To that one Team Member I - ARCHIVED

[MrMrIce]

Since I do a safety walk every hour, I pretty much memorized the entire store layout. I can tell you where anything is located at, usually within 2 or 3 aisles.

 

[MrMrIce]

To the ETL-HR.

I am so over you. You ****ing lied to me. Nobody in that store has had to wait 90 days to cross-train but me. Everyone else is able to go train in other departments nearly immediately. All I get from you is, oh, just wait, I want to give you something with more responsibilities, blah, blah, blah. But you refuse to train me to do reshop, you refuse to train me to help with ad take down.

Apparently all I'm good for in your eyes is burying on the check lanes under massive loads of guests while everyone else gets to go zone, do reshop, blah, blah, blah. In fact, I didn't even get my second break tonight because apparently I'm not even worth that in your eyes to have other people (you know, the other TMs scheduled for cashiering) to come down to that level and spend some time on the lanes. My GSA felt so bad for me tonight after that little stunt, she's promised me an extra break next time we work together.

But sure, continue to feed me lines and lies. **** you all. I suspect that you all putting me on hard lines for that training period will either be me zoning and learning nothing, or I will never be scheduled another shift there again. You can take your canned lines and promises elsewhere. I don't want to hear them anymore.

I wasn't allowed to get cross-trained either until after my 90 days I was hired as a cashier. Now I know Cashier, Carts, Guest Service, Food, and Electronics.

 

[Firewater]

Does every team member on your flow team need a PDA to stock the salesfloor? I'm betting not. Yes, they are tools for everyone, as needed for research, price changes, pulling, backstocking, PCV and SDA, pog fills, tying pogs and salesplanners. I'm sure I've left a few uses out, but purposely left out expensive merchandise-locating reshop tool. I've put up shopping carts of reshop with the sort printout myself, and I think it works just fine. And if one more team member past their 90 days gets on the walkie and asks where the bug spray is located, I'm going to scream. PDAs keep you from learning where stuff is.

Since I'm usually opening LOD, I will always make sure that the team members who need the PDAs every minute that they work will have them. These are the priority areas. If their use is not controlled at night, as is the case in many stores, those teams suffer. The other argument that I've heard from non-priority team members who want to always have a PDA, but never want to wear a holster, oddly enough, is that the equipment is needed to tell if something is in the backroom. That's why walkies exist. Call the backroom or the operator.

 

[Retail Girl]

I wasn't allowed to get cross-trained either until after my 90 days I was hired as a cashier. Now I know Cashier, Carts, Guest Service, Food, and Electronics.

If it was a rule for everyone in my store, I would understand that. But apparently I'm the only schmuck they are holding to that, even though they acknowledged I had everything down within a month (and was off for two weeks in there to boot).

 

[SuzyTarget]

Since I do a safety walk every hour, I pretty much memorized the entire store layout. I can tell you where anything is located at, usually within 2 or 3 aisles.

So when I'm trying to reshop an item that is super-similar to the items around it can you tell me exactly which peg hook it goes onto? Can you tell me that when I have the only one of that item in my hand so there isn't a matching one on the shelf/peg to tell me exactly where it goes? Can you tell me where something should go when someone else has put others of its kind in the wrong spot so now I'm going to put the one I've got in the wrong spot too? If an item's home loc is full can you tell if that item has additional locs on the floor or is it now backstock? Maybe you can, but I know a PDA can. Crappy reshop and zone creates more work for everybody. Just ask Instocks.

PDAs aren't the reason some TMs don't know where things are--that happens cause they are new, never work in that area, have bad memories or are stupid. If I use a PDA to find something it doesn't blindfold me on my walk over or wipe my memory of where I went.

 

[Retail Girl]

So when I'm trying to reshop an item that is super-similar to the items around it can you tell me exactly which peg hook it goes onto? Can you tell me that when I have the only one of that item in my hand so there isn't a matching one on the shelf/peg to tell me exactly where it goes? Can you tell me where something should go when someone else has put others of its kind in the wrong spot so now I'm going to put the one I've got in the wrong spot too? If an item's home loc is full can you tell if that item has additional locs on the floor or is it now backstock? Maybe you can, but I know a PDA can. Crappy reshop and zone creates more work for everybody. Just ask Instocks.

PDAs aren't the reason some TMs don't know where things are--that happens cause they are new, never work in that area, have bad memories or are stupid. If I use a PDA to find something it doesn't blindfold me on my walk over or wipe my memory of where I went.

