MEGATHREAD Hang Me (The Softlines Thread)

Jenna120 said:
Why is there so much in the back compared to the floor? Could extra racks be put on the floor?
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Sadly, no. We have limited space for swim and they send us at least two racks per truck. We just can’t sell it fast enough!
 
Yetive said:
We are a smaller store, but swim is the one hanging item we don't "backstock". We leave it, sorted by brand, on z-racks in back. They get pushed a few times a week.
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I wish we could do this but we don’t have enough Z-racks. :(

PackAndCry said:
Our team pulls down a hanging bar each day and tries to push all of it, and cycles through the 8ish hanging bars of swim we have doing that. Works fairly well from what I can tell. But, ours is also sorted in back by brand, which makes it easier.
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We don’t have enough TMs to do this daily but maybe once a week or something, and sorting it by brand would actually help a lot now that we have room in the back to organize. I will try to organize tomorrow :)
 
L4D said:
I wish we could do this but we don’t have enough Z-racks. :(



We don’t have enough TMs to do this daily but maybe once a week or something, and sorting it by brand would actually help a lot now that we have room in the back to organize. I will try to organize tomorrow :)
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It goes surprisingly fast. Usually takes 2 TMs to pull the things down (one to use the Wave and grab stuff, one to put it on the Z), and one or two to try to push. You'll be amazed how much goes out, especially if you sneak around the 2 per size rule by putting the item in multiple logical spots.
 
Yetive said:
We are a smaller store, but swim is the one hanging item we don't "backstock". We leave it, sorted by brand, on z-racks in back. They get pushed a few times a week.
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I wish we could do this, but both my ETL-Log and his minion SrTL would have a stroke. I mean, I get that they want a clean backroom, but we have no rafter space left for RTW and swim.

I really just need a good routine. I'm new to A+A and they just kinda threw me in the deep end.
 
L4D said:
Crazy question: is there an efficient way to restock swim? We have three times as much swim hanging in the backroom than we do on the floor and when we run out of certain sizes it’s hard to keep track of what we need to pull down so it usually doesn’t get pulled down until it goes clearance.

I really wish there was a way to autofill hanging items but since they aren’t tied, I realize that’s damn near impossible.
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I agree, my store has this problem, too.

I was doing boys cat and jack adjacency and saw there were like no shorts on the floor. I go to the back and there were a ton of shorts back there. Literally for one pair of shorts we only had one size left on the floor and in the back we had like 3-4 of each size. No one has time to fill, although honestly I really think our VM should be trying to stay on top of it, since she's the one doing all the adjacencies.
 
Apparently we had a visit and one of our DTLs told/ordered us to let people take as much as they want into the fitting room. Like even a full cart. APTL is pissed about the change cause anyone with half a brain can figure out that theft will rise with that change. Operators aren’t too happy about it either, for obvious reasons.
 
BullseyeBlues said:
Apparently we had a visit and one of our DTLs told/ordered us to let people take as much as they want into the fitting room. Like even a full cart. APTL is pissed about the change cause anyone with half a brain can figure out that theft will rise with that change. Operators aren’t too happy about it either, for obvious reasons.
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I've been doing that all along and it's not hard. It's actually easier than 6 in, 2 out, 3 in, 1 out, 5 in, etc. You just make them take it out of the cart and leave it behind. Say it's a safety issue, fire and OSHA regulation, in case an emergency requires a quick exit and the shopping cart would be an impediment. Remembering the guest in room 3 has 24 items is no different than remembering the guest in room 3 has 4 items. Just do a careful count in and out. Most people carry things in a way that make it pretty easy to count or will happily put in on the bar for a count, the ones that have them balled up or draped over their arm I offer to help carry and count as I'm taking items from them. Count out, same thing, they usually have the "yes" in one hand, the "no" in the other, and taking a few extra seconds in taking the "no" from them allows for a count out.

