it's rarely accurate. If it says 11 on hand with no backroom locations, it's wrong. If it says some on hand, it means it came in, but is sitting on a vehicle waiting to be worked by someone who will get to it in three or four days since there aren't hours.

Story of my life.

 

[BackroomAlpha]

I need TMs like you

 

[Logo]

"Truck team" wouldn't be pushing domestics or furnishings as they are priority 2.
If they are pushing anything it would p1 merchandise. And all of that is changing....

 

[Black Sheep 214]

Can’t believe the empty shelves at a neighboring Target, especially in market. Went in to buy two food items and they were out of one and had only one package of the other that was set to expire. I should just go straight to the grocery store since I end up going there anyway. This Target used to be the pride of the district, well zoned and always filled to the max, now it is just a shitshow with empty shelves that can’t keep an OPU order safe for a few hours without losing it. Between losing three top-notch ETLs and implementing Modernization I’d say it was the disgrace of the district, except my store is just as bad, and they still keep cutting hours...🙄

 

[Overadecade]

I got sick and tired of people walking all the way over to my workcenter to complain about out of stocks in Market on some basic food staples, so my last closing shift I went over there, audited things people are asking for, and pulled the batch.
A significant amount of what I was pulling was out of date, so that indicates where we're at with filling our shelves...

 

[Backroom81]

I should just go straight to the grocery store since I end up going there anyway.

That's exactly what I did and it was my final straw. I hadn't needed the job in years but I kept it around because saving 10% on groceries (and 5% debit card) was pretty nice. Making the extra trip to a different store was not worth it to me.

I got sick and tired of people walking all the way over to my workcenter to complain about out of stocks in Market on some basic food staples, so my last closing shift I went over there, audited things people are asking for, and pulled the batch.

I hope you're referring to perishable goods because it would be sad if it was dry. Dry foods tend to last between 6 months to a year and with a good replenishment system (which Target hasn't had since they stopped manual ordering), should rarely go out of date.

 

[GoodyNN]

Dry foods tend to last between 6 months to a year and with a good replenishment system (which Target hasn't had since they stopped manual ordering), should rarely go out of date.

And yet.... Early on in my time with Spot, so about 2.5 years ago, I was assigned by my GSTL to go through the spice racks for outdates after a guest returned a bottle of garlic powder that had turned into a solid cake in the jar and had expired 3 months previously but was purchased that morning. And came up with half a handbasket full of product from two sections.

 

[PJ5]

The new process is not working & it will never work. Guests come to purchase merchandise but Target gave up on stocking the shelves or any of the other processes that keep a business running smoothly. The expectation that one tm can effectively handle all these tasks means none of the tasks will be performed efficiently. Worst of all, employees stop caring if they know the company has unreasonable expectations and they don't care either. Not great by 8 and not great by 8 the next morning either.

I don’t care what anyone in a corporate suit says, you run people ragged with unrealistic expectations then blame them if they cannot comply and their morale and care put into the work goes down. the money that many companies save by cutting employees and hours only makes them lose that money or more in the long run from lost customers.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

When I go through market to buy certain items. I have to used my zebra on the audit function to get them in stock common items that everyone gets.

 

[SigningLady]

If it says 11 on hand with no backroom locations, it's wrong.

This statement is wrong. Having 11 on hand of something with no backroom locations can mean a lot of things. It could be on a pull waiting to be worked, on a uboat off the truck, on a pallet of transition not worked, on a vehicle waiting to be backstocked, on a shelf somewhere else because someone wasn't paying attention, flexed out somewhere else without store tying to the location it was placed. Depending on the item, it might all be in a guest's cart about to be purchased. Maybe it was part of a MIR or recall and was pulled off the shelf but hasn't been taken out of the system yet.

 

[band_rules16]

This statement is wrong.

You could be right. But in my experience, things like 0 on floor + 0 in back (87 on hand) usually means we don't have it. BUT if it's sitting on a vehicle, I'm supposed to chase back to the backroom and dig through all the vehicles and pallets to find the item? I mean, yes, if it's like toothpaste and there's a pull for HBA sitting there, sure I'll do it. But if there's just pallets and pallets...no.

Vendor product is another one. Milk, for instance, is never located. I had to rip through a dairy pallet with the market TM to look for organic milk that we ended up not having. Had a TM looking for Doritos and it said 11 on hand...there wasn't any. (If I'm mistaken, Doritos are vendor, right? I'm not a market TM.) A lot of vendor product ISN'T located, and I will go back and look in where it's supposed to be for it...but if it's not there, it's not there.

