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.
Rock Lobster said:
I doubt they are.... The problem is that everyone district level and above is just so far removed from what happens in stores now that they can't possibly grasp it. Even store directors used to know a ton about the buildings and how they operate, but they slowly are going away and and the new ones are wondering why super sorting a truck takes so long (We know MyTime says that 1 Thrower, 2 Sorters, and a Breakout can sort a large truck in 3 hours... but its wrong), how pricing works, or how sales are down? Sorry, they are out of touch and do not care... we are stuck with this DBO thing and modernization not because its our key to success, but because the appearance of its success is the key to their personal careers.
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OMG! This!!! I have been saying this! Most of the leadership hasn't been a team member in god knows how long, if ever! And, with a small number of exceptions, none have been DBO's. They are so far out of touch with every task.
 
Rock Lobster said:
we are stuck with this DBO thing and modernization not because its our key to success, but because the appearance of its success is the key to their personal careers.
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Whoever can pull off a good appearance of the process working, they get promoted. Lot of politically savy “yes-men/women” going up the ladder right now.

5 years into this rollout, and we are still trying to rollout process time-savers to account for the short payroll. Point being: it’s not perfect, never was, still isn’t, but if you can make it seem so for your store, yes, you get promoted.

Also, that impending $15 by end of 2020...you already have people running around for $13. Why not save some money?
 
The "Yes Man" mentality and hiring college grads with no real floor time is going to inevitably curse this company to utter collapse eventually, if everyone in a place of decision making is just saying yes to every idea or decision the next guy above them comes up with inefficiency and poorly though out ineffective abusable practices will just eat away at profits and stock value till its worth nothing.

Im just glad I got out and can just watch from the sidelines now as everything ive seen coming and speculated on for what feels like forever begins to unfold and become reality.

You cant run a company of politics forever, eventually money talks and bullshit walks or a lot of people at the lower end up holding the bill. From everything ive seen on these boards since leaving seems to solidify the company has learned nothing, honestly everyone on here should be looking for a way out ASAP. You do not want to be one of the people left without a job suddenly, retail has a bad habit of giving zero warning before axing jobs.
 
Little Mac said:
The "Yes Man" mentality and hiring college grads with no real floor time is going to inevitably curse this company to utter collapse eventually, if everyone in a place of decision making is just saying yes to every idea or decision the next guy above them comes up with inefficiency and poorly though out ineffective abusable practices will just eat away at profits and stock value till its worth nothing.

Im just glad I got out and can just watch from the sidelines now as everything ive seen coming and speculated on for what feels like forever begins to unfold and become reality.

You cant run a company of politics forever, eventually money talks and bullshit walks or a lot of people at the lower end up holding the bill. From everything ive seen on these boards since leaving seems to solidify the company has learned nothing, honestly everyone on here should be looking for a way out ASAP. You do not want to be one of the people left without a job suddenly, retail has a bad habit of giving zero warning before axing jobs.
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I can't help but feel it's going to crash and burn, but it's like a slow crash where you can barely tell it's happening. I know it looks fine financial wise right now but they're still making cuts and other stores are still closing so things are still doing relatively okay.

If you want to post the financials from Q3 or Q4, go ahead. I'd like to look over the stuff myself. Maybe I'm wrong, but it feels like a slow decline.
 
Target is fine. People love this store. LOVE it. It's not even close to being in decline. That doesn't mean they won't continue to tweak how they do business, that there won't be bad quarters, that everything is perfect. But it's a very healthy company and will be around for a long, long time.

I had a front-row seat for the collapse of a venerated retail company. It took decades.
 
How can people love it? Shelves have huge empty spots, product is stuck in back, lack of retention means lack of knowledge, prices are wrong all over and perishables are expired. If people love Target then they love online and then Target should lose the anchor and be all online, since the stores aren't great.

Modernization is a fail. The only way it could be successful is with a lot more hours, but that wouldn't be modernization because the goal was to cut all the off the scenes staff and their hours and put it all on sales floor staff with sales floor hours. So hours are part of modernization. Throwing more in to manage all tasks is completely contrary to the tenets of modernization.
 
Tessa120 said:
How can people love it? Shelves have huge empty spots, product is stuck in back, lack of retention means lack of knowledge, prices are wrong all over and perishables are expired. If people love Target then they love online and then Target should lose the anchor and be all online, since the stores aren't great.

Modernization is a fail. The only way it could be successful is with a lot more hours, but that wouldn't be modernization because the goal was to cut all the off the scenes staff and their hours and put it all on sales floor staff with sales floor hours. So hours are part of modernization. Throwing more in to manage all tasks is completely contrary to the tenets of modernization.
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I’m not a fan of all the brand changes, I work right next to a super Target and stopped in. I was looking to pick up some pajamas but they all were so cheap feeling and looking, it left me wondering how crazy the mark ups are for them. I’m not that crazy about Auden either.
 
