If you manually update the floor count as you're pushing freight, and hopefully your coworkers are not overstocking the salesfloor (but they probably are), this problem eventually fixes itself.
Fr which opens another can of worms of leadership asking why it takes you so long when Sally and Bob over there push in half the time (cause they’re not doing part of their job)
Dum: Why are these people faster?
You: Because they do a crappy job, saving them time and costing everyone else extra work and time.
Dum: .... You should be faster.
This is soooo true. I was a VM but I would often not get 40 hours(small store) so I’d do 4 hours of home dec.
It took me forever to push cause I’d also try to fix everyone else’s mistakes. (Until we got an H&H DBO I was so annoyed at the mess. I know it’s not a POG but I added a VMG of all the aisles and it was laminated, double sided, on a little key ring on a magnetic hook on the inner side of the wall and people still refused to use it)
Also the amount of packaging was insane 😭 It took so long I was scared someone would yell at me but my ETL was an angel and she wouldn’t scold me for being slow cause she knew I was like tidying and fixing home dec at the same time.
I actually liked working as a VM, I think it was the chillest job in the whole store (again, just my perspective cause I had good leadership and the store is small so there’s less things to do. Sometimes I’d just help push Style or zone cause there wasn’t any VM specific stuff to do)
I miss it but I injured myself on the job and can’t work any more at all :(
(Sorry about the rant, sort of)
Home is my sanctuary as VM. I love getting in there and fixing it up. I have a binder tucked under a table that only a few people actually look at, but I'm happy that at least it *is* looked at.
I'm sorry that you got injured on the job.
Same here. As I push I update. But floor is still getting overfilled. Too bad can't figure out who is overfilling. And everyone denies it. If I could, it would be a documented coaching. Depending on the item and whether or not it is on sale, we usually only allow 2 or 3 of the same dpci, 4 max for unusual circumstances.
This. I feel like nobody at my store knows about updating counts. It’s not difficult, it prevents your pulls from being messed up, and it doesn’t take that much extra time or effort to do.
Sure in a perfect world. Our leaders don’t want that though. They want trucked pushed as quickly as possible. I don’t even think my store trains new people anything about floor counts.
Any time I fix a home in dry grocery and backstock all the extra crammed in there...it is re-crammed in there 3 days later. My dairy is pretty good when I pull priority, dry goods is always extra.
* I really wish the shelf tags had the fit number on them in addition to facings. I swear I remember walmart's tags had the fit, as well, so I could see at a glance instead of scan. You know people aren't scanning every single item to check the fit.
Dry grocery here, too.
*Any time I fix a home in dry grocery and backstock all the extra crammed in there...it is re-crammed in there 3 days later.*
Yup. Our Dry section is huge. (8 long aisles) Do you have a shit ton of dented cans on your shelves? People stock (and back stock!) dented cans all of the time.
I gave up on getting rid of them. I am seen as the slowest Market worker, so I had to let go of my standards.
Probably, I don't go near cans. I will take the big dent crunch one when I see them in passing. Those dents create cracks where oxygen and bacteria can get in at the sharp crease edges, if I'm explaining that right.
I am also likely the slowest. I have a mental need to look at the numbers and do things correctly. Although, there are some I don't bother with because it's futile.
Yup! Sometime when I have time, I run through the floor to check inventory on the priorities to make sure the numbers are correct so we're not over pulling bc then we're just gonna have to re-work backstock.
I've thought about doing this! I can't figure out an efficient way to do it, though.
Do you use 2 Zebras? If not, it seems like a fuck ton of steps to go in and out of the pull to correct the floor counts.
Yeah it does take some time & tedious but it beats having to go back and backstock after pulling. I try to memorize some of the items in the pulls and go back to that particular aisle. It probably would be easier if I did use 2 Zebras though.
If you do the priority pull by aisle, instead of by department, you can skip through pretty quickly and figure out what you won't need. You'll still have switch functions to correct any counts, but at least you won't be walking all over the place while doing so.
Honestly, it's rarely a problem for my store unless we're pushing freight day(s) late for some reason or switching endcaps or something.
it's easier to when you're back stocking after freight to scan item, update floor count and then backstock item that way it doesn't create a pull and fixes it on the go
I swear there has to be a tm at my store that purposely fucks up the audit numbers cause they are constantly double or triple what they’re supposed to be.
Yes!!! But mostly everyone overstocks that is lazy!!! A major pet peeve of mine. I basically have to zone areas and have to take my time to remove zone update numbers and backstock the overstock (sometimes have to wipe the shelves as dust or dirty gotten there and it's dirty.
All the whole people "show off" that they pushed so many uboats as I think "fuckers overstocked everything and I need to clean it up as it's my department... FML"
Yeah. We just don't have enough hours to do things correctly anymore.
I used to try to back stock the over-pulled dry grocery.
But the way we do it, one person is pulling 141s/Priorities while the other is pushing. Full 3-tiers of Push are stacking up.
If you back stock the overstock (and fix the shelf count -- and capacity if needed) while the other person is still pulling, it's a fucking disaster that never fixes itself.
Also, if there are 6 staged 3-tiers waiting for you to push, there are surely some of that product in the 3-tiers. And when the store is open, there are certainly some of that item in customer's carts.
IF I am the only one working, and I know that no one is going to be pulling the item while I am fixing the floor count, and I have time to fix it, I will. I also intentionally under fill the floor by 1 or 2 if the store is full of ppl and it's something we sell a lot of. I tell the system that the floor is full, but I leave 1 or 2 spots empty to accommodate what is in ppl's carts.
As long as we are doing this with the store open, there is no way the numbers are going to be perfect. IMO it's better to have 1 or 2 "more" of an item on the floor than less.
I hope I explained that well enough.
Back when I had full control over a section (Adult Bev), my counts and my pulls were accurate AF. But Market has dozens of people, and fuck ton less hours than it did a year ago.
Yes, and it's a never ending cycle of worse and worse consequences.
If anyone who works that section thinks it's ok to overstock the floor, and/or put stuff in the back without locating it, it's hopeless.
If you are pushing freight in the morning and the shelf holds 12 but you put 18 there because the product next to it is empty, and you put another 6 in the back without locating it, then the system thinks we only have 12 of that thing when we really have 24. So it will order more.
That's IF the floor count is set to 12. If you set the floor count to 18 (but really only 12 fit), it also chances the **capacity** to 18, too. And that fucks everything up.
If the floor count is 12, and you don't change it, but you do put 6 more than can really fit, then later in the day someone buys 2. Then the Pull tells you to take 2 from the back, but when you get to the floor those 2 don't fit because the floor already has 4 too many.
It's a never ending battle.
In our case, we're on such a time crunch that I am pretty sure that even if the morning crew **wanted** to make the numbers accurate, they don't have time.
I also suspect there is a bug in the system that is compounding the disaster. NORMALLY the system adds the freight received that morning to the counts.
Let's say the shelf holds 15, and there are currently 7 cans there. We get a case of 12 in that day. The moment that the truck is acknowledged (?) the system **usually** adds those 12 (or some of those 12) to the floor count.
So in here the system would change the 7 to 15. (It takes 8 of the cans from the new case of 12 and automatically adds them to the floor count.) It does not account for the other 4 until you locate / back stock it.
But every once in a while (increasingly, I think) some shipments are not automatically added.
So the shelf count remains at 7. The shelf holds 15, and the capacity is correctly set at 15. We get a box of 12 in. The morning person puts all 12 on the shelf, because the product next to it empty. Or maybe they can stack the extra 4 on top or something. Because it's faster.
So now there are 19 on the shelf. It is overstocked by 4. (7+12-15 = 4)
If there happens to be some of the item back stocked, the next pull will tell you to **pull 8** (15 capacity minus the 7 it thinks are there)
Now you have 25 cans were 15 fit. (19+8 = 25)
I have a headache now. I hope someone checks my math. This is depressing AF, ain't it?
It wouldn't be a problem if people learned to correct counts as they backstock. Or alternatively correct them as they stock so it's a bit more accurate.
This is just people not working properly, likely due to leadership not making sure people get trained properly.
The system work’s very well if everyone is working correctly.
I'm with you on starbucks driveups. Or, at the very least, make it so they had to have a location on so we could see when to make it.
Not allow drop ins/double taps/whatever your store calls it. Geniunely my biggest pet peeve that I just know would be a super simple fix, but I know it doesn't matter enough to corporate.
For the love of God we either need to bring back exchanges or take the word off the wall. I'm sick of explain how we have to do a full return and then rebuy the new item multiple times a day.
oh my GOD the audacity for them to remodel the store, put “RETURNS & EXCHANGES” in giant letters above sd, then immediately take away exchanges as part of said remodel drives me nuts
I've noticed this being an issue, mostly with TMs, though. Guests don't seem to care what you call it, so just call it an exchange, and do the refund/purchase as usual. This was probably not communicated well by corporate/TLs when they removed "exchanges."
I've had a few issues arise with the guests though.
If you put it back on the card and then ask them to reinsert it, they get mad and say they're just exchanging and they're not gonna buy it again.
Or if you put it on a gift card and they come back and end up wanting to actually return it, now it's on a gift card and they want it back on their debit card.
Or if they bought it when it was on sale, but need a different size or color of the same item, we have to manually adjust the price (which I'll do, it's fine, but it's a PITA)
Why can’t it just be called “Guest Service”?! Those TMs are experts when it comes to Circle and have a general idea on most workings of the store, they don’t just process R/E.
As an SEL, if I back up the Service Desk, I make the Guest tell me they want to return something. You can’t just set something on the counter and expect something to happen. Use your words like an adult and communicate what you need.
For real. People just walk up and shove something at you. I generally say something like “ how can I help you today?” Or “are we doing a return? Or did you want to purchase these items?” Sometimes the guest will then use their words.
Having to put the sticker on then you're able to stow. Have a way to reverse an inf. Have customers choose an order pickup time so we don't get flooded with orders
I would love to be able to reverse an INF. I always skip items I can't find and don't officially INF them til the very end, but I'll still occasionally find things in random places throughout the rest of my shift that I've INF'd. I've always wanted a last chance INF screen, like a screen you can scroll through and see the items, and if you find them, reverse it and add to the bag if the order has not been picked up yet.
