Archived Target to cut thousands of jobs in restructuring

[PullMeBackIn]

More corporate bullshit, Cornell's no different than Steinhafel, it's the damn board that needs to be replaced, not the CEO. From another article on this:

The company also said it had the capacity to buy back up to $2 billion worth of its own shares this fiscal year, and looks to repurchase $3 billion annually from the following year and beyond.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/04/us-target-outlook-idUSKBN0LZ2FW20150304

So, all those layoffs to save money? They're using it to buy back stock, just like they started doing toward the end of Steinhafel's reign. You know what happens to stock price when the company starts buying it back? It goes up so the board and other top executives who get paid in stock can sell it.

They're cannibalizing the company to line their own pockets.

 

[Guest]

What about the guest experience? Don't guests complain all the time about flow team members being in their way when the store is open? I thought Target was all about the guest experience and doing whatever it takes to make guests happy?

Flow and FDC should be overnight. Period. Explamation point(Flight of the Conchords).
There is no reason for truck freight to be worked during the hours that the store is open. That shit should be done when the store is closed. It's a million times more efficient that way. When the store is closed, flow team members and anyone else helping are only focused on getting the truck done and product to the floor. There's no worrying about guests, backups, or call buttons. The logic or I guess lack of logic that the dummies in corporate possess is mind boggling.

 

[RedMan]

I agree that it would be nice to have overnight. But the only time I see the flow team near a guest is when they come up to the service desk to buy their Rock Stars for break. If a flow team member ever spoke to a guest, much less helped one or backed up on the lanes, I'd faint. 😉 They don't even wear red/khaki at my store most of the time. Maybe the guests don't know they work for Target?

 

[POGguy]

Stores used to be either overnight or 4am. And the cutoff used to be much lower. I believe at one point the cutoff was around $28-30 million to be overnight. Now it's $50 million and goes up every year.

I agree that most stores should be overnight. But you won't see it again. Target has figured out they can save on payroll in the mornings by having the logistics team make up for not having salesfloor coverage.

 

[AdItemOnly]

 

[Retail Girl]

Only a few select flow TMs will talk to our guests. But it's a great allusion to look like we have TMs available and willing to help guests. And we all know Spot loves its allusions.

 

[Spotter]

What about the guest experience? Don't guests complain all the time about flow team members being in their way when the store is open? I thought Target was all about the guest experience and doing whatever it takes to make guests happy?

Flow and FDC should be overnight. Period. Explamation point(Flight of the Conchords).
There is no reason for truck freight to be worked during the hours that the store is open. That shit should be done when the store is closed. It's a million times more efficient that way. When the store is closed, flow team members and anyone else helping are only focused on getting the truck done and product to the floor. There's no worrying about guests, backups, or call buttons. The logic or I guess lack of logic that the dummies in corporate possess is mind boggling.

Pricing and in stocks should be a early process too. Starting pricing at these ridiculous times when you should have the current prices done before the guest shops and if in stocks is a huge focus they should start as early as they can to get the store scanned and filled.

 

[RunForACallBox]

What about the guest experience? Don't guests complain all the time about flow team members being in their way when the store is open? I thought Target was all about the guest experience and doing whatever it takes to make guests happy?

Flow and FDC should be overnight. Period. Explamation point(Flight of the Conchords).
There is no reason for truck freight to be worked during the hours that the store is open. That shit should be done when the store is closed. It's a million times more efficient that way. When the store is closed, flow team members and anyone else helping are only focused on getting the truck done and product to the floor. There's no worrying about guests, backups, or call buttons. The logic or I guess lack of logic that the dummies in corporate possess is mind boggling.

Had someone complain Monday that he should have went to Walmart if he wanted this. Flow was in grocery & boxes all over the place. POG needs to be very early, too. Setting HBA was hell with guests coming in & out our aisle. Like seriously, I'm trying to set. I think if enough guests started complaining, specifically about boxes on the floor/in the way something might get done....

 

[RunForACallBox]

Pricing and in stocks should be a early process too. Starting pricing at these ridiculous times when you should have the current prices done before the guest shops and if in stocks is a huge focus they should start as early as they can to get the store scanned and filled.

If it's such a focus they should have teams in all size stores to get it done. It rarely gets done now at my store.

 

[daninnj]

View attachment 788

Hey! I made that! Lol

 

[command3r]

Remember when a pallet on the floor at 8:01am was sacrilegious?

The good ole days.

 

[NOP]

There's also several remodels/pilots going on as well, designed to bring the guests into the store and to compete with other specialty retailers.

 

[BckRmBeast]

So in other words, corporate is acting like a bunch of monkeys flinging their own poo at the wall hoping something will stick?

There's also several remodels/pilots going on as well, designed to bring the guests into the store and to compete with other specialty retailers.

 

[RedMan]

I like the concept of Target Express. I saw one just prior to opening in a college town and it looked wonderful! Perfect for college students in a wealthy area but could also be perfect for college students in a more rural area.

When my kids were in large universities in the middle of rural nowhere, they'd have killed for a Target instead of a Walmart.