Well, sounds like if you get the product within 2 or 3 aisles, it's good enough for reshop. ;-)

 

[researchr]

Does every team member on your flow team need a PDA to stock the salesfloor? I'm betting not. Yes, they are tools for everyone, as needed for research, price changes, pulling, backstocking, PCV and SDA, pog fills, tying pogs and salesplanners. I'm sure I've left a few uses out, but purposely left out expensive merchandise-locating reshop tool. I've put up shopping carts of reshop with the sort printout myself, and I think it works just fine. And if one more team member past their 90 days gets on the walkie and asks where the bug spray is located, I'm going to scream. PDAs keep you from learning where stuff is.

Since I'm usually opening LOD, I will always make sure that the team members who need the PDAs every minute that they work will have them. These are the priority areas. If their use is not controlled at night, as is the case in many stores, those teams suffer. The other argument that I've heard from non-priority team members who want to always have a PDA, but never want to wear a holster, oddly enough, is that the equipment is needed to tell if something is in the backroom. That's why walkies exist. Call the backroom or the operator.

I completely dissagree. The lpda is an invaluable tool for helping guests. The second question you get asked after "do you have it?" is "will you be getting more in?" With the lpda under the instocks icon in item search I can tell the guests if its on its way and approximately when. I can tell them if it's discontinued, I can tell them if a nearby store has it if they are in dire need. I can give them that store's phone number. (I have spoken to nearby stores from guests cell phones to insure the right product is being searched for.) PDA's are much more than a where is it tool. It is truly the answer to the question "Can I help you find something?" Know the title of the CD but not the artist? I can help you with the pda. Ask me for something I've never heard of? I can search it for you. Even if I come up with nothing, I have a happy guest because I took the time to try. As for using it just for reshop, until the price scanners and pic labels give all locations on the sales floor, I'll keep my expensive but oh-so-useful tool. As short staffed as we all are, noone can know every single item's location. Get off your high horse.

 

[Retail Girl]

Wait...my ETL's response to, "when are you getting more in," is always, "I don't know." hmm..confusion abounds.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

If you see the grey dot, usually in 1 week.

 

[commiecorvus]

I always try and stay vague about when something is coming in.
Nothing worse than a guest when some TM has given them a firm date of arrival and they show up and it isn't there.

 

[GlobalJ]

I always try and stay vague about when something is coming in.
Nothing worse than a guest when some TM has given them a firm date of arrival and they show up and it isn't there.

i give them the "We get trucks on Mon, Weds, and Fri, however we do not know what is on the truck until it comes, you can call about mid morning and we should know by then"

 

[babytrees]

OMG-to my least favorite (and by least favorite read I have a hard time working with her) ETL-I can not believe you are being given the ETL-HR responsibility while we wait to get a new one assigned to our store. I have been through a time (3+ months)without an ETL-HR and I am not sure but I think it was better than you might be.

to the powers that be-please give me the hours in my new work center so I can be/do more than just clean and zone that area.

 

[mrknownothing]

PDAs aren't the reason some TMs don't know where things are--that happens cause they are new, never work in that area, have bad memories or are stupid. If I use a PDA to find something it doesn't blindfold me on my walk over or wipe my memory of where I went.

This. I get scheduled on the floor maybe once or twice a month, so I don't remember where every single item is located. Plus, the PDA gives so much more info than the price scanners and Merch Locate on the registers - 2nd locations, Discontinued status, Z-Date (even though it's far from guaranteed). When working re-shop, the worklist is only useful if every item in the cart was scanned before the list was printed. At my store, certain Guest Service TMs refuse to scan items because they're in too much of a hurry to clean up, so working re-shop in the morning without a PDA or worklist can be a colossal pain in the ass.

 

[mrknownothing]

To that one GSTL and certain Guest Service TMs: If you want the re-shop to leave the front end in the morning, you really should make sure the carts have worklists. PDAs are non-existent when Pricing, Instocks, Backroom, and ETLs are all fighting over them, so the worklists would be extremely helpful. I know you want to get Guest Service cleaned up, but the re-shop will continue to sit around and accumulate if it can't be worked quickly.

 

[redandkhaki]

To that one GSTL and certain Guest Service TMs: If you want the re-shop to leave the front end in the morning, you really should make sure the carts have worklists. PDAs are non-existent when Pricing, Instocks, Backroom, and ETLs are all fighting over them, so the worklists would be extremely helpful. I know you want to get Guest Service cleaned up, but the re-shop will continue to sit around and accumulate if it can't be worked quickly.

I have never made a worklist for any of the carts i put out unless someone asks for one. I think i've been asked twice in the entire time i've worked there.