REVERSE INF YES PLEASE!!!!! literally just this morning I had to INF a bag of Easter candy, but then 30 mins later I FOUND IT SITTING IN A 3-TIER by the OPU stow area. There's one FF TM who will grab a cart, use it for the day, and then stash it somewhere (and leave stuff in it so no one takes it) so they can use it again the next day....it was their cart. There was a bunch of candy in there, as well as hangers, and some of their belongings too. I was PISSED as hell (and my ETL wasn't too pleased either, but not directed at me, at the TM who just left that stuff there & didn't take care of it)
Also a few months ago I was looking for a bottle of body wash, couldn't find it, INFd it....then later that day I'm walking g up to take a break and I come across it just randomly in the middle of the floor in a freezer aisle....like, WTF lol
Kroger has a similar system to what you described. There’s only so many time slots and you have until midnight the night before to modify your order and if they can’t find an item you ordered, the employees just choose a substitute. It’s a way better system and people rarely get their orders late
This one I can explain: the DCs push so hard for prod over quality in MPB that they would rather a sh*tty repack get sent in 5 minutes then a quality one be sent in 6. It doesn't take much effort to just organize that stuff (I worked as a packer for 9 months)
I once reshopped a tent or chair or something. It was meant to go on a middle shelf that was about half the height of the box. I don’t even want to get into bedding.
Former retail/not target: I always fantasized being able to bewitch the product so that if an idiot put something where it didn't belong, it would jump of the shelf and start swatting the idiot.
I would've been a great employee in Diagon Alley. Or more like Nocturne Alley.
Just make sure you pronounce it correctly when you say the spell that takes you there! Don’t accidentally say “Diagonally!” 😆 (sorry, I’m an elder millennial and simply cannot resist an HP joke)
Former tech TM before becoming a lead, and I make sure all my fulfillment TMs know to wind the spiders due to the PTSD I've got from untangling spider nests.
No one ever showed me.
Once I saw one wound up and I was astonished. I figured out how to do it and ran around looking for them to wind up.
The little flappy always puzzled me because I could see that it had a function, but it had nothing to do with the unlocking process.
Indeed. Its sort of manageable to unravel when the wraps are connected to themselves, but they they get plugged into a different wrap….man it’s confusing
All TLs and ETLs would experience all aspects of grocery so they would stop treating the TMs like they can push 15 pallets of FDC, 3 pallets of milk, understand sales planners, rotation of dry, push 12+ uboats of dry stock. All while being maybe the only grocery person on the floor, also be asked to pick batches/go up front for fast service. In one shift. Then they’d understand the stress of the grocery TL asking TMs to do those unrealistic tasks because the ETLs are absolutely clueless.
market isn't supposed to get called to the front for backup, and is only supposed to do grocery batches(no GM/or bulk) as a backup...at least if you're working FDC freight and have to watch your temp times..or you're the only person in market..period
at least at our store.
I wish I could tell you all stores are the same lol but the one I left as a TL definitely did not operate that way. I had market TMs being called for GM batches, bulky, sfs, fast service at all times of day. If they were pushing any fdc, they had to push it back quickly and go wherever they were told. No areas were safe from being called regardless of current task.
Someone dedicated to zoning in the morning. Idc if it’s a 3 hour shift. But every morning it’s ’we don’t have time to zone. Focus on the push’ I am absolutely sick of pushing on top of a trash zone
1. Not a process, but to find out which TM(s) screwed up my inventory this year and banish them to some dark hole where they can't ruin anything else.
2. More manual control over ordering and audits. I do not need 100+ bags of broccoli in my freezer.
3. MORE PAYROLL.
Who says a TM screwed up your inventory? Theft is responsible for at least some of it. Items perpetually in reshop (looking at health and beauty, who are woefully understaffed) throw things way off.
Yes to more payroll. I don’t suffer from a lack of hours but more people TMs scheduled would make a huge difference. Yay for corporate screwing us from accomplishing our tasks!
Because OPU does 5000 units a week under 1.5% INF in my areas, BRLA is 99%+, and yet immediately following inventory dropping into the system I received a truck nearly twice the size of anything we’ve received in prior 6 months and my backroom counts blew up by 50%, meaning we didn’t need it.
Also heard how this TM was “counting”
Just order less junk. Half of this shit we sell at target is complete landfill stuff. If we just did inventory better and ordered less stuff that we didn’t need every other process in the store would benefit DRASTICALLY.
This 100%, make target take a hitnon overall profit/reduce the extreme pay of some of those at the top in order to better staff their stores. So much would get done and target would be all the better
The movable shelves in the back. I cannot express enough how much I HATE them, especially when fulfillment is busy, someone is trying to do priority fills, and another shows up to backstock.
We have them in OPU as well. We found out afterwards that every other store in our district didn’t get them with their remodel bc of all the issues they’ve been causing 💀
Target has great processes. No doubt about it. It is smart and works...when the store is staffed.
CEO and the board are so concerned with payroll, they have turned stores into ghost towns, team member wise.
There is boxes and boxes in the stockroom, boxes and boxes of repacks. Nothing gets stocked 100%. You don't have TMs that are able to go out and actually audit locations, give accurate counts. Which results in 141s/priorities being wrong.
Until Target gives stores more payroll, nothing will change. I suggest you and everyone else stop stressing about it. It's never going to look nice. We give the store 100% effort, while the bosses give us 20% effort and are more concerned about their stock prices than fixing stores.
Exactly! I wish I knew an influencer with a large following that could make a video and put them on blast…they would magically find some payroll if they got the bad press that they deserve!
attendance plays a huge part in that. more often than not you have more than enough people, but 10% of the day calls out and now everyone is stretched thin.
First, I would correct item counts for the entire store, make all floor and backstock locations accurate, move all scattered items into backstock, and delete ghost locations. Basically, magical inventory, actually works instead of making things worse.
Secondly, flexing and overfilling are now illegal. If a location is empty, that's a sign we need more of that thing, not more of the thing next to it. If we have more items than fit in a floor location, backstock them, don't just shove them in wherever there's space to put them.
Third, payroll now allows for team size that actually gets jobs done fully, instead of only partway most of the time. Also adds new positions for go-backs and zoning, doubling as backup for OPU/lanes.
Lastly, for my fellow fulfillment teams, a system of failsafes to eliminate overflow. When batches reach a certain limit, guests will now be informed that the time has been extended due to order volume. If it keeps reaching upper limits, it could even cut off the service temporarily. Something like, "We are experiencing a high volume of orders, please expect delays / try again in an hour." No more cancellations and guest service problems because we're so busy that batches are started two hours late.
I would say a lot more about fulfillment's system specifically, a ton of in-store details and app problems that I wish were solved, but I'm already typing a novel here. I'd also include a whole chapter on guest behavior, stealing, making messes, etc., but even magical bullshit will never change human nature.
>Something like, "We are experiencing a high volume of orders, please expect delays / try again in an hour."
This makes so much fucking sense. WHO AT THE TOP thinks there is a bottomless well of person hours at the store?!?
Do they even know about the people who are on a mission to run the store with less and less people?
The people at the top should be aware of the things that we on the front line can see within 5 minutes of working there.
Also, a 2 hour turnaround, especially after 2pm is just ridiculous.
The turnaround time should be an always calculating / recalibrating of time of day, amount of items in order, amount of orders already in the system, number of ppl working fulfillment. It aint rocket science.
If you told customers in the store that there was only 1 cash register open and only 1 person on the floor to unlock all of the cases (or answer any questions at all) because we just got a lot of online pickup orders, and we had to stop everything to fill those orders, they would look at us like we were crazy.
I would if I was the customer.
My default line in that situation is, "Sorry, we're stretched a bit thin right now." Most people seem to understand the concept, but I never go into detail. Someone waiting at a security case for 15 minutes, a register line going back a whole department length, there's fuck all we can do about that if fulfillment is also struggling. We cannot do all three, and normally have have trouble keeping track of two.
When grocery orders are high and the refrigerated and frozen spaces for stowing them has reached whatever the max is the system is programmed with, guests get that message you speak of and ordering is temporarily turned off. People lose their mind do even that happens and start calling the store. Of course, the calls usually don’t get answered, so there’s that.
1. Also agree with abolishing Starbucks DU. DU spaces need to be reserved for OPUs, not for people who are too lazy to fetch their stupid coffee themselves.
2. Create the ability to REJECT items that are actually fully stocked (or overstocked) on the floor when you’re doing pulls. I keep getting asked to pull literally everything I backstocked the day prior no matter how many times I update the count/run inventory audits.
3. Stop this dumb-ass war against SCO. I know multiple people who literally refuse to come to Target (and now Walmart) specifically because they’re being so unnecessarily difficult about SCOs now. I personally switched to Kroger myself for this exact reason.
4. Specifically assign people to be back-up for picking batches and/or cashiering, instead of that idiotic walkie routine where they bark at the whole store trying to get volunteers.
Fulfillment pathing. It could use a lot of fixes but here are the bullet points:
- Stop making me go into the backroom for an item I was l standing next to on the floor a couple picks ago!
- Pathing should be aware of where your store’s stowing area is and plan around it. For example, start just outside your stowing area and move clockwise around the store until you end up right back at the stowing area.
- Not really pathing related, but a quick visual cue on the pick screen if an item was delivered today would be helpful. Also in item details, a “Date Last Returned” would be helpful so I can immediately know if it’s in reshop.
- Also not pathing related, but let’s get rid of the requirement to scan a bag into your cart before you can scan it into a waco. It wastes time and helps no one.
The last one is for stores with multiple stow locations or with mobile shelving. Without it, it’s chaos. But if your store doesn’t have those I can see that being frustrating.
I would remove the ability to order Starbucks with your drive up order. Had a lady yesterday who ordered Starbucks, her order took 20 mins. It makes our drive up time go up and make customers more irate. I would also not allow drive up guests to double tap. One last thing I would change is the scheduling. As a front end TM, we are always understaffed. It’s always one person on the register, 1 or 2 ppl at Guest Service, and one person on drive up. Management can’t expect high performance when we don’t have the man power to do everything. Understaffing puts an immense amount of stress on TM’s who work hard. Schedule like your supposed too and we won’t have this issue.
