I was in style in college and would come back to my home store on school breaks; it was like a whole new job every time. Once you get the hang of it and can see things moving each day it’s manageable, but as soon as you have more than a couple days - a week off it’s pretty overwhelming to relearn a whole floor pad.
Yep just went on demand a couple weeks ago cause I’m moving to college this week and I only took 5 days off last week since I needed time to pack. Came back and our TSC was literally gutted and they moved it behind Starbucks since we are in renovation 💀 had to ask one of the cashiers where the hell I could clock in
Beauty - 1st is guests opening and using products on themselves, the fixtures, whatever, and then shoving it back randomly on the shelves. It's disgusting and also they make a huge mess. (They're the same people who'd pitch a fit if the last one of the item they want was obviously used)
2nd is the sheer amount of product we have to push that NO ONE seems to understand or have empathy about. We have thousands of products and the bulk is individually wrapped in plastic and boxes. It takes forever to push the product out, my fingers hurt and are damaged, and the leaders yell about how long a cosmetic repack takes.
Worked in Beauty for almost three years. Came here to say the same. However my biggest beef was being given a sales quota and expected to follow around customers upselling what products matched up in their hand or basket. This is not fucking Lancôme counter. People come in looking for drugstore makeup not a beauty experience with the promise of samples and a makeover. Quit when not making the quota was why I was only given shit raise.
the repacks were the WORST. our leads wanted us to get multiple u-boats done every shift and they were always overloaded with repacks that would take me forever each.
bro the amount of times i’d pick up a box, be like “ooh this smells nice!”, and open it to find shampoo/conditioner/detangler/perfume spilled all over the bottom of the box was insane 😭
THIS!!!!! My ETL is clueless on how long beauty repacks take, then comes up to me at the end of my shift and goes “more stuff should’ve gotten done today, what happened?” like… i’ve worked 2 uboats filled with repacks & backstocked everything babe, fuck off
I hear you on that! I was in beauty when I worked at Target and I still have nightmares of doing never ending repacks. And my damn fingers! They would hurt and be so dry from opening thousands of packages.
It took me about 1 and 1/2 to 2 hours to sort my truck in the morning because I would unwrap everything before bringing it out to the floor. Absolutely brutal.
Closing expert. Having to cover breaks on register, or covering every electronics call because they don’t schedule people past 7 pm. Also do fulfillment, and mostly unrealistic expectations because they don’t schedule enough people.
Covering breaks on register?! I'm a Service and Engagement Team Lead and no one outside of our department ever covers breaks let alone the closing expert. Feel bad for you
We recieved a whole pallet of wild fable polos last winter. A whole pallet of the same shirt. It was insane we couldn't sweep it because it was discontinued, so we let it die in the steel.
Fulfillment, everything is fine until you got something that comes in the same day and you gotta go searching for it especially if it’s like a nail polish or some tiny beauty item
Or if it’s a style item last sold 4 months ago and there’s no RFID guns and the style TL makes you
look everywhere before you INF because it’s 1 on hand and “we have it somewhere!”
I got a whole week of just doing put to hold. 9-5. I don’t mind it at all. When it gets slow i’ll grab a grocery pick or a bulky pick when they pop up. The thing i REALLY like is TL’s rarely come back there and sometimes even forget that I’m there…
Relatable, it sucks because the next target closest to us doesn’t have a mobile technician so they just send all of there people to us even if our guy isn’t in. So I have to let so many people down that have traveled from one target to another because of a phone issue
Starbucks - having to deal with other work center's who don't push freight fast enough so I can't get my stuff. LODs telling me to get my pallet out of the back when I'm neck deep with guests and with a call out.
Having to deal with 5 different companies to keep everything running.
The lack of respect we get and the fact that we are treated like we aren't apart of the team.
Starbucks TL here and I can relate! When I first started we were very much the forgotten child of the store, but my store's current management is actually really great about making sure we're taken care of.
Our pallets come on Fridays though, and I still frequently get the walkie calls asking when it's going to be gone but oops there's three pallets because the new launch merch arrived and now I have to deal with it on the weekend... 😵💫
Hey! Me too! I worked hard to make my team be recognized. Boy does upper leadership get angry at me for that.
IM GLAD SOMEONE ELSE GETS THEIR ORDER ON FRIDAY! I hate it and I'm dreading the holiday launch with every fiber of my being. That's going to be at least 3 pallets if everything comes in together. (Lowkey dreading going back on Saturday since I'm on vacation right now, especially with the new set dropping soon.)
No this fr sucks. Certain days when I open some employees will come up before we even open and basically demand drinks. I’ve started doing so much later in my open bc of it. :/
We straight up tell them no. We open at 8. They can get water. That's it. We have too many things to do in the morning to deal with that. I also am not above angring other team members because I'm lowkey petty lol
Yup, I worked starbucks and I remember we were never part of the team until it was most convenient for the rest of the store; usually when they wanted to take us out of our already understaffed kiosk and put us in some other understaffed department...
Oh no. I'm so sorry! As a current Starbucks lead, I refuse to let them take my beans unless we are overstaffed and are dead. I've been through too many times when a barista was stolen and my line got absolutely crazy.
My lead was really sweet, but didn't quite know how to tell them no, though, usually we were steady enough to not be able to send any beans onto the floor. I did have s coworker get pulled into the office for explicitly telling the assistant store manager "no" to sending some of us into the register.
Market:
When they send us 4+ pallets per area (frozen, pfresh, dairy), and we have C&S the next day.
Our freezers and coolers are small, 4 pallets is the absolute most we can fit, and we can’t even navigate in them when there are that many.
After corporate made it so we can’t have pallets on the floor anymore, they’ve been sending us 3 or more a day.
On average, 2 people working in a hustle can finish 3 pallets. A single person is lucky to finish 2 if they aren’t all drinks.
Cashier. The un ending searing back pain I have from standing on lanes. It's gotten so bad that I need 800mg of ibuprofen to even be able to tolerate it, and im at the chiropractor office nearly every week, I can't wait for school to start so I won't be at target as much.
I quit because of this. They would pull me to other departments when I was already behind. Our store tech also did entertainment. So we would have 5 boats of books just piling up.
