Archived Pathway to Profitability

[daninnj]

Wow, $120k a month in lost sales of cookies? Another things were the salads made fresh in store to the prepackaged ones. Guess what, nobody bought the prepackaged and they're now discontinued.

 

[RedDog]

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.

You are correct and what we have seen is that once they role a thing out to ULV stores they then slowly roll it out to higher volumes later. Corporate needs to decide if they want to be in the grocery buisiness or not. It is way to compedative to to just try and do it on the cheap. HQ needs a complete house cleaning and needs to somebody who can look at things in this area and say yes or no, we are all in as a grocery destination or we are out and with have some food isles. This half in half out thing is the worst position to be in.

 

[PullMeBackIn]

You know, I spent a number of years shopping almost exclusively at Super T for groceries. It's only within the last year or 2 that I've started shopping at real grocery stores (regional chain Hyvee).

Needless to say, I've been floored with the selection and the fresh products (deli, bakery, meats) that I can find at a real grocery store. The quality blows Target out of the water versus their prepackaged shipped in products. The thing is, I know that certain areas have to have decent margins given what they're charging. I'm not complaining because I'll pay a little extra for some quality food.

Why can't Target duplicate it though? Because they don't put any effort into retaining talent. When you have quality employees around who learn a true talent they put out quality products. Target can't afford to spend time retraining their entire staff every few months when their turnover is as high as it is. It's easier to spend a day training them to open a case to put out product than it is to spend a couple weeks training then how to make a whole deli case of delicious fresh salads or how to prepare 10 different cuts of meat.

This company can't decide what it wants to be. Do they want to have quality food to make them a destination or just cheap prepackaged, preservative filled plastic containers. On the one hand they want the cheap overhead and ease of being like Walmart but then on the other hand they want to portray the image of high quality products. It applies almost universally across the company, not just to food.

 

[NeoDarikona]

This is a band-aid being used on a slashed jugular. Service sections in grocery are just like electronics, low profit margin areas to draw in guests so that they may purchase high margin items like general merchandise or clothing. It's not like people are really that excited for Target's crappy produce pricing and questionable 'competitive' pricing in their regular grocery.

 

[commiecorvus]

This is a band-aid being used on a slashed jugular. Service sections in grocery are just like electronics, low profit margin areas to draw in guests so that they may purchase high margin items like general merchandise or clothing. It's not like people are really that excited for Target's crappy produce pricing and questionable 'competitive' pricing in their regular grocery.

Actually some of the grocery items have huge profit margins.
A jar of chopped garlic is actually one of the highest profit margin items in the store.

 

[NeoDarikona]

I was specifically referring to bakeries, delis, and the like.

 

[Rock Lobster]

This company can't decide what it wants to be. Do they want to have quality food to make them a destination or just cheap prepackaged, preservative filled plastic containers. On the one hand they want the cheap overhead and ease of being like Walmart but then on the other hand they want to portray the image of high quality products. It applies almost universally across the company, not just to food.

That is essentially the issue. Target needs a clear vision. It had a personality, but has spent time trying to do too much and attempting to enter too many markets (Food when we were not ready, Canada when we were not ready etc...)

Target needs to regroup and prioritize its goals and set itself back onto a clear path. We have food (due to remodels into P-Fresh) and we have Canada (due to rapid expansion) so those decisions have been made. The new business plan needs to include those things now!

 

[beardless]

Due to enough housewives complaining about not being able to shop at Target after they drop their children off, it seems T2431 in Milton, GA was the first P2P store to revert the store hours back. There's an entire "southern bell" invitation-only website that was up-in-arms over their beloved Target changing hours, and they seem to have succeeded.

 

[architect]

Just for curiosity, does anyone know what other stores are included in this group of 10? So far, we have three in metro Atlanta and one near Phoenix.

 

[architect]

Any recent updates on these stores?

 

[daninnj]

I checked workbench and SharePoint using store names, numbers, the phrase "pathway to profitability" etc and could not find anything on this.

 

[SpotSpondee]

The store in az with the shortened hours is actually casa grande. Which is just ... ugh. It was a nice store and is quickly turning ghetto. The city is just tough. But I'm sure it works for them seeing as they'll avoid the trouble and woe of the teen traffic from the Harkins a few feet down the way. Its just terrible guest service, weights and measures problems galore blaaaaa. We had a store completely close in gilbert in February. It was beyond saving. And a distribution center is closing in a month or two. Lots of hard times!

 

[architect]

On this thread: http://www.thebreakroom.org/index.php?threads/closing-super-targets.10693/page-2, someone was asking about about the status of the SuperT's discussed previously in this thread. Are there any updates as to the performance of these stores?

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

On this thread: http://www.thebreakroom.org/index.php?threads/closing-super-targets.10693/page-2, someone was asking about about the status of the SuperT's discussed previously in this thread. Are there any updates as to the performance of these stores?

Watch the ae15 thread.

 

[daninnj]

Has there been any developments with the 10 stores going through this? @beardless @sambr @LetMEpontificate