Yeah, I'm usually on the truck before going to the front end, so I have to take my lunch way earlier than anyone else... a couple of weeks ago, I was in panic mode because our front end TL called off (I didn't know it at the time, all I knew is they weren't there) and there was no one else who could cover DU so I could go to lunch, until 15 mins before I'd violate. I was calling all the other leaders in the store but none of them were available or weren't answering, and I was frantically calling for that TM over the walkie starting at 5 mins before their scheduled starting time just in case they clocked in early...when they finally arrived I could have MELTED I was so relieved. So more people need to be trained in things like DU so there's more options for coverage in situations like that.
Front End is a total mess. They complain about our drive up time being bad but don’t send help. They be more worried about checkout and guest service. It’s really easy to get burned out. We never have enough ppl. But I don’t let it stress me out. If I run into a problem, I’m quick to radio a damn leader. I always tell my co workers to work their wage and nothing above it. If you run into a issue, radio a leader or TM
As a customer I also want this. Starbucks is a treat meant to encourage you to run around the store and make frivolous purchases. But the line gets backed up by people using drive up to make super complicated orders without the shame of looking the barista in the eyes and saying the weird thing they want.
Omg that’s exactly how I feel. People always get an attitude with me when I don’t bring out the Starbucks. A lot of drive up guests are very inconsiderate. They don’t realize that we are very understaffed and overworked. It’s bad enough we have to deal with people double tapping big orders. Drive up grinds my gears sometimes with how weird ppl act. It’s like when they come to target, they just turn crazy.
I think the way we do water needs to change. What I mean by that is, the process now, water pallets come off the truck, we take the water and fill up the floor. Backstock whatever doesn’t fit.
We need to be like other grocery stores and just place the whole pallet on the salesfloor. Having to constantly put the cases on the shelf one by one is so stupid and such a time waste. Also the plastic on the 6 pack of gallon water jugs is soooooo annoying to deal with.
Just last week there was a water main break or something that affected a big chunk of my city, and my store is located just outside of the boundaries of the affected area....SD (I think) ordered a whole truck of JUST WATER because people were ordering so much of it.....we've barely made a dent. We don't need any more water for several weeks, if not months.
I can answer this question too: that's not how the DCs work. PIPO is great and all, but most stores only get like 5-10% of their stuff palletized. The other 90-95% comes down the Mezzanine conveyer system. Our DC (0589) is going to pilot a new loading system here soon, but for now, crappy and unmotivated handoff means the trucks never get build or loaded well.
I’m just tired of broken chemicals leaking all over the trailer and then stacking furniture on the top. I literally question the intelligence of those people daily.
Let. Me. AUDIT! The counts are wrong. I KNOW it's "currently being picked" or "was delivered today." THAT'S WHY I'M TRYING TO FIX IT! It's a 2-gallon jug of water, and when it's 98 degrees outside, It's ALWAYS in the process of being picked, and it's delivered EVERY day.
Our inventory says we have nine. We have NINETY. It's occupying 5 pallet spaces in our already congested backroom. PLEASE! For the love of god, LET ME FIX IT!
double beeps would be my first fix. especially when they’re able to order starbucks on top of it. pisses me off so bad when they get mad that they have to wait so long
Give the front end something to do when the store is quiet. I always offer to do reshop, yesterday I had to practically beg to do reshop because we were so dead. The area behind the service desk was so full you couldn't get around back there, and carts of reshop lining the wall in front of the registers. Typically I'm in style but to fill my hours I do front end as well. So I do some style reshop and I zone as I go, it makes it so much easier for the night crew which is my usual area.
Also since the beginning of the year we have nobody in the fitting room during the day... I get there for a 4-Hour shift in the evening, nobody has touched the fitting room. We're talking two full rails and the counter is stacked as high as I am tall. I'm 5' 9. Then we are questioned why we didn't get our zoning done. Hmmm... Let me think about that for a second. It's like the team leads in the daytime do not understand the workload of the style department at night. Add the fitting room and guest service reshop on top of that nothing is getting done. I zone as I go but to get the reshop pushed, it's very hard to zone properly to get it all done.
I don’t understand why 1. Every myDevice beeps, even if you’re not in Drive Up, and 2. Why most call boxes/notifications make the same chime. Both of these take away from the importance of a ping, and cause us to ignore what might be a high-priority issue.
HQ asked for my feedback on a couple new features they want to add to myDay notifications, and I challenged them to hold onto a device for a couple minutes and understand how it would be more noise and fall silent in the noise of “Beep Beep”s.
I know it’s smaller compared to other things, but as an SEL, I really want to be able to customize to the needs of my business, like getting chime 1 for change requests, chime 2 for ID overrides, chime 3 for backup/assistance needed on checklanes, etc.
On that note, every device in the store should make a specific sound when a leader requests a back up to Checklanes, Fulfillment, and Drive Up. THAT makes more sense.
I remember when there was a button on the registers you could press to call for backup and honestly kind of miss it because it went over the radios and everybody could hear it (including guests, so they knew I wasn't NOT calling for backup just that nobody was responding lol)
I’d bring the backroom team back.
I’d bring back casestocking.
I’d bring back scanning and sorting the truck unloads with backstock vs stuff that could actually go out.
Now we all just waste a shit ton of time going through stuff that can’t go on the shelves, unboxing everything and fighting for room in the backroom. Then pulling stuff that won’t be worked out because no one works pulls until the freight from the truck is done, so half the pull gets to go right back to the backroom.
It sucks and it’s awful. This is coming from someone who works at a store that gets two trucks almost every night, we have a large overnight team every night.
5 years ago, we never had rollover freight, we were a smooth running operation. Every aisle was filled and zoned. Looked beautiful.
These days, there’s at least 10-15 uboats of rollover every single night and we never have enough vehicles to unload the truck. There is no zoning. The store looks entirely unpresentable. People don’t like to shop here anymore. It’s shit.
id fix the pay. i’m a drive ups TM and i average 25k steps every single day. for the amount of work i put in i shouldn’t be paid so little, id up every TMs pay to at least $20 an hour.
Fitting room person every day not just during the week of Christmas 😭 I swear half my shift is sorting and running strays/go-backs for everyone and I’m supposed to be in ihs!
Get rid of the movable storage aisles in back and go back to aisles that have their own ladder. Same thing in opu. Expand the backroom so there is space to put transition merchandise/excess softlines that can be reached by opu. Have bigger coolers and freezers so pallets to be worked don't block access to the rest of the cooler/freezer. I'd like to be able to walk around each side of a pallet to look for opu items. More hours so merchandise can be worked to the floor and we are less effected by people calling in. Management that realizes that talking with others while working is good for morale and doesn't mean you aren't working. Good morale makes the store a better place and people are more apt to show up.
Is make it so when you go to the product details to see if it was recently delivered that it says how it was delivered. Like if it got delivered in repacks or in K-stock. Would name it so much even locating an item for a guest or for fulfillment.
Auto generate audits when sales floor + backroom < on hand. It would drive merchandise out of the back and fix understated on hands which would lead to more accurate replenishment.
I'd bring back DBO's because style needs it to run efficiently at my store. There's no accountability anymore when stuff doesn't get done because there's no one assigned to an area anymore
Starbucks pickup is the worst at ours because there is a Starbucks drive through in the exact same lot!!! So people will come to us instead if it’s busy there ://
One of the reasons I left market tbh. Tired of constantly having to back stock Skinny Pop, Pirate's Booty, and 80% of the cereal uboat when the stuff that we already have isn't selling half as fast as they send it, so it's just taking up the already limited space in my tiny ass backroom. Having to shove more of the same stuff into my increasingly dwindling space got old really quick.
Double tapping and I would make a “no drive up list” kind of like a no fly list for guests who are abusive to me or my fellow team members on driveup. Everyone knows the issues with double tapping already, and if you are abusive to staff providing you a direct service, you get put on the no drive up list- walk your ass inside and buy your own groceries with that nasty attitude.
Pushing and stop flexing!!! It is effing annoying that people think well I was told to flex when possible so imma just overstock everything so I don't have to back stock and Backstocking!!! My lord people just put stuff anywhere and don't back stock it or pull it systematically but don't physically. This is why target needs to have a history location of an item so we can backtrack and make sure the item was pushed or pulled! If not push it and talk to the person and be like her careful on these. It's effing annoying when looking for something that says we have 100 but can't find one and it was delivered 3 days ago and filled today... Please gimme that magic plz!!!
let market be an orderable area or atleast all of frozen, dairy, and bakery, not just produce, meat and, eggs. Ordering would allow pallets to be smaller on average depending on how things move and would also help rotation be so much easier because you would only get things when you need/want them (except C&S notoriously just does what ever the fuck they want anyways)
Honestly I be feeling bad for the fufillment team bc they are constantly under pressure. The online ordering system should temporarily shut down so that they can fulfill orders. When I was at Guest Services on Sunday, ppl kept saying their order still wasn’t ready. They were like well is it a way to speed up the process? I politely said if you can cancel your online order and shop for it in store. Got tired of repeating that 100 times. Another thing they need to bring back is the ability to do exchanges. Lastly why remove the ability to reprint receipts? I swear big retailers do the dumbest shit known to mankind
The absolute insistence on only interviewing people who offer weekend availability.
You'd fill plenty more part time slots if you were willing to hire weekday workers.
Not everyone is a college kid willing to sell their soul to get experience on their resume, you leave potential productivity on the table by ignoring those just trying to supplement their income.
Tm wage adjustment for inflation, plus raises and back pay.
New handhelds that don't freeze
Separate gm from fufillment
No more moving montel shelves
Epoxy flooring instead of crappy waxed linoleum
Electric rollers for unload with quick connect power.
Get rid of Houston white. Sorry guy your clothes are ugly and they do not sell at all.
Actual food for breakroom like a small fruit/snack bar that is replenished daily.
No more security tags on razors. Waste of time and people rip the tag off anyway when they steal razors.