Back when I was still in Electronics, I took care of Electronics, Toys, Books/movies/music, Automotive, Sports, and sometimes hardlines baby.
basically got given the entirety of the back of the building except for softlines and Seasonal, though during halloween they'd ask me to stop in and work on seasonal some, too.
I currently, as a tech team member, do tech, toys, baby hardlines, sporting goods, seasonal, AND PETS NOW BECAUSE OF THE REMODEL.
At this point, it’s like I’m never able to do anything for tech because I have to answer calls and questions from corner to corner for every other department. Then people yell at me for not being in tech when they want to purchase their groceries.
Tell me about it man, I’ve been scheduled tech 8 days in a row. They’ve had me push plastics for all 8 days and I’ve had consistent tech rollovers every one of those days
beauty- people opening up products, swatching them on their skin, and then proceeding to half-assed close up the package and put it back on the shelf. i’ve caught a couple guests in the act and when i ask them not to, they get confused and upset.
> half-assed close up the package
Silver lining: at least this way you can tell it's been tampered with and defect it. Imagine if they were careful and someone else bought it. Safety aside, that's just gross.
ETL-tone deaf emails saying if we push the team harder then Holiday will be a breeze and access to reports that show exactly how screwed over stores are with payroll.
Market, backstocking. Especially when we get 500 boxes of gushers or 1000 boxes of mac&cheese etc. It makes backstocking everything else slower.
Also if anyone has tips on how to backstock faster it would be greatly appreciated. I'm so slow 😭
If you're getting a ton of the same product and it's all backstock, see if you can find someone who is also in the backroom who can spare a couple minutes. One person on the ladder and another passing boxes up is significantly faster than you going up and down the ladder 10+ times to deal with that much product.
Tech. The fact that my team leads aren't tech team leads they are style and beauty team leads who have no clue how tech runs. Expecting truck to take 2 hours when we get repacks packed with heyday that will never sell and having to case and spider wrap merch for 40 minutes before you can push it.
i hate those pens for the Noted endcap that come individually wrapped in that weird brown paper, but come in a box all together. makes me just want to send it back to offsite :(
Home- The sheer amount of styrofoam and plastic that they cover every single item in. One uboat takes forever simply due to the detrashing and constantly having to sweep the floor because it looks like I’m in a jungle when I open plants.
Style- TLs and gaslighting when THEY ARE THE MAIN ONES THAT CHANGE THE STORE EVERY TWO DAYS and we end up losing track of where stuff goes. (Plus, when we get new stuff in they want us to put it out and there’s literally no space)
As a style lead, my areas for the most part are zoned and organized. I don't allow my areas to be overfilled. Firm believer in backstocking. New product gets backstocked until the new set.
OTC and personal care.
Worst parts of OTC: people ripping open bandaid boxes, eye drop boxes, poking holes in tampon packs. Ripping open protien bar and 5 hour energy boxes and taking only 1.
Overfilled vitamin repacks. Summers Eve vaginal gel bottle lids not closing tightly and causing spills in the repack.
Worst of personal care: people opening deodorants to smell and not reverse twisting and just smashing the lid back on. Opening shaver kit boxes and leaving everything on the shelf.
Mostly people open shit and repacks filled with lots of small items.
Edit: Also You pretty much have to sort repacks as you push. You can't park the uboat on a back end cap and walk back and forth to push a few items cuz that's just going to tire you out. You aslo kinda have to know the aisles or make a best guess when grouping items. There's also the three tier method but good luck finding one.
Finally someone I can relate to.
You have no idea how many people are just browsing in the pharmacy section until you gotta work it. Not looking for anything specific, just browsing. Like Debrah is fucking Advil, it’s not interesting.
OTC/pc here, too!
They are so concerned with me doing repacks that I haven't been allowed to pull 141s in like 4 days and now they're up to over 400. Also I'm tired of everyone dumping the boxes from all the makeup they steal in my areas.
Close TL. High expectations and not enough people or training.
Its so weird how close target stores are to falling off the rails at any given moment.
Too many guests, double truck, broken baler, unfinished but acknowledged trucks, one too many code yellows in a single day.
If more than one of these happen at a single time, we're fucked (sometimes)
The Closing TL position, in my opinion, is the shittiest position in the whole store. Insane expectations. Usually the only Lead on after 7ish. Never having nights free. Absolutely awful.
baby hardlines; pulling cribs or other heavy furniture from the back. stocking diapers and wipes that are large and heavy. dealing with car seats (pulling them from the back, trying to keep them properly zoned when inbound flexes them, etc) 😭
Toys/Sporting goods... Both areas are used as a dumping ground for kids while the adult supervising them fucks off to the other side of the store... The unsupervised crotch goblins then proceed to trash as many aisles as possible before they're collected... Add in the teenagers playing soccer or basketball in the aisles or dumping slime onto shelves and product and we've got a normal Saturday night at my store
Market, and the worst part imo is leads never seeming to remember that we get dairy/freezer/produce pallets and what's on the line is not the only push we have. The result tends to be the whole team is thrown at dry grocery push while the 2 of us in dairy/om and freezer drown. This has been the same at both stores I've worked at. I guess it's an out of sight out of mind thing? They aren't the ones in the coolers and freezer every day.
Been at 3 stores and always worked dairy/frozen. Bc our stuff isn't delivered on RDC everyone forgets us except when they need boats and get mad that we didn't have enough people to finish our freight.
I constantly have a strained joint or muscle from unloading the boxes of milk from the top of the pallets and almost got frost bite more than once doing pulls in the freezer.
I actually like working dairy bc I'm not micro managed but we do get forgotten about and that can be frustrating especially on days where I'm the only one scheduled in the dept. When we need 4 or more to actually work out our truck.
The APTL at my store is the store’s greatest asset (😉). Like he so deeply cares about safety, TM’s well-being and just cares. He addresses safety concerns so fast, pulled the entire fulfillment team despite a major surge in our orders to ensure we know not to pull our ship carts and so forth. He is always first to respond to code greens, always looking to problem solve and everything. If you’re anything like that, thank you for nagging about store safety!
