MEGATHREAD 2018-2019 Store Modernization Megathread

[Rolling CAFS]

I understand that. I just don’t understand why there are so many negative people on this website. If you don’t like the changes then instead of waisting your time being negative and instilling these negative thoughts in these people’s heads either try your best to bring these people up or leave the company and find a new job, simple.

Not sure how long you've been with Target but some of us have seen our share of failed changes. When I started Target this modernization concept was how we did things with one difference...there still were flow and backroom teams. That was about 15 years ago and for the most part it shows payroll cuts but more work asked. Veterans can run circles around most ETL'S simply because we're invested and care. So I can do end to end plus more If an ETL or any leadership can't walk the walk then please don't talk the talk. Also listen to the team and understand their concerns, request, hesitation and "negativity". Take it in and help them understand, encourage them and don't be so quick to say don't waste time because you just may lose a keeper and keep a loser.

 

[Levi10589]

Not sure where to put this but do other stores have this obsession with making an aisle like in dry grocery look full by putting stuff in the wrong spot?

 

[TL bound]

Can anyone give me info on front end lead positions, I was just benched in prep for our store to start the modernization process, and was told the front is where they want me to be. But my store won’t have full info until after a DTL meeting on Tuesday.

 

[GreasyGary]

Does anyone have a clear answer about what is happening to backroom TL’s

Unfortunately, there's not a clear answer that I know of. It does seem that the role of backroom TL is being eliminated.

Most will probably transition to hardlines leads over a particular area of the sales floor (Toys/SG, Home/Beds/Bath, Stat/SmallApp, HBA/Chem/Pets, Beauty, and probably various combinations of those depending on store volume).

However, since Flow TLs were in that same boat, and PPTLs are about to be, several stores are over their TL headcount under the new system. Not enough areas to go around. If you're lucky, another store in your district may not be and you can transfer. If not, well, let's just say that I hope you're not one of the newest/weakest TLs in the store. But even that may not save you since some people see the logic in eliminating the TLs with eliminated teams rather than eliminating a weak TL that still has a team.

So yeah, sorry, no clear answer, but those are some of the scenarios currently playing out behind the scenes in my district.

 

[SitSpotSit]

Not sure where to put this but do other stores have this obsession with making an aisle like in dry grocery look full by putting stuff in the wrong spot?

If you mean flexing then yeah. Better to fill the holes then to have empty spaces. It's kind of a retail thing to not look like stock is low giving the impression of less choices. As long as it's labeled correctly and given a location it's cool.

 

[unknown]

If you mean flexing then yeah. Better to fill the holes then to have empty spaces. It's kind of a retail thing to not look like stock is low giving the impression of less choices. As long as it's labeled correctly and given a location it's cool.

I was watching some of the inbound team flex stuff in yesterday. No labels. I guess that doesn't matter anymore to have the correct price on anything. None of them have blank labels or even clearance tags to put in front of the wrong price. So, they were just pulling out the label strips. So ..... what happens if that area is just a revision and that particular label strip needed to stay? No one had an answer.

My issue is that, compared to years past, more transitions that would normally have been pogs are now large revisions. For example, kids basics. 10 new sets. 9 were 90% change or above revisions. Only 1 was what would normally be a standard revision.

It's a good idea to look full, but people want to know the price without having to walk items to the price check scanner.

 

[skrepo1977]

I’ve heard stories about when they restructured forever ago and we cut TLs. They sat everyone in a room and let the TLs decide.

If you are talking about what happened in the early nineties yes it was brutal.

 

[skrepo1977]

Save that money because when the $15 hr pay rolls out, you can kiss those hours bye bye. Not negative, just a voice of experience as I was a manager at Michaels when Brian Cornell was throwing the ax down there. As a leader we were given a script on how to play our employees. I’m still scraping the muck off my soul from all the deceit I threw upon my employees. I feel a need to repent now. Not mad at you for being so golly-gee willikers chipper, although it makes me gag a bit. It’s just YOUR negative attitude putting people down that you don’t even know by implying they are negative and lazy. Is it wrong to be concerned about their livelihood?

Any noted similarities between Target and Michael's that would reek of Cornell's doing that anybody working at Target could relate to. You said something about a script that you were to give to employees etc.

 

[Times Up]

It's a good idea to look full, but people want to know the price without having to walk items to the price check scanner.

They don't walk to a scanner...LOL. They just tell us a price from a nearby item or the price they feel like paying, and we at the front end "make it right" and change it to the price the guest tells us.

