MEGATHREAD 2018-2019 Store Modernization Megathread

[OPINION] How do you feel about these changes?

  • I like them.

  • I dislike them.


Results are only viewable after voting.
Whenever I'm trying to do math (budgeting, comparing purchases with two different "per unit" measurements, figuring out how long a pantry item will last or how much additional I need to buy) and it's more than just punch a few numbers into a calculator I'll use a pencil to do quick math or to figure out the equation I will need to punch into the calculator in scientific mode.

Whenever I'm on the phone and there's some information I need to jot down and it's likely changeable, I'll use a pencil. I prefer erasing to crossing out.

I'm old school, so physical paper for quick notes or figuring out a solution is just very convenient for me. At work, it's a lot easier to jot down notes in my notebook and go downstairs to talk to the managers then write down their answer than to try and remember or put a note in my phone.
Oh I still use pens and paper, always have a couple of pens on me and make lists all the time, even though I have a notebook app on my phone. We still keep a magnetized notepad on the fridge. I'm a big list person, lol.
 
I went back to check out my store since I've been gone for a week and a half. It has fallen apart even more than what it was when I left. Need binders? Dig through the pile on the shelf. Need an item in the big yellow shippers? Take a look through all the crap that's been tossed in different sections. Need a TM to assist you in BTS? Sorry, he's busy taking care of the 4000 eaches auto for the day. The price on the floor doesn't match what's in the system? I guess you haven't paid attention to half th items in the store. Looking for items that are suppose to be in this aisle? Yeah, the POG was tied but never set. Oh, you just moved into your college dorm and want some college items? Check back next year, those POGs havent been set and it'll be on clearance by the time we finally get to it.

Towards the end of my visit to the store the SD saw me and was like "Hey *insert my name here*! You wanna do some work?" I laughed and walked the other way. Life has been way less stressful since I left. And apparently nearly all the GM 1 TMs have left or will be leaving soon
 
My store in total has finally got caught up in truck for the last two weeks. We’re finally there when it comes to being clean with truck daily. As of right now, we are on day 17 of being 100% clean on truck for the entire store.

Now we just need to be able to do that AND TWT and price change. Store is still behind on price Changes.

It’s a shame, the store I received training for when I became a TL, I wish I could have actually be a permanent member there lol. From day one they were always clean on everything including price change and 1-2 weeks ahead on TWT. They have a really solid crew. But hopefully my actual store can get to that level, *shrug*.

I just don’t think my store allocates payroll strategically enough imo.
 
I feel sorry for our guests. They are dismayed that we’re out of everything. What would they think if they knew the things they need are in the back room on pallets and u-boats. You can’t walk in our back room.
That’s what OPU/DU is for isn’t it? To fill in the gaps? I’ve been picking in BTS every day and I’m consistently asked what I’m doing. I tell them about it, and they’re AMAZED that the service exists. Makes their BTS shopping a million times easier.
 
That’s what OPU/DU is for isn’t it? To fill in the gaps? I’ve been picking in BTS every day and I’m consistently asked what I’m doing. I tell them about it, and they’re AMAZED that the service exists. Makes their BTS shopping a million times easier.

Sucks for people who don't want to use the service though
 
regarding the self-checkout talk (might have been posted before idk)

Why Self-Checkout Is and Has Always Been the Worst - https://gizmodo.com/why-self-checkout-is-and-has-always-been-the-worst-1833106695

tl:dr
SCO machines are expensive to maintain and the time and training required to keep employees up to date in how to use them is also costly. They also have a higher percentage of stolen goods vs human being cashiers.

I also like the part about how customers used to walk into the grocery store and hand the employee a list, the employee collected everything in the back and handed them a bag. The entire store was basically just a backroom and a front to pay for stuff. Over time, owners started having customers do the actual labor of collecting items to save on payroll and re-branded it as the "freedom" for consumers to wander around a supermarket.

God Bless Capitalism. eagle_cry.gif
My grandfather owned a small grocery store a long time ago and had everything behind the counter. People would come in with lists of items and give it to him. Sometimes they would give him the list in the morning before going to work or running errands come back later and pick up everything on the list.
 
That’s what OPU/DU is for isn’t it? To fill in the gaps? I’ve been picking in BTS every day and I’m consistently asked what I’m doing. I tell them about it, and they’re AMAZED that the service exists. Makes their BTS shopping a million times easier.

If the items are on pallets and vehicles unlocated in the backroom, OPU/DU might not find it either. We have so many vehicles overloaded with school supplies that it's searching through a needle in a haystack to find that one particular set of pens someone might have ordered. For us, school supplies are either in a location somewhere or they're going to be INF'd. We'll go looking if someone ordered a ton of a particular item, say like 40 of the same folder. But, your normal school list assist built order where it's just one of that folder? Nah. INF that so we don't fall further behind with the queue.
 