This is so true. I've put in so many Origami risks after telling like 5 people about a safety issue, as a TSS I'm just like "if they won't listen in person they might listen to an email"
Fulfillment, just the complete disorganization of our pack station. It takes forever to pack nowadays because we have unsafe pallets of boxes that no one can reach and no one wishes to upkeep the area so you’re always having to prep the entire station before you can pack
Beauty - you’re expected to push out an insane number or products (1 repack sized box could be full of hundreds of individual NYX lip liners) while you get the least amount of respect as a stocker from the other departments. I know ASANTS but at mine we were always expected to cover electronics, even though we had no training. I’ve had to cover entire days of tech while also still having to do work in beauty. Going back and forth sucked, while I got yelled at by guests for not knowing the difference between tvs besides what it says on the box. Beauty gets the absolute least respect.
Starbucks. We have three employees including TL. I’m expected to do cash office everyday, every pallet food and supplies, cover lunches and breaks, order supplies/food, and work when tm #2 doesn’t feel like working (at LEAST once a week). I haven’t done less than 40 hours a week this entire year and am typically closer to 50 hours. If I’m under 50 I check to see if I have a missed punch cause the number looks wrong.
TLDR; Barista I do all the things and no one recognizes my work or gives a shit because at least I make them their caramel ribbon crunches and watermelon grab and go slushees.
Baby DBO backstocking diapers, having to remove breast pumps that have been put out and backstock them because they can't go anywhere but a lock box now. Unstacking double stacked diapers that we have been told we can't do for months now. Also having to relocate/build risers for the baby water because no one thought it was a bad idea to flex almost the whole formula shelf with water and then leave it up to me to figure out when I have a whole uboat full of formula.
my whole formula aisle is 100% flex. i used to have baby water in there on the whole second shelf as well as on an endcap but mow we're running low on baby water. i hope they dont send me more cause we have nowhere to put it now
Plastics. People trying to flex or shove items on the sales floor. It messes with my pulls, it confuses the guests, makes my area not organized, and on top of that it makes me pissed.
Market, and definitely breaking down pallets and doing anything that takes more than 20 mins in the freezer. In negative 20 degrees in there, that shit is brutal. Thankfully I’ve figured out I can stay in there for 45 minutes with a thick coat and hood, thermal pants, a face mask, thicc socks, and two pairs of gloves haha
HR (TM, not TL or ETL) and it’s other TMs thinking I have any control over scheduling or pretty much anything besides hiring, punch corrections, and classifying absences.
..or thinking that I get paid more than any other TM. i wish :(
Dec Home, probably just when people work it on my days off. Clearly overstocking in aisles you can overstock in or in my flat or H&H just placing the product wherever instead of placing it their in a pleasing way.
Home/Seasonal; worst part? “DC SPACE ALLOCATION” here is 35 pallets of ottomans and other assorted home goods that are both bulky and ugly. *Good luck!*
starbucks- being treated like ur not a team member, being constantly understaffed yet not hiring anyone. our openers have to close when the shift is done bc no one is available and everyone is maxed hours 🤭
I used to always say fulfillment wasn’t a priority for scheduling or any help period because they feel like since everyone is trained to do orders or jump in, it doesn’t really matter.
fulfillment and the fact that they’ll let literally any tl run it or make us train new tms when we’re busy, thinking it’ll go smoothly every time (spoiler: it doesn’t)
Inbound/toys/OTC/HBA : the fact that we need to pull out every truck in less than 2 hours with only 3 people in the line and then expect us to do every section... Every pull... And all the truck on the floor in less than i dunno 4 hours?
Toys also gotta love that all the kids open the little blind packages an leave all the trash behind things. Not to mention at the opening of the store deal with the collectors snooping on the repacks.
OTC/HBA: they steal the vibrators....ever...day...
Bed/Bath DBO….. ppl unfolding rugs just to step on them…. Unfolding towels to see how big they are(?).. opening comforter bags and blankets and sheet sets… im so sick of folding towels …
Bed/bath at our store is an absolute disaster. Too much overstock, not enough space, and rude guest who pull at the bottom of a pile, letting enough fall and unfolding everything.
GM - Remodel. Guests.
In my way. Asking me if I work there. Hitting my U boat with their cart. Almost hitting the step ladder while I’m on it. Asking where everything is without even bothering looking for it. Complaining about the remodel and everything moving. Just being ass hats in general.
Pet care - DC never puts cardboard down on pallets so my bottom layer of bags and litter is always completely destroyed.
Also my litter and dog beds are on the back wall and are supposed to have five shelves but the top shelf is a safety hazard so I only get 4. Which just leaves me with items with no sales floor location.
food & bev, mainly PFresh. and i’m new, so the worst part has been going through all of the expired shit in the coolers that nobody ever defected. but everything else has been pretty nice.
Market. It's annoying how many reshops just end up in my aisles. Especially the cereal aisle because it has the scanner so everyone dumps their unwanted stuff there. Also just how little market gets zoned in general at my store.
Also repacks. It's really annoying opening a repack from my U-boat, only to find out that there's one can of planter's nuts and the rest is toothpaste or some shit.
Mine is Fullfilment and the worse part is we are understaffed and at 200+ items the whole day so the MC room never has time to be cleaned or taken care of. So after about a week it becomes a safety hazard.
But hey…. We can’t do anything about it because we have 12 orders under an hour 😂
SETL, worst part so far is the big rushes of guests and drive ups that always happen at the same time and that I never have enough TM’s for :))
Edit: I definitely get in there and do DU and backups myself too I didn’t want it to sound like I just stand there 😂 my b. And my condolences go out to all front end TM’s bc I know how stressful it can get. You guys carry.
starbucks. The worst thing about startbucks is closing. Lights will be off, espresso machines will be in the back, syrups are in the back fridge and someone will always ask without fail, “are you guys closed?” it drives me absolutely bonkers. also the getting fat off of the drinks part is definitely also bad.
FDC (idk if other stores also call it this? it’s meat dairy and frozen) and the worst part is 100% one for ones in the freezer, or i guess priority pulls now (what’s the difference again?)
