MEGATHREAD 2018-2019 Store Modernization Megathread

[gsa4lyfe]

While it is part of the job description, it also on paper is meant to be used sparingly. The front end should be able to handle all but the most extreme rushes, and those should be cleared out rapidly by a few extra hands. Unfortunately far too many, well whatever GSAs/GSTLs are called now, have decided that since part of the job description means backing up, they call for backup frequently and don't let them go in a timely manner in order to keep the front end well staffed, the rest of the TMs' duties be damned. The word "backup" is a clear indication that it's not a primary duty, unlike reshop/zone/push/backstock/pricing/guest service/and whatever else needs doing on the sales floor. Calling for backup frequently and for long time periods takes the TMs away from all those primary duties, the TMs get in trouble for not meeting the expectations of those primary duties, and the front end supervisor gets no fallout for the TMs getting in trouble because they spent a quarter of their shift on register.

The front end should be self sufficient to meet the daily demand for separating guests from their money. Just because backup exists doesn't mean you should have a free pass all the time. It's too bad you can't be present at any coaching or write up for failure to complete primary duties, so you can see how relying on the sales floor instead of being self sufficient exacts a cost from the sales floor TMs.

I don’t think blaming your S&E TLs for lack of coverage or a poor schedule is the right route to go. Their job is keep the guests flowing out the door as fast as possible. Being dealt a crappy schedule or getting call outs is not their fault. At the end of the day cashiers are the most important role and you can’t go without them. You can go with TMs pushing or zoning or setting and what not for an hour here and then but you can’t go without cashiers for an hour here and there.

 

[REDcardJJ]

While it is part of the job description, it also on paper is meant to be used sparingly. The front end should be able to handle all but the most extreme rushes, and those should be cleared out rapidly by a few extra hands. Unfortunately far too many, well whatever GSAs/GSTLs are called now, have decided that since part of the job description means backing up, they call for backup frequently and don't let them go in a timely manner in order to keep the front end well staffed, the rest of the TMs' duties be damned. The word "backup" is a clear indication that it's not a primary duty, unlike reshop/zone/push/backstock/pricing/guest service/and whatever else needs doing on the sales floor. Calling for backup frequently and for long time periods takes the TMs away from all those primary duties, the TMs get in trouble for not meeting the expectations of those primary duties, and the front end supervisor gets no fallout for the TMs getting in trouble because they spent a quarter of their shift on register.

The front end should be self sufficient to meet the daily demand for separating guests from their money. Just because backup exists doesn't mean you should have a free pass all the time. It's too bad you can't be present at any coaching or write up for failure to complete primary duties, so you can see how relying on the sales floor instead of being self sufficient exacts a cost from the sales floor TMs.

uh, on paper the service expectation is 1 guest being checked out and 1 guest waiting. we should technically be calling backups WAY more often than we do.

i know for a fact that all TLs in my building tell applicants that cashier training is required, and HR goes over it again during orientation when they write the training schedule.

Surely you must realize that being called for backup bites the big one, right? And that really, if one is a floor person, cashiering is actually not the job they were hired to do? "Needs of the business", blah blah - if I wanted to get stuck behind a register I would've applied to be a cashier. Which I would never do, because cashiering to me is absolute torture and I would sooner answer the phone in perpetuity than answer one backup call.

cashiering is in your job description. if you were hired for hardlines or now GM, you knew what you were getting in to.

 

[spotlife]

.. because that's what that word means? You, the SETL, have the authority to call them, the GM Experts, for backup. You are empowered to do so.

I, the GMTL, do NOT have the authority to call them, the Guest Advocates, to help push pillows. I am NOT empowered to do so. My ETL-GM might. Or the SD. Or maybe your ETL-SE might offer the help, but Modernization does not afford me the right to take your TMs like it affords you the right to take mine.

And really? I just linked a page of the guidebook. Business needs. It is the job of everyone to do something that needs to be done, regardless of their position. The difference here is that the person making that call needs to be higher up on the totem pole than you, the SETL, need to be to call for backup. Even Service Advocates can call for backup. Any GM Expert or Food & Beverage Expert or SPS Consultant calling the Front End for help is going to be laughed at.

