Archived Pathway to Profitability

[beardless]

When does this roll out? Makes me wonder if that's why my stores bakery/deli tl position has to be combined by September.

This rolled out to the 10 stores on April 27th, however one store has been participating in the test since 4th quarter.

Does anyone have a list of who the 10 stores are??

The stores are almost all SuperTargets that were next in line to be shut down due to low profits. I know for sure three of them are located in the metro Atlanta area.

Since they are slowly but surely killing the overnight process & edging it closer & closer to opening time, that gives the slaves an extra hour to be ready by opening.



I think they should just BE BOLD and offer any earlybird "guests" an extra 5% off their total bill if they stop & help push the merchandise in one aisle. Do 2 aisles & you get a free Target shirt too!

Why pay employees if you can get shoppers to do the work & then spend money when they are done?

It's been suggested that key carriers can BE BOLD and allow guests to enter and shop the store before it is opened, with the lights dimmed. Yes, it really has been suggested to the STLs of these 10 stores.

 

[Softlines Owns My Soul]

It's been suggested that key carriers can BE BOLD and allow guests to enter and shop the store before it is opened, with the lights dimmed. Yes, it really has been suggested to the STLs of these 10 stores.

Are you kidding me? Then it's not really closed, you're just screwing employees out of hours...of course.

 

[Retail Girl]

It's been suggested that key carriers can BE BOLD and allow guests to enter and shop the store before it is opened, with the lights dimmed. Yes, it really has been suggested to the STLs of these 10 stores.

Are you kidding me? Then it's not really closed, you're just screwing employees out of hours...of course.

How incredibly stupid! Corporate is once again proving there is a very thick line between bold and stupid and they are willing to cross it all the time.

Also, I'm not surprised these would be the next stores to close. As a ULV GM store, I cannot imagine being a ULV Super. Seems like an awfully big store to have for not a lot of $$$$.

 

[The Dude Abides]

Wait so they are supposed to let guests in the store with the lights dimmed while the cleaning crew is still waxing the floors (potential lawsuit) and no one else knows they are in the store. How in the fuck are they supposed to checked out? No way the key carrier stands up there and there won't be a cashier in the store. What if that person has a return? The Guest Service registers won't even have money yet.

 

[Retail Girl]

Our cleaning crew never starts waxing the floors until after we open. (Shouting over the machine is just an extra fun way to start the morning).

But think of the AP opportunities!

 

[forgetfulSDA]

I found one super target in GA that has the opening hours starting at 9 AM. T2443

 

[mrknownothing]

Do the completely full HB/cosmetics reshop cart and you get 50% off your entire order!

There's an even bigger discount if you zone toys, seasonal, and dry market (including FIFOing!).

It's been suggested that key carriers can BE BOLD and allow guests to enter and shop the store before it is opened, with the lights dimmed. Yes, it really has been suggested to the STLs of these 10 stores.

 

[oath2order]

Do the completely full HB/cosmetics reshop cart and you get 50% off your entire order!

There's an even bigger discount if you zone toys, seasonal, and dry market (including FIFOing!).

It's been suggested that key carriers can BE BOLD and allow guests to enter and shop the store before it is opened, with the lights dimmed. Yes, it really has been suggested to the STLs of these 10 stores.

Nah no discount if they zone toys I've got the planograms over there pretty much memorized and I know where everything goes off hand.

>.>

 

[daninnj]

I found one super target in GA that has the opening hours starting at 9 AM. T2443

Looking around, that Target opened in 2008. Man if that is true, they really didn't think about that location.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

I found one super target in GA that has the opening hours starting at 9 AM. T2443

Wow!
Roswell east super target
M-Sat 9:00am to 10pm
Sun 9am to 9pm
http://www.target.com/store-locator/store-details?x=30&y=8&storeNumber=2443
Our store would save some payroll for sure, on those hours.