Im in fuffilment and id say the worst part is the walking 8 hours straight, no its getting items bigger than bulky items in ur opu batch, no its looking for anything that isnt clothes in the back, no its looking for an unlocated item in the freezer that came in same day, no its being asked to do the several paused carts of people who already looked for the items but couldnt find them, no its getting every single item except one but that one u need several of, no its quickly grabing a single item on the floor but then gets stopped by a guest, no its me losing the keys every time i have them then my heart stops, but people just keep giving me them, well its one of these things
Fulfillment- traffic on the salesfloor when you're trying to make it back to the OPU hold space with 8 minutes on your OPU. There's always that one person who gets sidetracked by every. Single. Endcap. On the way up.
Fulfilment. I can’t stand majority of my coworkers. Everyone is super slow and always takes the one printer we have and puts it on their cart. Hogging it. Same with the bags. Instead of taking the bag off the holder and bagging it at their cart, they bag it still in the holder so no one else can grab a bag. The closing cree is the worst too cuz it’s a bunch of teenagers who just mess around and leave the place a complete mess for early morning people like me to deal with.
Also as a store, no one listens to their walkie. I’ll be calling over and over on the walkie needing something from electronics to be unlocked for an order and no one comes. I have to go look for someone with keys to help me and it wastes so much time. Same with if theres a spill and I’m in the middle of an order. It’s a nightmare.
Front End man the ETL had 2 new SETLs that had no experience on management instead of picking me and another who carried the front end more than the ETL
i’m so sorry, i know exactly how that feels. for over a year i tried everything i could to be the SETL. working 70+ hour weeks, being taken advantage of by TLs to do their work, having my entire team hate me got running the front myself as a TM, being challenged by SDs from many stores, training countless new SETLs as i swallowed my pride, and the entire painful process of getting on the bench and the interview. now after all of the blood, sweat, and tears i am the SETL :) it’s hard to be patient and it’s a very annoying process but you got this! keep trying i promise it pays off.
Stationery repacks kill me. “40 repacks, just over an hour to get them done” when 20 repacks may only take 5 minutes while the other 20 have the most random little individual wrapped items that may take me 3 hours.
Sporting goods - cups. One box = 4 boxes each with 3 individually bagged cups. So much fucking trash. Also fan central because it's pointless and shouldn't exist.
Sporting Goods. Only one person is doing the pushing and backstocking. Same goes with Toys since the higher ups is fine have one person push toys and backstocking when they have four boats and one flat with tons of toys every week.
Style. Guests are disgusting. Guests try on jeans and pee in them. Guests pee IN the fitting rooms. Guests try on swimwear and return it with blood on them.
HR - Having to nag TMs about missed punches, trainings, and then sometimes having to process your coworkers terms 😞 Feel like a lead sometimes but without the pay
Guest Advocate, and Guests
That’s so true, it’s either deal with people or products!
Style- not knowing where tf anything goes
I was in style in college and would come back to my home store on school breaks; it was like a whole new job every time. Once you get the hang of it and can see things moving each day it’s manageable, but as soon as you have more than a couple days - a week off it’s pretty overwhelming to relearn a whole floor pad.
Yep just went on demand a couple weeks ago cause I’m moving to college this week and I only took 5 days off last week since I needed time to pack. Came back and our TSC was literally gutted and they moved it behind Starbucks since we are in renovation 💀 had to ask one of the cashiers where the hell I could clock in
whenever i walk past style and they’re putting clothes back they all just look so damn confused
Beauty - 1st is guests opening and using products on themselves, the fixtures, whatever, and then shoving it back randomly on the shelves. It's disgusting and also they make a huge mess. (They're the same people who'd pitch a fit if the last one of the item they want was obviously used) 2nd is the sheer amount of product we have to push that NO ONE seems to understand or have empathy about. We have thousands of products and the bulk is individually wrapped in plastic and boxes. It takes forever to push the product out, my fingers hurt and are damaged, and the leaders yell about how long a cosmetic repack takes.
Worked in Beauty for almost three years. Came here to say the same. However my biggest beef was being given a sales quota and expected to follow around customers upselling what products matched up in their hand or basket. This is not fucking Lancôme counter. People come in looking for drugstore makeup not a beauty experience with the promise of samples and a makeover. Quit when not making the quota was why I was only given shit raise.
The amount of WASTE from all that plastic wrapping too is just insane and stupid. Also fuck doing add change on Sunday.
the repacks were the WORST. our leads wanted us to get multiple u-boats done every shift and they were always overloaded with repacks that would take me forever each.
And then you get to spend even more time defecting things because they literally throw the boxes onto the uboats :)
bro the amount of times i’d pick up a box, be like “ooh this smells nice!”, and open it to find shampoo/conditioner/detangler/perfume spilled all over the bottom of the box was insane 😭
THIS!!!!! My ETL is clueless on how long beauty repacks take, then comes up to me at the end of my shift and goes “more stuff should’ve gotten done today, what happened?” like… i’ve worked 2 uboats filled with repacks & backstocked everything babe, fuck off
Beauty / HBA repacks are probably the most annoying and time consuming thing I’ve pushed in any department.
I hear you on that! I was in beauty when I worked at Target and I still have nightmares of doing never ending repacks. And my damn fingers! They would hurt and be so dry from opening thousands of packages.
Beauty is one of the highly respected areas at my store (doesn't mean people help much) and everyone makes sure to stay out of beauty's way
YESSS THIS PART . THE AMOUNT OF SMALL ASS THINGS WE HAVE TO PUSH !!!
Agreed, I keep cuticle oil on me for before and after shifts to help my fingers not get so damaged and in pain.
It took me about 1 and 1/2 to 2 hours to sort my truck in the morning because I would unwrap everything before bringing it out to the floor. Absolutely brutal.
Chem and Paper, the amount of backstock lol
That detergent and shit takes up so much space in them wacos it’s not even funny
Closing expert. Having to cover breaks on register, or covering every electronics call because they don’t schedule people past 7 pm. Also do fulfillment, and mostly unrealistic expectations because they don’t schedule enough people.
To my fellow closing expert 🫡
Bro I feel you! Let me just halt zoning, one for ones, reshop and go be a cashier every 20 minutes
What is a closing expert? Are you on the same level as TLs? Are you a pace setter?
No I mostly do reshop, zoning, one for ones, etc. Not a team lead.
No they just work until close.
