Archived cartwheel ... let the debate begin!

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ETHICS DEMANDER

veteran team member/TL & ETL demolisher
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I'm not a cashier (I'm overnights) but I figured cartwheel must be worse then clipped coupons.. I've stood in line as people scroll through the smart phone to the point where I've considerd shoving their head through the register monitor.. cuz it been like 3 minutes to find one coupon or whatever.. but like I said I'm not a cashier so what's your thoughts and opinions on it?
 
90% of the people are really good about it...especially if they know they can scan stuff ahead of time to search for the items as they shop. The other 10% either cannot figure out how to work the program or figure everyone can wait while they ask the cashier to tell them what they bought so they can go through it item by item.

And since you can't do a missed coupon on it after the fact at guest services (in order to do it properly, you have to do a return and rebuy), the cashier, and all the guests behind this guest, is basically stuck waiting.
 
These are the same inconsiderate shoppers who go to a store & wait until the final total comes up to search for their cash, credit card or checkbook. They must be standing there hoping the total comes up $0.00 & they won't have to actually pay!

Maybe the app should be more clear about how to save coupons before you shop & suggest bringing up the barcode while you are standing on line?
 
90% of the people are really good about it...especially if they know they can scan stuff ahead of time to search for the items as they shop. The other 10% either cannot figure out how to work the program or figure everyone can wait while they ask the cashier to tell them what they bought so they can go through it item by item.

And since you can't do a missed coupon on it after the fact at guest services (in order to do it properly, you have to do a return and rebuy), the cashier, and all the guests behind this guest, is basically stuck waiting.

Seriously? Just do a store coupon. 99% of the reasoning for cartwheel is to get people into the store.
 
And since you can't do a missed coupon on it after the fact at guest services (in order to do it properly, you have to do a return and rebuy), the cashier, and all the guests behind this guest, is basically stuck waiting.

I just do a "fix a mistake" on it and process as a wrong payment. Back out of the tender screen and just scan the cartwheel and then redo it. Of course, just have to be careful with credit/debit guests... But we get a lot of people who purchase a LOT with Cartwheel or those people who "forget" what was on Cartwheel so this really helps.

If the person is nice or if I have other people waiting, I'll just take scan an apology coupon in "fix a mistake." Usually covers the Cartwheel discount plus the waiting time for the guest.
 
Maybe the app should be more clear about how to save coupons before you shop & suggest bringing up the barcode while you are standing on line?

But why do this when it's a great "Vibe" moment for team members? ;)

I do wish the app would have a tutorial or something for new guests. While most of my team is knowledge and can answer most basic questions about the app, we have a lot of TM's who do not have smartphones or know a lot about technology, so they refer those guests to the front... And clog up my lanes!
 
Pro's of Cartwheel:
-I use it a lot and with my discount, you can get some good steals
-Easier then paper coupons because the chance of cheaters/scammers is limited by POS automatically

Cons of Cartwheel:
-Guests need to be handheld in using it for the first times... Why can't they figure it out for themselves or at least try? I can understand some questions, but I find it ridiculous when people can't even just browse through it without help
-Guests unaware of the number of offers they can accept at once
-Guest unaware of expired offers
-Guests unaware that they need to pick what offers they want
-Guests who forget to tell cashiers (plus the cashiers that forget to ask guests)
-Guests who wait at the last minute to pull it up (though my cashiers are getting better at asking at the beginning of the transaction)
-Guests who get their panties in a twist over the 5% discount they *may* have missed
-The fact you can't see where Cartwheel was applied until after the receipt prints (guests want to see it now!)
-Executives thinking selling/teaching guests about Cartwheel is a wonderful "Vibe moment"... We were told to be "basket creepers" and see if any items were on Cartwheel and say to the guest "Oh I see that you are buying *item*, did you know it is on Cartwheel today?" Would love to see a male TM do that to a female guest purcahsing bras or underwear haha.

I will say, I live in a market with Meijers... Meijer has a similar program called "MPerks" and it works the same way as Cartwheel. Customers have to pick and choose what coupons they want... It was also released before Cartwheel (at least a year or two) so when I get a confused guest or they ask, I just tell them it is like MPerks and they usually say, "Oh I use that! I get it now!"
 
