Pricing and Presentation Transition: Freight Flow

[PogDog]

Currently, I'm guessing, all stores are overwhelmed with excess freight. We're starting to see the influx of all the product we didn't get last year along with all the stuff that was ordered for this year. At my store, our backroom valleys are filled to the gills and our steel space is jacked full of bulk furniture, toys and seasonal stuff. Every overhead space is utilized to "house" excess that the DC forced on us. We have had limited allowance in transfers (just scanned a cube organizer yesterday… 42 on-hand, allowed to send 6 back).

Regardless, this has definitely made space management more stressful (and also well above my team's abilities).

On top of that, I'm seeing transition for upcoming sets trickle in on every truck. This is normal, but how it's coming in has become more apparently annoying with our space issues.

I have transition for next week's workload coming in, along with the following week's workload. I get my pre-ties in, but they pull so far ahead that nearly nothing for the workload 2 weeks out has any pre-tied locations on their labels.

I get that the DC has limited space to organize and create pallets, on top of all the other shitty pallets they build. I don't mind having to build transition pallets here. But, what I don't understand is why not send in all the product for a given pog or pre-tied aisle? What's the point of pre-ties if they're not even going to send the stuff labeled with pre-ties?

TLDR; Steel space is limited. Transition is becoming a stress point. DC could send pre-sorted transition by pog per truck. Less mixed pallets per truck.

 

[MrT]

Currently, I'm guessing, all stores are overwhelmed with excess freight. We're starting to see the influx of all the product we didn't get last year along with all the stuff that was ordered for this year. At my store, our backroom valleys are filled to the gills and our steel space is jacked full of bulk furniture, toys and seasonal stuff. Every overhead space is utilized to "house" excess that the DC forced on us. We have had limited allowance in transfers (just scanned a cube organizer yesterday… 42 on-hand, allowed to send 6 back).

Regardless, this has definitely made space management more stressful (and also well above my team's abilities).

On top of that, I'm seeing transition for upcoming sets trickle in on every truck. This is normal, but how it's coming in has become more apparently annoying with our space issues.

I have transition for next week's workload coming in, along with the following week's workload. I get my pre-ties in, but they pull so far ahead that nearly nothing for the workload 2 weeks out has any pre-tied locations on their labels.

I get that the DC has limited space to organize and create pallets, on top of all the other shitty pallets they build. I don't mind having to build transition pallets here. But, what I don't understand is why not send in all the product for a given pog or pre-tied aisle? What's the point of pre-ties if they're not even going to send the stuff labeled with pre-ties?

TLDR; Steel space is limited. Transition is becoming a stress point. DC could send pre-sorted transition by pog per truck. Less mixed pallets per truck.

I wish same boat here. Style is pallets behind and taken up a bunch of space too so its a constant juggle to fix anything.

 

[MavDog]

Something that has helped me in the past is pretying things as early as possible. Even before the Monday two weeks before. I've seen that things tend to drop in the Friday before that at the latest. It helps catch some of the weird transition freight flow that ends up being three weeks early, like melt risk candy. It's a little more difficult because you can't search it by week in the Pog screens, you have to know what is coming up and search via virtual sales floor instead. (It also impressed my SD because when she would look and see if preties were done the Monday they were due, they were always already complete no matter how early she looked. Little did she know I had them done at least three days earlier)

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Currently, I'm guessing, all stores are overwhelmed with excess freight. We're starting to see the influx of all the product we didn't get last year along with all the stuff that was ordered for this year. At my store, our backroom valleys are filled to the gills and our steel space is jacked full of bulk furniture, toys and seasonal stuff. Every overhead space is utilized to "house" excess that the DC forced on us. We have had limited allowance in transfers (just scanned a cube organizer yesterday… 42 on-hand, allowed to send 6 back).

Regardless, this has definitely made space management more stressful (and also well above my team's abilities).

On top of that, I'm seeing transition for upcoming sets trickle in on every truck. This is normal, but how it's coming in has become more apparently annoying with our space issues.

I have transition for next week's workload coming in, along with the following week's workload. I get my pre-ties in, but they pull so far ahead that nearly nothing for the workload 2 weeks out has any pre-tied locations on their labels.