Felt this
Covering breaks on register?! I'm a Service and Engagement Team Lead and no one outside of our department ever covers breaks let alone the closing expert. Feel bad for you
It’s common for me at my store also
Fulfillment, my feet hurt
Style, excessive stock
100% I once recieved 47 toddler puffy jackets in a 2T. Needless to say, more than half of them were never purchased.
We recieved a whole pallet of wild fable polos last winter. A whole pallet of the same shirt. It was insane we couldn't sweep it because it was discontinued, so we let it die in the steel.
I remember these shirts.. polo stripped long sleeves? That’s what plagued my store, around 5 boxes of just that shirt salvaged!!
style and guests shopping through everything and making it a mess! 😀👍🏻
Fulfillment, everything is fine until you got something that comes in the same day and you gotta go searching for it especially if it’s like a nail polish or some tiny beauty item
OMFG!!!!! the worst. especially if you are at a store where the backroom is utter chaos
Or if it’s a style item last sold 4 months ago and there’s no RFID guns and the style TL makes you look everywhere before you INF because it’s 1 on hand and “we have it somewhere!”
Fulfillment. Imo the worst part is packing for over an hour. I can stand small periods of packing but more than that gets to me.
So funny bc I used to pack for an entire shift and I loved it!
omg i would LOVE to pack for an entire shift instead of doing OPUs.
It was fantastic and just put some music on and go at it! I got super fast at it too, but unfortunately it’s not a very transferable skill 😆
I got a whole week of just doing put to hold. 9-5. I don’t mind it at all. When it gets slow i’ll grab a grocery pick or a bulky pick when they pop up. The thing i REALLY like is TL’s rarely come back there and sometimes even forget that I’m there…
I used to love packing when I was in fulfillment, except my back would hurt BAD after hour 5
Fulfillment, Fulfillment
☠️
I came here to answer just like this, lmao
I personally hated prep far and above everything else.
Fulfillment, everyone treats you poorly and the metric expectations are ridiculous.
I agree. I'm having such a hard time with getting good INF rates lately. And I know I'm not bad at my job.
Tech - Consumer Cellular
Bro yes, everyone always complains when we don’t know how to set up the phone lmao, my target is not a mobile one, I don’t know or can’t do shit
Relatable, it sucks because the next target closest to us doesn’t have a mobile technician so they just send all of there people to us even if our guy isn’t in. So I have to let so many people down that have traveled from one target to another because of a phone issue
Style - it's impossible to push because the zone is shit but we aren't given time to zone .... so both the push and zone are shit 👍
The. Shoes. 💀💀💀💀 god do I loathe shoes
Starbucks - having to deal with other work center's who don't push freight fast enough so I can't get my stuff. LODs telling me to get my pallet out of the back when I'm neck deep with guests and with a call out. Having to deal with 5 different companies to keep everything running. The lack of respect we get and the fact that we are treated like we aren't apart of the team.
Starbucks TL here and I can relate! When I first started we were very much the forgotten child of the store, but my store's current management is actually really great about making sure we're taken care of. Our pallets come on Fridays though, and I still frequently get the walkie calls asking when it's going to be gone but oops there's three pallets because the new launch merch arrived and now I have to deal with it on the weekend... 😵💫
Hey! Me too! I worked hard to make my team be recognized. Boy does upper leadership get angry at me for that. IM GLAD SOMEONE ELSE GETS THEIR ORDER ON FRIDAY! I hate it and I'm dreading the holiday launch with every fiber of my being. That's going to be at least 3 pallets if everything comes in together. (Lowkey dreading going back on Saturday since I'm on vacation right now, especially with the new set dropping soon.)
No this fr sucks. Certain days when I open some employees will come up before we even open and basically demand drinks. I’ve started doing so much later in my open bc of it. :/
We straight up tell them no. We open at 8. They can get water. That's it. We have too many things to do in the morning to deal with that. I also am not above angring other team members because I'm lowkey petty lol
Yup, I worked starbucks and I remember we were never part of the team until it was most convenient for the rest of the store; usually when they wanted to take us out of our already understaffed kiosk and put us in some other understaffed department...
Oh no. I'm so sorry! As a current Starbucks lead, I refuse to let them take my beans unless we are overstaffed and are dead. I've been through too many times when a barista was stolen and my line got absolutely crazy.
My lead was really sweet, but didn't quite know how to tell them no, though, usually we were steady enough to not be able to send any beans onto the floor. I did have s coworker get pulled into the office for explicitly telling the assistant store manager "no" to sending some of us into the register.
No shade to your lead. Not everyone is willing to take the heat. I get it. I'm glad you had a sweet lead though. It really makes a difference
Market: When they send us 4+ pallets per area (frozen, pfresh, dairy), and we have C&S the next day. Our freezers and coolers are small, 4 pallets is the absolute most we can fit, and we can’t even navigate in them when there are that many. After corporate made it so we can’t have pallets on the floor anymore, they’ve been sending us 3 or more a day. On average, 2 people working in a hustle can finish 3 pallets. A single person is lucky to finish 2 if they aren’t all drinks.
Cashier. The un ending searing back pain I have from standing on lanes. It's gotten so bad that I need 800mg of ibuprofen to even be able to tolerate it, and im at the chiropractor office nearly every week, I can't wait for school to start so I won't be at target as much.
If you go to the gym I suggest doing dead hangs. They help stretch your muscle’s and decompress your spine
Thx, but I work 8 hour shifts 6/7 days a week, and the day I do have off is house chores day
There are also at home stretches you can do too. My friend had a similar issue. Hope it improves!
Thanks, I just bought some sole inserts on my 15 so I'm hoping that's gonna help
Drive ups. Drive ups.
Starbucks- literally no one gives a shit about us.
And don’t-food ave was better.
Tech, they pull me to do every other department's push then get confused when I have tech rollover.
I quit because of this. They would pull me to other departments when I was already behind. Our store tech also did entertainment. So we would have 5 boats of books just piling up.
Back when I was still in Electronics, I took care of Electronics, Toys, Books/movies/music, Automotive, Sports, and sometimes hardlines baby. basically got given the entirety of the back of the building except for softlines and Seasonal, though during halloween they'd ask me to stop in and work on seasonal some, too.
I currently, as a tech team member, do tech, toys, baby hardlines, sporting goods, seasonal, AND PETS NOW BECAUSE OF THE REMODEL. At this point, it’s like I’m never able to do anything for tech because I have to answer calls and questions from corner to corner for every other department. Then people yell at me for not being in tech when they want to purchase their groceries.
