Archived Those of you who have worked other retail jobs

[Sellinz]

How do you compare target on the scale of things they demand? Target was/is my first job and I really have a limited view of the work world outside of it, we hired a GSA in November who quite frankly sucked but he wasn't like mind blowingly bad. He was let go today and I thought he was doing a passable job, he was pretty clearly the weakest of our front end super vising team and he had a decent bit of experience elsewhere but I was just wondering is Target that much more demanding than other places since he was able to succeed somewhere else?

 

[instockout]

GOTTTTTTA GET THOSE RED CARDS. other than that, you could literally kill someone, but if you're getting red card goals, your golden pony boy.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Don't take the gsa job...

 

[SrTLall]

Does Target expect too much or do other places expect too little?

 

[Midoninger]

target expects too much especially with this new "1 TM to a work center" thing they are trying to do.

 

[SFSFun]

My other job is in a large, locally owned, very busy grocery store. They actually did more in sales than my Target store last year. We don't really have an equivalent to the GSA position, or really even the GSTL position because everyone knows what is expected of them and how to get there. The closest we have is a Head Cashier, who is part of the core management team, with pay starting at $18/hr.

I could see someone coming from a non-leadership position elsewhere to a GSA position at Target and being completely bewildered and shocked by how things are run (or how they're not run).

 

[Sellinz]

Don't take the gsa job...

I don't plan on it. I am kind of a jack of all trades up front I work mostly service desk when the position originally opened they asked me and I said quite literally 'if you NEED me to do it I will do it until you hire someone else but i'm not really interested.'

 

[instockout]

I don't plan on it. I am kind of a jack of all trades up front I work mostly service desk when the position originally opened they asked me and I said quite literally 'if you NEED me to do it I will do it until you hire someone else but i'm not really interested.'

If they try to say some bull about needing to stay in the gsa position for 18 months it's a lie lol. They tried to do that to me when asking if I wanted gsa.

 

[HRZone]

GOTTTTTTA GET THOSE RED CARDS. other than that, you could literally kill someone, but if you're getting red card goals, your golden pony boy.

Yeah we lost an ETL GE over red cards. It's almost the only thing you are graded on as a front end supervisor especially since speed score is no longer a metric.

 

[LUR99]

Yeah we lost an ETL GE over red cards. It's almost the only thing you are graded on as a front end supervisor especially since speed score is no longer a metric.

Our ETL GE doesn't really know how to sign up people for red cards . Working at the front end would be much more pleasant if it wasn't for the red cards.

 

[On6]

I worked for a pretty large (national) grocery retailer prior to my Target days. So it's not really a fair comparison. Also we were unionized, so things were quite different.

However the one thing I noticed when coming to Target was the difference in leadership structure. Our store management (salary) consisted of a store manager, essentially the STL, and two assistant managers, ETLs. That was pretty much it. This was a pretty high volume store as well.

The rest of the store was hourly and apart of the union. Each department (Dairy, Meat, Bakery....) had their own department head (team leader) and assistant department head, as well as employees within that department. Because we were union there was pretty much no cross training allowed. Which meant either there would be a lot of OT handed out or the job just wouldn't get done if there were call outs.

I was younger at the time and pretty much just a cashier most of my time there. Overall I thought the job was pretty easy with amount of work expected. Everybody had a job and was expected to do it. I would definitely say Target has unrealistic expectations at times with certain processes and doesn't allow for much margin of error.

 

[SFSFun]

The rest of the store was hourly and apart of the union. Each department (Dairy, Meat, Bakery....) had their own department head (team leader) and assistant department head, as well as employees within that department. Because we were union there was pretty much no cross training allowed. Which meant either there would be a lot of OT handed out or the job just wouldn't get done if there were call outs.

See, I find that dynamic interesting because at my union store it's completely different. There are 3 unions. 1 for the meat cutters, 1 for food production (deli/seafood/bakery) and 1 for the rest of the store (produce to cashier to pharmacy to grocery, even the ASMs). Cross training within your own union is allowed unless specifically prohibited by the contract (baggers aren't allowed to do anything else due to being the lowest paid).

 

[On6]

See, I find that dynamic interesting because at my union store it's completely different. There are 3 unions. 1 for the meat cutters, 1 for food production (deli/seafood/bakery) and 1 for the rest of the store (produce to cashier to pharmacy to grocery, even the ASMs). Cross training within your own union is allowed unless specifically prohibited by the contract (baggers aren't allowed to do anything else due to being the lowest paid).

Technically the meat cutters had their own contract but we were under the same union. Other than pay scales the two contracts were almost the same.

Our contract stated union work couldn't be completed by non-union employees (Store managers, outside contractors). And we could cross train but the contract stated that for every hour of work that employees from outside the department performed, every employees from within that department would also receive dollar for dollar pay, even if they didn't actually work the hours. That was why cross training was nonexistent. The cost was simply too prohibitive.

