Archived Constructive Suggestions!

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One other suggestion...

If Target can estimate the Price Accuracy workload 2 weeks out, then they can definitely estimate a certain amount of hours for the PTM workload! They need to come up with a workcenter (call it merchandising?) that they can put hours into that reflects the amount of time they want us to spend working on PTM aisles! Every store either under does PTM or over does it, and Target gives almost no direction on the amount of time it should be taking to do this! Its part of the transition process and they allocate hours to every other step in it, why not this part? I am talking about their workload of putting up MPG labels, working out dcoded product, and the initial remerchandising of the aisle (upkeep of this should go to the zone team)...

AMEN!!! Our Stl wants us to put pulls in for every single label that goes up on Monday since he believes this is what is supposed to be done. I asked why they give us a choice as to whether we want to or not and he said it doesn't matter. If we don't it affects our scores. These weeks of 70-80 labels are killers since we have to put in the pulls (even needs fills are big sometimes), pull them and work them. When I asked about initial remerchandising he said it was the salesfloor's responsibility and the tl's job to oversee it. OK. Soooo....how come this is in the IS team workload then? Who is at the bottom of the hill it's rolling down?
 
we have had days where the pda wasn't working in the morning, and we ended up not scanning or sorting and just pushing the whole truck. I thought it was a horrible idea based on stocking areas like chemicals, is there anybody else that disagrees with it?

Idk if it's more efficient or not, but def was not fun.
 
2. PPA forms would be printed on the front of every planogram, to eliminate having to copy all the information to another sheet by hand.

PPAs need to go back to being part of Online Planogram. I miss the days when you could do PPAs, and tie planograms straight from workbench. I can type in the field for Online Planogram much faster than I can write out all of that information by hand, especially when it's all yes, yes, yes, yes, NA, NA done...

For those who weren't around then:
When you bring up a POG in OLP there is a check box and then you can select "View POG" or "Pre-Tie POG". In the olden days (up until 4 years ago) you also had the option for PPA or Tie Planogram.

When you would do PPAs it brought up the form with everything ready to go and radio boxes to let you select yes or no, along with a comments field if you needed to add anything.
 
PPAs need to go back to being part of Online Planogram. I miss the days when you could do PPAs, and tie planograms straight from workbench. I can type in the field for Online Planogram much faster than I can write out all of that information by hand, especially when it's all yes, yes, yes, yes, NA, NA done...

For those who weren't around then:
When you bring up a POG in OLP there is a check box and then you can select "View POG" or "Pre-Tie POG". In the olden days (up until 4 years ago) you also had the option for PPA or Tie Planogram.

When you would do PPAs it brought up the form with everything ready to go and radio boxes to let you select yes or no, along with a comments field if you needed to add anything.

sounds nice.

any thoughts about a tablet style device somewhat reminiscent of the MSAs? but that works and stuff? that has planograms built into it with PPAs, etc? dreams.....
 
If the white label with the price was printed before the item went on clearance, then the guest can see how much it was marked down. Then you won't have guests arguing (as much) with cashiers about whether or not the "30% off" is from the original price (yes) or the ticketed clearance price (no!!!).

When the white label prints and it's on clearance it's the clearance price. So if they mark it down even more then you have an old clearance price on the white ticket and a new clearance price on the red clearance ticket which is even more confusing.
 
we have had days where the pda wasn't working in the morning, and we ended up not scanning or sorting and just pushing the whole truck. I thought it was a horrible idea based on stocking areas like chemicals, is there anybody else that disagrees with it?

Idk if it's more efficient or not, but def was not fun.

We did it twice in a row ,and it was murder !everything in chemichals was bowled out ,we could not even step in some aisles ....it was just stupid !
 
When the white label prints and it's on clearance it's the clearance price. So if they mark it down even more then you have an old clearance price on the white ticket and a new clearance price on the red clearance ticket which is even more confusing.

Oh ok, I was overlooking the fact that the item is already on clearance. At my store, if Guest Service is re-tagging an item that is on clearance, they just put the clearance sticker on the tag instead of bothering with the white label (then cashiers just type in the DPCI).

Not that it really matters much (I'm just curious), but if an item is currently on clearance, is there any way to find out what the original price was if it's not written on the item?
 
sounds nice.

any thoughts about a tablet style device somewhat reminiscent of the MSAs? but that works and stuff? that has planograms built into it with PPAs, etc? dreams.....

If they would just send out iPads with the MSA software on it, I would be in love instantly.

Pinch to zoom, retina display, instant access to color product images, zoom to be able to read hard to read peg schematics. We can only dream.

The funny thing is that you could buy 2 iPads for the cost of what 1 MSA used to and it would be 100x more usable. OMG battery life more than 45 minutes!!!
 
If they would just send out iPads with the MSA software on it, I would be in love instantly.