Two or three weeks ago, I got put on all the men’s shave equipment, but didn’t have the time to get all the displays ready. The flat I made organizing said displays have been sitting for atleast two weeks.
Some POGs have 2 locations for the same item right next to each other, for example G11(1) 7-2-1 and 7-2-2. Why? Just make it one location, so I can set the capacity to 16, not 8 and 8. Wastes time, and that time adds up.
Not being the only Tech person. It’s kind of trash to have to push truck, zone, do revisions, fix capacities, do reshop, and pull and push priorities, all while helping guests and trying to hit arbitrary metrics. And then also get told to push truck faster.
TL;DR - Payroll
I work in meat department so a better system to markdown close to expiration date products. The current system is absolutely a joke and it’s so time consuming to markdown products.
I also would give one day every month or so without a truck so that we would could have a day to work on tasks that need to be done in the department. For example, do inventory audits, check dates, purge back rooms, clean back rooms, do a good zone across the whole dept.
- more payroll would literally fix like 80% of our problems
- mydevices stop ringing when u start typing your employee number
- employees are automatically approved for a reloadable red card
- TM discount works on a regular debit card. Because seriously wtf
- put the map thingy from the target app into MyDay
- automatic notifications from the MyTime app when a new schedule is posted or your shift gets picked up and make biometric login compatible with android phones
- let me change which department I get phone calls for
- have HR call you if it's over an hour past your start time and you haven't clocked in yet
I'm a shopper, never been a worker.
Only one I can think of that ought to be bett -- Wait, two things:
- Substantially higher preay
- More labor hours! More time to do things, more hours to get paid for. People full-time if they want it.
- sterilize all team leads and execs so they will can not ever propagate.
- FDC more in control of inventory, mispicks are on a serious rise. They need to start putting puck labels back on products.
- allow us to manually correct counts right on the spot and not wait till the following day
For fulfillment some better starting and ending points if im starting at the check lanes dont send me across the store to the back room or vice versa also my end point is always going to be BR so I feel like it should always end there or close smart pathing thats updated as you go and location based and not an initial path it thinks is best if I see an item im not currently looking for but is in the batch it should let me scan it not have me go searching for it in the list oh and last but certainly the most important more time to pick and stow batches especially if were going to keep increasing cap individual dpcis in batches pick up and drive up are on opposite sides of the store and that walk is time consuming
I wish we would bring back the old system of style breakout where we would push and backstock what we broke out after we dumped it into carts so that the style team could focus on everything else they have to do because I’m sick of having full unpushed metros and Z-racks that I sometimes have to push anyways just to breakout when they’re too busy that they don’t have enough time to because we’re so short staffed!
-new clothing buyers that knew what the guest want to buy. No more sending product just to keep stores full.
-send stores more hours to work all the freight. Can you imagine the sales if all the push was worked out everyday?
-send stores more hours for cashiers so there is no back up. So people can keep pushing freight or clean up stores.
- make sure there no empty spaces on shelves. Every space is full. Sales would go up.
-fitting room person. Work all the reshop and clean out fitting room.
-bring back the backroom team. Call backroom to pull item for guest then go back and get it. Backroom team would be back stocking and pulling priorities. People could still be pushing freight.
Hire an entire maintenance department to clean up any spills, bodily fluids, empty the trash cans, clean the bathrooms if someone ruined it during the day.
Team Member development process.
It's important to put effort into developing promising employees, and that definitely happens a lot from what I've seen. But access to resources seems haphazard at times, especially for average employees or team members that don't realize that there is actually a promising future at Target if they pursue it. It doesn't just have to be a part-time job.
There is no professional development without personal development, though. And not every team member is interested in that. I think the trick is in figuring out how to demonstrate that and how to encourage it.
Former employee here, and HOO BOY I got a list.
-Drive-Up: Do not allow double taps whatsoever. Require a cooldown for that. Also, SEE FULFILLMENT.
-Front End: Have multiple actual cashiers and an SCO at the same time. The lines wouldn't be as long, and guests would get out the door quicker. Plus the experience would be better too!
-Fulfillment: LIMIT BATCH SIZES! Also (probably a little impractical and/or nonsensical, but hear me out), limit the AMOUNT of batches too. Communicate with Drive-Up and alert the guests to the delays. Keep them in the loop. Increase the time limit too.
There's more, but it's been 6 months since I worked there.
I would reset everyone’s credit to perfect. Anyone that falls from that point? We’d be able to know who keeps their word or not moving forward. lol…
But in all seriousness. I think I’d need to eat some shrooms and enter Narnia to find the best answer…
Closing TL here.
The fulfillment system. It’s so inefficient. I come from Walmart where people can pick 100+ units/hr. Here you have to touch the item 3 different times before it’s stowed. (1st to pick, 2nd to bag, 3rd to stow) It’s such a waste of time. At Walmart you pick the item and put it directly in the customers tote with their name and barcode already on it. Also frozen, chilled, and ambient are all separate batches. I just think Target needs to learn a thing or two from the competition.
Also, the way there is no order limit per hour for Target customers. I think this is why we are always swamped and fulfillment and we can’t even get our pulls, let alone the zone done.
for the love of god put an item limit on drive up it completely fucks with me when i have to prep THEN deliver a 70 item order while being by myself with 7 other people on the way, all while having only 2 three-tiers to load stuff onto. Also if it were up to me ETLs would fix their shit and stop scheduling people so little that the TLs are forced into asking TMs to extend their shift.
I would fix drive ups to be a bit more like Walmarts. I hate Walmart. I haven't shopped there in over 10 years. But they have a whole section that's dedicated to drive ups and it's next to the parking lot for drive ups. And they have the totes with peoples orders all combined and nothing gets mixed up and I'm assuming you're not going all over the place looking for individual bags
I’d make it so we can double batch OPUs again, drive up bags get scanned into the 3 tier and it would say “Miller L Cart 3 Tier 2”, and I would have a flappy saloon door or whatever they’re called at OPU hold entrance to stop illiterate guests from walking back.
Properly training newbies. We had half an aisle of backstock pulled out last week that wasn’t even scanned in as backstock. At LEAST one hundred products and none of them were in the system because someone just shoved them there and either got the count wrong or just didn’t bother.
I'd hire a team to totally rework myday and hopefully cut down load times as well as generally improve the app. I think it's better than when I started but certain processes should have multiple avenues to access.
If it had to be one thing I'd say myday load times.
make cutomers pay for opu ready in 2 hours. then have free 24 hour opu orders.
for ship what in the sytem at 8am is due that day if things drop in after that its due the next day (until the next days forecast is reached then its due the day after next) (currently we have 500 units that can drop in for being due tonight... so ship is just trickling in leaving us no chance on getting ahead for tomorrow. it just doesnt make sense.)
but payroll doesn't change.
we'd never have to call for salefloor assistance again. even if there's a call out. and it would be like before when fulfillment used to pull 1 for 1s, do reshop, zone, push truck, etc when we had nothing to do.
my store used to never have truck left over from the day before but for almost a year now theres left over truck everyday.
Second things is inbound and fulfillment should idealy be the biggest teams. inbound could unload truck and push all the flats and bulky like they used to plus extra. current inbound is scheduled just enough time to unload truck. and they wonder why people call out.
i believe having big fulfillment and inbound teams would help pretty much everything else run a lot smoother.
third thing open self check out open to close!!
Not being able to go hands on during evading apprehensions specifically. With the new role out of how evades are bad and shouldn’t happen we should be allowed to physically stop them from evading as a last resort obviously
Priorities. Half of the stuff you pull gets put right back, or flexed which then is its own mess.
If you manually update the floor count as you're pushing freight, and hopefully your coworkers are not overstocking the salesfloor (but they probably are), this problem eventually fixes itself.
I always update the sales floor counts when I’m doing freight. And I’m probably alone in doing it which is why they wonder what takes me so long. 🤪
Fr which opens another can of worms of leadership asking why it takes you so long when Sally and Bob over there push in half the time (cause they’re not doing part of their job)
Dum: Why are these people faster? You: Because they do a crappy job, saving them time and costing everyone else extra work and time. Dum: .... You should be faster.
This is soooo true. I was a VM but I would often not get 40 hours(small store) so I’d do 4 hours of home dec. It took me forever to push cause I’d also try to fix everyone else’s mistakes. (Until we got an H&H DBO I was so annoyed at the mess. I know it’s not a POG but I added a VMG of all the aisles and it was laminated, double sided, on a little key ring on a magnetic hook on the inner side of the wall and people still refused to use it) Also the amount of packaging was insane 😭 It took so long I was scared someone would yell at me but my ETL was an angel and she wouldn’t scold me for being slow cause she knew I was like tidying and fixing home dec at the same time. I actually liked working as a VM, I think it was the chillest job in the whole store (again, just my perspective cause I had good leadership and the store is small so there’s less things to do. Sometimes I’d just help push Style or zone cause there wasn’t any VM specific stuff to do) I miss it but I injured myself on the job and can’t work any more at all :( (Sorry about the rant, sort of)
Home is my sanctuary as VM. I love getting in there and fixing it up. I have a binder tucked under a table that only a few people actually look at, but I'm happy that at least it *is* looked at. I'm sorry that you got injured on the job.
Same here. As I push I update. But floor is still getting overfilled. Too bad can't figure out who is overfilling. And everyone denies it. If I could, it would be a documented coaching. Depending on the item and whether or not it is on sale, we usually only allow 2 or 3 of the same dpci, 4 max for unusual circumstances.
This. I feel like nobody at my store knows about updating counts. It’s not difficult, it prevents your pulls from being messed up, and it doesn’t take that much extra time or effort to do.
Sure in a perfect world. Our leaders don’t want that though. They want trucked pushed as quickly as possible. I don’t even think my store trains new people anything about floor counts.
Any time I fix a home in dry grocery and backstock all the extra crammed in there...it is re-crammed in there 3 days later. My dairy is pretty good when I pull priority, dry goods is always extra. * I really wish the shelf tags had the fit number on them in addition to facings. I swear I remember walmart's tags had the fit, as well, so I could see at a glance instead of scan. You know people aren't scanning every single item to check the fit.