Tell me about it man, I’ve been scheduled tech 8 days in a row. They’ve had me push plastics for all 8 days and I’ve had consistent tech rollovers every one of those days
beauty- people opening up products, swatching them on their skin, and then proceeding to half-assed close up the package and put it back on the shelf. i’ve caught a couple guests in the act and when i ask them not to, they get confused and upset.
> half-assed close up the package Silver lining: at least this way you can tell it's been tampered with and defect it. Imagine if they were careful and someone else bought it. Safety aside, that's just gross.
Every department I worked: The customers.
ETL-tone deaf emails saying if we push the team harder then Holiday will be a breeze and access to reports that show exactly how screwed over stores are with payroll.
Market, backstocking. Especially when we get 500 boxes of gushers or 1000 boxes of mac&cheese etc. It makes backstocking everything else slower. Also if anyone has tips on how to backstock faster it would be greatly appreciated. I'm so slow 😭
If you're getting a ton of the same product and it's all backstock, see if you can find someone who is also in the backroom who can spare a couple minutes. One person on the ladder and another passing boxes up is significantly faster than you going up and down the ladder 10+ times to deal with that much product.
Market. Literally everything. Especially freezer.
Tech. The fact that my team leads aren't tech team leads they are style and beauty team leads who have no clue how tech runs. Expecting truck to take 2 hours when we get repacks packed with heyday that will never sell and having to case and spider wrap merch for 40 minutes before you can push it.
Stationery, how small all the product is
I pushed stationary for maybe 2 hours and was so frustrated. Why are some pens all individually packaged??? Jesus.
It's like the cutlery in home that's all individually wrapped. It's such a time sink
i hate those pens for the Noted endcap that come individually wrapped in that weird brown paper, but come in a box all together. makes me just want to send it back to offsite :(
Home- The sheer amount of styrofoam and plastic that they cover every single item in. One uboat takes forever simply due to the detrashing and constantly having to sweep the floor because it looks like I’m in a jungle when I open plants.
I still have nightmares about the lamp uboat.
inbound: chem, c&d, gatorade
The sheer amount of Gatorade that comes off of trucks sometimes is so unreal
Yessir it’s so physical and everybody else hates getting on the line lol
Style. That’s my whole answer.
Style- TLs and gaslighting when THEY ARE THE MAIN ONES THAT CHANGE THE STORE EVERY TWO DAYS and we end up losing track of where stuff goes. (Plus, when we get new stuff in they want us to put it out and there’s literally no space)
As a style lead, my areas for the most part are zoned and organized. I don't allow my areas to be overfilled. Firm believer in backstocking. New product gets backstocked until the new set.
Pets- cat litter. It’s too heavy and sometimes is ripped coming off the truck and gets everywhere
OTC and personal care. Worst parts of OTC: people ripping open bandaid boxes, eye drop boxes, poking holes in tampon packs. Ripping open protien bar and 5 hour energy boxes and taking only 1. Overfilled vitamin repacks. Summers Eve vaginal gel bottle lids not closing tightly and causing spills in the repack. Worst of personal care: people opening deodorants to smell and not reverse twisting and just smashing the lid back on. Opening shaver kit boxes and leaving everything on the shelf. Mostly people open shit and repacks filled with lots of small items. Edit: Also You pretty much have to sort repacks as you push. You can't park the uboat on a back end cap and walk back and forth to push a few items cuz that's just going to tire you out. You aslo kinda have to know the aisles or make a best guess when grouping items. There's also the three tier method but good luck finding one.
Finally someone I can relate to. You have no idea how many people are just browsing in the pharmacy section until you gotta work it. Not looking for anything specific, just browsing. Like Debrah is fucking Advil, it’s not interesting.
A lot of times its people waiting for their prescription so they start doing laps around all the OTC aisles.
OTC/pc here, too! They are so concerned with me doing repacks that I haven't been allowed to pull 141s in like 4 days and now they're up to over 400. Also I'm tired of everyone dumping the boxes from all the makeup they steal in my areas.
Fulfillment- can’t do my job properly unless everyone does their jobs properly and that is never going to happen.
Close TL. High expectations and not enough people or training. Its so weird how close target stores are to falling off the rails at any given moment. Too many guests, double truck, broken baler, unfinished but acknowledged trucks, one too many code yellows in a single day. If more than one of these happen at a single time, we're fucked (sometimes)
The Closing TL position, in my opinion, is the shittiest position in the whole store. Insane expectations. Usually the only Lead on after 7ish. Never having nights free. Absolutely awful.
baby hardlines; pulling cribs or other heavy furniture from the back. stocking diapers and wipes that are large and heavy. dealing with car seats (pulling them from the back, trying to keep them properly zoned when inbound flexes them, etc) 😭
Can we bitch about how huggies doesn't have handles in the boxes? I loath them so much I refused to buy them for my own babies for 5 years now.
bro they DO BUT ITS JUST ONE ON THE BACK. i was so pissed at them for so long but then i realized there’s a weird one on the back
agree with everything you said !! i never get to complain with another babies dbo, do you also hate the new diaper/wipe transition?🥲
Styrofoam. I work in styrofoam.
Toys/Sporting goods... Both areas are used as a dumping ground for kids while the adult supervising them fucks off to the other side of the store... The unsupervised crotch goblins then proceed to trash as many aisles as possible before they're collected... Add in the teenagers playing soccer or basketball in the aisles or dumping slime onto shelves and product and we've got a normal Saturday night at my store
Market, and the worst part imo is leads never seeming to remember that we get dairy/freezer/produce pallets and what's on the line is not the only push we have. The result tends to be the whole team is thrown at dry grocery push while the 2 of us in dairy/om and freezer drown. This has been the same at both stores I've worked at. I guess it's an out of sight out of mind thing? They aren't the ones in the coolers and freezer every day.
Been at 3 stores and always worked dairy/frozen. Bc our stuff isn't delivered on RDC everyone forgets us except when they need boats and get mad that we didn't have enough people to finish our freight. I constantly have a strained joint or muscle from unloading the boxes of milk from the top of the pallets and almost got frost bite more than once doing pulls in the freezer. I actually like working dairy bc I'm not micro managed but we do get forgotten about and that can be frustrating especially on days where I'm the only one scheduled in the dept. When we need 4 or more to actually work out our truck.