My store is in the middle of the remodel. The registers have been replaced and they have lowered the beltline and the register so much that I have to work bent over. Why in the world would that do that?
 
If the items are on pallets and vehicles unlocated in the backroom, OPU/DU might not find it either. We have so many vehicles overloaded with school supplies that it's searching through a needle in a haystack to find that one particular set of pens someone might have ordered. For us, school supplies are either in a location somewhere or they're going to be INF'd. We'll go looking if someone ordered a ton of a particular item, say like 40 of the same folder. But, your normal school list assist built order where it's just one of that folder? Nah. INF that so we don't fall further behind with the queue.
Could be in a shipper too.
 
How many people do you generally have working in BTS right now? It's just me and a closer and we are drowning. The office autos are insane and our backroom is such a mess it took me 5 hours to pull them today. Then I could barely push anything because guests kept asking me for stuff that was empty so I needed to hunt through my 4 tubs of autos or the truck. I asked them to call a blitz but they said they would see if they could get anybody else to come in early. Oh well, I tried. I had to leave at 2, today was the first official day of school and we got hit hard last night. I'm so glad I'm not there after 4pm today when they get hit again.

But at least we finally got more pencil boxes on the truck.
 
I guess I'll just never understand how we can have empty shelves in bts, pallets of product to push, but no hours to push them. You can't sell emptiness. I had a 6 dpci opu today. I had to INf 4 things since it's all buried in the backroom.

And as I'm leaving today, I hear the SD in her office talking about cutting hours.

Really? Maybe Target should just close. If this is the level of incompetence across the board, we are in big trouble.
 
How many people do you generally have working in BTS right now? It's just me and a closer and we are drowning. The office autos are insane and our backroom is such a mess it took me 5 hours to pull them today. Then I could barely push anything because guests kept asking me for stuff that was empty so I needed to hunt through my 4 tubs of autos or the truck. I asked them to call a blitz but they said they would see if they could get anybody else to come in early. Oh well, I tried. I had to leave at 2, today was the first official day of school and we got hit hard last night. I'm so glad I'm not there after 4pm today when they get hit again.

But at least we finally got more pencil boxes on the truck.
Usually 2 people but no closer. We have had to have some all store huddles to blitz a few pallets of freight tho. Especially the last 3-4 days before school started.
 
How many people do you generally have working in BTS right now? It's just me and a closer and we are drowning. The office autos are insane and our backroom is such a mess it took me 5 hours to pull them today. Then I could barely push anything because guests kept asking me for stuff that was empty so I needed to hunt through my 4 tubs of autos or the truck. I asked them to call a blitz but they said they would see if they could get anybody else to come in early. Oh well, I tried. I had to leave at 2, today was the first official day of school and we got hit hard last night. I'm so glad I'm not there after 4pm today when they get hit again.

But at least we finally got more pencil boxes on the truck.

We started BTS like that. It obviously didn't work. Now, we're overspending payroll and bringing in whoever can work a few hours that day to help. We've got TMs who normally work in style, electronics, HR, and even cashiers coming in to help with BTS. It's still not enough. We're depleted by mid-afternoon of stock on lots of popular items. It's made a complete mess of the backroom. BTS vehicles everywhere. And, what does get backstocked is done horribly. Pick labels aren't facing the front. What should have been easily recognizable mispicks aren't getting caught before backstocking. I'm having to hit All Items Scanned regularly because the product isn't where it was supposedly backstocked or anywhere close. Common items are being backstocked in areas that are difficult to access at the best of times, let alone the worst. (I mean really? I'm supposed to get up in the steel because someone located fucking Elmer's Glue in the steel? Fucking really? Nah, fam, I'm taking that shit from the salesfloor.) Opened assortments are being backstocked as is.

It's a complete shitshow and proving that more bodies doesn't necessarily equal better results.
 
The last few pages of this thread are entirely reflective of why Modernization is massively flawed. Being a GM TL now gives me a firsthand view of it everyday. It pits everyone against everyone else and then creates animosity between all team members over levels of importance. I’ll preface this by saying: I’ve done pretty much everything in the store at some point or another. Logistics, Front End, Pog and Pricing, SFS, Remodels.... whatever is necessary really. They all have elements that make them difficult depending on what time of year it is, how many team members you have, or what the current requirements of said jobs are.

I think the most physically demanding are easily SFS, POG, and GM roles. You have zero downtime in those areas. They are all structured within brutal timeframes. I run SFS around the holidays.... one day I racked up nearly 20 miles because I try to watch OPUs with myself and one other person, while I coordinate the regular SFS workload too. You have to watch INF, pack times, more batches dropping in, goal times, etc. It’s a beast, and if you’re not on it, it will eat you up.

