Specialty Style

[bloodyred]

The 3rd wheel, 2nd priority, stepchild of the store, the list goes on and on. Style is not an easy area to keep up, but when will the area get equal support as all the other areas or give the area what it is owed. When style falls apart, so do all the other aspects of the store, INF, NPS, store support. So, why not give the area what it needs to operate and maintain the staple area of the store & company. Women come & shop online target specifically for clothing, the bread & butter of the company is on that side of the store.

As a TL I'm exhausted, trying to support the store in other areas as my own falls apart every week. Pushing to rebrand at the beginning of the week, pushing the team to get truck further along, all while telling them to stop to help OPU or get on checkout yet again. I'm all for store support, but it's endless, the moment I get a TM back, they need again, so always down having the area being productive. My team is all but given up, I've got some with the worst attendance, some of which are going to be let go soon for it. I can't motivate anyone anymore, my peer lead and VM are negative people and not approachable positive leaders, so the team is always looking for my resolve. I can't keep this up, I don't want to give up, I want support, I want what the team needs, more available TMs 4 or 5, not 2 or 3. Why is it I can go to a competitor and see multiple employees in an area, happy go lucky. Yet Target keeps a stingy mentality about keeping the team so slim, to save "payroll" that with 1 callout, all falls apart. What makes the company think this will work long term?

 

[happygoth]

The 3rd wheel, 2nd priority, stepchild of the store, the list goes on and on. Style is not an easy area to keep up, but when will the area get equal support as all the other areas or give the area what it is owed. When style falls apart, so do all the other aspects of the store, INF, NPS, store support. So, why not give the area what it needs to operate and maintain the staple area of the store & company. Women come & shop online target specifically for clothing, the bread & butter of the company is on that side of the store.

As a TL I'm exhausted, trying to support the store in other areas as my own falls apart every week. Pushing to rebrand at the beginning of the week, pushing the team to get truck further along, all while telling them to stop to help OPU or get on checkout yet again. I'm all for store support, but it's endless, the moment I get a TM back, they need again, so always down having the area being productive. My team is all but given up, I've got some with the worst attendance, some of which are going to be let go soon for it. I can't motivate anyone anymore, my peer lead and VM are negative people and not approachable positive leaders, so the team is always looking for my resolve. I can't keep this up, I don't want to give up, I want support, I want what the team needs, more available TMs 4 or 5, not 2 or 3. Why is it I can go to a competitor and see multiple employees in an area, happy go lucky. Yet Target keeps a stingy mentality about keeping the team so slim, to save "payroll" that with 1 callout, all falls apart. What makes the company think this will work long term?

I feel your pain.

Worked in retail, mostly Softlines for over 40 years. Been with Target for almost six.

The only thing that saves me from going crazy is that leadership doesn't expect miracles from Style. When I was first hired there was more pressure to come clean with truck and to zone the floor to near perfection at night. Fitting room and reshop always got ignored though, in favor of truck and zone. This lead to the fitting room area always looking awful.

Over the years things have shifted and fitting room and reshop have gotten much better. I will be egotistical here and say it's largely thanks to me, lol. Truck is still a top priority, but I'd say zoning is what has suffered the most. Often we have two or sometimes only one Style TM closing because of callouts, which are honestly egregious. Some areas just do not get touched.

Plus, as you said, the constant calls for backup from front end and Fulfillment. Which I know they also suffer from callouts. Thankfully the focus has shifted in that area and Style is no longer always the first to back up at my store. This helps a bit.

Another area that has suffered is Plano. Our Basics POGS are straight trash. As for pushing truck, the TMs pushing are not concerned with sizing or merchandise standards. The focus is on shoving it out wherever it will fit. Lovely for us closers trying to zone at night. I size and move things around when I can. I'm a merchandiser at heart, lol.

I have no advice for you as a leader except to not care so much, which sounds bad, I know. When I was one at my former job I had very high expectations, and luckily I had the personnel to back that up. At Target it seems the only way to keep your sanity is to not care as much. You can't care more than your boss does, it will drive you crazy. Not my way of doing things but I have had to learn to make like Elsa and let it go.

But as I said at the top, I feel your pain!

 

[bloodyred]

I feel your pain.

Worked in retail, mostly Softlines for over 40 years. Been with Target for almost six.

The only thing that saves me from going crazy is that leadership doesn't expect miracles from Style. When I was first hired there was more pressure to come clean with truck and to zone the floor to near perfection at night. Fitting room and reshop always got ignored though, in favor of truck and zone. This lead to the fitting room area always looking awful.

Over the years things have shifted and fitting room and reshop have gotten much better. I will be egotistical here and say it's largely thanks to me, lol. Truck is still a top priority, but I'd say zoning is what has suffered the most. Often we have two or sometimes only one Style TM closing because of callouts, which are honestly egregious. Some areas just do not get touched.

Plus, as you said, the constant calls for backup from front end and Fulfillment. Which I know they also suffer from callouts. Thankfully the focus has shifted in that area and Style is no longer always the first to back up at my store. This helps a bit.

Another area that has suffered is Plano. Our Basics POGS are straight trash. As for pushing truck, the TMs pushing are not concerned with sizing or merchandise standards. The focus is on shoving it out wherever it will fit. Lovely for us closers trying to zone at night. I size and move things around when I can. I'm a merchandiser at heart, lol.

I have no advice for you as a leader except to not care so much, which sounds bad, I know. When I was one at my former job I had very high expectations, and luckily I had the personnel to back that up. At Target it seems the only way to keep your sanity is to not care as much. You can't care more than your boss does, it will drive you crazy. Not my way of doing things but I have had to learn to make like Elsa and let it go.

But as I said at the top, I feel your pain!

Nights pretty much end up the same for my store. We have the same misery with balancing fitting room/reshop and truck, the year before last with all the inventory issues it was definitely about moving freight. We have only been clean on truck like 5 times in style, 1 of those being inventory. But the rest of the line can come clean 4 or 5 days a week, and when you'd expect some help when things are slow throughout store, like some help getting Basics pushed, it's a big "no we have other things we can do than to help you push truck". A couple hours later, "style we need OPU support"... 🙄 I think my biggest gripe is my leadership around me, equals and above. Our new SD is on his own page with everything and definitely more about winning with metrics and fulfillment and not ever cancelling a truck. So far, his expectations have fell through 🤪 for the new year. I get that is an SD's main goal, but there's no strategy other than you TL's need to figure it out & don't add payroll. I am trying lately to not care more, but I've grown up to care about my results and I'm surrounded by people that literally could care less. I know I'm not alone in this, I just may speak out of turn if my DSD says something to me next time!

 

[Dream Baby]

I have always had an issue with metrics is that management only shares them when they are bad.

 

[NotCynicalYet]

Style in our store is often neglected and I really feel for them. I try not to pull them for OPUs because of this but it still happens. It seems like we're doing a special kind of chasing our tail where style gets screwed until there are 60 repacks stacked to the sky and we absolutely have to fix it, and then another area gets screwed up just as badly in the meantime, and we're just never doing acceptably well across the board. Our store is going to try a more aggressive strategy of whole-store involvement, basically blitzing everything every day as a team. Honestly, it's worth a try at this point, because the alternative is to keep wallowing in the madness.

It's easy to choose to screw over Style because most of what Style does is super time sensitive in the way that OPUs, lanes/drive-ups, and perishable food are. I still think the biggest thing sinking our store is the labor intensity of OPU.