Not everyone can connect via their cellphone provider inside a store & the store's wifi leaves a lot to be desired at times.

So another con is that too often it takes forever for the app to load if it loads at all.

When I use the app, I usually try to bring up the barcode before I get to the checklane.

Lately, in grocery, it seems like it's mainly Market Pantry deals & not so many brand name items offered. Most customers will get better sale prices at their regular grocery stores.
 
As a cashier, the most annoying thing about Cartwheel is that sometimes it will temporarily freeze up the registers. This usually clears away in 5-10 seconds, but in the fast-paced and impatient world of retail, that seems like several minutes. If someone is going to take a while scrolling through their Cartwheel, then usually you can just suspend the transaction and that will stop the speed clock. Then, when they're ready, you can scan the suspend slip (but if they have lots of items, the transaction will take several seconds to come back up).

Most Cartwheel users are pretty tech saavy with it, so it's not a big deal. Before, you had to scan Cartwheel at the end of the transaction or it would crash the system and you'd have to start the transaction all over again (but now you can scan it at any time during the transaction, although I've found that fewer freeze ups happen when you scan it at the end). Every now and then someone will have something on their Cartwheel and it doesn't take it off, so if it's not a huge percentage you can just adjust the prices for those items down yourself.

Cartwheel users don't bug me; extreme couponers do, but only the rude ones who get defensive and are typically trying to scam you.

As a shopper, I really like using Cartwheel. I saved some cash on curtains this week, and you can stack the CW offers with one Target and one Manufacturer's coupon. With what Target pays, every penny counts.
 
We were told to be "basket creepers" and see if any items were on Cartwheel and say to the guest "Oh I see that you are buying *item*, did you know it is on Cartwheel today?" Would love to see a male TM do that to a female guest purchasing bras or underwear haha.

"Yes, hello, I saw you have boobs, would you like to use them to save some money today?"

That doesn't sound like it could be misconstrued at all...
 
90% of the people are really good about it...especially if they know they can scan stuff ahead of time to search for the items as they shop. The other 10% either cannot figure out how to work the program or figure everyone can wait while they ask the cashier to tell them what they bought so they can go through it item by item.

And since you can't do a missed coupon on it after the fact at guest services (in order to do it properly, you have to do a return and rebuy), the cashier, and all the guests behind this guest, is basically stuck waiting.
My GSTL's instructed us to just manually calculate the percentage and do them a store coupon. If you return food items it damages out food without being able to void the labels and messes up our inventory, so we always just calculate the total amount then do a massive store coupon and override it if need be. Royal pain in the a** still. But at least it makes our inventory more accurate at the end of the day.
 
There's no reason for them to be scrolling for 3 minutes in line if they do it right and are prepared. There's a single barcode that gets all of their coupon collection at once! When I cashier, I prefer cartwheel to coupons. With coupons I have to scan each one, then if their little binder isn't organized, they have to find those coupons too, and if something says the coupon is invalid, I have to investigate and ask them to show me the qualifying item they say they have.

As a guest, cartwheel is life. I love it. I'm usually prepared. The only thing that might take time is sometimes I use the coupons from the target app in addition to those in cartwheel. But still, less than a minute to get all my barcodes up and scanned.
 
Oh and when I'm in the fitting room, I do tell people about it. Sometimes they're amazed and love it. Sometimes they think it's cool it they don't wanna do it now because they don't wanna delay checking out. Last person I told was amazed. She downloaded it after she left the fr and then she came back 10 mins later like "omg this is awesome. There's coupons in here for stuff I already had in my cart!"

I think iPhone users can add the barcode to passbook so it doesn't have to load up when they go to use it. Android users can add the barcode widget to their home screen. Once it loads the first time, I believe it stays there even when they don't have a signal (I just tested it in airplane mode and it hasn't disappeared). Telling them that could be helpful. Also, they can print it out.
 
Maybe the app should be more clear about how to save coupons before you shop & suggest bringing up the barcode while you are standing on line?

But why do this when it's a great "Vibe" moment for team members? ;)

I do wish the app would have a tutorial or something for new guests. While most of my team is knowledge and can answer most basic questions about the app, we have a lot of TM's who do not have smartphones or know a lot about technology, so they refer those guests to the front... And clog up my lanes!