POG is difficult because of the weekly timeframes and elements to huge sets. BTS and Christmas are flat out monsters. New shelving, displays, shippers, 40 page VA guides, coordinating 30-40 pallets of freight, the actual setting of the POGS, backstock, batches, EXF... and all within super tight windows. They’ve wanted Christmas set in 48 hours in the past. Any former POG TL will tell you how difficult that is.

GM is difficult now due to amount of work required in such a short time on an everyday basis. Zoning, reshop, autos, one for one batches, truck, backstock, pricing, revisions, SP’s,.... it’s a little like trying to empty an ocean.... with a bucket. There are steps you can take to make it easier ( making sure SFQ quantities match capacities and on hands are accurate), but it takes time and even if you own a section... more than one set of hands is involved there and you usually can’t trust that set of hands to be as efficient as the DBO’s might be.

Front End to me is about multitasking and the mental game. It’s essentially about knowing where to put your pieces in a half formed puzzle when said puzzle needs to be completed fast. It can be tough during heavy volume times up there and if you get call ins. I will say this: there’s a lot of standing around and talking up there for the first hour every morning in my store. The GM team members aren’t terribly happy when they see that because they get crushed everyday from the get go. That and any unnecessary backups are met with extreme irritation. Here’s the key to me: Front End is an exceptionally important facet to running a good store to me and it needs a leader who knows how to be as self sufficient as possible. Backup will always be necessary with the way corporate runs things, just be sure it really is essential when you call for it.

Bottom line here is: everything is important but corporate is making it very hard on even the best people right now by not being good at what they do. Lack of training, ridiculous workloads, inefficient equipment, changes to tasks that are inexplicably dumb, and complete befuddlement when things aren’t 100 percent in every area. The guest is the most important thing, but all processes matter. I wouldn’t go back much to a store if:

1. I could never find what I needed in store. And even if I could order it online, it’s still not convenient for any item I’d like right then and there.

2. The store was a mess and I couldn’t find anyone to help. That’s a huge part of guest experience and add on sales. Had a lady buy nearly a whole bedroom set the other day from me just because I found her a pillow case in the back and upon seeing it in person... wanted me to get her the whole Opalhouse set.

3. I waited for a long time in line because things were clearly not being run right up front. Good checkouts do matter for sure.

4. If workers just didn’t seem to care. We all wanna go to a place where we feel like our needs matter. Just human nature guys and gals.

Finally, I’ll say this: if you work hard and you work for me... I have your back all day and everyday. My track record gives me credibility in discussions with other leaders, whether they’re ETLs, SDs, or whatever else. I protect my good people because I’m not where I am without them. You go after one of them, you better have good reason. I consider myself the buffer between them and any nonsense they get about unreachable tasks. My people really are my people and their well being matters to me. Always will.
*Slow clap* Someone has recognized the importance and challenges of EVERY single position. I want to work with you MorePegs. The few remaining team leads have been in full on bickering mode as of late. Some of the nicest people, all ready to snap. Sadly, the recent post on this board show this is epidemic.
 
How many people do you generally have working in BTS right now? It's just me and a closer and we are drowning. The office autos are insane and our backroom is such a mess it took me 5 hours to pull them today. Then I could barely push anything because guests kept asking me for stuff that was empty so I needed to hunt through my 4 tubs of autos or the truck. I asked them to call a blitz but they said they would see if they could get anybody else to come in early. Oh well, I tried. I had to leave at 2, today was the first official day of school and we got hit hard last night. I'm so glad I'm not there after 4pm today when they get hit again.

But at least we finally got more pencil boxes on the truck.

Only me in a b volume store. Supposed to have a closer to zone but that never seems to happen so the zone is shit. I am expected to pull autos, help push repacks and casestock in office/stat then go back and push everything in seasonal. It’s exhausting and frustrating.
 
*Slow clap* Someone has recognized the importance and challenges of EVERY single position. I want to work with you MorePegs. The few remaining team leads have been in full on bickering mode as of late. Some of the nicest people, all ready to snap. Sadly, the recent post on this board show this is epidemic.

That is the inevitable result of modernization.
 
Before I left there was a day when we got about 15 hours of BTS push but only had people schedules for maybe 10 hours. Where do those 5 additional hours come from?

In also walking through a different Target right now and it's a complete shitshow. College isnt set. Paper clarence is marked down 0% so it is still full price (first picture) and toys clarence is all over the place (last two pictures). I'm afraid to see the rest of the store
 

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When we had some toys in the middle of the race track it really said "Welcome to K-Mart. It was just beyond tacky.
There was more toys clarence. 3 towers In the middle of the race track. And also the Mother's Day Focal still set. Not like mother's day was months ago or anything
 

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