 

[salesfloor10]

here's another one
http://www.target.com/store-locator...0&storeNumber=2431&mapWidth=740&mapHeight=430
Milton SuperTarget
(same hours as the store HLmaster listed above).

 

[daninnj]

That one seemed to open in 2008 too. Weird.

Here's a clue on one of the store's Yelp pages:

Holy Moly... major culture shock here in Alpharetta. After 8pm, it's like a ghost town. The streets are bare and the stores are even more bare. We were walking through Super Target and was just amazed at how big it was, how clean it was, and NOONE was in there! LOL

Anyone from the area chiming in? Did they saturate the market thinking the area was gonna blow up or something? These stores did open right before Pfresh was standard.

 

[Cel]

I grew up in that general area, but I left around 2009. Still don't really get why anyone thought Alpharetta would be a good spot for a giant super target model though.

Hell from browsing around it looks like they shut down the GM (or formerly GM) location that was my closest target growing up.

 

[spoilers]

In general, Georgia (at least Atlanta and its suburbs) is already filled with Publix and Kroger stores, and has been for years and years... They're all a stone's throw from one another, while there are only a handful of SuperTargets here (I live in a more-populated area of GA and the closest ST is an hour drive). It's not hard for me to believe that a SuperTarget isn't doing well, because most of the people in this area are already loyal Kroger or Publix shoppers. The supposed allure of a bakery is lost, because everyone knows you have to get cakes at Publix (seriously the best cakes ever), Kroger has great deals on produce, and they've been getting their prescriptions at one of these places for years as well. In my experience, Targets down here are for buying clothes and HBA, but Pfresh stores are doing alright because it's easy to grab something you may have forgotten elsewhere.

Basically people here are loyal to what they already know, it would be like sticking a Kroger in Minneapolis. Kroger would die a lonely death in an area of Cub/Rainbow/Target/Byerlys loyal customers

I could see super targets in this area either doing really well (in still-developing areas or areas of a highly transient population) or very poorly, but I'm sure location combined with the issues earlier this year and competition could set it behind.

 

[DotWarner]

I found one super target in GA that has the opening hours starting at 9 AM. T2443

There's a store in the Phoenix area that also has those hours. T2400. Probably also a 2008 store. It's out in the middle of nowhere.

 

[LetMEpontificate]

I found one super target in GA that has the opening hours starting at 9 AM. T2443

It happens to be my store. I have to deal with backlash from guests every day because they don't like the new open time. It's also a huge ploy to get team members to do work for other parts of the store. Here, they figure the people who actually do their job can pick up the slack of everyone who doesn't by giving us more guest free time.

 

[Backroom81]

Not only is it a half-assed effort, Target really doesn't know how to run food correctly. The system of locating in the backroom works for merchandise but not for food if you don't have the people. Too much stuff comes out on pulls, even with entire coolers LOCU'd, pushed, and SUBT'd. Counts randomly get borked. Too much stuff, not enough people.

Through high school and part of college, I worked at the dairy department of a supermarket. The department was sizable to Pfresh and nothing was located in the back. I believe the department was all orderable by the manager but suggestions were made by the PDA. Staffing for the department was comparable to my Pfresh. And it was always full. I always knew where everything was. Sale items were rarely out of stock. The whole department was zoned at night.

With a backroom that is located, you'd expect everything to be perfect, but it's far from it. I dunno how but Target's gotta change the way it handles food.

Locating food would work out okay if it wasn't for the fact that the auto-replenishment systems sends FAR too much product. We can FIFO our heart out and it's not going to make the 20 cases of 1 DPCI of yogurt sell before it goes out of date in 3 weeks.

We used to manually order everything in dairy and frozen. The PDAs would give you a count of average units sold per day so you could estimate how much you needed to buy. Backstock was only a fraction of the amount we have now (with a smart TL ordering).