I also liked the CityTarget I visited. Once again, great target (scuse the pun) demographics. I know my city has a great downtown area for tourism, nightlife, cultural events, and sporting events; the loft/apartment scene is skyrocketing, but you can't buy a roll of toilet tissue within five miles.

 

[daninnj]

There's also several remodels/pilots going on as well, designed to bring the guests into the store and to compete with other specialty retailers.

This is the issue with Target. HomeGoods is an exciting place to shop because the stock changes from day to day and their prices are in line with Target. Target is not really a go-to place for home furnishings anymore. Same with TJ Maxx and Marshalls with clothes. Target's limited grocery selection cannot compete with real supermarkets or specialty ones like Trader Joe's. Electronics as it is now cannot really compete with full-service stores such as Best Buy (ie, dedicated salespeople). The baby selection cannot compete with Babies R Us.

That's why they are making all these changes. Baby 360 added a service aspect (Either with or without the adviser because they still have the registry kiosk). The new electronics remodel adds Best Buy-like service and atmosphere. That new home pilot makes it look more like HomeGoods (even though the assortment will not change). Adding more organics and such are catching up to TJs. Etc etc.

 

[Surge]

If Target wants to make more money, keep the fuckin' shelves stocked. You do that by making all stores overnight flow and overnight FDC. Flow should start as soon as the store closes. FDC should start at close too. And stop all this every other day there is an FDC truck bullshit. Have set days each week like it used to be. And also train people properly on how to work it and stock it.

I agree, new poster here, I am currently a PA and come from 10yrs grocery experience. The amount of waste that target goes through baffles me. Mostly is due to leads that day I don't care I want the filled as much as possible. Then you tell them it only has a three day shelf life and we only sell 1 maybe every two days. I don't care fill it well just qmos it. My old bosses would have had a heart attack.

 

[commiecorvus]

Welcome to The Break Room @Surge

 

[AdItemOnly]

Hey! I made that! Lol

nice lol, i laughed for 10 mins after i saw it and had to save it for later hehe

 

[sigma7]

Thanks for the comment @Surge and welcome to tbr. I can't stand the waste in PFresh. A lot of it has to do with Target sticking by the best practice of stocking to capacity in perishables areas, but not tailoring those capacities to specific store trends and sales. We also aren't given the hours to actively monitor instocks on items where we can control waste (bakery table, thaw and sell items, etc.). Our only choice is to fill it to capacity which usually is overfilling and leads to excessive waste, or we can under fill the capacity and risk visual out of stocks until the next time the item is researched leading to lost sales. I never worked in the production area at my super, but I imagine that sticking to the RPQs was a big deal even if you ended up qmosing a significant portion of what you produced.

PFresh further suffers from producing nothing in house. We are always out of fruit trays because (a) we don't get them in because the UPC is tied to a NOP DPCI instead of the real one and HQ will not correct it in my store and undoes it when I correct it with UPC/DPCI maintenance, or (b) we get way too many in because the FDC is getting close to short date and we end up qmosing them all because we had two days in the middle of the week to sell through 12 cases of fruit trays.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Welcome surge!

 

[Deli Ninja]

Re: Food Waste
Due to management issues at my Super Target, the deli is either constantly throwing away a ton of production food or the shelves are empty. With hour cuts and a wonky schedule, we can barely get anything done during the week. When we do get most of production done, we can't keep it rolling the next few days and it goes empty again. The ONLY solution for this is more hours and more regular scheduling. We've been told March is going to be worse that February was.
I'm a tad bitter about this.
Welcome to TBR, @Surge !

 

[Guest]

FDC is a lost cause. 90 percent of the time, there are pulls and back stock and wrapped full pallets in the freezer and dairy cooler. The freezer is an obstacle course with back stock galore and pallets of merchandize that haven't even had the plastic wrap taken off. We are always behind on FDC. Target has had a year to get this new FDC schedule to work and it has failed big time. Time for some to suck up their egos and accept defeat and go back to the old way.

 

[Backroom81]

I agree, new poster here, I am currently a PA and come from 10yrs grocery experience. The amount of waste that target goes through baffles me. Mostly is due to leads that day I don't care I want the filled as much as possible. Then you tell them it only has a three day shelf life and we only sell 1 maybe every two days. I don't care fill it well just qmos it. My old bosses would have had a heart attack.

When I first started at Target, my grocery TL was a former co-manager at a local grocery store. His way of putting it was "I would have been fired for bringing in even half this much freight."

 

[Jeremy]

The way i approch this is, they are cutting hours, which forces so many people to leave on their own part, opening up hours, and payroll to possibly increase pay. But if pay were increased to match The whole $10 thing from wal-mart, theyd expect one person to now do more work. If you get paid more they expect more out of you, meaning you slack off they have more reason to replace you. If this scenario comes into play I can see target jobs having even higher turnover on employees whicheans less long term employees, meaning less raises, which actually could lower labor cost in the long run, but hurting guest service even though thats gone into the crapper with no salesfloor TM hours.