Pinch to zoom, retina display, instant access to color product images, zoom to be able to read hard to read peg schematics. We can only dream.

The funny thing is that you could buy 2 iPads for the cost of what 1 MSA used to and it would be 100x more usable. OMG battery life more than 45 minutes!!!

Like hell they would allow underpaid team members to have access to something that desirable. Not to mention the battery life on that crap would be abysmal after a couple months of constant use and charging. And oh hey, look at that, the batteries aren't replaceable.
 
Not that it really matters much (I'm just curious), but if an item is currently on clearance, is there any way to find out what the original price was if it's not written on the item?

If the clearance ticket prints out, it'll show the orig price & - in the upper rh corner of the tkt - the percentage off.
 
Sounds so stupid and small but : Putting a photo on the front of each box/carton/bin in the fixture room of the correct fixture for that one. Our fixture room gets sorted all the time, and is locked, yet it still looks completely chaotic and messed up..... Perhaps something so simple as a photo could help people in putting stuff away where it is supposed to go. It drives me insane whenever I need a fixture for my dept, having to hunt for ages to find one when I know we have plenty there is just 1 in perhaps every box in the room! arrggghh!!!

Specialized "sortable" carts for the reshop at GS. Perhaps just some sort of dividers we could put in there, so the A+B cart could be sorted into A and B .... and with smaller sections for stationary etc. We used to keep cosmetics and jewelry separate, but they just started chucking it all into the softlines and A+B carts, so having a section of the cart devoted to that would make life so much easier, and make putting it back out so much faster.

Designated PDA's for each workcenter. I am so sick of all our PDA's vanishing within the first 5 minutes, and people hiding them. I would love for them to work out how many each workcenter needs, we started locking the cabinet and signing them out, but only 5 or so people actually do it. It drives me crazy when I need one to do my job or task and have to chase down an LOD for them to chase down a PDA for me, I spend 15 minutes just doing that some days. :\
 
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Sounds so stupid and small but : Putting a photo on the front of each box/carton/bin in the fixture room of the correct fixture for that one. Our fixture room gets sorted all the time, and is not locked, yet it still looks completely chaotic and messed up..... Perhaps something so simple as a photo could help people in putting stuff away where it is supposed to go. It drives me insane whenever I need a fixture for my dept, having to hunt for ages to find one when I know we have plenty there is just 1 in perhaps every box in the room! arrggghh!!!

Specialized "sortable" carts for the reshop at GS. Perhaps just some sort of dividers we could put in there, so the A+B cart could be sorted into A and B .... and with smaller sections for stationary etc. We used to keep cosmetics and jewelry separate, but they just started chucking it all into the softlines and A+B carts, so having a section of the cart devoted to that would make life so much easier, and make putting it back out so much faster.

Designated PDA's for each workcenter. I am so sick of all our PDA's vanishing within the first 5 minutes, and people hiding them. I would love for them to work out how many each workcenter needs, we started locking the cabinet and signing them out, but only 5 or so people actually do it. It drives me crazy when I need one to do my job or task and have to chase down an LOD for them to chase down a PDA for me, I spend 15 minutes just doing that some days. :\
We have designated pda for each workcenter ,we have to sign them out ,but pdas have been found in the compactor ,in the transition repacks ,in carts etc ...but the flow team is to be blamed for that !
I do not want a walkie ,for a very simple reason ,I do not want to be found ! I do not want to go for back up either !!!!!
 
We have designated pda for each workcenter ,we have to sign them out ,but pdas have been found in the compactor ,in the transition repacks ,in carts etc ...but the flow team is to be blamed for that !
I do not want a walkie ,for a very simple reason ,I do not want to be found ! I do not want to go for back up either !!!!!

Im always the one going up it seems. I believe if you have a walkie.... and are not with a guest you should go up... it shouldnt matter if you are pricing/pog whatever..... Its got to the point if someone offers me a walkie now, I grudgingly say yes, because I know yet again it will only me who responds. gets so annoying.
 
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Im always the one going up it seems. I believe if you have a walkie.... and are not with a guest you should go up... it shouldnt matter if you are pricing/pog whatever..... Its got to the point if someone offers me a walkie now, I grudgingly say yes, because I know yet again it will only me who responds. gets so annoying.
I used to go upfront too ,dropping everything I was doing ,and 99% of the time there was no need for back up ,until the gstl and gsa know what the heck they are doing ,I will just stay where I am !( without a walkie !!!)
 
Sounds so stupid and small but : Putting a photo on the front of each box/carton/bin in the fixture room of the correct fixture for that one. Our fixture room gets sorted all the time, and is locked, yet it still looks completely chaotic and messed up..... Perhaps something so simple as a photo could help people in putting stuff away where it is supposed to go. It drives me insane whenever I need a fixture for my dept, having to hunt for ages to find one when I know we have plenty there is just 1 in perhaps every box in the room! arrggghh!!!