I get that the DC has limited space to organize and create pallets, on top of all the other shitty pallets they build. I don't mind having to build transition pallets here. But, what I don't understand is why not send in all the product for a given pog or pre-tied aisle? What's the point of pre-ties if they're not even going to send the stuff labeled with pre-ties?

TLDR; Steel space is limited. Transition is becoming a stress point. DC could send pre-sorted transition by pog per truck. Less mixed pallets per truck.

our steel is full & style is in bad shape too. oh wait! we need cut hours again.

 

[truckdemon]

I feel like I could've wrote this. I'm at a low volume store and a very small backroom, but we've never had a problem with steel space until now. It's a constant battle and struggle to find space for anything and the crap just keeps coming in. My SD is constantly on my butt about making space and I'm usually very good at finagling things around but it's to the point where I have no where to go with anything. Salesfloor is full, backroom aisles are filled from the top to bottom and I'm ready to start shoving pallets in the compactor and call it a day.

And with constantly having a bare bones team with 2k trucks almost everyday, it's truly tbeen a struggle.

 

[SigningLady]

Item Removal>Not Damaged>No Room to Remerchandise

Then send it back on the sweep with the rest of the salvaged items that accumulate so quickly these days.

It's not the most elegant solution as far as financials go, but it will give you space when you desperately need it.

Edited to add: be strategic. Don't remove single items, remove the excess bulk pallet items (like those Hot Wheels garages that just got dumped on us). Or if you have 40 of the same toss pillow, remove half but not all.

 

[truckdemon]

Item Removal>Not Damaged>No Room to Remerchandise

Then send it back on the sweep with the rest of the salvaged items that accumulate so quickly these days.

It's not the most elegant solution as far as financials go, but it will give you space when you desperately need it.

I've brought it up to my SD but she doesn't want us to do that. I guess I'll just sit on my seven pallets of bikes and five pallets of squishmallows for a year

 

[SigningLady]

I've brought it up to my SD but she doesn't want us to do that. I guess I'll just sit on my seven pallets of bikes and five pallets of squishmallows for a year

I can understand that. My SD was a bit shocked by how much we removed but it had been cleared by my ETL so he could take up the issue with her if he wanted. And honestly, you can't even tell we removed so much, still looks heaped to the heavens everywhere.

When shit is this batshit crazy, something has to give.

 

[MrT]

I've brought it up to my SD but she doesn't want us to do that. I guess I'll just sit on my seven pallets of bikes and five pallets of squishmallows for a year

We put our squishmellows all over the place and even i a big bin in the middle of the store. They sold pretty well so that was nice.

 

[seasonaldude]

Item Removal>Not Damaged>No Room to Remerchandise

Then send it back on the sweep with the rest of the salvaged items that accumulate so quickly these days.

It's not the most elegant solution as far as financials go, but it will give you space when you desperately need it.

Edited to add: be strategic. Don't remove single items, remove the excess bulk pallet items (like those Hot Wheels garages that just got dumped on us). Or if you have 40 of the same toss pillow, remove half but not all.

My ETL is very much opposed to that unfortunately. I'll do it when she's not around. But, if she is around I've been going the other route: Oh Look! This box has a slight dent in it! No one is going to buy this! DEFECT!!!!!!!

 

[Big Blue]

We're in the same boat, except we're also doing a remodel that turned our entire light duty (which was too small to begin with) into 2 blocks of Montel aisles.

Compounding things, our SD has someone pull one for ones at night, but they just stage them in 3-tiers and leave them blocking half the walkway through light duty. In theory people are supposed to push it when they come in the next day, but sometimes stuff will sit there for days before someone finally pushes it. So it's always a nightmare to get back there for anything and even if you do manage to get a vehicle back through all of that stuff, then get lucky enough that NO ONE else is backstocking because only one valley can be open at a time, it's guaranteed that fulfillment will need into the next valley. So you have to come out of the aisle, pull your ladder out and just wait.

It's insane. These Montel systems were only meant to be used in small format stores that don't have a lot in backstock. Trying to use them in a full size store, especially one with an already tiny backroom, makes no sense. We are really struggling to deal with all of this on top of all the stuff OP mentioned. It's taken what is supposed to be a relatively calm time of year and made it feel like Q4 + BTC together.

