Logistics The Flow/Inbound thread: Until We Yeet Again edition 🤙

[graffiti]

okay, and who had the gun?

Haha, our overwhelmed ETL LOG I guess! And yet somehow, giving 10 TMs two extra hours a day finished the truck, the backstock, and often most of the days of unpushed freight for market, cosmetics, and softlines...

Good idea on the combos. HBO is my main concern. If we push from the repacks, it will take awhile working back and forth.

I don't see too terribly much of what they do over there after the unload but I know they each separate their freight and their repacks into separate tubs, and during lulls in the unload (pulling pallets off, adding track, spills) they sort their repacks further since a lot come mixed together. Then from what I've seen they each take 2 three tiers, use one for their backstock and use the other to sort a few repacks by aisle, push that, then fill it up again. So 6 three tiers total most days, but they do go through a lot of tubs initially. And this kind of requires more experienced TMs, as our ladies can tell whose stuff is whose at a glance.

 

[FlowTeamChick]

Anyone here can provide me some info how to sort the repacks without using carts? We’re not allowed to use shopping carts anymore for breakdown. Not sure how’s that going to work when we use 18 carts for HBA, 18 carts for combos, and 20+ carts I’m softlines

For a while, it was a big no-no to use carts for this, but now, what do ya know, we're back to using carts for some of the hardlines repacks: kitchenware and small appliances, pets, toys, seasonal.
Wish we'd go back to using them for HBA, but that product (cases and repacks) is loaded onto u-boats, supposedly separated between health care and beauty.
Hanging soft lines is de-trashed and broken out onto z-racks in the back room. (I feel really sorry for the few TMs who are doing that - it's so cramped and squeezed into a small space.) The folded product is left in its plastic wrap and put in repacks in tubs. Haven't pushed soft lines in a while, but I'm guessing (hoping?) that departments aren't all co-mingled.
Domestics repacks are shifted from pallets to tubs and pushed unsorted. It's incredibly inefficient, imho, with so many steps. Rummaging through the boxes in the tub is not as easy as when we sorted all of C block together with bath towels separate from kitchen linens, all of D block together with sheets separate from picture frames, etc. Way back when I sorted the hardlines repacks, the TMs pushing that product loved how well I sorted everything, said it was so easy to push. A little extra effort on my part made for much less effort needed on their part, and I don't think it took me any longer - just being organized about it.
But of course, we can't have things make too much sense!

 

[FlowTeamChick]

Feel like I'm posting a lot in this thread, but I've done ALL the repacks except electronics.

Good idea on the combos. HBO is my main concern. If we push from the repacks, it will take awhile working back and forth.

Our HBA stuff is put on u-boats, health care and beauty separated when it comes off the line. Cases and repacks are put on the same u-boat. On the first u-boat I work, I push the cases first, then use the now-empty top shelf to open up repacks. It's not great - I'll have a few items out of the 3 or 4 boxes I can fit on the top shelf for one aisle, move to another aisle with a few more items, etc. Because I'm the most familiar with where everything goes, I then concentrate on the repacks and let others work the cases.
Even after ETLs have fed me the line about how this is so much better, I think they're wrong. So much easier to just work the cart of vitamins and protein bars or whatever, be done with the whole aisle, move on.

 

[can't touch this]

lol of course the rules get bent a lot because it's the only way things get done. If we followed everything by the book then things would literally screech to a halt. Per the DTL we're supposed to leave the compactor and baler locked and call for an LOD every time we need to throw away cardboard and trash ( ) but mysteriously the door's always propped open with a doorstop. We're supposed to keep shopping carts out of BR but last time I counted there were about 50 of them back there. Visits are a big huge shitshow but thankfully I've been off for the last few

 

[OneArmedJesus]

So flow in my store is moving from a 4am to 6am process, I wonder what we did to get sent to 6am because I've been hearing a lot of non flow peeps complain about it

 

[can't touch this]

Goddamn what an absolutely fucking terrible unload this morning. Only four (4) regular flow people showed up, we had five (5) callouts, and two ETLs, a few softlines girls and even fucking HR helping us throw a 2500 truck. Took forever and the line came to a halt for 10 minutes several times. It was already hot as fuck in receiving and the ETL-LOG's white hot rage at the slow pace was definitely contributing to the temperature. Phew. The unload took until 9 am and I bet less than half of the truck was pushed by the time they kicked me out at 10:30. Then it was my turn to be assblasted because with all those callouts there's no way they didn't have enough extra payroll to let me stay a full shift.

 

[Noiinteam]

Goddamn what an absolutely fucking terrible unload this morning. Only four (4) regular flow people showed up, we had five (5) callouts, and two ETLs, a few softlines girls and even fucking HR helping us throw a 2500 truck. Took forever and the line came to a halt for 10 minutes several times. It was already hot as fuck in receiving and the ETL-LOG's white hot rage at the slow pace was definitely contributing to the temperature. Phew. The unload took until 9 am and I bet less than half of the truck was pushed by the time they kicked me out at 10:30. Then it was my turn to be assblasted because with all those callouts there's no way they didn't have enough extra payroll to let me stay a full shift.