 

[babytrees]

To that one GSTL and certain Guest Service TMs: If you want the re-shop to leave the front end in the morning, you really should make sure the carts have worklists. PDAs are non-existent when Pricing, Instocks, Backroom, and ETLs are all fighting over them, so the worklists would be extremely helpful. I know you want to get Guest Service cleaned up, but the re-shop will continue to sit around and accumulate if it can't be worked quickly.

what the heck is a worklist?

 

[SuzyTarget]

what the heck is a worklist?

To explain what a worklist is I'll have to explain SmartSort is. What SmartSort requires is for every reshop and returned item collected at Guest Services to be scanned either on a register or a PDA while signed into the SmartSort application (this actually happens automatically during the return process for returns). When a given reshop cart is full, Guest Services is supposed to "close" the cart by scanning a master barcode linked to that cart. So, for example, if the grocery reshop cart is full and I want to push it to the floor to be worked out I scan the Cart 2 master barcode (Cart 2 happens to be grocery at my store; different stores can set up their carts however they choose) and I can either generate an itemized worklist off the register or just print a worklist barcode for that cart. The itemized worklist is a strip of receipt tape that lists every item in the cart and where it goes on salesfloor. With a worklist barcode, the person working out the reshop can scan the barcode and pull up the list on their PDA. Once a cart has been "closed" and pushed to the floor, the process starts all over again for that cart. This process is also applied to the defective boxes. There's a little more to it than what I described here, but that's the nutshell version of what it is.

SmartSort has been around for a while now. It was rolled out with great fanfare and we were heavily leaned on to use it exactly as we should no matter what, but the process is a huge pain in the you-know-what and now it really only gets used by my Guest Services to deal with oddball items we aren't sure what to do with, and to generate clearance or repackage tickets and the like. The idea behind it was to increase reshop efficiency, however this came at a significant cost to Guest Services' efficiency. I can sort a cart of abandons on my own in a tenth of the time it takes SmartSort to do it. And salesfloor didn't like it any better than GS. The worklists are really only useful if your cart isn't too full and you can easily reach and grab the next item on your list, but my store primarily works out reshop near or after close so not-too-full carts are hard to come by.

I'm curious to know if anyone here works at a store that has kept up with using SmartSort.

 

[SuzyTarget]

Well, sounds like if you get the product within 2 or 3 aisles, it's good enough for reshop. ;-)

I think if you just get it into the right department, its okay to just throw it wherever!

 

[babytrees]

To explain what a worklist is I'll have to explain SmartSort is. What SmartSort requires is for every reshop and returned item collected at Guest Services to be scanned either on a register or a PDA while signed into the SmartSort application (this actually happens automatically during the return process for returns). When a given reshop cart is full, Guest Services is supposed to "close" the cart by scanning a master barcode linked to that cart. So, for example, if the grocery reshop cart is full and I want to push it to the floor to be worked out I scan the Cart 2 master barcode (Cart 2 happens to be grocery at my store; different stores can set up their carts however they choose) and I can either generate an itemized worklist off the register or just print a worklist barcode for that cart. The itemized worklist is a strip of receipt tape that lists every item in the cart and where it goes on salesfloor. With a worklist barcode, the person working out the reshop can scan the barcode and pull up the list on their PDA. Once a cart has been "closed" and pushed to the floor, the process starts all over again for that cart. This process is also applied to the defective boxes. There's a little more to it than what I described here, but that's the nutshell version of what it is.

SmartSort has been around for a while now. It was rolled out with great fanfare and we were heavily leaned on to use it exactly as we should no matter what, but the process is a huge pain in the you-know-what and now it really only gets used by my Guest Services to deal with oddball items we aren't sure what to do with, and to generate clearance or repackage tickets and the like. The idea behind it was to increase reshop efficiency, however this came at a significant cost to Guest Services' efficiency. I can sort a cart of abandons on my own in a tenth of the time it takes SmartSort to do it. And salesfloor didn't like it any better than GS. The worklists are really only useful if your cart isn't too full and you can easily reach and grab the next item on your list, but my store primarily works out reshop near or after close so not-too-full carts are hard to come by.

I'm curious to know if anyone here works at a store that has kept up with using SmartSort.

thanks!!
Obviously our store doesn't use it. It would be useless on the softlines cart anyway as I take those back and sort them into 3 carts (Mens/Shoes/IHL, GBI, and Jewelry/Accesories/Sleepweer with RTW folded) and a RTW z-rack. I can only see it's usefulness on maybe the electronics cart but in reality most everybody knows the areas they are assigned to get in the aisle where the item is located w/o a PDA (for the old timers, obviously not the new ones)

 

[AmICrazy]

i give them the "We get trucks on Mon, Weds, and Fri, however we do not know what is on the truck until it comes, you can call about mid morning and we should know by then"

I do the same thing. After being with company almost long enough to get my $100 gift card I know not to the tell guests more than that. Many guests seem to think that we do our ordering for our departments and thus should know when something is going to come in.