 

[PogDog]

Hot wheels, squishmellows and brightroom cube organizers are clogging our steel.

We’ve had some luck with transfers. I tell my pog team to defect all DCode/clearance that’s found while setting. It’s not a ton, but it’s one less endcap.

I’m hurting on shelving, so trying to build flex end caps has been tough. It also doesn’t help that the pogs seem to be using more shelf blocking signage and ism shippers. Really not the time to double up on freight and send a lot of complicated, capacity shrinking shippers Target! Geezus, what is with that joke of a Flamingo end cap? Why do I need boxes that say Zero on 3 different end caps? I need that space for flexing.

 

[gsa4lyfe]

Item Removal>Not Damaged>No Room to Remerchandise

Then send it back on the sweep with the rest of the salvaged items that accumulate so quickly these days.

It's not the most elegant solution as far as financials go, but it will give you space when you desperately need it.

Edited to add: be strategic. Don't remove single items, remove the excess bulk pallet items (like those Hot Wheels garages that just got dumped on us). Or if you have 40 of the same toss pillow, remove half but not all.

The point of this function is the opposite. It’s for small single items that don’t make sense to keep, the bulk stuff is sent on purpose. Specifically says to not defect or sweep back.

 

[YugTegrat]

You can't win.

My store's backroom units went from around 35k to 85k in the past year. Our DSD still doesn't want us using risers or dropping pallets on the floor. All of our steel is completely full and our aisles look worse than they did during Q4. The reason we're being sent so many units is because we were chosen as a dump store to alleviate our DC's capacity concerns.. but stores are not warehouses and total space is irrelevant when they're sending things from specific departments. Yes, we have plenty of space in our market aisles, but that's no reason to send us 1,000 cases of toy backstock on multiple different trucks. Our toy aisles are beyond full. As are our plastics, domestics, and decorative home aisles.

Inventory is coming up and will be a shitshow, and I can't even begin to imagine how bad Q4 is going to be. Our district is currently seeing an exodus of leaders and I'm sure it's only going to get worse.

 

[gsa4lyfe]

You can't win.

My store's backroom units went from around 35k to 85k in the past year. Our DSD still doesn't want us using risers or dropping pallets on the floor. All of our steel is completely full and our aisles look worse than they did during Q4. The reason we're being sent so many units is because we were chosen as a dump store to alleviate our DC's capacity concerns.. but stores are not warehouses and total space is irrelevant when they're sending things from specific departments. Yes, we have plenty of space in our market aisles, but that's no reason to send us 1,000 cases of toy backstock on multiple different trucks. Our toy aisles are beyond full. As are our plastics, domestics, and decorative home aisles.

Inventory is coming up and will be a shitshow, and I can't even begin to imagine how bad Q4 is going to be. Our district is currently seeing an exodus of leaders and I'm sure it's only going to get worse.

To play devils advocate, I’ve always seen that if given this space it gets out of control fast. The more leeway you get the more room for shitty looking stores. We legit play up and down everyday in steel for what can come out in order to put up the 2-3 pallets I have o put up. It takes more time for sure but keeps things from getting out of control. Now I’m not saying that sometimes it’s necessary but 9/10 there’s another answer than put it on the floor, that’s just always the fastest and easiest answer

 

[YugTegrat]

That’s one way to look at it, sure, but they’re sending us freight to sell and it’s not going to sell as well from just the backroom. Other stores in our district with less space in their backrooms have both risers and pallet drops, so it’s not a brand thing. Also consider that SDs are paid 6 digits a year to manage stores, so why not leave it up to them to decide what’s best for their stores? If decisions are going to be made for them, what are they being compensated for? ETLs and SDs have barely any control over how stores run anymore.

The most frustrating part is that three years ago, we were scolded for having 50k units in the backroom. We were told to drop pallets and flex things out to drop our backroom units as much as possible. Now we’re sitting on 85k with more to come, and our hands are tied. We’re getting closer and closer to looking like those images that leaked a while back with all the OSHA violations because we just don’t have the space or payroll to deal with the amount of freight we’re receiving.

