Archived In our store Red Cards are the only things that matter.

[Retail Girl]

I don't think stores can just order these. We lost a set of electronics keys in fourth quarter, and can't replace it. You'd probably have to have pretty good justification for ordering them for all the lanes "just because."

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

I don't think stores can just order these. We lost a set of electronics keys in fourth quarter, and can't replace it. You'd probably have to have pretty good justification for ordering them for all the lanes "just because."

Get with your ap etl or tl, & ask for them. Is my suggestion.

 

[Retail Girl]

They know it's gone, and have told us that's how it will be. (It was really fun when we were missing two sets for a while). Another one broke...so we gave up one of our GSTL magnetic keys so electronics wouldn't be down to two. Now my GSTL is going to have to beg to see if we can get that one fixed or replaced. My GSTL discovered this morning that the other full set of GSTL keys has gone missing (he and I were both off yesterday and have no idea what happened).

So, that leaves us with one full set of GSTL keys, another partial set without the magnetic key, and us praying that the other set turns up. Soon. Very soon. Like hopefully tonight.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Just order through ap.

 

[Retail Girl]

Right...that's who we're dealing with...

 

[EMFlow]

I can't imagine how it must be for you guys on black Friday, our store has keys on every lane plus we have 4 sets for elec TM and 2 sets for plano and 1 set for TPS

 

[The Dude Abides]

They know it's gone, and have told us that's how it will be. (It was really fun when we were missing two sets for a while). Another one broke...so we gave up one of our GSTL magnetic keys so electronics wouldn't be down to two. Now my GSTL is going to have to beg to see if we can get that one fixed or replaced. My GSTL discovered this morning that the other full set of GSTL keys has gone missing (he and I were both off yesterday and have no idea what happened).

So, that leaves us with one full set of GSTL keys, another partial set without the magnetic key, and us praying that the other set turns up. Soon. Very soon. Like hopefully tonight.

If you have so many keys missing someone is going to get termed. With GSTL keys missing your AP is likely going to have to re-core quite a few locks.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Right...that's who we're dealing with...

I am sorry. I will see if I can find the part number on the mag key for the register.

 

[Retail Girl]

They know it's gone, and have told us that's how it will be. (It was really fun when we were missing two sets for a while). Another one broke...so we gave up one of our GSTL magnetic keys so electronics wouldn't be down to two. Now my GSTL is going to have to beg to see if we can get that one fixed or replaced. My GSTL discovered this morning that the other full set of GSTL keys has gone missing (he and I were both off yesterday and have no idea what happened).

So, that leaves us with one full set of GSTL keys, another partial set without the magnetic key, and us praying that the other set turns up. Soon. Very soon. Like hopefully tonight.

If you have so many keys missing someone is going to get termed. With GSTL keys missing your AP is likely going to have to re-core quite a few locks.

Hopefully they will show up. I have no idea who worked the day before and whose watch they were lost under.

When we lost the electronic key back in early December, they just shrugged their shoulders and said, "oh, well." Then they broke one and basically got the same response.

Black Friday isn't terrible. We had all 16 lanes open at the time, and three GSAs/GSTLs on, so that was one key for about five lanes, which is more than doable. Plus we had all four electronics keys out and ap has a set.

 

[Aurora]

My store has become ridiculous with the Red Card applications.
Yesterday I was informed that my goal was 3 cards during my shift. I asked everyone and didn't get a single card. I was informed that it didn't matter if the guest was mad/yelling, that I had to continue talking about the red card.
I don't know about you, but I've never known someone to say yes to a credit/debit card after they have said no a million times and are yelling at you. I don't understand their goals here other than to create a toxic work environment.
I ask and if they say no in not going to carry on, it's not worth it and all that will happen is that we will lose guests.
I have many friends that refuse to go to certain cashiers because they feel harassed to get the red card (or if they have one they are harassed to get the other one) so how do they think this is working?

 

[pellinore]

Got my work review the other day and ended up being told that I need to get more RED Cards.....imagine that. I'm expected to get one card a shift......OK, but give me more incentive than a .13 cent raise.

Really?!

 

[Dreamwolf31]

My store has become ridiculous with the Red Card applications.

I ask and if they say no in not going to carry on, it's not worth it and all that will happen is that we will lose guests.
I have many friends that refuse to go to certain cashiers because they feel harassed to get the red card (or if they have one they are harassed to get the other one) so how do they think this is working?

We had one cashier like this at my store. She would even go ask far to ask when the last time they used it was, and if it had been a while she would get them to sign up for another.

We even had a cashier lying to people and saying their cards didn't work anymore so she could get them to sign up for another! Crazy! I'd had to go into the grocery store to get a few bits and be harassed like that. Asking is one thing, but geeeeeeeeeeeeeze.

 

[Aurora]

My store has become ridiculous with the Red Card applications.

I ask and if they say no in not going to carry on, it's not worth it and all that will happen is that we will lose guests.
I have many friends that refuse to go to certain cashiers because they feel harassed to get the red card (or if they have one they are harassed to get the other one) so how do they think this is working?

We had one cashier like this at my store. She would even go ask far to ask when the last time they used it was, and if it had been a while she would get them to sign up for another.

We even had a cashier lying to people and saying their cards didn't work anymore so she could get them to sign up for another! Crazy! I'd had to go into the grocery store to get a few bits and be harassed like that. Asking is one thing, but geeeeeeeeeeeeeze.