 

[boobooduck]

The answer is yes. Like most, I agree that Target puts a ton on emphasis on the Red card and only the red card and that a lot of good workers have left because they cannot meet the stupid quotas. Target's emphasis on driving loyalty to its stores by promoting the Red card does set us apart. However, I also believe that Target Corporate is not 100% at fault. I believe technology is at fault among others issues and Target's Corporate motto of throwing a ton of sh*t out and seeing if it sticks have led to many good workers leaving. I once heard that in 2008 when the economy sank, the only 2 things that kept Target above water was defaults on credit cards and real estate flips. One reason is because an old-fashioned brick and mortar store selling items no longer cuts it. It used to be OK to have traditional cashiers, stockers....now we need different skill sets but still have the same titles....how many cashiers feel like they are a salesperson (for red cards) who also needs to be a tech guru (Cartwheel, Red Perks, price match)? How about if you want a cashier to be a salesperson for the Red card, you make the position partially commissioned? How many Backroom TMs have had to learn about e-commerce quick. Better yet, how many BR TMs ever thought they would be someone's personal shopper so that a lazy guest wouldn't have to pick their own items? Again, you cannot fault Target for this as other stores do this but at the same time, this used to be a paid job...now it is expected.

 

[bullseyekindaguy]

I've worked at Kmart and Meijer. Here are my experiences at both:

Kmart
Less emphasis on credit cards (Sears Cards), but extremely high emphasis of the loyalty program, Shop Your Way Rewards. If you didn't maintain the % of loyalty sign-ups, or % of loyalty customers, you'll be performance'd out in short order. There was less management involvement with the frontend, and only high-volume stores had a front-end lead. Depending on the store, the frontend was disorganized mess, and you hoped you had a manager who cared. In most stores, the service desk person acts as the front-end supervisor, so it was difficult to manage cashier calls, breaks/lunches, and other things that would fall to a GSA at Target while manning the service desk, processing returns, helping out with lottery tickets, Western Union, etc. Register system was slow as hell. Bottom Line: Overall, less expectations then Target with metrics, but can be tougher due to supervisor duties combined with running the service desk. However, Target wins because Kmart only pay minimum wage, and Kmart will probably go out of business within the year.

Meijer
The only metric that really mattered was cashier speed. The company was unionized, and you receive raises based on the number of hours you work. Hours and days off based on seniority (which can be a bad thing at first, but turnover is high enough that cashiers can achieve seniority quickly. Cashier supervisors receive an additional 25 cents per hour, but only when working as a supervisor, otherwise you make your regular rate of pay. Cashiers supervisors mainly ensure that lanes run quickly, speed-weave, assign breaks and lanes, grab change, and process cash drops for cashiers. Management is involved with frontend operations, but like I said, cashier speed is really the only important metric. Bottom Line: Meijer was a good place to work, especially with the raises once you hit certain hours worked milestones. I only left because I was using it as a second-job and they continually exceed my maximum hours per week requests. The only thing that sucked is that you only got the additional supervisor pay when you worked as a supervisor. Overall, good company, as long as you don't mind the $10 union fees deducted from your check each week, and the $100 union fees every year.

 

[HRZone]

Target wins because Kmart only pay minimum wage, and Kmart will probably go out of business within the year.

Already did here.

 

[60SecondsRemaining]

I currently work for a large craft retailer as a store manager. I have also worked for 2 grocers and Circuit City.

Generally speaking all retailers ask a lot of its employees, but target was by far the worst.

 

[commiecorvus]

I worked for a large (but local) grocery store chain that was unionized and a big box book store.
I've also worked for about a dozen different restaurants over the years but that's a whole different deal.
The grocery store allowed cross training but there were some departments it was very hard to get into because they were locked down by people who had been working there a good long time (meat cutters, seafood, produce, etc).
I was in the specialty meats department which was kind of the bastard child of the meat department.
The pay was good, health care first rate, hours could be tough but you could usually find other departments to fill in your 40.
The hours were regular except when you needed to fill up your 40 then it was whatever was open.

The bookstore was another story.
The people were great, I made some good friends there, but the hours were awful and the pay worse.
The insurance was pretty minimal but not really awful and at least they had it for part timers.
Picking up hours wasn't really an option though people were known to exchange shifts.

Here's my main issue with Target and where I suspect many of the misunderstandings that come up in the pages here.
The management from one store to another can be wildly inconsistent.
There is a reason ASANTS exists.
Brand or store standards all depend entirely on how some 25 year old fresh from college sees them to be.
You can have a store that is run exactly as it should be and one a few miles away that is a fucking nightmare but as long as the numbers come in Spot doesn't care.