MEGATHREAD Hang Me (The Softlines Thread)

[OK Then]

Any chance you would like to share what's going on with the process taking place with as far as showing guests to rooms, leaving clothes in rooms or asking guests to bring items out, introducing yourselves and/or asking for guests names, counting, taking items directly from guests, etc?

we ask how many items they have and limit it to six. We hold any extras for them to trade off. Currently we aren’t asking guests for names. We write the number of items they have on the little mirror on the door. We let them bring in their items themselves and most of the time they just hang what they don’t want on the reshop cart.
All fitting room doors are locked until we let the guest in and each room is cleaned after use. Currently the FR is manned in shifts for the entire day.
It’s a pain but I will say theft is down because of the protocols.

 

[halec20]

Anybody want to share what's actually happening in your store, at the fitting rooms?

At my store, a couple of TMs seem to be following the general guidelines (contact-free, service guests, clean, sort, properly hang/fold, defect items) for the fitting rooms and also zoning & putting out reshop/freight for the adjacent areas.
Other TMs are bored to death while simply standing at the desk, pointing guests towards rooms, mostly cleaning the rooms after most of the guests, telling guests to bring everything out of the rooms with them and directly taking items from guests. No zoning, no reshop/freight.
As can be expected, the TMs that are doing "less" are also shoving unfolded clothes onto baskets & shoving hanging onto the racks as handed to them by guests (wrong direction on hangers, wrong hangers, falling off hangers) while having "nothing to do the entire shift".
When I come in for a closing shift at the fitting room, there is always an overflowing basket of reshop at guest services that hasn't been touched at all during the day shift!
I believe that a lack of directive from leadership at my store is the main reason for lack of motivation in some TMs.

What is expected at your store?
How is it going?
Any tips for smoother processes?
Are you introducing yourselves to guests &/or asking guests for their names?
Are you counting items (even though there is no limit)?

Also, are you hearing a lot of animosity from TMs about how fitting room has the easiest job? There seems to be a divide building at my store where some TMs are having crap attitudes about zoning because they aren't allowed to "sit around doing nothing all day- like the fitting room attendants".

My take: I show up and do everything that I can to keep my job. I stay as busy as possible. I don't want to be seen standing idle by staff or corporate (is it true that corporate watches fitting rooms thru our cameras?).
I introduce myself, ask for the guests name (required at my store, but not followed by most TMs), I direct guests to leave unwanted items in the rooms, assist with sizes/colors, attempt to save the sale, clean, clean, clean.
I help my TMs get their reshop out efficiently by folding, hanging, sorting by brand. I do as much reshop & freight as I can in adjacent zones. I do what I would want done for me!

So at my store we’re actually under strict directions when it comes to the fitting rooms. We have a fitting room schedule made everyday, each style team member has to take an hour in the fitting room once or twice a shift.

We were told by AP that we **have** to take the items from the guest and count them ourselves while we walk them back to the room. We then write the number of items on the mirror on the door of the fitting room and check in on them every 5-8 minutes. like yours, we all have to give them our names and let them know we’re available to help if needed.

We have a limit of 6 items at a time and were expected to follow it, even if it’s just one item over. We can’t go behind the fitting room counter either, we have to be standing next to the fitting room hall the entire time.

I’d say it’s going fine so far, it’s incredibly boring and annoying since it takes us away from our areas that the expectations are so high for. But one thing that we’ve been doing to kind of make things go smoother is by having a little hand drawn map of the fitting room and the surrounding area. We put a little thumb tack over the rooms that people are in so that we know what rooms are available. We also have designated spots that we move guest carts to so that they don’t clog up the area and make it hard to move around.

I’d just like to also clarify, we don’t have any fitting room attendants. Our store management decided that it wasn’t necessary and that the style team could do it instead on rotation shifts. It is a pain. in. the. ass. Any store with fitting room attendants is extremely lucky in my opinion.

Any other questions I could answer for ya?

 

[happygoth]

So at my store we’re actually under strict directions when it comes to the fitting rooms. We have a fitting room schedule made everyday, each style team member has to take an hour in the fitting room once or twice a shift.

We were told by AP that we **have** to take the items from the guest and count them ourselves while we walk them back to the room. We then write the number of items on the mirror on the door of the fitting room and check in on them every 5-8 minutes. like yours, we all have to give them our names and let them know we’re available to help if needed.

We have a limit of 6 items at a time and were expected to follow it, even if it’s just one item over. We can’t go behind the fitting room counter either, we have to be standing next to the fitting room hall the entire time.

I’d say it’s going fine so far, it’s incredibly boring and annoying since it takes us away from our areas that the expectations are so high for. But one thing that we’ve been doing to kind of make things go smoother is by having a little hand drawn map of the fitting room and the surrounding area. We put a little thumb tack over the rooms that people are in so that we know what rooms are available. We also have designated spots that we move guest carts to so that they don’t clog up the area and make it hard to move around.