I don't have a cell phone and feel kind of useless when a guest asks me a question about Cartwheel. Because of this, I wish there was a way to see how cartwheel really works and then I could help guests better.

One thing that really is a pain is when guests have a gift card on their phones....and they've no idea how to get the e-card to work. I certainly can't help them with this long and awkward process.
 
It is also very annoying when the guest uses cartwheel and nothing comes off after you total. I wish that they could get this fixed.
 
Pellinore, I would let any TM who asked have a chance to play around on cartwheel on my phone so they could get a better feel for it. Unfortunately, most of my cashiers just do the, "the guest has a question and I don't know anything about it, so you explain it to them" thing.

I hate electronic gift cards. Most guests cannot figure out how to convert it to a useful barcode, and the event code is one number too long, so that doesn't work, so then I have to call the gift card people to get a correct code. Thankfully we don't get many of them, but I once got two of those in one night...what a pain.

And yes, it seems like we are getting a lot more things that cartwheel is not taking off lately.
 
Maybe the app should be more clear about how to save coupons before you shop & suggest bringing up the barcode while you are standing on line?

But why do this when it's a great "Vibe" moment for team members? ;)

I do wish the app would have a tutorial or something for new guests. While most of my team is knowledge and can answer most basic questions about the app, we have a lot of TM's who do not have smartphones or know a lot about technology, so they refer those guests to the front... And clog up my lanes!

I don't have a cell phone and feel kind of useless when a guest asks me a question about Cartwheel. Because of this, I wish there was a way to see how cartwheel really works and then I could help guests better.

One thing that really is a pain is when guests have a gift card on their phones....and they've no idea how to get the e-card to work. I certainly can't help them with this long and awkward process.

Have you tried it on your laptop or PC at home? I look for items while at home and add them to my cartwheel. I look for deals so I can match up coupons and cartwheel. So much easier on the laptop and at home. You can print out your cartwheel and bring it in also. I tell people this because not everyone is phone savvy or has a cell phone or a smartphone. At least if you saw it on your computer you'd have some idea of how it works. :)
 
Since my phone is a not-so-smart-phone I pull it up on my kindle HD. Works pretty well for me. When I still worked at tgt I would just print it out for my husband to take with him.
 
Pellinore, I would let any TM who asked have a chance to play around on cartwheel on my phone so they could get a better feel for it. Unfortunately, most of my cashiers just do the, "the guest has a question and I don't know anything about it, so you explain it to them" thing.

I hate electronic gift cards. Most guests cannot figure out how to convert it to a useful barcode, and the event code is one number too long, so that doesn't work, so then I have to call the gift card people to get a correct code. Thankfully we don't get many of them, but I once got two of those in one night...what a pain.

And yes, it seems like we are getting a lot more things that cartwheel is not taking off lately.

Oh god don't even get me started on the e-gift card people.... Probably one of the 20 reasons that caused half of us to drink after work! lol.
 
I think iPhone users can add the barcode to passbook so it doesn't have to load up when they go to use it. Android users can add the barcode widget to their home screen. Once it loads the first time, I believe it stays there even when they don't have a signal (I just tested it in airplane mode and it hasn't disappeared). Telling them that could be helpful. Also, they can print it out.

This. Passbook also works on an iPod Touch. I use Passbook to call up my Cartwheel and mobile coups.
 
For Cartwheel, Best Practice is to do a wrong price adjustment for 'ad substitute' so if they try to return the item, it does not give them back more than they paid. Doing a return and rebuy isn't a bad option but if it's food - the system will automatically toss the item.
 
There's a way to bypass that actually, even with food - do it as a double scan instead of a regular return. The system basically treats it as a paper return, so inventory counts are adjusted properly but it thinks no merchandise was actually utilized so it won't auto-defect anything, and K7 sell item on the return screen does work. You can do quantity adjustments on double scan too, and if only one was sold it will still work, it's not limited to 2+.
 
Price adjustment doesn't sound like best practice since it negates the actual usage of Cartwheel. I would stick to return rebuy if it's not for food.
 
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