Archived do you think target is losing its appeal?

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sjf10718

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if you haven't read the wall street journal its said that target might be losing its appeal with its core customer base, the company is focusing on food and lower prices that our core customer(higher end guest) feels that target appeal (nice looking home goods and good quality clothes)is not what it used to be..investors are worried that we are not focusing in on our big profit margins (home goods and apparel) and we are at risk or already in alienating our customers and losing them to kohl's and macys since we have posted weak sales in those key areas and have posted weak increase store comps compared to macys that just posted a 7 percent comp..SO I WAS WONDERING WHAT DO YOU THINK IS TARGET IN THE RIGHT TRACK FOCUSING ON FOOD WITH PFRESH OR IS TARGET HEADING THE WRONG DIRECTION?


in my opinion 400 remodels does affect company sales...my city is going threw pfresh and some stores that already have finish their remodel have outperform what the company expected. yes at most store sales are affected but our bp have said that those decreases are quickly dissolve once pfresh is done in a store...now i don't know what to make of that article because in my store right now 7 of our top 10 departments are in soft-lines with comps sales beating last yr..oh and btw my store in not done with remodel...so we will be done in end of july just in time for bts..which all of you know thats soft-lines biggest time of the year=)
 
Not entirely sure... It does seem though that the company in recent years has focused less on being a "high-end" retailer. In my honest opinion Target has become more of a higher priced Wal-Mart. Sorry to say and bring that up on a Target employee site, but its just how I've seen things (here in California anyways).

Now whether or not its going to have a HUGE impact anytime soon, I've got no idea. But one thing is for sure, and that is in my own mind now, after having worked here at Target for a little while now, it has in fact lost its appeal to myself and my family/friends.

But who knows, it could be the right step for them and they could bounce back with their target consumer range (i.e. higher-end people with more money than the average wally-world customer or the average Target employee [LOL]).
 
Sometimes you can fine decent clothing but most of time you can;t find jack. I'd rather spend a bit more and go to Jc penny and get a lot more for my money. Even Kholls, Marsahals and tJ Max (even those last two seem to be aimed at females, they do have mens stuff) matter of fact I bought a winter hat from TJ max but it ended up getting a hole in it. 🙁

Target has the look of a "high end retialer" with their latest look. The home deparments have that Kohls touch with the wood and low profile shelving. I think how well the store is layed out and looks can have a big impact. I think Target should have made all their home deparments have low profile shelving.
 
i think now target has more competition than it did before..target average guest is still 60,000 just that way its been in the pass decade..but i do think that target competitors have step it up with exclusive brands... and with me seeing this innovations in home and beauty and shoes ,electronics i think that target still focus on looking like the high end retailer..but i do think that they just need step in up in these key areas (home and soft-lines)..because in the end how nice the shelf is not whats going to sell whats sitting on top of it.
 
imo, target is not looking towards the future.

sure, when it was kmart and wally world, it was easy looking neat, clean, and attracting new customers. now there's more competition, and they all took a page from our book. heck, most of them have hired our specialist and tls.

just this year, our city has opened ross, bb&beyond, burkes, childrens place, publix, eyemart express, all right next door. our best hltm who couldnt get promoted here because of not having a degree, is now a mgr at burkes. our gstl is now the store manager at home depot. our domestics tl is now the asm for bb&b. our co specialist is now the manager at eyemart. each one took a little piece of the target brand with them. each one is improving the bottom line of their new company with training received on target's dime. each one is cutting into our customer base. target needs to learn that long term employees may cost more, but they grow the business exponentially due to the impact they have with loyal customers and interaction with newer team members. pay a decent wage, decent benefits. instead of donating a few million a week to charity, pay your tm better so they do not have to use said charity. just think of it as cutting out the middle man.

hire new buyers for clothing, no fat woman needs to wear leopard print, period. no little girls need to look like hookers. the young, hip base target had fifteen years ago is maturing and cant find clothes that are appropriate for them now. target is alienating their core base.

hire new pr people. never allow gregg to talk, email, interview, or otherwise interact with other human beings. he is an embarrassment.

your employees are the best advertisement money can buy. think of it as +350K little target ambassadors. dont piss them off...
 
The store nearest us went thru Pfresh remodel (ours might be later this summer). A TM pal says their sales are on a rollercoaster from last yr - some weeks way high & other weeks thru the floor.
I think the concept is better than the super store prototype 'cause most folks don't wanna spend the whole fracking day in one place walking an area the size of several football fields.
 
P-fresh works. Our sales is great.. Spot will get hours balance for sl & hl. Be patient, things will happen.
 