I’d just like to also clarify, we don’t have any fitting room attendants. Our store management decided that it wasn’t necessary and that the style team could do it instead on rotation shifts. It is a pain. in. the. ass. Any store with fitting room attendants is extremely lucky in my opinion.

Any other questions I could answer for ya?

What the what...? None of that would fly in my store!

 

[halec20]

What the what...? None of that would fly in my store!

I’m telling you dude, my store is so insanely difficult about everything, One of my Team Leads in Style just put her 2 weeks in because she said that the environment was too toxic for her to continue working in and she’s only been here for a few months. Our turnover rate is so incredibly high it’s embarrassing.

 

[OK Then]

We were taking the items from the guests then our lead smartly realized “oh yeah….reduce extra contact” and now we just ask How many items.

There is rarely a time when most of the rooms are empty so being able to reshop during downtime isn’t happening right now.
Had a guest get pissed when she couldn’t try on underwear. That was fun.

 

[halec20]

We were taking the items from the guests then our lead smartly realized “oh yeah….reduce extra contact” and now we just ask How many items.

There is rarely a time when most of the rooms are empty so being able to reshop during downtime isn’t happening right now.
Had a guest get pissed when she couldn’t try on underwear. That was fun.

We had a guest try on a few bikinis, when she brought them all back out to us we had to defect out one of them because she was so kind as to leave some bodily fluids behind in it and not tell any of us. Our ETL had to come over and handle it.

It was a very fun experience haha

Are you guys wiping down and sanitizing each room afterwards? We’re supposed to but we run out of Up and Up bottles constantly so our leads are reevaluating it.

 

[Tessa120]

We were taking the items from the guests then our lead smartly realized “oh yeah….reduce extra contact” and now we just ask How many items.

There is rarely a time when most of the rooms are empty so being able to reshop during downtime isn’t happening right now.
Had a guest get pissed when she couldn’t try on underwear. That was fun.

I always said for underwear that it was health and safety regulations. I don't know if it was or not, but it sounded more official and harder to argue with than store policy.

I said the same thing about carts in the fitting rooms or fitting room hall. Health and safety regulation, fire/evacuation regulation.

 

[TargetN00b]

Have you been cleaning the rooms after every guest? What about your SD & TLs, haven't they been checking in to make sure the covid cleaning procedures are being followed?
Aren't we all required to ask the guests for their names?
What are you required to write on the fitting room doors mirrors- guest name? Number of items? Both?
We have been instructed to ask the guests how many items they have. But don't take the items or count them ourselves (of course I do a visual assessment of what's in their hands).

We don’t ask the guest for names or number of items. We have a room number on each mirror so we can tell the guest “go ahead into room #1” from behind the FR desk. We wait until multiple rooms have been ‘contaminated’ to leave the desk and empty/clean them all at once. There’s very little interaction, which means FR TMs are being given more and more tasks to do in adjacent areas.

Usually all rooms are cleaned between guests but we’ve had a lot of call outs so it’s been getting really lax. When we’re short, a TM comes by the FR every hour to fold/sort reshop and empty/wipe down all the rooms. Then it’s unmanned until the next hour… so pretty bad as far as Covid procedure and definitely increases theft.

 

[Anelmi]

So these just showed up at my store. Anyone else?

 

[happygoth]

So these just showed up at my store. Anyone else?

Whoa, nothing here so far. I wonder if it's an hours issue?

 

[lucidtm]

Whoa, nothing here so far. I wonder if it's an hours issue?

I'd bet that is what it is. Half the time we don't have anyone to cover the fitting rooms as it is. Theft probably skyrocketed at every store so this is Target's way of dealing with it. Everyone that is Softlines at our store hates their time covering the fitting room, so I'm sure they'd love this.

 

[Ultimate Floater]

So these just showed up at my store. Anyone else?

We closed ours so CVS could use the rooms for vaccinations.

 

[Anelmi]

^^ same but that ended in mid-summer so they've been fully open since then and since the FR needed to have a body at all times, that eliminated moving people to cover electronics or come up to backup at front lanes or any number of other scenarios.

 

[Tessa120]

When did they start having a dedicated FR attendant?

 

[happygoth]

When did they start having a dedicated FR attendant?

When the fitting rooms opened back up in July, we actually got hours just for it, along with a list of protocols. My store hasn't followed them and the fitting room attendant is not expected to stay nearby. Sounds like other stores are following them strictly.

We are now back to business as usual, meaning they have already stopped scheduling a morning person so I'm back to coming in to a messy fitting room and piles of unsorted reshop. Well, it was nice while it lasted. 🙄

 

[happygoth]

Style peeps, anyone drowning in reshop? Last couple of weeks our fitting rooms have picked back up to pre-Covid traffic, with piles of clothes left in the fitting rooms and steady guests all day. Also getting tons of reshop at GS, and NO ONE scheduled for fitting room or the adjacent department until I come in for my four hour night shift. We currently have twelve racks/vehicles filled with sorted reshop needing to be pushed and at least three unsorted.