Specialized "sortable" carts for the reshop at GS. Perhaps just some sort of dividers we could put in there, so the A+B cart could be sorted into A and B .... and with smaller sections for stationary etc. We used to keep cosmetics and jewelry separate, but they just started chucking it all into the softlines and A+B carts, so having a section of the cart devoted to that would make life so much easier, and make putting it back out so much faster.

Designated PDA's for each workcenter. I am so sick of all our PDA's vanishing within the first 5 minutes, and people hiding them. I would love for them to work out how many each workcenter needs, we started locking the cabinet and signing them out, but only 5 or so people actually do it. It drives me crazy when I need one to do my job or task and have to chase down an LOD for them to chase down a PDA for me, I spend 15 minutes just doing that some days. :\

I remember reading awhile ago that each store could set up smart sort how they wanted and could sort it how they liked. So if your store has more abandon in a certain area you could use tiered carts for that area. We sort Softlines, A/B, Cosmetics, C, See Spot, D/E, F, Electronics, Seasonal, and Market. We use a basket that is ziptied to the top of the A/B cart for cosmetics. I can't even imagine just throwing all that small stuff in to the A/B cart. Seems like it would be a huge waste of time trying to reshop that cart. Maybe you could suggest this to your TL?
We sort See Spot into a hand basket and when it's about half full we call the GSTL to have it worked out. If it gets full before the come get it and the C cart is full we place the basket on the bottom of the cart and push it out to be worked.
 
We have designated pda for each workcenter ,we have to sign them out ,but pdas have been found in the compactor ,in the transition repacks ,in carts etc ...but the flow team is to be blamed for that !
I do not want a walkie ,for a very simple reason ,I do not want to be found ! I do not want to go for back up either !!!!!

Honestly, team members like this frustrate me SO bad. We are all there to take care of the guests and by you not responding and "hiding" is just making someone else's day worse. We have team members that ALWAYS respond and it gets old when they are the ONLY ones that will come up. When they're not there we have to call for a back up 2-3 times and that's when the ETL's get on the walkies. I think it's a bit ridiculous when we have 3 ETL's and our STL on the lanes but yet no team members will come up. It's your job to provide great guest service and by you not responding to back ups is not doing your job.
 
Honestly, team members like this frustrate me SO bad. We are all there to take care of the guests and by you not responding and "hiding" is just making someone else's day worse. We have team members that ALWAYS respond and it gets old when they are the ONLY ones that will come up. When they're not there we have to call for a back up 2-3 times and that's when the ETL's get on the walkies. I think it's a bit ridiculous when we have 3 ETL's and our STL on the lanes but yet no team members will come up. It's your job to provide great guest service and by you not responding to back ups is not doing your job.

I agree that everyone who is able to should go up for backup. They ensure everyone in the building is cashier trained, and apart from a few TM's who cannot leave their workcenters everyone else should go up. I know its mostly salesfloor TM's first, but we are an ULV so often there will be just 1 or 2 salesfloor TM's in the day, and we dont have walkies all the time. I have never heard the POG/ pricing/ instocks team offer to go up, even when I say im with a guest, it takes the ETL's over the walkie calling ppl by name to go up. its crazy.

It just gets so frustrating when it seems im always having to drop whats in my hands and go up, today I was in the backroom, and asked if anyone was closer, no reply, so dropped what was in my hands and went up.... got off, came back. Then they called again, I went back up, which by the time I got there the guests had already been checked out. Then they wonder why my work is rushed or not completed in allocated time. argghhh.

If I have just been up and they call again, I will sometimes give it 5 seconds to see if anyone else responds, but surprise surprise they dont, so back up I go. :( okay rant over.
 
I remember reading awhile ago that each store could set up smart sort how they wanted and could sort it how they liked. So if your store has more abandon in a certain area you could use tiered carts for that area. We sort Softlines, A/B, Cosmetics, C, See Spot, D/E, F, Electronics, Seasonal, and Market. We use a basket that is ziptied to the top of the A/B cart for cosmetics. I can't even imagine just throwing all that small stuff in to the A/B cart. Seems like it would be a huge waste of time trying to reshop that cart. Maybe you could suggest this to your TL?
We sort See Spot into a hand basket and when it's about half full we call the GSTL to have it worked out. If it gets full before the come get it and the C cart is full we place the basket on the bottom of the cart and push it out to be worked.

We have A+B, C+D, E+F, Seasonal and grocery .... we did used to keep jewelry and cosmetics separate, but they wanted guest service cleaned out, so they literally dumped the drawers into the A+B cart.... thus breaking make-up in the process. I did mention it to one of my TL's and she said she'd "look into it".

