I am new here, hello all. I have not been at Target very long but have observed quite a bit. Just a little background: I'm on Flow. I do everything from unloading the truck to regular pushing, backroom stocking, pulls, planogram, ad set, cooler/freezer truck (basically all of market really) so I have experience doing quite a bit. Our store does pretty decent volume, not huge but definitely not small.
My question/venting is about Flexing and having Filled Aisle's. My ETL is big on having aisle's look full all the time and I have a small issue with this (which I of course have brought up to him and even the STL many, many times) and want to get the opinions and thoughts of others on this to see if maybe I am not seeing something.
The first thing is I completely understand why they want end-caps filled: It does look a lot nicer and flexing those isn't an issue, they're just a small 4-foot section and it isn't a big deal. My issue is flexing in aisle's to make it look full.
The idea behind it seems flawed to me and so does the execution.
#1: The reason the ETL gives for flexing to look full is because he says when people look down the aisle and see it's full they're more likely to go down it. In my opinion, a shopper goes down an aisle that says "Canned Goods" because they want canned goods. Whether one whole shelf is empty, spotty or completely filled, I don't think, in my opinion, that person will care at all. I can't imagine a person saying "Well, it's not filled enough for me to go down that aisle."
I can see how corporate would care because it isn't "brand" and that is a reason I can understand, albeit not one I agree with. Empty shelves looks like crap but a few tiny spots I don't think is a huge issue from where I see it, though I could be wrong.
#2: The execution is really the issue. When he has us flex stuff it inevitably is in the spot where other stuff would be, of course. So when that product comes in it now means we have to backstock all the flexed over stuff (more times than not the flexed over product isn't a big seller it seems) and thus creating more work. Also, having more product than what the systems thinks fills the shelf undoubtedly causes the pulls to messup, thus creating more pull time and backstock time.
This wouldn't be so much of an issue if it was just 1 or 2 items being flexed over to make it look fuller, maybe take some behind so the counts aren't messed up and when you push the product that goes where the stuff has been flexed you really won't have much, if any, backstock. But, we're being told to fill it completely with an entire casepack.
This, of course, isn't the end of the world, it's just an annoyance and when it happens to a lot of sections and many aisle's you can imagine the extra work. That alone probably doesn't sound like a lot of extra time, but our TL can't handle any pressure and gets on our case if something literally takes a few seconds extra. And also people in our store think if it's a pull or a push from the truck that there can't be backstock so almost everything is flexed making a big headache.
This turned into a vent/rant and for that I apologize. What do you guys think of flexing to make full? How is this implemented in your stores?
My question/venting is about Flexing and having Filled Aisle's. My ETL is big on having aisle's look full all the time and I have a small issue with this (which I of course have brought up to him and even the STL many, many times) and want to get the opinions and thoughts of others on this to see if maybe I am not seeing something.
The first thing is I completely understand why they want end-caps filled: It does look a lot nicer and flexing those isn't an issue, they're just a small 4-foot section and it isn't a big deal. My issue is flexing in aisle's to make it look full.
The idea behind it seems flawed to me and so does the execution.
#1: The reason the ETL gives for flexing to look full is because he says when people look down the aisle and see it's full they're more likely to go down it. In my opinion, a shopper goes down an aisle that says "Canned Goods" because they want canned goods. Whether one whole shelf is empty, spotty or completely filled, I don't think, in my opinion, that person will care at all. I can't imagine a person saying "Well, it's not filled enough for me to go down that aisle."
I can see how corporate would care because it isn't "brand" and that is a reason I can understand, albeit not one I agree with. Empty shelves looks like crap but a few tiny spots I don't think is a huge issue from where I see it, though I could be wrong.
#2: The execution is really the issue. When he has us flex stuff it inevitably is in the spot where other stuff would be, of course. So when that product comes in it now means we have to backstock all the flexed over stuff (more times than not the flexed over product isn't a big seller it seems) and thus creating more work. Also, having more product than what the systems thinks fills the shelf undoubtedly causes the pulls to messup, thus creating more pull time and backstock time.
This wouldn't be so much of an issue if it was just 1 or 2 items being flexed over to make it look fuller, maybe take some behind so the counts aren't messed up and when you push the product that goes where the stuff has been flexed you really won't have much, if any, backstock. But, we're being told to fill it completely with an entire casepack.
This, of course, isn't the end of the world, it's just an annoyance and when it happens to a lot of sections and many aisle's you can imagine the extra work. That alone probably doesn't sound like a lot of extra time, but our TL can't handle any pressure and gets on our case if something literally takes a few seconds extra. And also people in our store think if it's a pull or a push from the truck that there can't be backstock so almost everything is flexed making a big headache.
This turned into a vent/rant and for that I apologize. What do you guys think of flexing to make full? How is this implemented in your stores?