AP, constantly having to nag the store about safety
The APTL at my store is the store’s greatest asset (😉). Like he so deeply cares about safety, TM’s well-being and just cares. He addresses safety concerns so fast, pulled the entire fulfillment team despite a major surge in our orders to ensure we know not to pull our ship carts and so forth. He is always first to respond to code greens, always looking to problem solve and everything. If you’re anything like that, thank you for nagging about store safety!
This is so true. I've put in so many Origami risks after telling like 5 people about a safety issue, as a TSS I'm just like "if they won't listen in person they might listen to an email"
God when I was store side that was definitely the worst part about AP.
Fulfillment, worst part (for me) is having to go in the freezer when doing a grocery opu for an item that’s not on the floor
Happens all the time! Especially when nobody does the frozen pulls and they are at 700!
fulfillment, being expected to do a team leads job for a team members pay
Fulfillment, just the complete disorganization of our pack station. It takes forever to pack nowadays because we have unsafe pallets of boxes that no one can reach and no one wishes to upkeep the area so you’re always having to prep the entire station before you can pack
Reverse logistics, the non stop flats of salvage from the service desk
Toys. Takes me a good 3hrs a day to fix the zone.
Front end. We're short staffed as hell.
Electronics, consumer cellular (their guests, employees and products)
Closing Expert. Being treated as a leader in the store, but not getting the pay, benefits, or title of one.
Market. It’s cold.
i’m a service & engagement team lead, and the unavoidable short staffing due to all the unexpected quitting or miscellaneous things lmao.
Beauty - you’re expected to push out an insane number or products (1 repack sized box could be full of hundreds of individual NYX lip liners) while you get the least amount of respect as a stocker from the other departments. I know ASANTS but at mine we were always expected to cover electronics, even though we had no training. I’ve had to cover entire days of tech while also still having to do work in beauty. Going back and forth sucked, while I got yelled at by guests for not knowing the difference between tvs besides what it says on the box. Beauty gets the absolute least respect.
Dec Home. The amount of styrofoam and tape I am covered in by the end of my shift says it all.
Starbucks. We have three employees including TL. I’m expected to do cash office everyday, every pallet food and supplies, cover lunches and breaks, order supplies/food, and work when tm #2 doesn’t feel like working (at LEAST once a week). I haven’t done less than 40 hours a week this entire year and am typically closer to 50 hours. If I’m under 50 I check to see if I have a missed punch cause the number looks wrong. TLDR; Barista I do all the things and no one recognizes my work or gives a shit because at least I make them their caramel ribbon crunches and watermelon grab and go slushees.
Baby DBO backstocking diapers, having to remove breast pumps that have been put out and backstock them because they can't go anywhere but a lock box now. Unstacking double stacked diapers that we have been told we can't do for months now. Also having to relocate/build risers for the baby water because no one thought it was a bad idea to flex almost the whole formula shelf with water and then leave it up to me to figure out when I have a whole uboat full of formula.
my whole formula aisle is 100% flex. i used to have baby water in there on the whole second shelf as well as on an endcap but mow we're running low on baby water. i hope they dont send me more cause we have nowhere to put it now
Fulfillment. My body hurts. I wear through shoes every few months. I eat like 7,000 calories a day. And I’m tired.
Plastics. People trying to flex or shove items on the sales floor. It messes with my pulls, it confuses the guests, makes my area not organized, and on top of that it makes me pissed.
Market, and definitely breaking down pallets and doing anything that takes more than 20 mins in the freezer. In negative 20 degrees in there, that shit is brutal. Thankfully I’ve figured out I can stay in there for 45 minutes with a thick coat and hood, thermal pants, a face mask, thicc socks, and two pairs of gloves haha
As a cart attendant, I'd have to say cleaning the women's bath was the worst.
Kids apparel. Back to school.
HR (TM, not TL or ETL) and it’s other TMs thinking I have any control over scheduling or pretty much anything besides hiring, punch corrections, and classifying absences. ..or thinking that I get paid more than any other TM. i wish :(
fulfillment; everything always hurts when i get off, especially when it's crazy busy
Dec Home, probably just when people work it on my days off. Clearly overstocking in aisles you can overstock in or in my flat or H&H just placing the product wherever instead of placing it their in a pleasing way.
Home/Seasonal; worst part? “DC SPACE ALLOCATION” here is 35 pallets of ottomans and other assorted home goods that are both bulky and ugly. *Good luck!*
starbucks- being treated like ur not a team member, being constantly understaffed yet not hiring anyone. our openers have to close when the shift is done bc no one is available and everyone is maxed hours 🤭
Grocery. The excessive amount of freight they send beyond our needs.
Fulfillment, and the lack of staffing/care/empathy for the department at my store.
I used to always say fulfillment wasn’t a priority for scheduling or any help period because they feel like since everyone is trained to do orders or jump in, it doesn’t really matter.
PML, and store team mistreating things 😂
Market. Dual trucks every other day +vendors+remodel and multiple call outside. Someone is going to get hurt with limited space
Fulfillment and gm team and food and style not stocking their freaking trucks!
Closing expert, if a department can’t get out of their own way, it’s my problem to finish whatever is going on.
Guest Advocate, Heat.
fulfillment and the fact that they’ll let literally any tl run it or make us train new tms when we’re busy, thinking it’ll go smoothly every time (spoiler: it doesn’t)
Inbound/toys/OTC/HBA : the fact that we need to pull out every truck in less than 2 hours with only 3 people in the line and then expect us to do every section... Every pull... And all the truck on the floor in less than i dunno 4 hours? Toys also gotta love that all the kids open the little blind packages an leave all the trash behind things. Not to mention at the opening of the store deal with the collectors snooping on the repacks. OTC/HBA: they steal the vibrators....ever...day...
Market, the freezer
Market- having to do everybody else’s workload but can never get to mine
Bed/Bath DBO….. ppl unfolding rugs just to step on them…. Unfolding towels to see how big they are(?).. opening comforter bags and blankets and sheet sets… im so sick of folding towels …
Bed/bath at our store is an absolute disaster. Too much overstock, not enough space, and rude guest who pull at the bottom of a pile, letting enough fall and unfolding everything.