These women will harass elderly people and lie to them all the time. It's just wrong.
I've gotten to the point where I hate the Red Card and feel sick just talking about it.

 

[blugirlami21]

Our redcard craziness has practically disappeared. Apparently a it's a legal issue if we ask every guest so we don't have to anymore. We only have to ask when prompted. I thought this would be the same all over but maybe it's just our store in particular? We no longer get harassed about redcards anymore as a result. Our focus is now surveys, guest experience, and service replacement plans.

 

[BullseyeBabe]

I want to work at your store Blu!

 

[sigma7]

Out of curiosity, how is it a legal issue? I could see it being a liability if you only asked specific groups of people (discrimination), but I don't see a problem if you're asking everyone.

 

[redeye58]

I'd LOVE to have that legal issue at MY store....

 

[neversaynever]

The transfer that gets red cards harasses guest apparently, not going to do it. I personally haven't ever been told to not just ask when prompted.... So I don't most of the time.

Hate it. Hate it as a guest. Hate it as an employee.

Still getting asked if it is safe to use cards, and multiple people that are only using cash everywhere because of us. Ugh.

 

[blugirlami21]

They didn't explain it that thoroughly or at all really they just said that legally we are not allowed to ask every time anymore. I got the sense that a guest complained to corporate about being harassed about applying for a redcard, maybe threatened to sue and rather than keep pushing they decided to just have us ask on prompts. That's just a guess and even though we still get some angry e-mails about not getting redcards they are really afraid for us to push like we were before. It probably won't last but I'm going to enjoy it.

 

[pookiesma]

Do any of your GSA's have you scan the Redcard T&C's and then cancel the application to keep prompts from coming up (thus keeping the store's conversion rate from plummeting)? That used to be common practice at my store. Then we had a week where they wanted a "true" conversion rate, so we weren't allowed to scan it (Surprise! Mine was 0%!). And now we have one GSTL not enforcing scanning and putting away our pamphlets if she sees us scanning them w/o a customer wanting a card. Our other GSTL stops at each register and asks us to remember to scan the barcode if the store's conversion rate is getting too low.

 

[Cel]

...Yeah I'm a GSA and we've never done any such shenanigans at our store. We've pretty much never attempted (at least in the 7+ months I've been there) to game conversion at all, we try to use more positive reinforcement methods i.e. recognition and prizes for redcards.

 

[sigma7]

If stores would give the energy they put to figuring out ways to hack the system and scores to say...rewarding cashiers who do get REDcards and devising strategies to get people to sign up, maybe they could achieve a decent conversion rate and not have to cheat.

In my experience, the GSAs and GSTLs that make sure their cashiers are asking, coach on the spot when cashiers don't ask, reward cashiers who get REDcards, and drive a positive culture around REDcards tend to see a higher conversion rate. OTOH, the GSTLs and GSAs that don't talk to the team about REDcards and are okay with getting zero on their shifts are never going to meet conversion goals.

Most of the people that sign up do it just because you asked. Not that they necessarily wanted one. Just ask. Coach when your team isn't asking. Not asking = no REDcards.

Sorry for the spiel, I just hate when stores think cheating scores is the answer. It usually serves to screw them in the long run, and true achievements mean so much less. That's what happens when management is short sighted.

 

[PullMeBackIn]

This whole ordeal is a perfect example of why a purely analytics driven company, as Target has become, is the wrong path to go down.

The 2 biggest problems are that it destroys employee morale and incentivizes dishonest behavior through altering reporting.

It's not just red cards either. The fact that dtk/whatever it's called now (my store?) has as many different reports as it does is just plain silly. How often are those reports a true measure of the store's performance? For instance, in reporting my store looks green for in stocks but looking at the bare shelves I can certainly tell you that guests would not think that's green.

 

[sigma7]

^this.
Metrics are a good indicator of where processes are going well and where processes are breaking down, but they are not indicative of total operations in and of themselves in any company. You have to take them with a grain of salt and know how to look at operations as a whole. You have to know how metrics affect each other. Metrics should really only be a small part (if any part) of what merit or performance based incentives and pay increases are based upon.

To make metrics the be all, end all major determinant of bonuses and pay increases incentivizes cheating, thus nullifying their intended use.

In summary, use metrics to identify operational breakdowns but do not use them as the sole determiner of pay increases. This gives stores the opportunity to use metrics to identify areas that need support and training to get back on process to drive sales, which takes time and effort. The way metrics are used now are to identify areas where execs need to come up with a quick fix so they can get a score to green at breakneck speed to ensure they get a bonus and decent pay raise.

 

[sigma7]

Take SFLA for instance. Best practice even says this score isn't expected to be 100% to take into account POGs that have issues, are unable to be set, etc. But then DTLs tell stores that they have to have all the weeks pogs, revs, adjacencies, and salesplanners tied and off the report by Friday or heads will roll. So then we end up fake tying several pogs which may or may not get set in a reasonable amount of time. Monday rolls around and the SFLA metric is solid green, but all the fake ties cause replenishment, pricing, and zoning errors and bad data integrity overall. But since the score is green, no one outside the stores cares that this is the actual problem. Now they're focused on other metrics like backstock %, Scans with locs, A-MDs, etc that would be better if ties were accurate. What you don't get is more support for the sales floor or POG teams since their metric is green. It's just a viscious cycle.