Will the board call for Cornell to retire or resign???

[60SecondsRemaining]

Cornell is doing his job. He was brought in to right a sinking profit ship. And he did. In fact he was unfathomably successful at doing so. This will be a case study in foresight.

Cornell doesn't care about how many pallets of freight you have sitting because his vision of the "brand" isn't the same as yours. His actions have been telling you this all along.

His vision of the brand is a quick pivoting bottom-heavy convenience model. Get the freight out of DCs and closer to the last leg . Turn the stores into fulfillment centers and put product in hands and conveniently as quickly as posdible. This means the future of Target isn't brick and mortal, not in the traditional sense. It's SFS and curbside. People don't choose Target because it's some bougie Walmart, they do it because shopping at any Walmart in America is a pain in the ass. You can order something at Target, drive to the store 10 minutes later and have it handed to you. Or get it shipped to your house from the store, and you have it the next day. Walmart sucks at this. Their implementation is miserable. They are competing because they have a phenomenal logistics chain, and their stores are massive, so they have space to work with.

Cornell had enough foresight to push Target closer to an Amazon model - it was a good move. Then the pandemic came along and accelerated growth pattern for that strategic vision. Would he have been as successful without covid? No , probably not. But Target was able to pivot quickly and that's what put them ahead of other retailers.

He doesn't give a shit about employees, he gives a shit about making money - oodles and oodles and fistfuls of Benjamins. The board doesn't give a shit that he doesn't give a shit. Your happiness is not required, only your labor..in the cheapest form they can manage to get it.

 

[moninity]

What happens when the guest have had enough and they just stop coming into the stores? You don’t want to lose that portion of profits as it makes a lot more portion of sales than fulfillment does especially when your having to inf a lot more than you normally would. We are actually losing money with all the missed sales that can not be found.

 

[60SecondsRemaining]

What happens when the guest have had enough and they just stop coming into the stores? You don’t want to lose that portion of profits as it makes a lot more portion of sales than fulfillment does especially when your having to inf a lot more than you normally would. We are actually losing money with all the missed sales that can not be found.

You get shitcanned and your saved labor costs offset the loss of profit from in store shopping. Less guests in store means less labor, less electricity, less everything.

Then they replace you with a person who can pick and pack for a cheaper labor rate and continue to push SFS and curbside.

In 10 years Target will have a smaller sales floor footprint and a much larger warehouse footprint with SFS/curbside being the primary profit drivers.

 

[BurgerBob]

Cornell was the best thing to happen to this company… 20 straight quarters of growth? That’s insane. The freight issue is an industry issue not a target issue. Targets actually one of the few companies smart even to openly talk about lower profits due to moving product at much cheaper prices to alleviate the issues. You do understand target as a company blew threw 5-10 year projections in the matter of a couple years due to the pandemic? There’s only so much one person or even a company can do in such a short time. This is a growing period for target and no one would have been able to predict the last couple year and make the “right” decisions in such unprecedented times. I think target as a company has adapted extremely well through the last few years. What’s your magical plan that a new magical ceo would accomplish?

And they paid us all out like 2k to each tm who stayed thru that record year... so they proved they could pay us more and post record profits

 

[happygoth]

Do those complaining about payroll and being understaffed think a different CEO would change that? Dream on.

Hours will appear when it is absolutely critical that they appear, otherwise we will continue to be understaffed and underscheduled. I've been watching this happen in retail for 40 years. Brian Cornell didn't invent budget cuts.

 

[moninity]

Hours isn’t the problem, the problem is having too much to do with no one to do it. The store I’m at 2 people are expected to get all of stat/bts completed daily while another store hasn’t even set their btc yet.

 

[dannyy315]

I can only speak for my store, but we're trying to hire and we're having trouble finding people to meet the availability needs. I think this is a phenomenon nation-wide.

 

[moninity]

It is, hopefully next year things will be back to normal with going by 2022 years sales instead of COVID sales.

 

[balthrop]

Bri Bri plumped his golden parachute nice and big. We are paying the price. His exit package even at retirement will probably exceed the companies hourly payroll for the year. Allegedly.

At this point he’d have shank a good number of the board members to get yeeted

 

[happygoth]

Hours isn’t the problem, the problem is having too much to do with no one to do it. The store I’m at 2 people are expected to get all of stat/bts completed daily while another store hasn’t even set their btc yet.

That's what I meant by underscheduled. Less hours for many people but the work is the same if not worse. More work, less staff - a tale as old as time.

 

[Times Up]

Target has a mandatory retirement age of 65, and he is 64. He will be out after next year, uunless they decide to change the there policy.

Really, so being targets CEO is like being an airline pilot?

 

[Times Up]

No, but I think the understaffing will come back to haunt Target and Brian Cornell. Target is known for being much cleaner than Walmart, and with reshop and zones looking atrocious, that’s gonna kill that guest perception.