I guess its one of those things they would have to ensure EVERY TM knew about it being organized and tiered, else it would just keep getting chucked in together.
 
Im always the one going up it seems. I believe if you have a walkie.... and are not with a guest you should go up... it shouldnt matter if you are pricing/pog whatever..... Its got to the point if someone offers me a walkie now, I grudgingly say yes, because I know yet again it will only me who responds. gets so annoying.

I mostly agree with this, but the majority of the tms do not realize that the instocks team is a time-based team. We have 2 people to scan the entire store in 4 hours. We have to do 68 tasks in an hour - do the math and you'll realize why it is difficult for us to go up for backup until after 11. After that, we always respond. Before that, we respond after the salesfloor tms do not. It's not unusual for us to not complete our task list. It is usual to be completely frustrated by the lack of response from others during that time.
 
I mostly agree with this, but the majority of the tms do not realize that the instocks team is a time-based team. We have 2 people to scan the entire store in 4 hours. We have to do 68 tasks in an hour - do the math and you'll realize why it is difficult for us to go up for backup until after 11. After that, we always respond. Before that, we respond after the salesfloor tms do not. It's not unusual for us to not complete our task list. It is usual to be completely frustrated by the lack of response from others during that time.

I understand that, I do it from time to time and know how tight the time frame can be, especially with the new changes.

Yeah, I get the frustration. They have pretty much had me cross trained everywhere and its funny seeing how each team gets annoyed by the other mini teams etc, and how just the little things you dont even think about, will make someone elses job more difficult or annoying. However as most of us know we are all always extremely busy, rushing about doing a million things in not enough time, so fast service just irks me when the same people always go up and others never respond.
 
Sounds so stupid and small but : Putting a photo on the front of each box/carton/bin in the fixture room of the correct fixture for that one. Our fixture room gets sorted all the time, and is locked, yet it still looks completely chaotic and messed up..... Perhaps something so simple as a photo could help people in putting stuff away where it is supposed to go. It drives me insane whenever I need a fixture for my dept, having to hunt for ages to find one when I know we have plenty there is just 1 in perhaps every box in the room! arrggghh!!!

I will get you the part number tomorrow to order a lovely batch of stickers with part numbers and pictures. I have a couple brand new sets in my file cabinet, just waiting for my STL to find me some hours to clean and re-organize.
 
I will get you the part number tomorrow to order a lovely batch of stickers with part numbers and pictures. I have a couple brand new sets in my file cabinet, just waiting for my STL to find me some hours to clean and re-organize.

oh wow so they exist ? niiiiice !! I know some of the boxes have a vague image on, but an actual photo would just be so helpful. Wonder why our POG/pricing TL hasnt got them up, her and her team are the ones who organize the fixture room, so figured she'd want them, she's been with spot 10+years so figured she'd know about them too. hmm. well TY in advance :D

at Least my little cosmetics fixtures section can be organized and stickered even if the rest isint :D
 
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Well it's drawings, not photos. And it's fairly limited--cosmetics won't be getting much love, if I recall correctly. But it's the best they've made for us.

However, you do bring up a good point about actual photos being better... Why don't you partner with AP or HR (one or both should have a camera you can borrow) and take pictures yourself? Have the photo lab print them up for you, and the cost to the store is almost nothing. I think I'm gonna do that myself actually. Thanks for bringing this up! Hahaha.
 
Honestly, team members like this frustrate me SO bad. We are all there to take care of the guests and by you not responding and "hiding" is just making someone else's day worse. We have team members that ALWAYS respond and it gets old when they are the ONLY ones that will come up. When they're not there we have to call for a back up 2-3 times and that's when the ETL's get on the walkies. I think it's a bit ridiculous when we have 3 ETL's and our STL on the lanes but yet no team members will come up. It's your job to provide great guest service and by you not responding to back ups is not doing your job.

Maybe if more TM were scheduled during the day ,maybe there would be more of them responding to back up! when I am in the backroom ,and run to the register for nothing ,that is a problem!because frankly our gsa and gstl do not know when to ask for backup! we are a very ulv store! and 1 cashier and 1 gsa scheduled until 2 pm...it is ridiculous!
besides,there are not enough walkies ,every tl,etl ,stl hr have one,and only 5 other ones are left! it goes to hl,sl,ftro,instock and backroom ,in all we have 17 pda ( ridiculous!!!).
I did my share of running all over the place! and be chewed out because a guest on the floor pushed that little red button ,and nobody could answer it! well,I was stuck on the register for 25 mn!!!!!
guest comes first ,on the floor, at the register ,they can wait for 2 mn !!!!
 
It is not the fault of other team members what the schedule is. You said that you hide and don't want to come up. It is best practice for a back up to be called when there is 1+1.. whether you think they can wait or not is besides the point. this is your job and quite frankly if you don't want to do your job you shouldn't be working there anymore.
 
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