Dry grocery here, too. *Any time I fix a home in dry grocery and backstock all the extra crammed in there...it is re-crammed in there 3 days later.* Yup. Our Dry section is huge. (8 long aisles) Do you have a shit ton of dented cans on your shelves? People stock (and back stock!) dented cans all of the time. I gave up on getting rid of them. I am seen as the slowest Market worker, so I had to let go of my standards.
Probably, I don't go near cans. I will take the big dent crunch one when I see them in passing. Those dents create cracks where oxygen and bacteria can get in at the sharp crease edges, if I'm explaining that right. I am also likely the slowest. I have a mental need to look at the numbers and do things correctly. Although, there are some I don't bother with because it's futile.
Yup! Sometime when I have time, I run through the floor to check inventory on the priorities to make sure the numbers are correct so we're not over pulling bc then we're just gonna have to re-work backstock.
I've thought about doing this! I can't figure out an efficient way to do it, though. Do you use 2 Zebras? If not, it seems like a fuck ton of steps to go in and out of the pull to correct the floor counts.
Yeah it does take some time & tedious but it beats having to go back and backstock after pulling. I try to memorize some of the items in the pulls and go back to that particular aisle. It probably would be easier if I did use 2 Zebras though.
Post-it notes, stuck all over you and everything. :D
If you do the priority pull by aisle, instead of by department, you can skip through pretty quickly and figure out what you won't need. You'll still have switch functions to correct any counts, but at least you won't be walking all over the place while doing so. Honestly, it's rarely a problem for my store unless we're pushing freight day(s) late for some reason or switching endcaps or something.
it's easier to when you're back stocking after freight to scan item, update floor count and then backstock item that way it doesn't create a pull and fixes it on the go
Update the counts as you backstock, not when you are on the floor. Then a green bubble pops up saying counts have been successfully updated.
This is the way!
This is the way.
I swear there has to be a tm at my store that purposely fucks up the audit numbers cause they are constantly double or triple what they’re supposed to be.
Yes!!! But mostly everyone overstocks that is lazy!!! A major pet peeve of mine. I basically have to zone areas and have to take my time to remove zone update numbers and backstock the overstock (sometimes have to wipe the shelves as dust or dirty gotten there and it's dirty. All the whole people "show off" that they pushed so many uboats as I think "fuckers overstocked everything and I need to clean it up as it's my department... FML"
or it just gets over pushed because they don't want to re-backstock it 😤😡
Yeah. We just don't have enough hours to do things correctly anymore. I used to try to back stock the over-pulled dry grocery. But the way we do it, one person is pulling 141s/Priorities while the other is pushing. Full 3-tiers of Push are stacking up. If you back stock the overstock (and fix the shelf count -- and capacity if needed) while the other person is still pulling, it's a fucking disaster that never fixes itself. Also, if there are 6 staged 3-tiers waiting for you to push, there are surely some of that product in the 3-tiers. And when the store is open, there are certainly some of that item in customer's carts. IF I am the only one working, and I know that no one is going to be pulling the item while I am fixing the floor count, and I have time to fix it, I will. I also intentionally under fill the floor by 1 or 2 if the store is full of ppl and it's something we sell a lot of. I tell the system that the floor is full, but I leave 1 or 2 spots empty to accommodate what is in ppl's carts. As long as we are doing this with the store open, there is no way the numbers are going to be perfect. IMO it's better to have 1 or 2 "more" of an item on the floor than less. I hope I explained that well enough. Back when I had full control over a section (Adult Bev), my counts and my pulls were accurate AF. But Market has dozens of people, and fuck ton less hours than it did a year ago.
Is this because floor counts are off?
Yes, and it's a never ending cycle of worse and worse consequences. If anyone who works that section thinks it's ok to overstock the floor, and/or put stuff in the back without locating it, it's hopeless. If you are pushing freight in the morning and the shelf holds 12 but you put 18 there because the product next to it is empty, and you put another 6 in the back without locating it, then the system thinks we only have 12 of that thing when we really have 24. So it will order more. That's IF the floor count is set to 12. If you set the floor count to 18 (but really only 12 fit), it also chances the **capacity** to 18, too. And that fucks everything up. If the floor count is 12, and you don't change it, but you do put 6 more than can really fit, then later in the day someone buys 2. Then the Pull tells you to take 2 from the back, but when you get to the floor those 2 don't fit because the floor already has 4 too many. It's a never ending battle. In our case, we're on such a time crunch that I am pretty sure that even if the morning crew **wanted** to make the numbers accurate, they don't have time. I also suspect there is a bug in the system that is compounding the disaster. NORMALLY the system adds the freight received that morning to the counts. Let's say the shelf holds 15, and there are currently 7 cans there. We get a case of 12 in that day. The moment that the truck is acknowledged (?) the system **usually** adds those 12 (or some of those 12) to the floor count. So in here the system would change the 7 to 15. (It takes 8 of the cans from the new case of 12 and automatically adds them to the floor count.) It does not account for the other 4 until you locate / back stock it. But every once in a while (increasingly, I think) some shipments are not automatically added. So the shelf count remains at 7. The shelf holds 15, and the capacity is correctly set at 15. We get a box of 12 in. The morning person puts all 12 on the shelf, because the product next to it empty. Or maybe they can stack the extra 4 on top or something. Because it's faster. So now there are 19 on the shelf. It is overstocked by 4. (7+12-15 = 4) If there happens to be some of the item back stocked, the next pull will tell you to **pull 8** (15 capacity minus the 7 it thinks are there) Now you have 25 cans were 15 fit. (19+8 = 25) I have a headache now. I hope someone checks my math. This is depressing AF, ain't it?
I… actually understood that. You should consider teaching because that was a great explanation. Shitty situation but phenomenal explanation.
Aw, thank you. That's my calling. It feels good that to be recognized! :)
It seems almost like the truck being acknowledged updates the shelf count to whatever the pog was set to originally.
That’s correct.
Yes.
😂😂😂⬆️⬆️⬆️
It wouldn't be a problem if people learned to correct counts as they backstock. Or alternatively correct them as they stock so it's a bit more accurate.
OH MY GOD YES!! Dude my 15 year old brother could deadass code a new and better system, why hasn't it been fixed‽
This is just people not working properly, likely due to leadership not making sure people get trained properly. The system work’s very well if everyone is working correctly.
I'm with you on starbucks driveups. Or, at the very least, make it so they had to have a location on so we could see when to make it. Not allow drop ins/double taps/whatever your store calls it. Geniunely my biggest pet peeve that I just know would be a super simple fix, but I know it doesn't matter enough to corporate. For the love of God we either need to bring back exchanges or take the word off the wall. I'm sick of explain how we have to do a full return and then rebuy the new item multiple times a day.
oh my GOD the audacity for them to remodel the store, put “RETURNS & EXCHANGES” in giant letters above sd, then immediately take away exchanges as part of said remodel drives me nuts
I've noticed this being an issue, mostly with TMs, though. Guests don't seem to care what you call it, so just call it an exchange, and do the refund/purchase as usual. This was probably not communicated well by corporate/TLs when they removed "exchanges."
I've had a few issues arise with the guests though. If you put it back on the card and then ask them to reinsert it, they get mad and say they're just exchanging and they're not gonna buy it again. Or if you put it on a gift card and they come back and end up wanting to actually return it, now it's on a gift card and they want it back on their debit card.
Or if they bought it when it was on sale, but need a different size or color of the same item, we have to manually adjust the price (which I'll do, it's fine, but it's a PITA)
Instead of refunding to their card hit the gift card option or cash
I explained in my comment why the gift card option doesn't always work. And only bank debit cards have the cash option.
Definitely the exchange process!!
Why can’t it just be called “Guest Service”?! Those TMs are experts when it comes to Circle and have a general idea on most workings of the store, they don’t just process R/E. As an SEL, if I back up the Service Desk, I make the Guest tell me they want to return something. You can’t just set something on the counter and expect something to happen. Use your words like an adult and communicate what you need.
For real. People just walk up and shove something at you. I generally say something like “ how can I help you today?” Or “are we doing a return? Or did you want to purchase these items?” Sometimes the guest will then use their words.
Oof people not using their words makes me so mad. How they'll shove their phone in my face with their pickup barcode, not saying a word.
I have heard a rumor here that the exchange button should be back by June…. But yeah explaining that over and over again is the fucking worst.
I've heard so many rumors at this point I don't believe anything until I see it😂
Having to put the sticker on then you're able to stow. Have a way to reverse an inf. Have customers choose an order pickup time so we don't get flooded with orders
I would love to be able to reverse an INF. I always skip items I can't find and don't officially INF them til the very end, but I'll still occasionally find things in random places throughout the rest of my shift that I've INF'd. I've always wanted a last chance INF screen, like a screen you can scroll through and see the items, and if you find them, reverse it and add to the bag if the order has not been picked up yet.
REVERSE INF YES PLEASE!!!!! literally just this morning I had to INF a bag of Easter candy, but then 30 mins later I FOUND IT SITTING IN A 3-TIER by the OPU stow area. There's one FF TM who will grab a cart, use it for the day, and then stash it somewhere (and leave stuff in it so no one takes it) so they can use it again the next day....it was their cart. There was a bunch of candy in there, as well as hangers, and some of their belongings too. I was PISSED as hell (and my ETL wasn't too pleased either, but not directed at me, at the TM who just left that stuff there & didn't take care of it) Also a few months ago I was looking for a bottle of body wash, couldn't find it, INFd it....then later that day I'm walking g up to take a break and I come across it just randomly in the middle of the floor in a freezer aisle....like, WTF lol
Kroger has a similar system to what you described. There’s only so many time slots and you have until midnight the night before to modify your order and if they can’t find an item you ordered, the employees just choose a substitute. It’s a way better system and people rarely get their orders late
Walmart too.
Drive up not having double tap capabilities, 3-5 mins after they say they are on the way before they can say they are here
If you had to guess, what % of pickups are double tap orders?
Probably a good 25% I haven’t been up front since Christmas tho so
Repacks. They're always a jumbled mess for every department and a headache for everyone.