If I see a cashiers standing around or loafing, why can’t i pull them? I give them a go back, give them push. You are a leader in the building. Sounds like you need to demonstrate some courage! Do it until your SD pulls you into the office and says to stop lol

 

[REDcardJJ]

If I see a cashiers standing around or loafing, why can’t i pull them? I give them a go back, give them push. You are a leader in the building. Sounds like you need to demonstrate some courage! Do it until your SD pulls you into the office and says to stop lol

lowkey i know it's far from best practice but i tell the other TLs they can take people who are just standing around talking or not doing anything and make them push truck lmao

 

[happygoth]

cashiering is in your job description. if you were hired for hardlines or now GM, you knew what you were getting in to.

I'm Style and was not told that backup cashier was an essential part of my job. I did have one four hour cashier training shift, but it was never impressed upon me that this was something crucial.

I'm also glad they have done away with the GSA position because it really irked me that they would call for backup constantly while literally standing there doing nothing.

 

[RedcardReba]

I'm Style and was not told that backup cashier was an essential part of my job. I did have one four hour cashier training shift, but it was never impressed upon me that this was something crucial.

I'm also glad they have done away with the GSA position because it really irked me that they would call for backup constantly while literally standing there doing nothing.

They were instructed to do that. Last year, frontend hours were cut. Backups were constant. The change has given frontend more cashiers, so backup isn't needed nearly as much.

The GSA position is gone. Everyone is now dealing with guests.

 

[BullseyeBlues]

The journey of modernization at my store is not working too well. We’re super freaky tier for back to school. You can barely get yourself or a three tier/smart cart/whatever you want to call it through the aisles of light duty and grocery stockrooms because there’s pallets of back to school crap, incomplete price change crap, and pallets of unfinished salvage crap everywhere. Bulk stockroom side is starting to look the same way, so crammed with stuff it’s nearly impossible to get u boats out. Hour slashes mean that nothing is getting completed that the DBOs are responsible for, even in the areas where the TMs are more than competent. Guests are upset with how often things aren’t on the floor and how empty things look because the dayside teams aren’t being given time to get it all done especially considering our C or low B level store has decided it’s a great idea to only have one guest service advocate or whatever, and one cashier, maybe two midday, scheduled, which means constant backup if you’re not a front end team member. Amidst all this, they’ve hired another SETL and an additional GM ETL, but they’re supposed to lead and not help at all, which doesn’t get any more done than before. There’s usually more leaders in the building than there are ordinary TMs. As a closing expert, I’m about at my breaking point with the number of projects I’m being given and the fact that I’m frequently the only one running the salesfloor the last few hours of the day. I can in no way keep on top of the whole store’s reshop and zones, get call buttons, finish unpushed truck to free up vehicles, do audit or EXF, handle all the defectives from the floor and empty packages, answer the phones, and adequately help guests all at once for multiple hours. Having 1 or 2 closing experts might work for lower volume stores, but it sure as hell doesn’t work for my store. So many guests come to me in the evenings frustrated because they’ve wandered the whole store looking for someone to help them. I’m hoping to get out before Q4 because this year’s looking like it’ll shape up to be a dumpster fire.

 

[Targetedbullseye]

World class ! do not give a fuck about a etl or a tl ....I own my area and they are soon to be gone when phase 3 hits ...they will be gone ....he'll yeah... Never needed micro-management of over paid slackers so when we hit 15 an hour who is next on the chopping block......management cuts thats who....If you can run your area who needs a boss lol good riddance -bitches pay-back is a bitch .....how you like me now .... thanks u empowered me to eliminate your worthless ass

 

[Targetedbullseye]

Out-smart out live them...change is coming...have courage and perceive for you will rise above the shit storm that has happened.....we are not quitters..we fight the good fight and you will not fail....carry on bros and sistas

 

[flow4areasonuno]

You're not supposed to drink all the koolaid at once

 

[gsa4lyfe]

Should still be used sparingly. Not enough Guest Advocates? Pull all but 1 person from SD and put them on a lane. Hop on a lane yourself, or watch SCO while the Advocate there hops on a lane -- and while you're on SCO, hop on the closest lane yourself and do both. Get the ETL-SE on a lane, as well as all the other SETLs. Doing alright on carts? Front of Store Attendant on a lane. Then, if you must, call for backup. SE owns the front. They shouldn't be calling for backup unless they absolutely, positively have no other choice but to do so, which means already having all hands on deck.