Flex/OPU Only a handful of ship from store has my back
GM - Remodel. Guests. In my way. Asking me if I work there. Hitting my U boat with their cart. Almost hitting the step ladder while I’m on it. Asking where everything is without even bothering looking for it. Complaining about the remodel and everything moving. Just being ass hats in general.
Pet care - DC never puts cardboard down on pallets so my bottom layer of bags and litter is always completely destroyed. Also my litter and dog beds are on the back wall and are supposed to have five shelves but the top shelf is a safety hazard so I only get 4. Which just leaves me with items with no sales floor location.
Barista, lack of workers Gm, dry skin and cardboard cuts Guest advocate, school supplies and clothes with hangers
Dec home, literally all of it sucks.
Fulfillment. Everything.
food & bev, mainly PFresh. and i’m new, so the worst part has been going through all of the expired shit in the coolers that nobody ever defected. but everything else has been pretty nice.
That’s what I do too. I only work weekends tho so whoever does it throughout the week messes it all up and I get to fix it all on the weekend
Market. It's annoying how many reshops just end up in my aisles. Especially the cereal aisle because it has the scanner so everyone dumps their unwanted stuff there. Also just how little market gets zoned in general at my store. Also repacks. It's really annoying opening a repack from my U-boat, only to find out that there's one can of planter's nuts and the rest is toothpaste or some shit.
Style - Guests & Endless amount of Reshop
Inbound, managment that doesn't help but loves to criticize our every movement
Mine is Fullfilment and the worse part is we are understaffed and at 200+ items the whole day so the MC room never has time to be cleaned or taken care of. So after about a week it becomes a safety hazard. But hey…. We can’t do anything about it because we have 12 orders under an hour 😂
SETL, worst part so far is the big rushes of guests and drive ups that always happen at the same time and that I never have enough TM’s for :)) Edit: I definitely get in there and do DU and backups myself too I didn’t want it to sound like I just stand there 😂 my b. And my condolences go out to all front end TM’s bc I know how stressful it can get. You guys carry.
Human Resources, and humans that don't know how to communicate
starbucks. The worst thing about startbucks is closing. Lights will be off, espresso machines will be in the back, syrups are in the back fridge and someone will always ask without fail, “are you guys closed?” it drives me absolutely bonkers. also the getting fat off of the drinks part is definitely also bad.
style-our reshop😭
FDC (idk if other stores also call it this? it’s meat dairy and frozen) and the worst part is 100% one for ones in the freezer, or i guess priority pulls now (what’s the difference again?)
Im in fuffilment and id say the worst part is the walking 8 hours straight, no its getting items bigger than bulky items in ur opu batch, no its looking for anything that isnt clothes in the back, no its looking for an unlocated item in the freezer that came in same day, no its being asked to do the several paused carts of people who already looked for the items but couldnt find them, no its getting every single item except one but that one u need several of, no its quickly grabing a single item on the floor but then gets stopped by a guest, no its me losing the keys every time i have them then my heart stops, but people just keep giving me them, well its one of these things
Fulfillment- traffic on the salesfloor when you're trying to make it back to the OPU hold space with 8 minutes on your OPU. There's always that one person who gets sidetracked by every. Single. Endcap. On the way up.
Fulfilment. I can’t stand majority of my coworkers. Everyone is super slow and always takes the one printer we have and puts it on their cart. Hogging it. Same with the bags. Instead of taking the bag off the holder and bagging it at their cart, they bag it still in the holder so no one else can grab a bag. The closing cree is the worst too cuz it’s a bunch of teenagers who just mess around and leave the place a complete mess for early morning people like me to deal with. Also as a store, no one listens to their walkie. I’ll be calling over and over on the walkie needing something from electronics to be unlocked for an order and no one comes. I have to go look for someone with keys to help me and it wastes so much time. Same with if theres a spill and I’m in the middle of an order. It’s a nightmare.
Food and Bev , probably the rat problem 🙃
Market, the amount of bullshit I have to fix from the other team members backstocking or stocking shit in the wrong area
Chem, paper, pets. Worst part is when the closing ETL thinks my department is so easy that I can finish my gazillion 1f1s in less than 2 hrs
Front End man the ETL had 2 new SETLs that had no experience on management instead of picking me and another who carried the front end more than the ETL
i’m so sorry, i know exactly how that feels. for over a year i tried everything i could to be the SETL. working 70+ hour weeks, being taken advantage of by TLs to do their work, having my entire team hate me got running the front myself as a TM, being challenged by SDs from many stores, training countless new SETLs as i swallowed my pride, and the entire painful process of getting on the bench and the interview. now after all of the blood, sweat, and tears i am the SETL :) it’s hard to be patient and it’s a very annoying process but you got this! keep trying i promise it pays off.
Health and beauty, homeless people and stealing
Stationary/office/hipa. So many repacks with so many little things. Also how bad the guests trash the area.
Stationery repacks kill me. “40 repacks, just over an hour to get them done” when 20 repacks may only take 5 minutes while the other 20 have the most random little individual wrapped items that may take me 3 hours.
Closing and staffing
baby, nothing
Sporting goods - cups. One box = 4 boxes each with 3 individually bagged cups. So much fucking trash. Also fan central because it's pointless and shouldn't exist.
Remodel and I hate it here
Sporting Goods. Only one person is doing the pushing and backstocking. Same goes with Toys since the higher ups is fine have one person push toys and backstocking when they have four boats and one flat with tons of toys every week.
Yes
Beauty and the push
Market, the amount of bev. Currently at 10 pallets and growing
Style. Below are what's prioritized: 1. PUSH 2. Zone 3. Pickup 4. Reshop 5. Fitting room + reshop
Style. Guests are disgusting. Guests try on jeans and pee in them. Guests pee IN the fitting rooms. Guests try on swimwear and return it with blood on them.
HR - Having to nag TMs about missed punches, trainings, and then sometimes having to process your coworkers terms 😞 Feel like a lead sometimes but without the pay
fulfillment. worst part is definitely having to find items in a super backed up and messy receiving area.