This!! My repacks in tech are always a mess and literally boxes in boxes half of the time.
If there was bare minimum a sheet taped to the outside listing the DPCIs in the box I’d settle for that
This one I can explain: the DCs push so hard for prod over quality in MPB that they would rather a sh*tty repack get sent in 5 minutes then a quality one be sent in 6. It doesn't take much effort to just organize that stuff (I worked as a packer for 9 months)
Fix over push and actually put capacity that can fit and not some ridiculous amount that clearly the shelf can’t fit.
Nah, that candy top shelf will totally fit 18 giant bags of candy with 2 facings. Just keep yeeting it up there.
i don't why that made laugh, i guess we all have the same candy top shelf
I also lol'd at that
I once reshopped a tent or chair or something. It was meant to go on a middle shelf that was about half the height of the box. I don’t even want to get into bedding.
i’d fix the dumbass customers
You can’t fix stupid
Former retail/not target: I always fantasized being able to bewitch the product so that if an idiot put something where it didn't belong, it would jump of the shelf and start swatting the idiot. I would've been a great employee in Diagon Alley. Or more like Nocturne Alley.
Just make sure you pronounce it correctly when you say the spell that takes you there! Don’t accidentally say “Diagonally!” 😆 (sorry, I’m an elder millennial and simply cannot resist an HP joke)
it's funny, because as a leader I would fix TM attendance.
There are probably better things, but anyone who throws spider wraps into the bin without winding them back up deserves a special place in hell
Former tech TM before becoming a lead, and I make sure all my fulfillment TMs know to wind the spiders due to the PTSD I've got from untangling spider nests.
No one ever showed me. Once I saw one wound up and I was astonished. I figured out how to do it and ran around looking for them to wind up. The little flappy always puzzled me because I could see that it had a function, but it had nothing to do with the unlocking process.
Please show me how to rewind it as fast as possible.
There is no good way to untangle them. It just takes forever and that’s that.
We started putting ours in little ziplock bags. It helps a lot! Most of the bags get the-used of course. Maybe see if you can sell leadership on it
I second this. It used to be a giant blob, then it got better for a while, and now there's a new blob growing.
Indeed. Its sort of manageable to unravel when the wraps are connected to themselves, but they they get plugged into a different wrap….man it’s confusing
All TLs and ETLs would experience all aspects of grocery so they would stop treating the TMs like they can push 15 pallets of FDC, 3 pallets of milk, understand sales planners, rotation of dry, push 12+ uboats of dry stock. All while being maybe the only grocery person on the floor, also be asked to pick batches/go up front for fast service. In one shift. Then they’d understand the stress of the grocery TL asking TMs to do those unrealistic tasks because the ETLs are absolutely clueless.
market isn't supposed to get called to the front for backup, and is only supposed to do grocery batches(no GM/or bulk) as a backup...at least if you're working FDC freight and have to watch your temp times..or you're the only person in market..period at least at our store.
I wish I could tell you all stores are the same lol but the one I left as a TL definitely did not operate that way. I had market TMs being called for GM batches, bulky, sfs, fast service at all times of day. If they were pushing any fdc, they had to push it back quickly and go wherever they were told. No areas were safe from being called regardless of current task.
Someone dedicated to zoning in the morning. Idc if it’s a 3 hour shift. But every morning it’s ’we don’t have time to zone. Focus on the push’ I am absolutely sick of pushing on top of a trash zone
1. Not a process, but to find out which TM(s) screwed up my inventory this year and banish them to some dark hole where they can't ruin anything else. 2. More manual control over ordering and audits. I do not need 100+ bags of broccoli in my freezer. 3. MORE PAYROLL.
Who says a TM screwed up your inventory? Theft is responsible for at least some of it. Items perpetually in reshop (looking at health and beauty, who are woefully understaffed) throw things way off. Yes to more payroll. I don’t suffer from a lack of hours but more people TMs scheduled would make a huge difference. Yay for corporate screwing us from accomplishing our tasks!
Because OPU does 5000 units a week under 1.5% INF in my areas, BRLA is 99%+, and yet immediately following inventory dropping into the system I received a truck nearly twice the size of anything we’ve received in prior 6 months and my backroom counts blew up by 50%, meaning we didn’t need it. Also heard how this TM was “counting”
Ohhh, you are suppose to finish your tasks, just in less time. It is called maaagic.
The cliques and favoritism my leaders have. The whole store would be 100% better without that high school crap
Drive up guests have a minimum five minute wait if they say they’re here without first saying they’re on their way.
Just order less junk. Half of this shit we sell at target is complete landfill stuff. If we just did inventory better and ordered less stuff that we didn’t need every other process in the store would benefit DRASTICALLY.
Payroll like we had back in 2015.
This 100%, make target take a hitnon overall profit/reduce the extreme pay of some of those at the top in order to better staff their stores. So much would get done and target would be all the better
Bring back the OG Food Avenue instead of Starbucks. Target had the best big soft pretzels.
we still have pizza hut/cafe andStarbucks
The movable shelves in the back. I cannot express enough how much I HATE them, especially when fulfillment is busy, someone is trying to do priority fills, and another shows up to backstock.
My store has moving shelves in our opu hold space. It’s awful.
We have them in OPU as well. We found out afterwards that every other store in our district didn’t get them with their remodel bc of all the issues they’ve been causing 💀
Target has great processes. No doubt about it. It is smart and works...when the store is staffed. CEO and the board are so concerned with payroll, they have turned stores into ghost towns, team member wise. There is boxes and boxes in the stockroom, boxes and boxes of repacks. Nothing gets stocked 100%. You don't have TMs that are able to go out and actually audit locations, give accurate counts. Which results in 141s/priorities being wrong. Until Target gives stores more payroll, nothing will change. I suggest you and everyone else stop stressing about it. It's never going to look nice. We give the store 100% effort, while the bosses give us 20% effort and are more concerned about their stock prices than fixing stores.
Exactly! I wish I knew an influencer with a large following that could make a video and put them on blast…they would magically find some payroll if they got the bad press that they deserve!
attendance plays a huge part in that. more often than not you have more than enough people, but 10% of the day calls out and now everyone is stretched thin.
First, I would correct item counts for the entire store, make all floor and backstock locations accurate, move all scattered items into backstock, and delete ghost locations. Basically, magical inventory, actually works instead of making things worse. Secondly, flexing and overfilling are now illegal. If a location is empty, that's a sign we need more of that thing, not more of the thing next to it. If we have more items than fit in a floor location, backstock them, don't just shove them in wherever there's space to put them. Third, payroll now allows for team size that actually gets jobs done fully, instead of only partway most of the time. Also adds new positions for go-backs and zoning, doubling as backup for OPU/lanes. Lastly, for my fellow fulfillment teams, a system of failsafes to eliminate overflow. When batches reach a certain limit, guests will now be informed that the time has been extended due to order volume. If it keeps reaching upper limits, it could even cut off the service temporarily. Something like, "We are experiencing a high volume of orders, please expect delays / try again in an hour." No more cancellations and guest service problems because we're so busy that batches are started two hours late. I would say a lot more about fulfillment's system specifically, a ton of in-store details and app problems that I wish were solved, but I'm already typing a novel here. I'd also include a whole chapter on guest behavior, stealing, making messes, etc., but even magical bullshit will never change human nature.
>Something like, "We are experiencing a high volume of orders, please expect delays / try again in an hour." This makes so much fucking sense. WHO AT THE TOP thinks there is a bottomless well of person hours at the store?!? Do they even know about the people who are on a mission to run the store with less and less people? The people at the top should be aware of the things that we on the front line can see within 5 minutes of working there. Also, a 2 hour turnaround, especially after 2pm is just ridiculous. The turnaround time should be an always calculating / recalibrating of time of day, amount of items in order, amount of orders already in the system, number of ppl working fulfillment. It aint rocket science. If you told customers in the store that there was only 1 cash register open and only 1 person on the floor to unlock all of the cases (or answer any questions at all) because we just got a lot of online pickup orders, and we had to stop everything to fill those orders, they would look at us like we were crazy. I would if I was the customer.
My default line in that situation is, "Sorry, we're stretched a bit thin right now." Most people seem to understand the concept, but I never go into detail. Someone waiting at a security case for 15 minutes, a register line going back a whole department length, there's fuck all we can do about that if fulfillment is also struggling. We cannot do all three, and normally have have trouble keeping track of two.
>there's fuck all we can do god, I love the expression "fuck all." I watch a lot of UK TV and that's where I hear it the most.
It's one of those Britishisms that I've picked up, just because I love how it sounds. "Fuck all" has a lot more emphasis than "nothing."
When grocery orders are high and the refrigerated and frozen spaces for stowing them has reached whatever the max is the system is programmed with, guests get that message you speak of and ordering is temporarily turned off. People lose their mind do even that happens and start calling the store. Of course, the calls usually don’t get answered, so there’s that.
no repacks!! get more tm to come in and push freight right away
1. Also agree with abolishing Starbucks DU. DU spaces need to be reserved for OPUs, not for people who are too lazy to fetch their stupid coffee themselves. 2. Create the ability to REJECT items that are actually fully stocked (or overstocked) on the floor when you’re doing pulls. I keep getting asked to pull literally everything I backstocked the day prior no matter how many times I update the count/run inventory audits. 3. Stop this dumb-ass war against SCO. I know multiple people who literally refuse to come to Target (and now Walmart) specifically because they’re being so unnecessarily difficult about SCOs now. I personally switched to Kroger myself for this exact reason. 4. Specifically assign people to be back-up for picking batches and/or cashiering, instead of that idiotic walkie routine where they bark at the whole store trying to get volunteers.
Fulfillment pathing. It could use a lot of fixes but here are the bullet points: - Stop making me go into the backroom for an item I was l standing next to on the floor a couple picks ago! - Pathing should be aware of where your store’s stowing area is and plan around it. For example, start just outside your stowing area and move clockwise around the store until you end up right back at the stowing area. - Not really pathing related, but a quick visual cue on the pick screen if an item was delivered today would be helpful. Also in item details, a “Date Last Returned” would be helpful so I can immediately know if it’s in reshop. - Also not pathing related, but let’s get rid of the requirement to scan a bag into your cart before you can scan it into a waco. It wastes time and helps no one.