.. yet I often see multiple SETLs at the front doing nothing but watching. I see multiple Advocates at the SD despite there being just 1 or 2 guests up there. I see the Advocate at SCO staring at the single guest using it, and nothing else. You talk about expectations of the front, yet you completely ignore all the primary expectations that every other department has. God forbid you have 2 guests waiting on a lane, better call someone away from their push, backstock, pulls, zoning, pricing, and plano workload! That's a joke, and you should know it.

Unless the front is literally on fire, I wouldn't send any of my TMs up to backup. The SD herself can hop on a lane first, if need be.

That's not exclusive to the front end. Imagine being a GMTL and having half your team call off with the other half called to help backup, then having to explain why your pulls, backstock, push, zoning, price change, and plano didn't get done.

For starters when I was GSTL I was told I was not allowed to just hop on a lane as I have to be available for the guest and my team at any given moment. What if I’m on and a cashier has a question or someone at the service desk needs my help? I get that we look like we’re just standing about and it drove me insane too but it was apart of the job. I was often coached for just hopping on and helping out without calling for backup. We’re supposed to be first responder but only when there’s a backup on the way to take over. Also again refer to my first comment where a store literally can’t function without cashiers. If you have a call out in GM the store will function.

 

[MajorChomp]

For starters when I was GSTL I was told I was not allowed to just hop on a lane as I have to be available for the guest and my team at any given moment. What if I’m on and a cashier has a question or someone at the service desk needs my help? I get that we look like we’re just standing about and it drove me insane too but it was apart of the job. I was often coached for just hopping on and helping out without calling for backup. We’re supposed to be first responder but only when there’s a backup on the way to take over. Also again refer to my first comment where a store literally can’t function without cashiers. If you have a call out in GM the store will function.

That’s not entirely accurate. For example we had a call out in GM recently in the afternoon and that meant the salesfloor has no responder for half of the store. It meant on person on the floor desperately trying to get call buttons for all of GM, do reshop by themself and if they go back up on a lane, then there’s no one to cover the GM areas. All the people who were on truck already went home and now we have one person in GM trying to close because they had a call out.

If you define that has the store still functioning then we have two different definitions. I don’t know why people in the front end act like they’re the holy grail of everything. Yes I get it guests checking out gives us our sales and business. But you guys act like the dozens of guests on the floor who can’t get assistance because no one is available on the floor aren’t just going to get fed up and drop everything in the cart for waiting so long for assistance isn’t affecting your sales and business as well?

I can’t even count how many times buttons completely timed out in areas in GM because GM is always in stuck in a lane. Plus GM team gets coached when they’re truck isn’t done, their push isn’t done, their pricing and everything else and “being on a lane” isn’t an excuse. They still get coached and written up for it.

My frustration with GM is that they have to help literally everywhere in the store but no one comes back to help GM. I have never seen a cashier help with a Zone or strays or push or even a damn cart party. But I can tell you GM gets pulled for cart parties, cashiering, back up service desk, while still being held sternly responsible for truck, zone, strays, call buttons, pricing, salesplanners/revisions, backstock, manual audits, autos, and then still get pulled to help ship from store.

While a cashier worries about, cashiering. Doesn’t quite seems like a fair share of responsibilities.


Edit to add, we’re not even allowed to pull a cashier for anything but GM team? Oh yea let’s pull them for everything in the store! It’s not like they don’t have 1000 things that aren’t already behind on and rolling over 🙄

 

[happygoth]

Also again refer to my first comment where a store literally can’t function without cashiers. If you have a call out in GM the store will function.

Well...it can function at least for some guests. Self-checkout...I haven't gone through a regular lane at work in forever, and if a retailer offers it, I will always choose self-checkout over a regular cashier. Sorry! 😬

 

[Tessa120]

I don’t think blaming your S&E TLs for lack of coverage or a poor schedule is the right route to go. Their job is keep the guests flowing out the door as fast as possible. Being dealt a crappy schedule or getting call outs is not their fault. At the end of the day cashiers are the most important role and you can’t go without them. You can go with TMs pushing or zoning or setting and what not for an hour here and then but you can’t go without cashiers for an hour here and there.

No. If product is not on the shelf, guests cannot buy it, so pushing is essential. If clothing is on the floor, guests are not going to pick it up off the floor to see if they want it, they will pass it by. If boxes are obviously opened, no one checked and resealed, guests are not going to buy it. If stuff is several aisles away from where it should be, guests can't find it to buy it. If prices are wrong, whether due to placement or old ad signs or the prices on the paper strip being old, then the store loses money from discounts or guests changing their minds.