 

[skrepo1977]

As pretty much everyone has said, this is NOT the norm. Maybe your STL can get away with it, or is even will to try to, but this is going way over most of their heads. Cutting TMs to 4 hour shifts was rolled out years ago, and even at my store with its frequent HQ visits, we only implemented it for a short while before we couldn't run the store with the lack of TMs. We lost nearly ALL of our TMs that could work in the middle of the day. Now everyone either leaves by 3pm or starts at 5-6pm, leaving us just deserted during peak hours.

Now, we've been forced into it again, and even the rockstars are getting drastically cut, AND turned down for picking up shifts outside of their work centers or "ownerships" - for some reason that's unclear to all of us.
People we just told a couple months ago that we would make sure to give 30-40 hours to because of their availability and work ethic, are no working the same amount of days for half the hours (and pay.)
We have ONE left TM that will succeed with the new "DBO" process. ONE.
And we're not hiring because we're at "headcount" with all the leftover flex fulfill season TMs. The ones that FF didn't want...

And to all the "if you don't like it, quit" stuff? That's painfully elitist. There are all sorts of reasons some people cannot drop everything and immediately get new jobs. The strongest right now being, if they DO happen to be leadership or a full time employee, there's been a strong trend for employers to not offer health insurance for 6 months to a year, and there's a LOT of people who cannot go without that long, making them dependent on staying at a job that they hate. Hell, even Target is making people wait for benefits now; a lot of our new leadership was extremely unhappy when enrollment rolled around.

I knew people who stayed on at Target for just the healthcare even though their hours cratered to nothing. They waited until the following February renewal on average hours kicked them off of their insurance

 

[gsa4lyfe]

I was watching some of the inbound team flex stuff in yesterday. No labels. I guess that doesn't matter anymore to have the correct price on anything. None of them have blank labels or even clearance tags to put in front of the wrong price. So, they were just pulling out the label strips. So ..... what happens if that area is just a revision and that particular label strip needed to stay? No one had an answer.

My issue is that, compared to years past, more transitions that would normally have been pogs are now large revisions. For example, kids basics. 10 new sets. 9 were 90% change or above revisions. Only 1 was what would normally be a standard revision.

It's a good idea to look full, but people want to know the price without having to walk items to the price check scanner.

I had a 100% change revision last week.

 

[oath2order]

I was watching some of the inbound team flex stuff in yesterday. No labels. I guess that doesn't matter anymore to have the correct price on anything. None of them have blank labels or even clearance tags to put in front of the wrong price. So, they were just pulling out the label strips. So ..... what happens if that area is just a revision and that particular label strip needed to stay? No one had an answer.

My issue is that, compared to years past, more transitions that would normally have been pogs are now large revisions. For example, kids basics. 10 new sets. 9 were 90% change or above revisions. Only 1 was what would normally be a standard revision.

It's a good idea to look full, but people want to know the price without having to walk items to the price check scanner.

I have a vacuum revision next week that's 100% change

 

[scbman]

Not sure where to put this but do other stores have this obsession with making an aisle like in dry grocery look full by putting stuff in the wrong spot?

I had ETLs at my store like that. They wanted entire aisles flexed (active items not just discontinued/clearance), instead of just endcaps/sidecaps. Even if you showed them they were coming in on the truck tomorrow. "If DTL came in and saw outs they would be furious". No matter that they had been audited and we had replenishment coming

 

[Backroom81]

My STL had us doing that. It was beyond infuriating as most people never bothered to fix it when it came in; they would just flex it somewhere else or backstock it.

 

[band_rules16]

Soooo much. Started with the truck unloads being pushed from 3am to 7 with uboats all over the store during store hours, not being pushed because now unloaders/pushers are cashiers too.

I forgot the pushers being cashiers was going to be a thing. I kind of like it but I also hate it. So my U-boat question was legit. 🤣 One of our inbound TMs got register trained and she was pretty excited, but I still think it's going to be a mess.

I'm seriously hoping they don't cut any of the sales floor TLs at my store...I really like all of them, and they are all great workers.

 

[flow4areasonuno]

I forgot the pushers being cashiers was going to be a thing

When did this come up? This is the first I am hearing of it.

 

[Ashfromoldsite]

Can confirm this. I am one of these people. I was getting three days a way, but I tend to talk to my coworkers a lot about the ways in which this is not working. We aren't staffed well enough for it to work. And whaddya know? I was getting three days per week. Now I'm getting one.

This isn’t modernization related. Anyone in any corporation that talks negative about a work process can/will be cut back or eliminated.
Champion change.

 

[Vince]

I’m going to be straight up honest. After reading nearly this entire thread, it seems like this company is trying to fail...