@Tessa120 ASANTS. I had a guest tell me the other day that our store looked fantastic. Said she had been to a different Target in the area recently and we looked much better. Made me feel good.

We have areas of opportunity, but no company is perfect. I've seen a huge improvement in my store since I was first hired almost two years ago, in all areas, most notably Market and Softlines.

Hours are definitely an issue, but lack of hours is not the only reason some stores are struggling. It starts with leadership and ends with the TMs. Leaders must provide a clear vision, a plan, and the team must have the desire and ability to execute said plan. With the right people in place, things won't be perfect but they will improve.

As for the evils of Modernization, my question is, what was everyone complaining about before? Is it a case of not realizing what you had until it was gone?
 
Before modernization, what I heard at my store for complaint was guest attitude. The Karens and how the huge, huge push for "the customer is always right" was actually creating Karens. My first year, my hours didn't drop that much in January, and from what I heard, for everyone it was a sting level of pain, not gouging out your stomach pain like it is now. The fixture room was always a complaint, but that's because the fixture room was always scary. I spent probably 8-9 months on a lift/push/pull/carry restriction of only 5 lbs, two weeks in a sling, leadership was cool with it all. There was always the eternal job lament no matter what business or industry you are in because no one wants to dedicate hours of their day doing something other than personal fun. People at my store simply liked working there.

Heck, second year there Q4, softlines didn't even hire seasonals, the crazy high hours were all given to the permanent people. That's how good of a workplace it was, and we all knew it and respected it.

So no, there was not really a major complaint that modernization made us wish for the old ways, because the old ways worked well. I'm glad I got out during the same month as full implementation.
 
happygoth said:
@Tessa120

Hours are definitely an issue, but lack of hours is not the only reason some stores are struggling. It starts with leadership and ends with the TMs. Leaders must provide a clear vision, a plan, and the team must have the desire and ability to execute said plan. With the right people in place, things won't be perfect but they will improve.
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That's PART of the problem. TLs being forced to micromanage, and not actually do any of the hard work involved in the process. The TLs that actually do any of the work are forced out either by termination or resignation.
 
WhiskeyTangoFoxy said:
That's PART of the problem. TLs being forced to micromanage, and not actually do any of the hard work involved in the process. The TLs that actually do any of the work are forced out either by termination or resignation.
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If that's happening in some stores, then I agree, that's insane. No way would we be where we are as a store without our TLs AND ETLs getting their hands dirty.
 
Does anyone know wtf "assistance team" means? I heard talk about a corporate visit and asked a manager, but they said it wasn't a visit, it was just an assistance team to help us
 
happygoth said:
If that's happening in some stores, then I agree, that's insane. No way would we be where we are as a store without our TLs AND ETLs getting their hands dirty.
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From what has been said from TLs on this forum it is in the modernization bible. From what is said and the near full implementation I saw the only way to succeed is to ignore parts that are very inconvenient with your SD's blessing and your DTL's deliberate blind eye.
 
"ignore the stuff that doesn't work and do what does" is true of basically every company embarking on a new set of processes or wholesale changes. it happens everywhere, you just roll with it and figure out what works
 
But isn't that getting people, especially management, fired now? Going against corporate dictates and doing their own (successful) thing until caught? Many know someone, some here have been fired for that reason. It's called insubordination on the paperwork, because corporate has decided they can't be wrong so it's to be done that way, period.
 
Question did VM get the boot officially? Ours got fired last year and our store director just said we wont be replacing them. Now our tls are being scheduled under it. So. Is it just my store or are they killing that role?
 
countingsheep said:
Question did VM get the boot officially? Ours got fired last year and our store director just said we wont be replacing them. Now our tls are being scheduled under it. So. Is it just my store or are they killing that role?
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Ours left a few months ago. They said they were going to hire someone but as of today no one has the role. Maybe they are eliminating it through attrition?
 
flow4areasonuno said:
I can't help but feel it's going to crash and burn, but it's like a slow crash where you can barely tell it's happening. I know it looks fine financial wise right now but they're still making cuts and other stores are still closing so things are still doing relatively okay.

If you want to post the financials from Q3 or Q4, go ahead. I'd like to look over the stuff myself. Maybe I'm wrong, but it feels like a slow decline.
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It's a death by a thousand cuts, a bunch of small bad decisions slowly eating away at profitability and sustainability. The majority of people will never see it coming because each and every minor cut seems like a smart short term decision that works and doesn't get you labeled with insubordination.
 
Aaaaaand my paycheck Friday will be less than <$60. I tell the tax form that I'm married but to pretend I'm single (I'm paycheck to paycheck so a lump of cash at taxtime is handy), and paycheck's so low it took nothing.

So who else is job hunting?
 

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