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My store seems to be losing customers to Wal-Mart. In many of our guest surveys they complain of small selection, lack of full grocery, and high prices and that they go to Wal-Mart instead.
 
thats too bad that sales have hurt at your store...if you are a "light pfresh" then i can see why guest might complain in the selection but if you are a extended pfresh format than their is something going wrong (orders are not done accurate)...who knows maybe your store is just in a market where Walmart dominates ...i live in Houston so it is a really competitive market
 
No in my opinion it is gaining appeal. Although I have never thought of Target being a higher end clothing retailer that was on-par with Macy's or JC Penny.
Although I wouldn't consider myself someone concerned with fashion. My opinion with clothing has been "I'll wear what I like and if toy have a problem with it you can go @#** yourself"(that is about brand as I can keep it 🙂)
 
A p-fresh with a dry goods section that 32 ft or 8 sections per aisle. Plus 3 aisle of freezers 32 feet or 8 sections long. Then the back wall of freezers/coolers that has 32 3 ft sections.
 
Hardlinesmaster said:
Are you a p-fresh with a extended market?
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No, not p-fresh at all, that's probably the problem. Walmart is the best place on this side of town to get groceries, there's only 1 grocery chain competing with it and their prices are outrageous.

We're supposed to go to p-fresh eventually, but I don't remember when. I don't think it's this year though. The Target I work at is small compared to the Walmart in town, so it's tough to get ahead of them unfortunately.
 
I'll be honest... I shop at a Wal-Mart super center.... The selection is bigger and the prices are better.... And with the amount of money I DON'T get paid at Target it's worth it to me...
 
When I worked at Target I hardly spent any of my money at Target stores. It seemed too much like shopping at the "company store" and In the end seemed like I was making less if I shopped Target.
 
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Happy Halloween!
 
I hate clothes shopping and try to buy non brand name labeled stuff. The only clothing I've ever bought from target is T-Shirts (mossimo). Other than that I've never considered buying clothes there. I'm less than impressed with the red polos (fading) and the khaki pants I bought to work in.

We're a SuperTarget but I have no idea where them majority of our sales are. Being in the backroom pulling hardlines/home goods I can't imagine they get us very far. They all feel very cheap and are obviously made in China. On nearly a daily basis I find myself asking "Who buys this crap?"
 
I don't think Target is losing it's appeal, it's just trying to adapt to the new trends in retailing.

Wal-Mart doesn't make the money it is used in general merchandise... Most it's sales are coming from groceries. Kmart has been off the radar in most areas for a few years now... But I think they had apparel and homewares that are comparable to Target, but they have lost too much marketshare and their image has bad enough not to make an impact on Target.

If you look at Target's annual reports, Target's sales mostly come from groceries and HBA items... So they simply adapted with PFresh. Additionally, as more people "show-room" and order items from online retailers, GM sales are getting softer, so they trying to get into a space that drives people into the store at a more frequent pace.

People go in for food, people end up buying the GM stuff, which hopefully increases sales.
 
It's not just Target. It's all the "brick and mortars." Companies like Amazon are blowing the competition away. If Target doesn't adapt, they very well may be the next Sears/K-mart.
 
GlobalJ said:
It's not just Target. It's all the "brick and mortars." Companies like Amazon are blowing the competition away. If Target doesn't adapt, they very well may be the next Sears/K-mart.
Click to expand...

Kmart's issues:
-Not investing in supply chain/inventory management early-on
-Not taking Walmart's threat seriously and allowing them to eat up the "SuperCenter" market
-Not remodeling there stores
-Focusing too much on-line

Things Target has done right:
-Decent supply chain and in-stocks process. I notice far less outstocks in a Target store than I do in a Kmart.
-Target didn't catch the "Supercenter bug" either, but have adapted with PFreshs and keeping the stores smaller than Wal-Mart.
-Target has great looking stores and on rare occasion have I been in a Target that was as dumpy looking as the nicest Kmart I've been in.
-Target has focused on brick-and-mortar stores, but now is starting to turn to multichannel retailing.. But in a way that doesn't sacrifice the stores. Kmart thought all the multichannel stuff would be the magic bullet... But one thing customers and analysts keep faulting them for is the store environment and lack of decent POS technology.

Granted, I've been with Target for a short-time and was with Kmart for several years. But in that short time, I've noticed more things being done right by Target then Kmart could ever hope and dream to have. Target would have to screw up pretty bad to be the next Kmart.

If anything, I could see Walmart becoming the next Kmart..
 
Target is trying to be everything to everybody. What made it special is they knew their demographic and catered to it. Now we are no more special than any other big box retailer. Our employees are just as stressed as Walmart employees. People used to think Target was the best big box retailer to work for. Not anymore. Expect More Pay Less is the motto for the team. I honestly think that most team members work hard every single day. Their reward for busting their asses is less help and a larger workload.
 
Hardlinesmaster said:
In some cases, the property where a kmart sits, is worth more than the building.
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Correct. It's one of the reasons the current majority shareholder took over the company... Real estate values. But I'm sure the real estate market tanking a few years ago didn't help... And if JCP starts mass store closings or GOB's before Kmart/Sears, the market would be over saturated with empty retail boxes.

It is amazing to see differences in sales figures.

One Kmart that recently closed did only 5 million dollars a year (yes, FIVE) while the Target directly across the street is a 40+ mil a year. And what Kmart considers to be "high-volume store" is what Target classifies as ULV.
 
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