For cashiers to check people out, people have to have the stuff they want to buy. So sales floor is just as essential, if not more so, so guests have something in their cart.

Sales staff can't do their job unless they are on the floor. Sales staff has been cut to the bone so there are more tasks than hours. Go take a walk through the entire store, you will find messed up product and empty spots everywhere. Every 5 minutes of being backup means 5 minutes away from making the store visually appealing and easy to locate products for guests.

And as others have said, coaching for undone projects is pretty common. So calling for backup means getting that sales floor TM in trouble. Surely there has to be at least a little bad feeling for being the cause of someone getting in trouble for things out of their control.

 

[InboundGrunt]

.. the people who get to call for backup whenever they need it, unlike the rest of the store. Yeah.

I can only imagine hearing over the walkie "Additional throwers to the trailer, please" 💪

You'd see cashiers and softlines TMs literally running to grab any guest they could "Sorry, I'm with a guest right now!"

 

[happygoth]

As a Softlines TM, I will be glad to help throw a truck or answer help calls for other areas - as soon as literally anyone else in the store comes and helps sort and push my reshop, zone our 10,000 tables and clear the fitting rooms because 90% of our guests try on things and just leave the items and hangers scattered all over the benches and floor. That is, the stuff that they don't steal, because Target thinks it's a super swell idea to let guests take whatever they want in without being checked.

 

[Times Up]

The front end should be able to handle all but the most extreme rushes,

Which assumes more than 1 cashier at lunchtime or more than 2 on Saturday morning. Otherwise, I whole heatedly agree

 

[gsa4lyfe]

No. If product is not on the shelf, guests cannot buy it, so pushing is essential. If clothing is on the floor, guests are not going to pick it up off the floor to see if they want it, they will pass it by. If boxes are obviously opened, no one checked and resealed, guests are not going to buy it. If stuff is several aisles away from where it should be, guests can't find it to buy it. If prices are wrong, whether due to placement or old ad signs or the prices on the paper strip being old, then the store loses money from discounts or guests changing their minds.

For cashiers to check people out, people have to have the stuff they want to buy. So sales floor is just as essential, if not more so, so guests have something in their cart.

Sales staff can't do their job unless they are on the floor. Sales staff has been cut to the bone so there are more tasks than hours. Go take a walk through the entire store, you will find messed up product and empty spots everywhere. Every 5 minutes of being backup means 5 minutes away from making the store visually appealing and easy to locate products for guests.

And as others have said, coaching for undone projects is pretty common. So calling for backup means getting that sales floor TM in trouble. Surely there has to be at least a little bad feeling for being the cause of someone getting in trouble for things out of their control.

Again I said not having someone on the floor for an hour for example won’t stop the store from running but not having a cashier for an hour will. I’m not saying it’s a perfect world but backups are necessary. I don’t think you backing up for 30 minutes is going to make the aisles empty. Again I’m not saying I agree with the way everything works but at the end of the day cashiers are more important.

 

[gsa4lyfe]

That’s not entirely accurate. For example we had a call out in GM recently in the afternoon and that meant the salesfloor has no responder for half of the store. It meant on person on the floor desperately trying to get call buttons for all of GM, do reshop by themself and if they go back up on a lane, then there’s no one to cover the GM areas. All the people who were on truck already went home and now we have one person in GM trying to close because they had a call out.

If you define that has the store still functioning then we have two different definitions. I don’t know why people in the front end act like they’re the holy grail of everything. Yes I get it guests checking out gives us our sales and business. But you guys act like the dozens of guests on the floor who can’t get assistance because no one is available on the floor aren’t just going to get fed up and drop everything in the cart for waiting so long for assistance isn’t affecting your sales and business as well?

I can’t even count how many times buttons completely timed out in areas in GM because GM is always in stuck in a lane. Plus GM team gets coached when they’re truck isn’t done, their push isn’t done, their pricing and everything else and “being on a lane” isn’t an excuse. They still get coached and written up for it.