How does your store handle Style reshop? Who's assigned to what each day?

 

[StyleMaven1]

Style peeps, anyone drowning in reshop? Last couple of weeks our fitting rooms have picked back up to pre-Covid traffic, with piles of clothes left in the fitting rooms and steady guests all day. Also getting tons of reshop at GS, and NO ONE scheduled for fitting room or the adjacent department until I come in for my four hour night shift. We currently have twelve racks/vehicles filled with sorted reshop needing to be pushed and at least three unsorted.

How does your store handle Style reshop? Who's assigned to what each day?

On most days we do an hourly rotation. I don't know what kind of payroll/how many people you are scheduled each day but I love making plans like this. We come clean or almost clean on reshop daily and are an incredibly busy store for style. I have a board at the FR that I write up dept assignments and FR rotation on. First person in is assigned first shift. They check reshop at GS, get any bits and pieces left from the night before sorted and hung and then run them. A few minutes before the end of their FR shift, they pull all priorities for Style and bring them back to the FR to be run with reshop. Defectives/salvage processed on an almost hourly basis along with items needing tickets. Everyone HAS to work together to achieve these goals though, including your leadership.

 

[StyleMaven1]

But yes, reshop is getting a bit much. We are a year round swim store and have a huge floorpad for swim, so that gets challenging in the FR when people are trying on 30 pieces at once. During peak hours all of my team knows that if they are drowning, they can call a reshop party. Sometimes 10-15 min and it's 100% clear again. How many people are scheduled in style for you on average?

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Style peeps, anyone drowning in reshop? Last couple of weeks our fitting rooms have picked back up to pre-Covid traffic, with piles of clothes left in the fitting rooms and steady guests all day. Also getting tons of reshop at GS, and NO ONE scheduled for fitting room or the adjacent department until I come in for my four hour night shift. We currently have twelve racks/vehicles filled with sorted reshop needing to be pushed and at least three unsorted.

How does your store handle Style reshop? Who's assigned to what each day?

We are drowning in truck push & reshop. Then the sd cuts hours.

 

[happygoth]

But yes, reshop is getting a bit much. We are a year round swim store and have a huge floorpad for swim, so that gets challenging in the FR when people are trying on 30 pieces at once. During peak hours all of my team knows that if they are drowning, they can call a reshop party. Sometimes 10-15 min and it's 100% clear again. How many people are scheduled in style for you on average?

We are a low volume store. Sometimes there are only one or two people scheduled, sometimes three, but they are doing breakout and pushing truck for most/all of their shifts. We usually have three closers who work four hours shifts to zone and ideally push reshop. But often the reshop doesn't get pushed. Most days I am the only one processing reshop and tending to the fitting room. Even on my days off there is often no one paying attention to the fitting rooms. Just very frustrating.

 

[MrT]

At one point we had 22 pallets of style left to breakout. We had a couple extra overnight shifts in order to try and catch up but we just dont have the floor space to catch up. Were still sitting around 10 pallets a day

 

[SigningLady]

15+ pallets of style not sorted and the fitting room desk disappeared this week because it was left under a mountain of reshop and ignored all week.

 

[OK Then]

We still have fitting room coverage except the first and last hour of the day. And it is busy nearly all of the time. I usually do mornings and every room is full within a half hour of opening. We sort and push all reshop during our shifts and call out the the DBO if it gets really bad and they are there. Even then, it’s hard to keep up.
the amount of people trying on swim and getting spring break outfits is insane right now.

 

[Txstyleinboundga]

Style peeps, anyone drowning in reshop? Last couple of weeks our fitting rooms have picked back up to pre-Covid traffic, with piles of clothes left in the fitting rooms and steady guests all day. Also getting tons of reshop at GS, and NO ONE scheduled for fitting room or the adjacent department until I come in for my four hour night shift. We currently have twelve racks/vehicles filled with sorted reshop needing to be pushed and at least three unsorted.

How does your store handle Style reshop? Who's assigned to what each day?

I'm a style inbound peep who is not only drowning in pallets (15-20 daily), but now am being tasked to sort reshop every day along with truck. Between fitting room and guest service, I had 8 baskets and 7 racks to sort during my last shift yesterday. Needless to say I was overwhelmed!

 

[TurgetCirkl]

Reading this thread makes me so irritated. My biggest pet peeve (especially with my store too) is when TLs and ETLs btich about something that we could be doing better on. LITERALLY, EVERYTHING IS GOOD. Numbers AMAZING. 141 NOTHING. Sales GREAT! Why are TLs so fixed on always doing something more when the systems we have in place work GREAT.