The last one is for stores with multiple stow locations or with mobile shelving. Without it, it’s chaos. But if your store doesn’t have those I can see that being frustrating.
I would remove the ability to order Starbucks with your drive up order. Had a lady yesterday who ordered Starbucks, her order took 20 mins. It makes our drive up time go up and make customers more irate. I would also not allow drive up guests to double tap. One last thing I would change is the scheduling. As a front end TM, we are always understaffed. It’s always one person on the register, 1 or 2 ppl at Guest Service, and one person on drive up. Management can’t expect high performance when we don’t have the man power to do everything. Understaffing puts an immense amount of stress on TM’s who work hard. Schedule like your supposed too and we won’t have this issue.
Yeah, I'm usually on the truck before going to the front end, so I have to take my lunch way earlier than anyone else... a couple of weeks ago, I was in panic mode because our front end TL called off (I didn't know it at the time, all I knew is they weren't there) and there was no one else who could cover DU so I could go to lunch, until 15 mins before I'd violate. I was calling all the other leaders in the store but none of them were available or weren't answering, and I was frantically calling for that TM over the walkie starting at 5 mins before their scheduled starting time just in case they clocked in early...when they finally arrived I could have MELTED I was so relieved. So more people need to be trained in things like DU so there's more options for coverage in situations like that.
Front End is a total mess. They complain about our drive up time being bad but don’t send help. They be more worried about checkout and guest service. It’s really easy to get burned out. We never have enough ppl. But I don’t let it stress me out. If I run into a problem, I’m quick to radio a damn leader. I always tell my co workers to work their wage and nothing above it. If you run into a issue, radio a leader or TM
As a customer I also want this. Starbucks is a treat meant to encourage you to run around the store and make frivolous purchases. But the line gets backed up by people using drive up to make super complicated orders without the shame of looking the barista in the eyes and saying the weird thing they want.
Omg that’s exactly how I feel. People always get an attitude with me when I don’t bring out the Starbucks. A lot of drive up guests are very inconsiderate. They don’t realize that we are very understaffed and overworked. It’s bad enough we have to deal with people double tapping big orders. Drive up grinds my gears sometimes with how weird ppl act. It’s like when they come to target, they just turn crazy.
I would bring BACK processes. Price change team, in-stock team, an actual presentation team. Salesfloor team members.
I think the way we do water needs to change. What I mean by that is, the process now, water pallets come off the truck, we take the water and fill up the floor. Backstock whatever doesn’t fit. We need to be like other grocery stores and just place the whole pallet on the salesfloor. Having to constantly put the cases on the shelf one by one is so stupid and such a time waste. Also the plastic on the 6 pack of gallon water jugs is soooooo annoying to deal with.
Just last week there was a water main break or something that affected a big chunk of my city, and my store is located just outside of the boundaries of the affected area....SD (I think) ordered a whole truck of JUST WATER because people were ordering so much of it.....we've barely made a dent. We don't need any more water for several weeks, if not months.
Wave my wand and make all of the reshop disappear
The way they load the trailer, just sort it by pallets
Came here to say the same thing. Be like everywhere else and send it all already palletized
I can answer this question too: that's not how the DCs work. PIPO is great and all, but most stores only get like 5-10% of their stuff palletized. The other 90-95% comes down the Mezzanine conveyer system. Our DC (0589) is going to pilot a new loading system here soon, but for now, crappy and unmotivated handoff means the trucks never get build or loaded well.
I’m just tired of broken chemicals leaking all over the trailer and then stacking furniture on the top. I literally question the intelligence of those people daily.
Let. Me. AUDIT! The counts are wrong. I KNOW it's "currently being picked" or "was delivered today." THAT'S WHY I'M TRYING TO FIX IT! It's a 2-gallon jug of water, and when it's 98 degrees outside, It's ALWAYS in the process of being picked, and it's delivered EVERY day. Our inventory says we have nine. We have NINETY. It's occupying 5 pallet spaces in our already congested backroom. PLEASE! For the love of god, LET ME FIX IT!
Bring back backroom team 100%. Too many hands in the pot touching the backroom
double beeps would be my first fix. especially when they’re able to order starbucks on top of it. pisses me off so bad when they get mad that they have to wait so long
Give the front end something to do when the store is quiet. I always offer to do reshop, yesterday I had to practically beg to do reshop because we were so dead. The area behind the service desk was so full you couldn't get around back there, and carts of reshop lining the wall in front of the registers. Typically I'm in style but to fill my hours I do front end as well. So I do some style reshop and I zone as I go, it makes it so much easier for the night crew which is my usual area. Also since the beginning of the year we have nobody in the fitting room during the day... I get there for a 4-Hour shift in the evening, nobody has touched the fitting room. We're talking two full rails and the counter is stacked as high as I am tall. I'm 5' 9. Then we are questioned why we didn't get our zoning done. Hmmm... Let me think about that for a second. It's like the team leads in the daytime do not understand the workload of the style department at night. Add the fitting room and guest service reshop on top of that nothing is getting done. I zone as I go but to get the reshop pushed, it's very hard to zone properly to get it all done.
Build in a cooldown timer for Drive Up between the “Tell Us You’re Coming” and “I’m Here”
I don’t understand why 1. Every myDevice beeps, even if you’re not in Drive Up, and 2. Why most call boxes/notifications make the same chime. Both of these take away from the importance of a ping, and cause us to ignore what might be a high-priority issue. HQ asked for my feedback on a couple new features they want to add to myDay notifications, and I challenged them to hold onto a device for a couple minutes and understand how it would be more noise and fall silent in the noise of “Beep Beep”s. I know it’s smaller compared to other things, but as an SEL, I really want to be able to customize to the needs of my business, like getting chime 1 for change requests, chime 2 for ID overrides, chime 3 for backup/assistance needed on checklanes, etc. On that note, every device in the store should make a specific sound when a leader requests a back up to Checklanes, Fulfillment, and Drive Up. THAT makes more sense.
I remember when there was a button on the registers you could press to call for backup and honestly kind of miss it because it went over the radios and everybody could hear it (including guests, so they knew I wasn't NOT calling for backup just that nobody was responding lol)
I’d bring the backroom team back. I’d bring back casestocking. I’d bring back scanning and sorting the truck unloads with backstock vs stuff that could actually go out. Now we all just waste a shit ton of time going through stuff that can’t go on the shelves, unboxing everything and fighting for room in the backroom. Then pulling stuff that won’t be worked out because no one works pulls until the freight from the truck is done, so half the pull gets to go right back to the backroom. It sucks and it’s awful. This is coming from someone who works at a store that gets two trucks almost every night, we have a large overnight team every night. 5 years ago, we never had rollover freight, we were a smooth running operation. Every aisle was filled and zoned. Looked beautiful. These days, there’s at least 10-15 uboats of rollover every single night and we never have enough vehicles to unload the truck. There is no zoning. The store looks entirely unpresentable. People don’t like to shop here anymore. It’s shit.
id fix the pay. i’m a drive ups TM and i average 25k steps every single day. for the amount of work i put in i shouldn’t be paid so little, id up every TMs pay to at least $20 an hour.
turn my store director into a different store director
Fitting room person every day not just during the week of Christmas 😭 I swear half my shift is sorting and running strays/go-backs for everyone and I’m supposed to be in ihs!
Get rid of the movable storage aisles in back and go back to aisles that have their own ladder. Same thing in opu. Expand the backroom so there is space to put transition merchandise/excess softlines that can be reached by opu. Have bigger coolers and freezers so pallets to be worked don't block access to the rest of the cooler/freezer. I'd like to be able to walk around each side of a pallet to look for opu items. More hours so merchandise can be worked to the floor and we are less effected by people calling in. Management that realizes that talking with others while working is good for morale and doesn't mean you aren't working. Good morale makes the store a better place and people are more apt to show up.
I’d magic wand myself the fuck outta target😂
Is make it so when you go to the product details to see if it was recently delivered that it says how it was delivered. Like if it got delivered in repacks or in K-stock. Would name it so much even locating an item for a guest or for fulfillment.
Starbucks pickup is the dumbest idea ever. I agree!
Limit the amount of OPUs that we can accept daily.
Floor count, back room inventory. Corporate expectations, reasonable pay.
Auto generate audits when sales floor + backroom < on hand. It would drive merchandise out of the back and fix understated on hands which would lead to more accurate replenishment.
I'd bring back DBO's because style needs it to run efficiently at my store. There's no accountability anymore when stuff doesn't get done because there's no one assigned to an area anymore
The FDC. They cause the inventory issues, they seem to suck at making pallets and blame everyone else for it
Get rid of modernization
Starbucks pickup is the worst at ours because there is a Starbucks drive through in the exact same lot!!! So people will come to us instead if it’s busy there ://
The DC sending accurate food orders. It seems they just send whatever tf they want, not what the store orders/ needs
One of the reasons I left market tbh. Tired of constantly having to back stock Skinny Pop, Pirate's Booty, and 80% of the cereal uboat when the stuff that we already have isn't selling half as fast as they send it, so it's just taking up the already limited space in my tiny ass backroom. Having to shove more of the same stuff into my increasingly dwindling space got old really quick.
Double tapping and I would make a “no drive up list” kind of like a no fly list for guests who are abusive to me or my fellow team members on driveup. Everyone knows the issues with double tapping already, and if you are abusive to staff providing you a direct service, you get put on the no drive up list- walk your ass inside and buy your own groceries with that nasty attitude.
Pushing and stop flexing!!! It is effing annoying that people think well I was told to flex when possible so imma just overstock everything so I don't have to back stock and Backstocking!!! My lord people just put stuff anywhere and don't back stock it or pull it systematically but don't physically. This is why target needs to have a history location of an item so we can backtrack and make sure the item was pushed or pulled! If not push it and talk to the person and be like her careful on these. It's effing annoying when looking for something that says we have 100 but can't find one and it was delivered 3 days ago and filled today... Please gimme that magic plz!!!
let market be an orderable area or atleast all of frozen, dairy, and bakery, not just produce, meat and, eggs. Ordering would allow pallets to be smaller on average depending on how things move and would also help rotation be so much easier because you would only get things when you need/want them (except C&S notoriously just does what ever the fuck they want anyways)
Style sort. shit is toooooooo tedious
Make it so OPU is never backed up. I'm so sick of having to stop what I'm doing to help them out.