We had that happen a couple weeks ago but because we had so many call outs a lot of us were asked to stay and we finished everything. All the slugs called out! Thanks guys

 

[CsideMaster]

Same here. I’m overnight flow and been at Target since Sept 2015, for the first year and three months things were great. Hours were high, I worked with the same crew, which made it fun as we developed friendships, we got our work done because every night there were 25-30 people on, and it was fun to go to work.

Fast forward to now, only me and three others are still there from the original crew, I hardly ever see them because hours have gone down so much, there’s only about 12 people there every night, I myself have only been getting 1-2 days a week, and morale is at an all time low. It sucks that it has changed so much because I used to love working at target.

 

[can't touch this]

I mean, even if the hours were stable the constant churn of people is a real mellow harsher. You never know who's going to just stop showing up one day so trying to make friends with new people seems almost pointless. It almost feels like recovering from a string of bad relationships and being afraid of commitment, lmao

When I first started there was a guy in his 40s who was a real comedian, liked to tell us about all the shit his teenage son would get up to and the elaborate punishments he got...lol good times. There was a Wiccan girl who kept us entertained with stories about casting spells on people she hated and all the random bad things that would happen to them right after, like the one time she put a spell on her ex and the next day his gf broke up with him lol

now everybody is just apathetic and grumpy all the time and it sux

 

[CsideMaster]

I mean, even if the hours were stable the constant churn of people is a real mellow harsher. You never know who's going to just stop showing up one day so trying to make friends with new people seems almost pointless. It almost feels like recovering from a string of bad relationships and being afraid of commitment, lmao

When I first started there was a guy in his 40s who was a real comedian, liked to tell us about all the shit his teenage son would get up to and the elaborate punishments he got...lol good times. There was a Wiccan girl who kept us entertained with stories about casting spells on people she hated and all the random bad things that would happen to them right after, like the one time she put a spell on her ex and the next day his gf broke up with him lol

now everybody is just apathetic and grumpy all the time and it sux

There was a TL that used to work at my store that I LOVED. He was hilarious, upbeat, and always on point with his jokes. He worked there with us from Oct of 15 to April of 17 and man I hated to see him leave. All my other Tl’s are so stoic and all business, forgetting that we’re all humans here and all trying to make money. But working with this guy, I actually looked forward to going when he was there, it got to the point that when he was working, even if I was sick i would force myself to go to work because I didn’t wanna call out and miss the hilarity that ensues lmao

 

[can't touch this]

There was a TL that used to work at my store that I LOVED. He was hilarious, upbeat, and always on point with his jokes. He worked there with us from Oct of 15 to April of 17 and man I hated to see him leave. All my other Tl’s are so stoic and all business, forgetting that we’re all humans here and all trying to make money. But working with this guy, I actually looked forward to going when he was there, it got to the point that when he was working, even if I was sick i would force myself to go to work because I didn’t wanna call out and miss the hilarity that ensues lmao

I've had a few bosses like this and they never ever last. Lost one of them to PepsiCo, one moved to El Paso TX to work for Border Patrol, and another one got cancer and retired. The incompetent/boring/Lex Luthor types stick around forever and never miss a day. It's such a drag

 

[can't touch this]

so tomorrow's Thursday and I already know we're out 3 flow people because they have "class" (i.e. they're at their girlfriends' place getting their dicks sucked) oh man I can't wait, it's gonna be a blast!

it's getting to where I'm about to text my former 420 dealer to see if he can hook me up with some Lortab...throwing 800 cases an hour is really shredding my tendons

 

[PackAndCry]

they have "class" (i.e. they're at their girlfriends' place getting their dicks sucked)

I mean, I'd rather be doing that than working too.

 

[can't touch this]

So uh...yikes. At least 3 of our flow TMs are in the ETL's crosshairs now. One of them is OG and has been with Target for 13 years (recently moved to flow to help us out) and the other 2 are brand new, hired less than 2 weeks ago. They got assigned to push hba, pets and paper, spent about 3.5 hours on it and right after they got done, the ETL pulled them into his office and chewed their asses for "taking too long." Ditto for the next truck, and he warned them that the next conversation they had about it would include write ups. I've watched these 3 work and there is no time wasting or chit chat from what I've seen, just the newbie confusion that you'd expect from new hires and the OG chick doing her best to help them find shelf locations. On Tuesday we had a huge truck (2400) and again those 3 spent a little over 3 hours pushing hba, pets and paper which made smoke shoot out of the ETL's ears and the promised write ups were delivered. He told them that their pace sucks and needs to double or triple because payroll is so tight. Today he assigned them to push kitchen and housewares instead, and had me and another flow TM push hba, pets and paper which took us closer to 5 hours because again, huge truck and lots of guests crowding our aisles, and get this: the ETL paged me on walkie and asked where I was at on pushing, I told him "uh hba and pets is done and we're about halfway done with paper" and he said go to 4 and asked if I wanted to take a lunch(!!!!!) and stay 8 hours which I did.

short version: noobies spend 3.5 hours pushing and get in trouble, I spend almost 5 hours pushing the same thing and get asked to stay and help finish. WTF is going on? I'm nowhere close to being the fastest TM and yet I've never EVER been told I needed to pick up the pace.