True, but if the dollars are flowing in the door nonetheless, nothing will change. Things would have to get A LOT worse because Walmart is looking pretty shabby these days.

 

[moninity]

The whole store is getting 40 hours and there is overtime if you want it but the problem is not enough staff. That’s why the hours are not a problem.

 

[MrT]

The whole store is getting 40 hours and there is overtime if you want it but the problem is not enough staff. That’s why the hours are not a problem.

Maybe in your store. Definitely a problem in mine

 

[moninity]

We’re so short staffed we don’t even have all the etls/ team leads we’re suppose to have. People are constantly quitting.

 

[can't touch this]

Vote for me in 2024 and let's put a Big Rip™ in that golden parachute

 

[happygoth]

We have plenty of TMs, they just aren't scheduling coverage. We need hours.

 

[Not My Name]

You get shitcanned and your saved labor costs offset the loss of profit from in store shopping. Less guests in store means less labor, less electricity, less everything.

Then they replace you with a person who can pick and pack for a cheaper labor rate and continue to push SFS and curbside.

In 10 years Target will have a smaller sales floor footprint and a much larger warehouse footprint with SFS/curbside being the primary profit drivers.

Why will I need Target when Amazon will be same day delivering shit to my doorstep in a more efficient manner? Or droning it to me in a matter of minutes?

Target is not some groundbreaking tech heavy company. In fact, their tech driven decisions have been largely brain dead for YEARS. Their website STILL SUCKS. IN 2022. The search algorithm is still trash!

The reason Target is a thing is because of reputation and clean stores. And they're killing that shit off quickly.

Cornell is bleeding the company out as much as he can possibly bleed it without straight up killing it immediately. And you know why? Because he doesn't care, as you said. The shareholders don't care.

This is something I figured out years ago. These big companies that get really huge from the founder or someone else along the way having and implementing a great vision and thus great product to consumers... well that person/those people eventually retire or die and are inevitably replaced by someone who doesn't care. And the moment that person is put into place of not caring, the company is often times a ticking time bomb because profits are put ahead of everything, including what got them to their position of prestige in the first place. And said companies typically die off or become shells of what they once were.

 

[Not My Name]

He doesn't give a shit about employees, he gives a shit about making money.

The fact that you do not understand that over the long term, the two are directly linked... well, that says all that I need to know about you.

Like I said... clean stores, friendly team, staffed stores... record levels of expansion under Ulrich all the way up until retirement.

Steinhaffel takes over and the company immediately starts barely expanding, which is still a thing to this day. Admittedly part of this was 2008 but we haven't been in a recession from 2008 to 2022. Number of physical locations are barely up year over year, and some years they have remained flat or been down.

Under Ulrich it was like a minimum of 60 or 70 new stores a year and upwards of 100 stores a year, and on a percentage basis in some instances it was like 10% more stores or some crazy shit because short term profit was not put above the long term health of the company and people genuinely enjoyed shopping there. 40 stores today is like 2% growth in footprint which is about what we're seeing on the high end of things. The issue is more complex because obviously companies typically expand at a faster rate as they are becoming established, but the point remains the company would have never even gotten anywhere close to this level with Cornell leading the helm 25-40 years ago and would have never built the reputation of being clean with good service.

In 1987 when Ulrich first took over as CEO, there were around 250 Target stores. Ulrich stepped down in early 2008 and there were roughly 1700 Target stores. A 680% increase in Target presence.

Cornell took over in 2014 with ~1800 stores. Fast forward to 2022. 1937 stores, or a whopping 7.6% increase in presence.

Yes, Cornell is killing it. Let me tell you.

 

[GRC]

In 1987 when Ulrich first took over as CEO, there were around 250 Target stores. Ulrich stepped down in early 2008 and there were roughly 1700 Target stores. A 680% increase in Target presence.

Cornell took over in 2014 with ~1800 stores. Fast forward to 2022. 1937 stores, or a whopping 7.6% increase in presence.

Yes, Cornell is killing it. Let me tell you.

They've already expanded into practically every large market in the US, where else are they supposed to expand to? Towns of 5k people? We're not Dollar General.

In 2013 Target had $72b in sales and $4b in profits. In 2021 it was $105b in sales and $7b in profits. If he's doing such a bad job, how did he increase sales by 45% and profit by 75% while only opening a hundred new stores?

 

[Not My Name]

They've already expanded into practically every large market in the US, where else are they supposed to expand to? Towns of 5k people? We're not Dollar General.

In 2013 Target had $72b in sales and $4b in profits. In 2021 it was $105b in sales and $7b in profits. If he's doing such a bad job, how did he increase sales by 45% and profit by 75% while only opening a hundred new stores?