 

[Firewater]

I completely dissagree. The lpda is an invaluable tool for helping guests. The second question you get asked after "do you have it?" is "will you be getting more in?" With the lpda under the instocks icon in item search I can tell the guests if its on its way and approximately when. I can tell them if it's discontinued, I can tell them if a nearby store has it if they are in dire need. I can give them that store's phone number. (I have spoken to nearby stores from guests cell phones to insure the right product is being searched for.) PDA's are much more than a where is it tool. It is truly the answer to the question "Can I help you find something?" Know the title of the CD but not the artist? I can help you with the pda. Ask me for something I've never heard of? I can search it for you. Even if I come up with nothing, I have a happy guest because I took the time to try. As for using it just for reshop, until the price scanners and pic labels give all locations on the sales floor, I'll keep my expensive but oh-so-useful tool. As short staffed as we all are, noone can know every single item's location. Get off your high horse.

I understand your point, even if you ended it with an insult. But, answer this one: do you need an lpda every minute of every hour that you work like, say, a price change team member? If there were enough equipment to go around, I agree with you whole-heartedly. I'd give every member of the Flow team one as well. If the team using them at night, for "guest service" as you say, could turn them in, then this issue would be moot. You are obviously conscientious and have earned the trust that should be earned before being able to carry an lpda. Can you honestly say that about everyone you work with? Does the team member using it for reshop even know how to use the functions you mentioned? Insult me all you want, because you can't hurt my feelings. The horse may be high, but the view from up here is pretty clear. Of course, how often do you get to anonymously bash an exec? Bring it.

 

[Firewater]

I have never made a worklist for any of the carts i put out unless someone asks for one. I think i've been asked twice in the entire time i've worked there.

This is not surprising, redandkhaki. We too often fail to use the tools that Target has given us.

 

[Firewater]

So when I'm trying to reshop an item that is super-similar to the items around it can you tell me exactly which peg hook it goes onto? Can you tell me that when I have the only one of that item in my hand so there isn't a matching one on the shelf/peg to tell me exactly where it goes? Can you tell me where something should go when someone else has put others of its kind in the wrong spot so now I'm going to put the one I've got in the wrong spot too? If an item's home loc is full can you tell if that item has additional locs on the floor or is it now backstock? Maybe you can, but I know a PDA can. Crappy reshop and zone creates more work for everybody. Just ask Instocks.

PDAs aren't the reason some TMs don't know where things are--that happens cause they are new, never work in that area, have bad memories or are stupid. If I use a PDA to find something it doesn't blindfold me on my walk over or wipe my memory of where I went.

In 99% of the cases, I could find where anything is supposed to go in the store and put it in the right location. Read your labels. UPCs, style numbers -- all there for a reason. You're obviously pro-PDA for everyone, which is okay if you're not having a problem with equipment control. But, you're right, you can't fix stupid. Even with a PDA.

 

[redandkhaki]

We use sort stuff to sort carts but we use PDAs to put reshoot away so a work list isn't needed.

 

[SuzyTarget]

In 99% of the cases, I could find where anything is supposed to go in the store and put it in the right location. Read your labels. UPCs, style numbers -- all there for a reason. You're obviously pro-PDA for everyone, which is okay if you're not having a problem with equipment control. But, you're right, you can't fix stupid. Even with a PDA.

Actually, I'm not proPDA for everyone. I am well aware that some areas have a greater need for PDAs and their need takes priority when PDAs are in short supply. I have loaned out my GSA PDA to someone who was working far more time-sensitive tasks than my own often enough to know that. I have also taken PDAs and walkies away from TMs who were holding on to them for no good reason. I just think you are focusing on the wrong issue. My store also has dealt with the disappearing PDA problem, every store has this problem. But PDAs being used by our afternoon and closing TMs who are working pulls, zoning and reshopping or doing other projects leftover by the morning crew isn't the reason early am and opening/morning TMs don't always have enough equipment. That problem is caused by too many TMs not turning in their equipment when they are done with them (a crime committed by TMs in every area, from every shift, including yours, Firewater) and/or the equipment captain not making sure broken equipment is sent out promptly so that broken PDAs aren't just piling up somewhere. And it may be true that not every TM with a PDA is using it to its maximum advantage, but they will certainly never learn how to if they never have one in their hand.