 

[Aredhel]

it's getting to where I'm about to text my former 420 dealer to see if he can hook me up with some Lortab...throwing 800 cases an hour is really shredding my tendons

Heh. Been there. Add some birthdays.

 

[YoNanas]

Couldn't find a similar thread so I made one. Flow general thread.

Flow is kinda my path to Zen. I come in early before the store opens, don't have to use my brain at all (it's not functioning anyway) and the flow TL/ETL-LOG is a great leader and chill to work with. I've had many retail jobs and keep ending up in flow/stocking positions because it's basically a "move boxes, acquire money" type deal.

on the flip side though, our flow team and process has come apart at the seams during my time with Target. When I started in late 2015 we had a very big team with a lot of cool, competent people who showed me the ropes and made everything fun. It wasn't without its shitty days, but the ratio of shitty days to good days was roughly 1:50.

now here in April 2018 I am the only OG flow TM left excluding the ETL-LOG. Literally everyone else that I started with has moved on or been termed. That's 95% turnover. About half of the quitters didn't even put in their 2 weeks and just stopped showing up. The replacement hires have ranged from totally useless to passable, but even the okay ones do the absolute minimum they can get away with, refuse to stay late if extra hours are offered, and promptly fuck off at 10AM. The OG crew had a median age of 35 and many were in their late 40s with years of retail experience, but now I'm the oldest flow TM by 10 years, the rest are all 18 - 20 years old and living with their parents (with all the apathy and indifference that entails). It's mind numbing.

p crazy how fast things can go downhill in such a short time.

OG Status Rocks!

 

[YoNanas]

10 am? Is this a 4am process?

My store is still overnight (very high volume) and while I used to be dayside, overnight is where it’s at so I agree with not dealing with guests. I’m on a specialty team though, we only are in charge of market. It was originally a 5am process that went overnight. Was supposed to be a temporary change but it worked so well and sales skyrocketed that it stayed this way.

We're a 4am process store that used to be overnite. 4am to 10:30am. Started the process April 15, 2018

 

[YoNanas]

The next time I hear "X isn't brand" I'm gonna choke a bitch. You know what else isn't brand? 10 pallets of truck push staged on the salesfloor when the store is open so guests have to parkour over it to get down the fuckin aisle

Seriously tho it looks ghetto af, like Big Lots.

I like Big Lots. But Target has those "high standards" of no pallets, cages out when the store opens.

 

[YoNanas]

I'm pretty sure this is what Target wants in employees. It's the culture they are cultivating.

I personally don't do the absolute minimum. But I care less and less each passing year. And I have no guilt saying this because the company itself cares less and less every year. If Target was a person, it would be the person to stab you in the back. Years of service mean nothing.

Agree 100%

 

[YoNanas]

Anyone here can provide me some info how to sort the repacks without using carts? We’re not allowed to use shopping carts anymore for breakdown. Not sure how’s that going to work when we use 18 carts for HBA, 18 carts for combos, and 20+ carts I’m softlines

Ask the leader. They don't want you to use shopping carts so they MUST have a solution.

 

[can't touch this]

So our unload process has kind of settled into being manageable as long as everyone shows up, emphasis on the showing up part.

Everyone has their own assigned places on the line, I switch between scanning in/marking cartons at the front of the line, -or- catching pets, furniture and Bullseye shop depending on what day it is. The main problem we're having lately is that the kid who is supposed to catch repacks likes to call out or show up late and for some reason they haven't termed him yet, so if he doesn't show up then the process slows down by 1000 percent. When that happens the ETL-LOG will usually catch them himself, but he can't always do that because sometimes he's busy doing ETL shit and/or letting 7:00 people in the front door. Last time he assigned one of our noobs to catch repacks and it went to shit because she doesn't know department numbers, so we had softlines, hardlines, shoes and electronics repacks jumbled together instead of separated onto their own pallets. Guess who had to resort them after the unload and still didn't get a full shift? lolololol

Today wasn't too bad but the fragility of the process is buggin' me, fams.

 

[Leonhart621]

Ahhhhhh I remember the days we scan the trucks

Those were the days

Then they decided to stop scanning.

Then they wonder why we have a lot of backstock

 

[vendordontmesswithme]

Last of couple of months has been really good. Even softlines.
Now back to reality. Back to College and School. Transition for Domestic, Housewares and Funiture.

 

[Leonhart621]

Last of couple of months has been really good. Even softlines.
Now back to reality. Back to College and School. Transition for Domestic, Housewares and Funiture.

And they keep cutting hours for my team.

There’s a reason I need specific TMs on each truck. Stop removing them on my preplanned schedule

 

[Aredhel]

I hope I’m wrong. I really do but my experience was the start time gets later and later. Experienced tms will have to leave or be leveraged out. They will be replaced with newbies- not fit and no experience. You will have roughly one third of the team to unload, stock, backstock work outs etc and about 5 hours to do it.