Archived Back to school and other out of stock questions

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So anyone else having problems with being out of stock on alot of back to school items. Last year we ran out of #2 pencils and pens for like a week along with several other really common items. This year we have been running into alot of the same problems. Had several TMS tell me guests were *****ing at then for not having back to school supplies in and they would go to walmart instead. Is this a global issue or is Target just terrible at planning for seasonal sets like this.

Also, for ad product. Why do they cut AD product in pfresh and market in general? You want us to be instock but you keep cutting everything we need which leads to guests downranking us on instocks in market even though its not our fault at all. You think they would want to actually make money, and not piss guests off. Same happened with the fans a couple weeks ago. The only thing we had was tower fans, and there were other fans in the ad and we were just out for like 3 weeks.
 
Sounds like what a lot of stores dealt with for electronics this past winter. Obviously, there's nothing that you can do as far as replenishment if you're not being sent the products, but instocks should set up rainchecks and substitutions wherever possible.
 
Sounds like what a lot of stores dealt with for electronics this past winter. Obviously, there's nothing that you can do as far as replenishment if you're not being sent the products, but instocks should set up rainchecks and substitutions wherever possible.

Well ya...Its just frustrating, because if they would actually send us the products we are supposed to have we wouldnt have angry guests and have to keep flexing over and over
 
Then, you go in the backroom to the light duty, where school items are located, find a gold mine of unlocated binders, comp books, & 5 star notebooks... I did that when I was helping a guest & saying let me do a double check.
 
I've had quite a few guests tell me that we were way better than Walmart this year.

But of course now the clearancing is a huge hassle. Seriously, put one color notebook on clearance, but not the rest and leave them all in the same place? Yeah, that's great.
 
You could have an exec my support your shortage. We have done that a few times and it has worked with mild success. It won't completely fix it but it's a start...
 
I've had quite a few guests tell me that we were way better than Walmart this year.

But of course now the clearancing is a huge hassle. Seriously, put one color notebook on clearance, but not the rest and leave them all in the same place? Yeah, that's great.

I've been told that this year, too. If you've been in a Walmart lately, there BTS section isn't in the best shape. As in, it's thrown around and no one seems to be zoning it.
 
I've been told that this year, too. If you've been in a Walmart lately, there BTS section isn't in the best shape. As in, it's thrown around and no one seems to be zoning it.

The fact that it's Walmart should explain it.
 
Wow.. I thought it was just our store. We are literally out of everything and grammar schools in this area haven't started yet. I have been getting yelled at by guests daily for being sold out of school supplies before the start of school. BTW, I walked all of the aisles in the br where school supplies are located. Aside from a few ring binders that are active stationary product, we are cleaned out. I so dread going near seasonal. Of course, telling a guest the supplies have been out since the first of July only makes them madder!
 
Wow.. I thought it was just our store. We are literally out of everything and grammar schools in this area haven't started yet.

In my area, public schools don't start until September. Only some of the colleges and parochial schools start early.
 
Ya schools around here dont start for another week or so...and we have been flexing it out from the backroom every day haha, there isnt much left. We actually have someone specifically just in back to school every closing shift. Im in market so I dont get to hear it from the guests too much but it is still annoying. Cant wait for halloween where I get to order real pumpkins only to have them cut from the order and guests getting pissy with us.
 
Schools in my area have been back in for at least 2 weeks (public K-12) and 1 week (colleges). Thankfully BTS has started going clearance. :) It will get better!
 
2 weeks ago when school started we were super busy and didnt have enough team members, the store was adding hours like crazy, calling tm's in on their day off, etc.
and we still didnt have enough people. We went way over sales forecast every day.... Fast forward, this week school has already started, we are not making sales, store is slow.
they are cutting our hours, sending team members home early, etc. The reason this happened (supposedly) they say that the computer that makes out the schedule didnt realize that
school started a week earlier this year so we had too many people this week and not enough last week. Shouldn't management have noticed this and planned accordingly? Duh......
 
2 weeks ago when school started we were super busy and didnt have enough team members, the store was adding hours like crazy, calling tm's in on their day off, etc.
and we still didnt have enough people. We went way over sales forecast every day.... Fast forward, this week school has already started, we are not making sales, store is slow.
they are cutting our hours, sending team members home early, etc. The reason this happened (supposedly) they say that the computer that makes out the schedule didnt realize that
school started a week earlier this year so we had too many people this week and not enough last week. Shouldn't management have noticed this and planned accordingly? Duh......

it's hard for the ETL's to look at a school calendar and merge that with the reality of the schedule.
It is their responsibility to do just that. The school calendar is available, make a phone call or look online.
They'd have to plan ahead, kind of like when they plan their lunches with menus from local restaurants.
See, they are very busy.

sarcasm intended
 
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