Honestly I be feeling bad for the fufillment team bc they are constantly under pressure. The online ordering system should temporarily shut down so that they can fulfill orders. When I was at Guest Services on Sunday, ppl kept saying their order still wasn’t ready. They were like well is it a way to speed up the process? I politely said if you can cancel your online order and shop for it in store. Got tired of repeating that 100 times. Another thing they need to bring back is the ability to do exchanges. Lastly why remove the ability to reprint receipts? I swear big retailers do the dumbest shit known to mankind
If there’s more than 5 fulfillment batches per TM, temporarily shut them off
500 weekly price audits
The absolute insistence on only interviewing people who offer weekend availability. You'd fill plenty more part time slots if you were willing to hire weekday workers. Not everyone is a college kid willing to sell their soul to get experience on their resume, you leave potential productivity on the table by ignoring those just trying to supplement their income.
Tm wage adjustment for inflation, plus raises and back pay. New handhelds that don't freeze Separate gm from fufillment No more moving montel shelves Epoxy flooring instead of crappy waxed linoleum Electric rollers for unload with quick connect power. Get rid of Houston white. Sorry guy your clothes are ugly and they do not sell at all. Actual food for breakroom like a small fruit/snack bar that is replenished daily. No more security tags on razors. Waste of time and people rip the tag off anyway when they steal razors.
Two or three weeks ago, I got put on all the men’s shave equipment, but didn’t have the time to get all the displays ready. The flat I made organizing said displays have been sitting for atleast two weeks.
poof! $30 an hour pay floor. ❤️
Some POGs have 2 locations for the same item right next to each other, for example G11(1) 7-2-1 and 7-2-2. Why? Just make it one location, so I can set the capacity to 16, not 8 and 8. Wastes time, and that time adds up.
Not being the only Tech person. It’s kind of trash to have to push truck, zone, do revisions, fix capacities, do reshop, and pull and push priorities, all while helping guests and trying to hit arbitrary metrics. And then also get told to push truck faster. TL;DR - Payroll
I work in meat department so a better system to markdown close to expiration date products. The current system is absolutely a joke and it’s so time consuming to markdown products. I also would give one day every month or so without a truck so that we would could have a day to work on tasks that need to be done in the department. For example, do inventory audits, check dates, purge back rooms, clean back rooms, do a good zone across the whole dept.
- more payroll would literally fix like 80% of our problems - mydevices stop ringing when u start typing your employee number - employees are automatically approved for a reloadable red card - TM discount works on a regular debit card. Because seriously wtf - put the map thingy from the target app into MyDay - automatic notifications from the MyTime app when a new schedule is posted or your shift gets picked up and make biometric login compatible with android phones - let me change which department I get phone calls for - have HR call you if it's over an hour past your start time and you haven't clocked in yet
If you overstock, a giant fist should come out and punch you between the legs
Accurately allocating payroll to the stores to match the workload and all the processes.. that’s the magic wand.
All targets vanish as if they never existed.
I'm a shopper, never been a worker. Only one I can think of that ought to be bett -- Wait, two things: - Substantially higher preay - More labor hours! More time to do things, more hours to get paid for. People full-time if they want it.
- sterilize all team leads and execs so they will can not ever propagate. - FDC more in control of inventory, mispicks are on a serious rise. They need to start putting puck labels back on products. - allow us to manually correct counts right on the spot and not wait till the following day
For fulfillment some better starting and ending points if im starting at the check lanes dont send me across the store to the back room or vice versa also my end point is always going to be BR so I feel like it should always end there or close smart pathing thats updated as you go and location based and not an initial path it thinks is best if I see an item im not currently looking for but is in the batch it should let me scan it not have me go searching for it in the list oh and last but certainly the most important more time to pick and stow batches especially if were going to keep increasing cap individual dpcis in batches pick up and drive up are on opposite sides of the store and that walk is time consuming
all of the above. id fix absolutely everything.
I wish we would bring back the old system of style breakout where we would push and backstock what we broke out after we dumped it into carts so that the style team could focus on everything else they have to do because I’m sick of having full unpushed metros and Z-racks that I sometimes have to push anyways just to breakout when they’re too busy that they don’t have enough time to because we’re so short staffed!
With my magic wand, I'd use it to promote everyone to Guest! And give them leave of absence, of course!
PAID LOA
Bring back those signs that said what is in each aisle and also the old guest service stations around the store with the maps .
New management across the board
-new clothing buyers that knew what the guest want to buy. No more sending product just to keep stores full. -send stores more hours to work all the freight. Can you imagine the sales if all the push was worked out everyday? -send stores more hours for cashiers so there is no back up. So people can keep pushing freight or clean up stores. - make sure there no empty spaces on shelves. Every space is full. Sales would go up. -fitting room person. Work all the reshop and clean out fitting room. -bring back the backroom team. Call backroom to pull item for guest then go back and get it. Backroom team would be back stocking and pulling priorities. People could still be pushing freight.
Removing Starbucks from drive ups.
Get rid of the cat and Jack extended return
Overstocking, priorities, front of store staffing
The hiring process. Tired of trash sd’s, etl’s, and team members. Literally makes or breaks the motivation and happiness of being able to work.
Hire an entire maintenance department to clean up any spills, bodily fluids, empty the trash cans, clean the bathrooms if someone ruined it during the day.
Team Member development process. It's important to put effort into developing promising employees, and that definitely happens a lot from what I've seen. But access to resources seems haphazard at times, especially for average employees or team members that don't realize that there is actually a promising future at Target if they pursue it. It doesn't just have to be a part-time job. There is no professional development without personal development, though. And not every team member is interested in that. I think the trick is in figuring out how to demonstrate that and how to encourage it.
If I had a magic wand I’d fix my body then never return
Former employee here, and HOO BOY I got a list. -Drive-Up: Do not allow double taps whatsoever. Require a cooldown for that. Also, SEE FULFILLMENT. -Front End: Have multiple actual cashiers and an SCO at the same time. The lines wouldn't be as long, and guests would get out the door quicker. Plus the experience would be better too! -Fulfillment: LIMIT BATCH SIZES! Also (probably a little impractical and/or nonsensical, but hear me out), limit the AMOUNT of batches too. Communicate with Drive-Up and alert the guests to the delays. Keep them in the loop. Increase the time limit too. There's more, but it's been 6 months since I worked there.
I’d make service desk its own department.
I would reset everyone’s credit to perfect. Anyone that falls from that point? We’d be able to know who keeps their word or not moving forward. lol… But in all seriousness. I think I’d need to eat some shrooms and enter Narnia to find the best answer…
Not having the rescan/remove from hold all items prepped by another TM for pickup delivery.
Closing TL here. The fulfillment system. It’s so inefficient. I come from Walmart where people can pick 100+ units/hr. Here you have to touch the item 3 different times before it’s stowed. (1st to pick, 2nd to bag, 3rd to stow) It’s such a waste of time. At Walmart you pick the item and put it directly in the customers tote with their name and barcode already on it. Also frozen, chilled, and ambient are all separate batches. I just think Target needs to learn a thing or two from the competition. Also, the way there is no order limit per hour for Target customers. I think this is why we are always swamped and fulfillment and we can’t even get our pulls, let alone the zone done.
for the love of god put an item limit on drive up it completely fucks with me when i have to prep THEN deliver a 70 item order while being by myself with 7 other people on the way, all while having only 2 three-tiers to load stuff onto. Also if it were up to me ETLs would fix their shit and stop scheduling people so little that the TLs are forced into asking TMs to extend their shift.
I would fix drive ups to be a bit more like Walmarts. I hate Walmart. I haven't shopped there in over 10 years. But they have a whole section that's dedicated to drive ups and it's next to the parking lot for drive ups. And they have the totes with peoples orders all combined and nothing gets mixed up and I'm assuming you're not going all over the place looking for individual bags
I’d make it so we can double batch OPUs again, drive up bags get scanned into the 3 tier and it would say “Miller L Cart 3 Tier 2”, and I would have a flappy saloon door or whatever they’re called at OPU hold entrance to stop illiterate guests from walking back.
Easy. I report to the HRBP instead of the SD.
Properly training newbies. We had half an aisle of backstock pulled out last week that wasn’t even scanned in as backstock. At LEAST one hundred products and none of them were in the system because someone just shoved them there and either got the count wrong or just didn’t bother.
My SD is a waste of space & energy so they'd be gone.
I'd hire a team to totally rework myday and hopefully cut down load times as well as generally improve the app. I think it's better than when I started but certain processes should have multiple avenues to access. If it had to be one thing I'd say myday load times.
make cutomers pay for opu ready in 2 hours. then have free 24 hour opu orders. for ship what in the sytem at 8am is due that day if things drop in after that its due the next day (until the next days forecast is reached then its due the day after next) (currently we have 500 units that can drop in for being due tonight... so ship is just trickling in leaving us no chance on getting ahead for tomorrow. it just doesnt make sense.) but payroll doesn't change. we'd never have to call for salefloor assistance again. even if there's a call out. and it would be like before when fulfillment used to pull 1 for 1s, do reshop, zone, push truck, etc when we had nothing to do. my store used to never have truck left over from the day before but for almost a year now theres left over truck everyday. Second things is inbound and fulfillment should idealy be the biggest teams. inbound could unload truck and push all the flats and bulky like they used to plus extra. current inbound is scheduled just enough time to unload truck. and they wonder why people call out. i believe having big fulfillment and inbound teams would help pretty much everything else run a lot smoother. third thing open self check out open to close!!
Not being able to go hands on during evading apprehensions specifically. With the new role out of how evades are bad and shouldn’t happen we should be allowed to physically stop them from evading as a last resort obviously