My frustration with GM is that they have to help literally everywhere in the store but no one comes back to help GM. I have never seen a cashier help with a Zone or strays or push or even a damn cart party. But I can tell you GM gets pulled for cart parties, cashiering, back up service desk, while still being held sternly responsible for truck, zone, strays, call buttons, pricing, salesplanners/revisions, backstock, manual audits, autos, and then still get pulled to help ship from store.

While a cashier worries about, cashiering. Doesn’t quite seems like a fair share of responsibilities.


Edit to add, we’re not even allowed to pull a cashier for anything but GM team? Oh yea let’s pull them for everything in the store! It’s not like they don’t have 1000 things that aren’t already behind on and rolling over 🙄

Is your store still open? Are guests buying things? Then yes your store is functioning. I’m not saying it’s great but your store will survive for 20-60 minutes of no one on the floor but won’t survive without a cashier for that time.

 

[unknown]

Is your store still open? Are guests buying things? Then yes your store is functioning. I’m not saying it’s great but your store will survive for 20-60 minutes of no one on the floor but won’t survive without a cashier for that time.

I don't know, ours seemed to be doing fine from 8 to 10 today with no cashier, just scos. That's 120 minutes with no cashier.

 

[Tessa120]

Again I said not having someone on the floor for an hour for example won’t stop the store from running but not having a cashier for an hour will. I’m not saying it’s a perfect world but backups are necessary. I don’t think you backing up for 30 minutes is going to make the aisles empty. Again I’m not saying I agree with the way everything works but at the end of the day cashiers are more important.

From having timed myself and my tasks, pre modernization, half an hour is four or five bad tables, or is a mini z of prepped reshop being emptied, or is completely cleaning up RTW clearance on a bad day. Any one of those is a considerable amount of work, and not doing that much is going to mean that much of the sales floor is bad. Now add multiple rounds of backup, multiple people, throughout the entirety of the day - that's a lot of mess that isn't being cleaned up.

It's always been obvious that the front end grabs people for convenience, not essential necessity. One example - all sales floor on this thread, how many times have you been stuck as backup so an assigned cashier can go on break? Yeah, convenience, rather than having the front end take care of its own breaks. Sales floor - how often are the lines insane when you get called, and how often is it not that bad? How often do you get held up there even after the lines are down a fair amount? And what is the longest time you've been held for backup?

 

[Black Sheep 214]

The problem is that Spot understaffs both the sales floor and the front end (and everything else, for that matter). Stores can’t function properly without sufficient staffing, and when one call out anywhere disrupts the process everywhere, that store is seriously understaffed. Store shelves need to be filled at all times to maximize sales, which is why the overnight process is the way to go, with fill in continuing throughout the day, exactly the way it used to be done. Now the sales floor team is expected to fill in all day, clean, zone, back up cashiers, take care of guests, and then get coached for not finishing their projects because they were backing up the front, a plan which is ridiculous bordering on evil. Coaching does not miraculously enable people to do the impossible. The current process is absurd and unsustainable. If Spot expects to succeed, they need to shake loose some payroll and staff their stores beyond the skeleton crew level that they are doing now, in all areas. Guests don’t come in to buy shelf dust, and empty shelves don’t fill carts or increase basket size...

 

[REDcardJJ]

business needs except when the business needs me to cashier

 

[happygoth]

Again I said not having someone on the floor for an hour for example won’t stop the store from running but not having a cashier for an hour will. I’m not saying it’s a perfect world but backups are necessary. I don’t think you backing up for 30 minutes is going to make the aisles empty. Again I’m not saying I agree with the way everything works but at the end of the day cashiers are more important.

Is your store still open? Are guests buying things? Then yes your store is functioning. I’m not saying it’s great but your store will survive for 20-60 minutes of no one on the floor but won’t survive without a cashier for that time.

Do you know how much work floor TMs are expected to do in 20-30 minutes? Never mind 60! That's crazy.

 

[Jawwaad121]

I feel like Target sees that the process isn’t working as well as they thought but just won’t admit it because they put in a lot of money to create and implement this process. I believe they came up with this process not for a more efficient way of running the sales floor but rather because they knew that they would implement substantial pay raises throughout the years adding more work to less team members helps keep their profits the same. In theory, this works but when this process impedes sales, then you are back to square one and it’s foreseeable that profits could take a substantial loss. Cutting hours, having less employees, and adding more workload to those remaining employees sounds like a good idea on paper but in the real Target world, things can backfire and take a downward spiral very fast.