In a perfect world, we could go hunt this down. We'd have time and enough people to work product, answer guest requests, etc. etc. etc. I'm usually the first to go pull something from the back. I'm all for it. But I can't waste 20 minutes of my time (and the guest's) if it's not located or in an obvious spot (like from the truck, etc.) and then not find it.

 

[seasonaldude]

If it's on a pull or truck vehicle that hasn't been pushed out, it shouldn't be saying 0 on floor 0 in back (50 on hand). If the floor capacity is 12, for example, it will say 12 on floor 0 in back (50 on hand). The system assumes that everything is pushed to the floor immediately and accurately. Of course, we all know that doesn't happen and that counts can get wildly off, but if your device says 0 on floor you can go back and check vehicles. You're more likely to find it on a vehicle waiting to be backstocked than pushed though for everything but softlines.

 

[Dead and Khaki]

0 on floor, 0 in back, shit-tons on hand is code for "shipper."

 

[SigningLady]

You could be right. But in my experience, things like 0 on floor + 0 in back (87 on hand) usually means we don't have it. BUT if it's sitting on a vehicle, I'm supposed to chase back to the backroom and dig through all the vehicles and pallets to find the item? I mean, yes, if it's like toothpaste and there's a pull for HBA sitting there, sure I'll do it. But if there's just pallets and pallets...no.

Vendor product is another one. Milk, for instance, is never located. I had to rip through a dairy pallet with the market TM to look for organic milk that we ended up not having. Had a TM looking for Doritos and it said 11 on hand...there wasn't any. (If I'm mistaken, Doritos are vendor, right? I'm not a market TM.) A lot of vendor product ISN'T located, and I will go back and look in where it's supposed to be for it...but if it's not there, it's not there.

In a perfect world, we could go hunt this down. We'd have time and enough people to work product, answer guest requests, etc. etc. etc. I'm usually the first to go pull something from the back. I'm all for it. But I can't waste 20 minutes of my time (and the guest's) if it's not located or in an obvious spot (like from the truck, etc.) and then not find it.

I absolutely agree about not wasting time looking for something you won't find. It helps that I've worked Plano for a good decade so I know what things to look for and where I might reasonably find them. Most TMs don't have that experience. I won't tear apart pallets in search of anything even when I KNOW it is on there unless I know EXACTLY where it is. Easter candy for example, had a lady last week wanting the candy pictured in the ad and we didn't have it stocked yet. I told her we'd have it out by the end of the week but we couldn't look thru 6+ pallets for it that day.

Vendor product is a whole other beast. I never go look for that either. Unless I know the vendor just had a delivery and that's only for pop. Otherwise the guest gets told the vendor hasn't been in to stock it yet.

And @Dead and Khaki is so right- it is probably on a shipper that no one will find for another 3 months when it goes clearance, lol. We had a very pissed off Hot Wheels guest a couple years ago complain that we had over a hundred cars on hand and why were all the pegs empty for weeks? Got my STL to put him in place and then later that same day, I was in the back, looked up and saw 3 Hot Wheels sidecap boxes up on a pallet, not located. <face palm>

 

[band_rules16]

If it's on a pull or truck vehicle that hasn't been pushed out, it shouldn't be saying 0 on floor 0 in back (50 on hand). If the floor capacity is 12, for example, it will say 12 on floor 0 in back (50 on hand). The system assumes that everything is pushed to the floor immediately and accurately. Of course, we all know that doesn't happen and that counts can get wildly off, but if your device says 0 on floor you can go back and check vehicles. You're more likely to find it on a vehicle waiting to be backstocked than pushed though for everything but softlines.

I thought if it says "some on hand", that they're on a vehicle and just came in from the truck. I could be wrong though. For fun, y'all should check on how many bananas you have on hand. We're at -249,000. (I can't take credit for that...Target subreddit...)

0 on floor, 0 in back, shit-tons on hand is code for "shipper."

THIS. Found a holiday shipper of Chapstick towards the end of January. That was fun to break apart. Had to salvage the holiday ones out and make a sidecap of the rest. My TL was not happy when we found that thing in the back.

 

[seasonaldude]

I thought if it says "some on hand", that they're on a vehicle and just came in from the truck

No, the system has no way of knowing for certain when an item is pushed from the truck to the floor so when it's received on the truck the on floor count is updated to capacity. Any excess is just listed as on hand until it's put in a backroom location. At least that's how it's supposed to work. It's not exactly an error-proof system though.

 

[Tessa120]

It used to be that on hand meant didn't exist. The last few months though I'm finding a lot of clothes that say "0 on floor, 0 in back (1 on hand)". It went from it didn't exist to decent chance it exists very suddenly. Anyone know why that would change?