 

[Planosss]

So if they use the pay wage increase to justify more work how does that work for someone like me that earned all their raises to get them to $15 that is not affected by these pay increases pretty much everyone else gets? 🤷🏾‍♀️. It doesn't. I laughed at my Etl HR two years ago when she told me I would be getting $15 by 2020 and Target would expect more from me. I told her I would be there on my own before then.

So you don’t want to do more? And adjust to the changing retail landscape?

 

[Planosss]

I’m going to be straight up honest. After reading nearly this entire thread, it seems like this company is trying to fail...

The company is trying to survive. Its using tactics that will give it an edge in the ever disappearing brick and mortar retail business. Most of the naysayers on this thread are OGs they are used to doing things a certain way.
Now, lets take a new hire who hasn’t worked for Target. The new hire is more likely to make an effort to meet company’s expectations.
“Can't Teach An Old Dog New Tricks”
There is reason why this phrase exists, it has for a long time, and it puts some of the naysayers in perspective.

 

[unknown]

The company is trying to survive. Its using tactics that will give it an edge in the ever disappearing brick and mortar retail business. Most of the naysayers on this thread are OGs they are used to doing things a certain way.
Now, lets take a new hire who hasn’t worked for Target. The new hire is more likely to make an effort to meet company’s expectations.
“Can't Teach An Old Dog New Tricks”
There is reason why this phrase exists, it has for a long time, and it puts some of the naysayers in perspective.

The company is surviving despite these changes. How is it better to have pallets blocking the whole wall of water/frozen food until after 2pm?

It's HOPING these tactics will give it an edge.

Most of the naysayers are realistic and have seen the company make huge investments and fail by pumping too much hope into ideas company wide before they are FULLY tested and proven in a smaller test.

Canada anyone? I suppose all that was a good idea? Cause the last I heard, they were doing great!! Oh, I suppose that was because all the og tms there didn't believe enough. Oh wait, they were all new hires.

I'll agree that some new ideas are good. Of course they are. But at some point, when someone presents an idea that is bad, you have to realize it.

 

[Llamanatee]

So you don’t want to do more? And adjust to the changing retail landscape?

I’m now a mostly stay at home parent, who works 16 hours a week at most, and still does more than the rest of my team mates. I’m fine. I just don’t like someone trying to dangle $15/hr in front of me like it’s going to rock my world.

Hell, I’m not even sure I’m going to work until the end of this year. We’ll see!

 

[OldSchoolVet]

The company is surviving despite these changes. How is it better to have pallets blocking the whole wall of water/frozen food until after 2pm?

It's HOPING these tactics will give it an edge.

Most of the naysayers are realistic and have seen the company make huge investments and fail by pumping too much hope into ideas company wide before they are FULLY tested and proven in a smaller test.

Canada anyone? I suppose all that was a good idea? Cause the last I heard, they were doing great!! Oh, I suppose that was because all the og tms there didn't believe enough. Oh wait, they were all new hires.

I'll agree that some new ideas are good. Of course they are. But at some point, when someone presents an idea that is bad, you have to realize it.

Agree. When Modernization first started, many stores piloted it. The purpose of a pilot is to work out the kinks. But right from the start, Corporate refused to hear any suggestions from these pilot stores. It was their way or the highway.

Repacks is an example. The "old dogs" have proven that sorting them out before working them to the shelves is much faster than not sorting them first. If you want me to work them fast and efficiently without sorting, then they need to be sorted at the DC so I don't have to do it.

Doing away with Price Change and Plano. You think that by paying someone $15/hour, they will suddenly care and develop a higher work ethic? Hasn't worked so far. Not enough good people or hours.

Our DTL told Corporate that Modernization is not working. Did Corporate listen as to why and work with her/us to come up with solutions? Nope. They told her to "make it work". End of discussion. Fit this square peg into a round hole, but don't alter it in any way to do so.

I'll continue to smile and do what I'm told while I roll my eyes behind their backs. I'll also continue to hope that Corporate comes to their senses before they completely destroy this company.

 

[REDcardJJ]

The company is trying to survive. Its using tactics that will give it an edge in the ever disappearing brick and mortar retail business. Most of the naysayers on this thread are OGs they are used to doing things a certain way.
Now, lets take a new hire who hasn’t worked for Target. The new hire is more likely to make an effort to meet company’s expectations.
“Can't Teach An Old Dog New Tricks”
There is reason why this phrase exists, it has for a long time, and it puts some of the naysayers in perspective.

guys planosss is.... right? what is this

 

[Planosss]

guys planosss is.... right? what is this

Was right all along 😢