the rise of minimum wage = more tasks for us?

[Greenandred]

It would be incredibly bad PR if they did. I’ve done countless papers on retail for school. Target Canada failed because the company didn’t throughly research the Canadian market. They assumed that Canadians are exactly like us and that they would immediately embrace Target. People were already content with their current shopping patterns which was to visit multiple stores. Add to the fact that Target was forced to raise its prices. Also, Target failed to create a sufficient distribution system that would allow its Canadian stores to be properly stocked.

 

[JAShands]

This ^
It all came down to a failed logistics system and higher prices. I’m in a border state with Canada and we have several Canadian shoppers to this day. They adore american Targets! But they also love our lower prices. There was a definite markup in their markets.

 

[can't touch this]

A couple of dudes named Dunning and Kruger killed Target Canada in its cradle and got away with it

 

[jackandcat]

didnt target canada fail bcos canadians didnt wanna give up tim hortons...thats also why sbux isnt as popular in canada, they have coffee places they like more

Tim Hortons doesn't sell "cheap chic" clothing, just coffee, "timbits" mini-donuts, fancier donuts, sandwiches and more coffee. 😊 Target's then-CEO Gregg Steinhafel initiated the very poorly-conceived Canada expansion in 2011, the stores opened two years later, and barely 19 months after the first Canada stores opened, Target Canada declared bankruptcy, closed all the stores and the entire company in Canada. I'm sure someone here has more personal knowledge on the topic, though I've read a few business articles on Target Canada. Just after Canada stores started opening and incurring financial losses (not surprising with new operations in a foreign country), the Data Breach fiasco occurred. Steinhafel was forced out as CEO in May 2014 due to the data fiasco, and was eventually replaced by Cornell. Long story, Target's media campaign to Canadian consumers and guests had promised the company was deeply committed to Canada. I've seen some of those ads but some seem to have been yanked off of Youtube.

Target Corp's spectacular Canada flop: A gold standard case study for what retailers shouldn't do

Analysis: In future years, Target Canada will serve as a gold standard case study in what retailers should not do when they enter a new market

business.financialpost.com

 

[Poofresh]

Target should have only opened one store, and that one store should have been in Vancouver. Why they opened in every town and provinces is such a bad investment.

 

[jackandcat]

We were told EVERY SINGLE CONVERSATION was to be documented. If we didnt have documentation on each tm at the end of the week we were talked to, and I am sure that conversation was documented. I was told to document someone who had a house fire for not coming in the next day. I refused. I was told to document someone who spent 4 hours in the emergency room for leaving her shift early to get medical help. I know it took that long because I took her. While the CEO is twisting himself into knots patting himself on the back for "keeping up with Amazon" the team is being treated as bad as any other shitty company. And for anyone who says if they don't like it they can leave,it's not that easy with a few kids, a rent payment etc. Sure someone is making bank, but it sure isn't the hourly workers.

Many large employers in the US keep a secret personnel file, separate from the official personnel record. There are extensive diary notes kept in each employee's secret file listing dates and times of conversations between the boss and the employee, with a brief summary of the topic, facts, and outcome.

The only time you'll really find out that a secret personnel file exists for you is on the day (hopefully never) when you are terminated. When they call you into the room for firing, their verbal explanation will go item-by-item with a chronology of times when you purportedly violated store policies. You will have long forgotten about those verbal chewing-out sessions, since it's unlikely you keep a day-to-day diary about your employment from months or years ago. The detailed recitation of your alleged failings as an employee will be presented to you as a grand slam, you'll be speechless or in tears at how they portray you in a rather merciless manner as horribly incompetent about things. None of this will be put in writing BUT if you apply for unemployment and appeal, they might use this as so-called evidence against you to deny unemployment.

I'm not saying this kind of cruel and abusive termination meeting WILL happen to you at Target. Sadly, many US companies do this kind of creepy "you have a long history of stupid mistakes and violating company rules" with dates and notes from a secret personnel diary. Some postings here at TBR here indicate this happened on a few occasions.

As for the original point of this post: Target TMs will be expected to take on more duties and have more responsibilities in return for the minimum wage increase. Perhaps it will work out well over the long run, and maybe it won't.

 

[tholmes]

The only time you'll really find out that a secret personnel file exists for you is on the day (hopefully never) when you are terminated.

Thankfully for us (sometimes), Spot is big enough that they have to tread a little more carefully when it comes to documentation and retention of said documents. If they don't, they risk a huge amount of legal backlash. As far as I'm aware, something to that extent within the past 10 years caused the change in HR policy to a 5 year document retention depending on what record it is (how it was explained to me).

So even though you'll never see documentation of the verbal coachings, the documents exist with more than one manager and anything you are coached/fired for has a minimum amount of paper trail documentation that you receive.

As for the thread question, yes we will see more tasks on everyone's individual plates as Spot pushes closer to their wage goal. However, that said, there is a limit to how many tasks any one person can feasibly perform, and that will dictate where Spot stops. It'll just take a while for them to realise when they've hit the point of everything not being feasible.