 

[daninnj]

To make my point about how crappy Target's locating system is I came in on Monday to at least 3 produce pulls (3 hrs of pulls). Strawberries were 2/$3 and out of stock on the sales floor. Not one package of strawberries were on any of the pulls even though we had dozens of cases properly located in the backroom! Checked the counts of what we had and everything seemed alright. Doesn't make sense to me at all.

 

[salesfloor10]

To make my point about how crappy Target's locating system is I came in on Monday to at least 3 produce pulls (3 hrs of pulls). Strawberries were 2/$3 and out of stock on the sales floor. Not one package of strawberries were on any of the pulls even though we had dozens of cases properly located in the backroom! Checked the counts of what we had and everything seemed alright. Doesn't make sense to me at all.

I have the same issue at my store with strawberries. Sour cream also won't pull most of the time either.

 

[mrknownothing]

To make my point about how crappy Target's locating system is I came in on Monday to at least 3 produce pulls (3 hrs of pulls). Strawberries were 2/$3 and out of stock on the sales floor. Not one package of strawberries were on any of the pulls even though we had dozens of cases properly located in the backroom! Checked the counts of what we had and everything seemed alright. Doesn't make sense to me at all.

Maybe someone burned them?

 

[kingpin003]

Maybe someone burned them?

Easiest way to check that is to scan in item search and switch to the instocks tab. It'll show you when the last pull was.

 

[Produce Queen]

To make my point about how crappy Target's locating system is I came in on Monday to at least 3 produce pulls (3 hrs of pulls). Strawberries were 2/$3 and out of stock on the sales floor. Not one package of strawberries were on any of the pulls even though we had dozens of cases properly located in the backroom! Checked the counts of what we had and everything seemed alright. Doesn't make sense to me at all.

Check the capacity. Each time there is a revision, it changes the capacity on mine to 120 when actually you can only fit 48. Then I have to mysupport the capacity back to normal. I have this problem with quite a few items. Avocados and apples by the each for example. Ridiculously high capacities.

 

[Bosch]

Also watch capacity of things, could be

To make my point about how crappy Target's locating system is I came in on Monday to at least 3 produce pulls (3 hrs of pulls). Strawberries were 2/$3 and out of stock on the sales floor. Not one package of strawberries were on any of the pulls even though we had dozens of cases properly located in the backroom! Checked the counts of what we had and everything seemed alright. Doesn't make sense to me at all.

Check the capacity. Each time there is a revision, it changes the capacity on mine to 120 when actually you can only fit 48. Then I have to mysupport the capacity back to normal. I have this problem with quite a few items. Avocados and apples by the each for example. Ridiculously high capacities.

As I was reading this I was thinking the exact same thing. Capacity! You said what I was going to.. Also anything you get way to much of check the capacity and see what it says, too high and you get to much product.. My support it to lower it to something reasonable.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Did the dpci merge?

 

[billybob]

Target has always struggled with the guest perception that it isn't a "real" grocery store, and scaling it back isn't going to do us any favors. Pre-packaged frozen food may more profitable, but does it matter when guests stop buying and instead go to a grocery store that actually bakes stuff or has a fully functioning deli? There IS a way to do it profitably, otherwise traditional grocers like Kroger for example - who cannot rely on high margin general merch like clothing - wouldn't be able to survive and turn a profit. Just look at Target Cafe cookies like someone earlier mentioned. They went from being baked in store to pre-made frozen cookies and sales tanked. On a recent VIBE email, the food section stated that QMOS of Cafe cookies has reached an all-time high of $30,000 a week across the company! Of course the solution was to "make sure you use RPQ so you don't pull too many cookies!" but also ignored the larger impact - the fact that since these new ones launched, guests stopped buying them because they're not good. It's the perfect comparison - Target Cafe has reduced its menu/options to very minimal and has largely moved away from actual production of anything in favor of pre-made shipped to store, and the last I saw, company sales comps for cafe were in the negative double digits. I understand this pilot is for ULV stores but it just seems like a step backward that will only give guests even less of a reason to shop at these already low volume locations.