Archived Target is not going out of business because hours gets cut!

[aveeda]

I have never worked a closing shift, so I don't know what goes on at night. I have seen ETLs go beserk on their walks because nothing was zoned, but I can kind of see why. We will have 2 people on SF and one in electronics, and the two sf people are either getting called to run the register, cover breaks or working pulls. Granted this at 12:30 when I am leaving, but if it is anything like that at night, they all have their hands full. We are in an area where employees are hard to come by, so the starting pay is way more than min wage, so it isn't people just not caring because they only make 8 bucks an hour. If I have to work price change I know to immediately take two motrin because I am going to have a full on headache within an hour, ha.

 

[targetgirl123456]

deleted post

 

[greydot]

Target will not go out of business anytime soon. That is a fact. But, in the long run, if they end up looking like WalMart they will take a hit. When they made the hedge to try and be more upscale" and "trendy" they really hit their stride as a company. THIS is what most guests want and expect from a Target. Reasonable prices but a little more style and trend than you would find at a Walmart or walmart-like entity. Designer partnerships will always drive business. Even if they are flops the buzz will bring people in the door. However, if they keep with the trend of cutting, cutting, cutting in terms of payroll and positions, they will eventually cripple themselves. It may take a while to put that last nail in - and there may well be enough time to turn that around before that happens. But I know you mentioned zone never being as big an issue as it might be made out to be here I would say that that depends on your store, volume, and location. I have a very high volume store with a very mixed clientele - some of which are on the high end of the spectrum in terms of Targets shopper demographics. They are not there for the basement prices and they expect a very non walmart shopping experience. Our guest comment sheet is filled with comments about the zone, or products not being in the right spot, out of stock (often related to zone). Its something that is also focused on constantly from TLs all the way up through district leadership (they usually freak out if someone group level or higher is coming and stop everything to zone in that case) it is a major talking point. Also - our store is one that gets absolutely destroyed on a daily basis. So while i get what you're saying that having a terrible zone won't send target into the ground but if they lose that edge that they had that is where they will lose - if their image starts to rust in the eyes of the guest (on a larger scale).

 

[tntornadox]

I am kinda shocked at Steinhafel's lack of caring for the brand experience. He's been with the company since 1979, so it's not like he was a Wall Street, Ivy League kinda guy who took over the company just to cut everything to the bone to suck the profits out. Target needs another leader who cares more about service than instant profits, basically we need another Bob Ulrich, quickly.

 

[Dr Laytex]

I have seen so many posts recently forecasting imminent doom for the company because of hours cuts, etc.

Sure, it makes us feel good to blah blah blah...

"I, For One, Welcome Our New Insect Overlords."

Sorry, I couldn't read this with out humming "Battle Hymn of the Republic"

 

[redeye58]

I REAAAAAAAALY miss Bob....

 

[daninnj]

I see the unions getting really annoying to Target this year, but they probably won't be able to make any dents.

 

[talan123]

I see the unions getting really annoying to Target this year, but they probably won't be able to make any dents.

I don't know anymore. Our name for the TL position is Team Leave...

 

[targetgirl123456]

I wouldn't even write on this thread. It's most likely a district manager or someone from Target headquarters talking about how low and un-useful team members are.

If I was a moderator of this forum, I would have this whole thread deleted because this is gonna have mad men.

Just my opinion.

 

[Retail Girl]

No...it's just SOT. Nothing unusual here.

 

[StateofTarget]

I wouldn't even write on this thread. It's most likely a district manager or someone from Target headquarters talking about how low and un-useful team members are.

If I was a moderator of this forum, I would have this whole thread deleted because this is gonna have mad men.

Just my opinion.

Yea, I work at HQ and this is a massive conspiracy. <eye roll>

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

It has become a numbers game. I would not deleted the thread. At the store level, we do know that spot does read our forum. Hopefully, they are reading this now. Don't give up yet.

 

[nib]

I don't know who could possibly think Target is going out of business just because some departments or some stores might be cutting back hours, that's just silly. The reality is that hours change all the time. If you want more hours, reach out to your TL, ETL, STL, or HR dept, or ask your co-workers if they are interested in giving you some of their shifts. Or get cross-trained so you can be able to take on shifts in other departments.

 

[talan123]

I wouldn't even write on this thread. It's most likely a district manager or someone from Target headquarters talking about how low and un-useful team members are.

If I was a moderator of this forum, I would have this whole thread deleted because this is gonna have mad men.

Just my opinion.

Yea, I work at HQ and this is a massive conspiracy. <eye roll>

I knew it! Reasonable explanations: Several billion, Massive conspiracy theories; 1

 

[commiecorvus]

Not sure how this fits into the puzzle but Jerry Murray, a vice president at Walmart, wrote in a recent email that February was off to the slowest start he'd seen in seven years.
They're blaming the expiration of the tax cut, though I tend towards the influence of shopper boycotts.
Wonder if Spot is feeling the same kind of heat?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/15/walmart-sales-disaster_n_2696883.html

 

[researchr]

Our hours are slashed to bits but we've been kicking butt in sales. I think alot of people are spending there tax return money. I've seen a HUGH increase in furniture/home decor sales. Every day there are new outs in those areas.