 

[KarmaToBurn]

I've had to turn away bulk delivery vendors because their literally isn't a 2' wide path through the stockroom to the vendor area on the other side... and this is recently more often the case than not. If OSHA ever walks in....

 

[BottomPerformer]

It would be nice if our CEO or those in charge of running this company, would acknowledge our frustration and give us solutions. I always see "We're Listening!" on workbench and communications, so why are they not listening now?
Also, I want to speak to the buyers of this company. Who thought it would be a good idea to order palletfulls of the same product with enough pallets for EVERY STORE in the company? That doesn't seem like a very profitable purchase.
With all of this extra freight the stores are getting, I'm guessing in a few months we won't need to take a truck for about 2 or 3 months. Heres hoping!

 

[PogDog]

It would be nice if our CEO or those in charge of running this company, would acknowledge our frustration and give us solutions. I always see "We're Listening!" on workbench and communications, so why are they not listening now?
Also, I want to speak to the buyers of this company. Who thought it would be a good idea to order palletfulls of the same product with enough pallets for EVERY STORE in the company? That doesn't seem like a very profitable purchase.
With all of this extra freight the stores are getting, I'm guessing in a few months we won't need to take a truck for about 2 or 3 months. Heres hoping!

The buyers buy well in advance. I think the average is between 2-3 years lead time (especially if it's seasonal or exclusive).

You can't fault the buyers for doing their job, they didn't know Covid and the freight issues would happen. And with the amount of money spent to buy and build these contracts... they weren't going to stop them.

So, the freight is here. What the company needs to do is be more present with creating sale opportunities to move the product quicker. Housing indefinitely is a fools game. If you have high supply and low demand, you have to sell at a low price. That's marketing 101 shit.

 

[YugTegrat]

Or they could alleviate issues at stores and RDCs by buying up warehouses to store excess product either before it hits the RDC or before it goes to stores. The burden of dealing with all this freight falling on stores is a huge problem. Stores are the guest-facing part of the company. The burden should fall elsewhere.

 

[Luck]

Or they could alleviate issues at stores and RDCs by buying up warehouses to store excess product either before it hits the RDC or before it goes to stores. The burden of dealing with all this freight falling on stores is a huge problem. Stores are the guest-facing part of the company. The burden should fall elsewhere.

They are. We have full teams at DCs dedicated to palletizing product to send to off-site DCs we are renting space from. On top of using trailers as temporary storage locations, having installed new bulk location racking (100+ new pallet locations) and created an entire team dedicated to only spending all day every day consolidating locations.

Trust me I get the frustration as a former store TM but as full as you think your store is, the DCs are fuller 😁

 

[allnew2]

Thank god I have an off-site .

 

[SugarSugar]

The point of this function is the opposite. It’s for small single items that don’t make sense to keep, the bulk stuff is sent on purpose. Specifically says to not defect or sweep back.

Wouldn't DC just send the same amount back since we're just lowering the on-hands? I remember our store doing this when we got a bunch of those resting bed pillows. I don't think defecting things out is telling the system to stop sending us more or to reduce our capacity. I could see this maybe working for clearance or discontinued items.

 

[MrT]

They are. We have full teams at DCs dedicated to palletizing product to send to off-site DCs we are renting space from. On top of using trailers as temporary storage locations, having installed new bulk location racking (100+ new pallet locations) and created an entire team dedicated to only spending all day every day consolidating locations.

Trust me I get the frustration as a former store TM but as full as you think your store is, the DCs are fuller 😁

Your probably right, but if you havemt worked at a store in the past 6 months you dont realize how bad it has become. 12 years at target and ive never seen in come close to this. We are sitting here trying to preach safety and to use oragami to report near misses when the entire backroom and half the sales floor is a near miss.

 

[SigningLady]

Wouldn't DC just send the same amount back since we're just lowering the on-hands? I remember our store doing this when we got a bunch of those resting bed pillows. I don't think defecting things out is telling the system to stop sending us more or to reduce our capacity. I could see this maybe working for clearance or discontinued items.

No, what we are getting sent is above what we would normally get to have on hand. It's excess, not what they think we should have typically. Sometimes what they think we should have is more than is reasonable, but not often.