Archived better processes for Hardlines

[Spitfire]

Hey guys, this is a question for any Hardlines team leads, team members, or anyone with relevant ideas.

My Hardlines ETL called me over recently with a random epiphany: that we needed to be more aggressive with our mid-day zone. He noticed that by calling specific aisles and areas out for touch-ups (instead of vaguely saying "maintain your zone!") the Hardlines team kept up with our zone better. That left our zone in better shape for the night crew, which in turn lets our night crew be more productive (having to zone less means more time for PTMing, etc.) and our morning team as well (not having to deal with last night's strays means more time for projects and tasks.) Also, the hope would be that the team starts to deal with issues before we call them out, because they know we're going to call them out anyways, which leaves our team way stronger overall.

Which got me wondering: are there any examples like this that you guys have from your store? Any change in process, big or small, that helped your team and your day run smoother? Whether you're a team lead or team member I'd appreciate any input, as I'm trying to get my team to be the best it can be.

 

[RetailWorld]

Yes, we stagger our zone in low-traffic areas while ensuring that high traffic areas get constant zone. In our store, HBA/Chem/Cosm...basically all of A block sans Pets accounts for about 50% of our sales. A block gets done on a nightly basis.

B/C/D/Spt/Seas gets done on rotation. It gets touched up....LOD's do stray walks and pick up anything off the ground/on basedecks. Between CAF's team members will touch it up. Towels get folded daily. Do rugs and kids bedding daily. But it doesn't get a full on zone every day.

Market takes care of paper. As far as Market zone, it usually gets done over the course of 2 days, depending on payroll for the week. If Market gets 2 zoners and we were able to zone all of market the night before, we'll usually have one break off to help out mini seasonal.

Softlines is a beast all on it's own and I have no idea how to maintain it.

 

[dannyy315]

My team leaders check in on out zones every once in a while. It helps if we start to become sluggish.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Do the best you can with time allowed. My new stl is focus on a certain area over everything else.

 

[Ringwraith917]

The zone is so much more important than most people realize. It really helps keep the store running smoothly. A good zone helps keep itself up. Guests will make an effort to put something back where it goes if the can easily find it.
I'm so happy for you that your leadership recognizes it. It's the bane of my Target existence.

 

[zoned2deep]

The zone is so much more important than most people realize. It really helps keep the store running smoothly. A good zone helps keep itself up. Guests will make an effort to put something back where it goes if the can easily find it.
I'm so happy for you that your leadership recognizes it. It's the bane of my Target existence.

That's an interesting idea, I had never thought of that before, that keeping the zone above a certain level makes people more likely to make an effort. (I remember learning about that sort of effect in my social psychology classes in college.)

I've always been confused about mid-day zones -- should I be zoning to the same standard I would normally have, or is it typically more of a speed-zone type deal?

Anyway, I feel like a big shift for me while zoning has been focusing more on outs and holes. For example, items with multiple peg hooks or items that are on multiple shelves. People often forget those -- the other day I was zoning candles and realized there were several completely empty shelves because no one had been pushing product to both locations. It really makes the aisle look a lot fuller when you get rid of those unnecessary holes. It also helps instocks do their job by making it obvious where the true outs are.

 

[cl8baller]

I'm from a B store, on the weekdays it seems that hardlines has 28 hours a day. Five of those hours are pushing cafs in the middle of the day, eight hours starting in the morning 4x4ing an area, PTMing or pulling dcode, the remaining fifthteen hours go towards recovering the last few hours the store is open split between three people. Instocks will sometimes help with the 4x4s.

 

[CIHYFS]

Hardlines TL here: I am at a high volume Super Target and it blows my mind that any store has hours to do a mid-day zone. That WAS a thing we did back when I was hired as a TM a few years ago, but that is also when we had payroll to do so. Everyone said that after 4th quarter things would get better, but we still don't come clean each night on re-shop/abandons/go backs. Heck, we are lucky if the zone gets completed each night. I know many will judge me as the TL, but it isn't just on my nights that this happens. Since Christmas we have had 20-30 abandon carts that pile up each night with no one to work them during the day or at night to get caught up on them.