In 2013, Walmart had $465 billion in sales. In 2021, Walmart had $555 billion in sales. In 2013, Amazon had $74.45 billion in sales. In 2021, Amazon had $470 billion in sales. We can't be out here acting like Target is the only one experiencing paper growth. (well, Amazon had actual growth, but I digress) Best Buy, a very inconsistent retailer that has failed to adjust whatsoever really, went from 2013 sales of $39.8 billion to $47.2 billion. Home Depot went from 79 billion to 151 billion. Lowe's went from 53 billion to 89 billion. CVS went from 127 billion to 292 billion.

A combination of population increase and a combination of inflation (which is a topic that seldom has been discussed prior to the past 2 years even though it should be) played a part in that. Yes, his timing of trying to switch to multi channel sales was good but that's only because he saw the writing on the wall with Amazon kicking everyone's ass in terms of growth. It was hardly some amazing level of foresight like a previous poster suggested, but merely a bunch of other companies not adapting whatsoever. Just because other people are stupid doesn't make you smart, is what I'm saying.

Anyways...

And he increased profit primarily by slashing payroll and expenses. Not through operational improvements. Operations have gone into the toilet. Do you remember stores in 2013? Sure, a terrible sight compared to 2000, but also out of a catalogue compared to 2022.

Yes, if we are strictly evaluating Cornell from a short term profit perspective, he has done an amazing job.

And unfortunately, that's become the American way, to be perfectly honest. The only thing that matters is next quarter's results and that's it. This is what happens when you have a bunch of guys with MBAs that end up running the largest companies in the world. A bunch of boring, non innovative, worried about the spreadsheet above all, copying, only worried about this quarter's results bleed it slowly until it's dry... incompetence.

That is a fundamentally flawed way to view the world and to run a business if you give the least bit of a shit of it being around after you're gone, if you give the least bit of a shit about other people and if you give the least bit of a shit about society at large.

 

[happygoth]

Amazon is great, but it doesn't have everything Target has, and vice versa. People like options. No one wants to live in a world where they can only buy things from one website. Target has their own brands and loyal customers.

I don't have issues with Target's website and don't find Amazon's search function any better. As for slashing payroll, if they stick around long enough, every retailer eventually does the same thing. Payroll is the number one controllable expense in any company.

 

[60SecondsRemaining]

The fact that you do not understand that over the long term, the two are directly linked... well, that says all that I need to know about you.

Like I said... clean stores, friendly team, staffed stores... record levels of expansion under Ulrich all the way up until retirement.

Steinhaffel takes over and the company immediately starts barely expanding, which is still a thing to this day. Admittedly part of this was 2008 but we haven't been in a recession from 2008 to 2022. Number of physical locations are barely up year over year, and some years they have remained flat or been down.

Under Ulrich it was like a minimum of 60 or 70 new stores a year and upwards of 100 stores a year, and on a percentage basis in some instances it was like 10% more stores or some crazy shit because short term profit was not put above the long term health of the company and people genuinely enjoyed shopping there. 40 stores today is like 2% growth in footprint which is about what we're seeing on the high end of things. The issue is more complex because obviously companies typically expand at a faster rate as they are becoming established, but the point remains the company would have never even gotten anywhere close to this level with Cornell leading the helm 25-40 years ago and would have never built the reputation of being clean with good service.

In 1987 when Ulrich first took over as CEO, there were around 250 Target stores. Ulrich stepped down in early 2008 and there were roughly 1700 Target stores. A 680% increase in Target presence.

Cornell took over in 2014 with ~1800 stores. Fast forward to 2022. 1937 stores, or a whopping 7.6% increase in presence.

Yes, Cornell is killing it. Let me tell you.

The sales and profit data says Cornell is killing it.

The company action says their vision of the brand is not yours.

These aren't opinions, they're facts. The world is a vastly different place than it was when Ulrich was ceo. It's not an apples to apples comparison.

Everything you say may very well be true but it doesn't change the fact that in store shopping is not the channel they are looking to drive. It also doesn't change the fact they don't give a shit about you.

And if you think companies that care about their employees drive long term growth, I would point you towards Amazon and Walmart, who treat their employees far worse than Target, and have experienced unfathomable levels of growth for many *many* years.

Corporations exist to make money, they have never and will never care about you...at all. If you died tomorrow Target wouldn't give even the faintest farts whisper of a fuck. They would post your position to be filled before your body was even cold.

 

[TTB]

Is it true about having to retire at age 65? If so is this only CEO and board members? Because maybe it should pertain to store directors as well because GOOD GAWD.

 

[DatBoi9497]

Amazon is a different story though cause for one they have little physical stores and also they have Amazon Web Services to make up for crappy retail profit margins. Meanwhile Target and Walmart don't have that stream of revenue to fund their expenditures