 

[seasonaldude]

It used to be that on hand meant didn't exist. The last few months though I'm finding a lot of clothes that say "0 on floor, 0 in back (1 on hand)". It went from it didn't exist to decent chance it exists very suddenly. Anyone know why that would change?

I've been trying to piece that together. I believe it's related to the idea that softlines should push everything, not backstock anything and just leave any excess on their vehicles in the back to be worked again the next day. I'm not really certain though and I can't figure out what the overally inventory management is, but then the only time I have a need to research softlines counts is when I can't find something on the floor for flex fill. Typically, I can find the style, just not in the size that was ordered. That's when it will read 0 on floor 0 in back (1 on hand). The other day I needed a large sweater. The only size of this sweater on the floor was a small. Every other size had those counts and there were none for all of them in the back on softlines' vehicles.

It's aggravating as there doesn't seem to be anyway to stop guests from ordering certain sizes until someone tries it and flex has to INF it. If we have it, the assumption appears to be that we have it in all sizes until someone tells the inventory system otherwise. My perspective is limited here though and there might be a lot more going on that I'm not aware of.

 

[jenna]

It used to be that on hand meant didn't exist. The last few months though I'm finding a lot of clothes that say "0 on floor, 0 in back (1 on hand)". It went from it didn't exist to decent chance it exists very suddenly. Anyone know why that would change?

Maybe RFID has something to do with the OH count? The RFID wand has found the item (or at least the tag for the item) in the store? I am not exactly sure how that technology works and/or affects OH.

 

[Tessa120]

The only big change around the same time was doing our own audits by the day shift. Speed is preferred over scouring the area; the first couple times I did audits I was told that I was taking too long because I searched in all hiding places rather than just the obvious ones, and that if I missed something it would be corrected in future audits. Would that change the "on floor" number to zero if the person couldn't find it? I was told it only changed the "(on hand)" number to zero.

 

[jarman]

Well Its been a couple a months since I wrote about empty shelves. Its gotten a little better. The areas that were always empty are starting to get paid a little more attention to. closing manager got them to give me more hours to take care of some of the out of stock issues. Its a good start. But we definatley need more hours to fill the shelves. These 4 hour shifts are not enough. They still say hours depends on sale of my department. Well my department is now up 30%. I have got an extra 6 hours a week. I wish they had a full 40 to 50 hour work week to fully keep the shelves stocked. I don't mind the low pay I just want hours. I want my target to be #1 in the district. I keep bugging the hell out them about these issues everyday. they started letting me create my own batches now in the sections that are out and audit. Things are looking better but be have got long road ahead and I like a challenge.

 

[spottymcspot]

I thought if it says "some on hand", that they're on a vehicle and just came in from the truck. I could be wrong though. For fun, y'all should check on how many bananas you have on hand. We're at -249,000. (I can't take credit for that...Target subreddit...)



THIS. Found a holiday shipper of Chapstick towards the end of January. That was fun to break apart. Had to salvage the holiday ones out and make a sidecap of the rest. My TL was not happy when we found that thing in the back.

Omg. This damn chapstick shipper. We kept getting sfs orders for the holiday chapsticks. Said we had millions on hand. Could never find the damn thing. Until we did; unlocated in the disaster that is our backroom. We INF'd so many peppermint chapsticks.

 

[Logo]

That's exactly what I did and it was my final straw. I hadn't needed the job in years but I kept it around because saving 10% on groceries (and 5% debit card) was pretty nice. Making the extra trip to a different store was not worth it to me.


I hope you're referring to perishable goods because it would be sad if it was dry. Dry foods tend to last between 6 months to a year and with a good replenishment system (which Target hasn't had since they stopped manual ordering), should rarely go out of date.

You haven't shopped in my store then! Holy heck ever since we stopped freshness Fridays it's horrible and extremely embarrassing when a guest finds outdated dry products!!

 

[band_rules16]

You haven't shopped in my store then! Holy heck ever since we stopped freshness Fridays it's horrible and extremely embarrassing when a guest finds outdated dry products!!

It's my goal if I ever get to market to check dates and rotate product. But being that "business needs" are for me to cashier, I'll never land in market.

But even the grocery store in my neighborhood has outdated or close to outdated product. I'm in a city of close to 100,000 people. Last year in my town of 1,200 people it was not uncommon to find super old product in the grocery store.

 

[Shani]

I think the empty shelf problem is a bit worse since they made us stop doing audits. There are always some products that would take 3 months to get more of regardless of how many times they were scanned, but in general, I still think audit helped. Our baby TM said the baby food section has gone back to having much more flavors out of stock since audit stopped, for an example.