 

[Darikona]

Not sure how this fits into the puzzle but Jerry Murray, a vice president at Walmart, wrote in a recent email that February was off to the slowest start he'd seen in seven years.
They're blaming the expiration of the tax cut, though I tend towards the influence of shopper boycotts.
Wonder if Spot is feeling the same kind of heat?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/15/walmart-sales-disaster_n_2696883.html

There could be a thousand reasons why this is happening. Walmart has also been trending down slowly as Target and other retailers start nipping away at their business.

 

[TheManInRed]

Not sure how this fits into the puzzle but Jerry Murray, a vice president at Walmart, wrote in a recent email that February was off to the slowest start he'd seen in seven years.
They're blaming the expiration of the tax cut, though I tend towards the influence of shopper boycotts.
Wonder if Spot is feeling the same kind of heat?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/15/walmart-sales-disaster_n_2696883.html

There could be a thousand reasons why this is happening. Walmart has also been trending down slowly as Target and other retailers start nipping away at their business.

it could be that with a lot of the new tax laws going into place that people were forced to wait longer to file their taxes and get thier money back...

 

[ncc1701]

I too have never heard of a guest complaining about a bad zone, but I have rung up something and the guest was mad because they thought it was a different price.
Sometimes this is because the guest simply didnt read the sign or label, but other times its because of a bad zone.....since the items have no prices on them the guest depends on the label
to know the price, but if the item is in the wrong place then they think its a different price. So guests hate a bad zone not because it looks messy but because they cant figure out the prices..
(Not that we actually have TIME to zone with all the hour cutting lately!)

And what I mean by work is going to get overloaded, I mean with not enough team members zoning isles each night, the isles are going to get worse and worse and not catched up on. It's already happening where we don't get every department zoned each night. We sometimes are rushed and there's nothing we can do about it but do a fake zone.There's going to be more and more isles that are going to be needed to be deep zoned. So Team members are important. And I think we should get more hours. Without more hours & not enough people working in the store means that guest service rates will go lower

Not enough can I help you find something & more guest walk outs

Honestly, the zone is not *that* important. Everything doesn't have to be 100% zoned to planogram every second of the day.

Have you been to a Wal-Mart recently? Their idea of a clearance section is about 10 baskets stuck in a random aisle with tons of random clearance product thrown in them for people to hunt through.

Take a look at wal-marts aisles sometime on a busy weekend..... sh** is all over the place. Yet, they do just fine.

The fact is, even with payroll cut to the bones aisles *will* be zoned. Will they all be zoned perfectly every single day? Nope. It might be a day or two or even three before an aisle gets a good zone. But honestly, unless product is just thrown all over the damn place (pretty rare on most aisles), it isn't going to really be a problem other than not "looking" good.... and honestly, who (guests) give a damn?

In all my years working retail, I honestly can't even think of one instance of a guest complaining about the zone to me. Never once. I have never had a guest come up to me and say "Hey, I want to complain because the zone could look better at your store"

Now, I have had guests complain to me about tons of silly crap. I've had guests complain to me that there were too many people on the store on previous black Fridays. I've had guests complain to me that we won't personally drive to another store, get an item for them, and come back to our store with it. I've had guests complain that they walked under an air duct and didn't like the AC blowing on them for 3 seconds. Fu**, I've even had a guest complain to me that it was too hot walking through the parking lot. But a complaint about the zone? Honestly, it has never happened.

 

[mrknownothing]

I too have never heard of a guest complaining about a bad zone, but I have rung up something and the guest was mad because they thought it was a different price.
Sometimes this is because the guest simply didnt read the sign or label, but other times its because of a bad zone.....since the items have no prices on them the guest depends on the label
to know the price, but if the item is in the wrong place then they think its a different price. So guests hate a bad zone not because it looks messy but because they cant figure out the prices..
(Not that we actually have TIME to zone with all the hour cutting lately!)

This x infinity!

 

[Retail Girl]

We had such a bad zone on an item in infant hardlines, I had to knock down a price of something over $100. I informed the LOD before I let the cashier do it, but I knew he was NOT happy. Bad zone costs us money in both lost sales and mark downs.

 

[BackroomFella]

We had such a bad zone on an item in infant hardlines, I had to knock down a price of something over $100. I informed the LOD before I let the cashier do it, but I knew he was NOT happy. Bad zone costs us money in both lost sales and mark downs.

What about the "red dot item numbers?" No help in explaining the situation to the guest?

 

[Retail Girl]

If I think I know what you are referring to, there weren't any on this product. It was the baby bjorns that got shoved over one spot because of a bunch of carrier wraps (which should have been back stocked) were spilling out all over the place. So the baby bjorns, instead of being above the $139 price tag, were above a $25 price tag (of which we had none of that product). I went back and took care of that later, since the softlines TM I told about it just shrugged her shoulders and walked away.

 

[BackroomFella]

Hokey smoke, Bullwinkle! That's terrible!

 

[Retail Girl]

Needless to say, with that big of a price difference, I got the lod's approval before letting the guest have it. The displeasure in his voice said it all...but, what are you going to do?