As an example of how much things have been cut: When I started as a Hardlines TM over 2 years ago, we would struggle to leave abandon free and with the zone completed correctly if even 1 of the 5 or 6 closers called out. Nowadays, I am usually the ONLY closer in Hardlines. And during the days I am sometimes alone until 3 PM. Between projects that the LOD has and doing the CAF pulls for our huge store, there is zero time to do abandons or a mid-day zone.

Is my store the only store like this? I thought everyone was struggling with lack of payroll. But hearing people talk about mid-day zones and 4x4's being done makes me feel like out store is worse off. Maybe it just feels that way because it is so frustrating to me.

Do any TL's out there have any suggestions for my store too? I don't know how to make anything happen with no team each day, but if anyone else has ideas please share!

 

[RedShirt1]

@CIHYFS you're store isn't the only one. You described exactly what goes on in my store, with the go backs and 4x4s. It seems like the cuts in payroll have been really tough on high volume stores all around. It's very frustrating.

 

[Spitfire]

@CIHYFS I mean, we struggle with payroll (I'm a HL TL at an A+ volume P-Fresh) but who doesn't? Regardless, your store's leadership needs to get their head in the game, as if what you're describing happened at my store then multiple people would be out of jobs very quickly.

My team (3-4 on weekdays, 5-6 on weekends) averages 1-3 carts of re-shop a night (something I'm working towards getting down to 0) and a decent to good zone store-wide. Not 100% to planogram in all areas, but everything looking presentable.

My suggestion to you would be to sit down off-stage with your ETL-HL and try to understand why this is happening, because as you describe it, it is nothing short of a crisis. Are you guys in Hardlines understaffed, and that's why you don't have enough help? Or is it a payroll problem, and if so, where's your payroll going? I wouldn't be surprised if you guys aren't making sales due to your zone issues (and if you are, your store's definitely underperforming); on days when my store's super-brand for a visit, we exceed goal by 10-20%. Where do you even keep that many carts of reshop? Why aren't you guys doing smart huddles to try to put a dent in it? Think of all the sales you're missing due to items not selling because they're in three-tiers! Think of all the instocks errors and incorrect counts because you're never caught up! Paint this as a global issue, because it absolutely is.

Although if it's continued like that for so long, your leadership may need a bigger shock to their complacency than you pointing out what's already obvious. What on earth do you guys do for visits? Is your DTL okay with the state of affairs?

 

[Ringwraith917]

@CIHYFS I agree it seems your hours may be being mis-spent. It's a downward spiral you're in and if they don't break that cycle it's going to get much worse before it gets better.

 

[CIHYFS]

@MrGlobal I do understand that everyone is affected by lack of payroll, but how do we keep up with the increasing expectations when we are given a skeleton crew day after day? My closing night this week was again myself scheduled as the only closer in hardlines and the following day I was by myself for the first 6 hours of my shift. After completing projects that the LOD gave me, I was able to start working the CAF pulls. And then from his office that he hasn't left the entire day he asks how much progress I have made on the abandons...

Abandon carts are kept on unused check lanes. Which looks terrible as guests walk by as they exit the store. The last DTL visits have been him confirming that all stores in our district have the same problem with 30 plus carts of abandons but that we all need to fix it. The fitting room is the same. There are heaping tubs of product that has been there since before Christmas. They have started making a dent in that now that most of it is salvage. I know that it is so many lost sales and the ETL's know it too.

We actually got our abandon cart numbers down to one check lane full (this is how we measure them because saying 40 carts is more depressing than saying 4 check lanes full). And how? The ETL's got off their asses and joined our smart huddle and worked abandons for several hours with the team.

We ARE trying new processes which include Market and other food teams zoning about 1/3 of the store and Electronics zoning about 1/3. The Pharmacy team zones the pharmacy areas even now.

The other issue is that we have not had an ETL in Hardlines for about 6 months now. Another ETL has been "filling in" but he doesn't do jack and doesn't care about anything but his real area.