I knew that corporate policy is no limit, but I was also told that I could limit to what I thought I could handle. Then early on in me being at Spot, I tried to limit a guest who had 20 items to 10 at a time. She said "You could count in 10, then count out 10, then 10 in again and 10 out again and I would have to get fully dressed again halfway through. Or you could count 20 in and 20 out and I don't have the inconvenience of getting dressed and then undressed." She was right, 20 in and out was just as easy as 10 in and out. Since then, guests love not having to figure out what to take in first and not having to get dressed to try on additional stuff that they had to leave outside the room.
 
@Jenna120 We also have a "no limit" policy at our store and the problem is not remembering how many items the guest has, it's with the fitting room being overcrowded and as the other poster mentioned, theft.

We're no longer allowed to count guest's items or remind them to take all of the items out when they're finished. These are considered "rude questions". So it would be a waste of time to try and memorize how many items the guest has. This of course makes it all too easy for the guest to walk in with 20 items and walk out with 19.

Even if theft wasn't an issue, there's still the issue of getting the clothes back onto the floor. The limit gave us enough time to put the clothes on the hangers properly. With this new policy, we could have a clear fitting room with no abandons, then one guest walks in and plops 20 items they didn't want onto the desk, followed by 2 more guests that do the same thing back to back. And now the fitting room is a mess in a matter of minutes.
 
Not count them? I'm surprised AP hasn't stepped in about that. Not take them out, the few times I have that, I drop everything and clear the room, counting as I do. And if you offer to help carry and escort everyone in personally (in the name of great guest experience), that gives you a sneaky way to count.

And clothes coming in and out 6 at a time really don't take any longer to put back on the floor. So there's 30 all at once instead of stages. There's also far more for the FRO to do than simply hang those 30 items, things that can be done while the guest is trying on stuff instead of having to do after because you're spending the whole time hanging items, resulting in zero time difference for all of the tasks of the day. And the stuff is just going to sit there waiting to be put back on the floor equally long, no matter if it's done in stages or all at once.

I had a woman take in 27 bras once, and with everything going on I was at the desk the whole time she was in the room. 27 bras came out, no question about it. It wasn't until after she had walked away that I realized that she was either an expert at rehanging them, even the ones that I still haven't figured out how to hang the way they are shipped to the store, or she had never tried them on. Likely the latter, and likely waiting for me to step away so she could throw three on and leave the rest. Even if she had only 6 in the room with her if I had stepped away, having that few wouldn't have stopped that.
 
The fitting room is a joke. Why are we in there if we can’t limit items or ask questions? Just so we can stand there looking at the guest as they walk in confused?

I also found out today we aren’t allowed to bring reshop into the fitting room AT ALL anymore. What a joke this place is becoming.
 
L4D said:
Also had a lady last week who brought in 52 items. Yes, 52. Mostly dresses and tops from the clearance. Not even halfway through she said she “had somewhere to be” and left me with the mess.

That was a great day.
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That sounds like what guests do at my store on a regular basis if we don’t limit it to a sane amount.
 
52 is more than I've dealt with, but I've had a couple that were 30 and one that had 31. If anything it was easier than the people that try to breeze past with 4-5 thrown over their arm. They're happy they can take it all in so they go right along with the flow I've set and I can verify the number.
 
Jenna120 said:
I've been doing that all along and it's not hard. It's actually easier than 6 in, 2 out, 3 in, 1 out, 5 in, etc. You just make them take it out of the cart and leave it behind. Say it's a safety issue, fire and OSHA regulation, in case an emergency requires a quick exit and the shopping cart would be an impediment. Remembering the guest in room 3 has 24 items is no different than remembering the guest in room 3 has 4 items. Just do a careful count in and out. Most people carry things in a way that make it pretty easy to count or will happily put in on the bar for a count, the ones that have them balled up or draped over their arm I offer to help carry and count as I'm taking items from them. Count out, same thing, they usually have the "yes" in one hand, the "no" in the other, and taking a few extra seconds in taking the "no" from them allows for a count out.

I knew that corporate policy is no limit, but I was also told that I could limit to what I thought I could handle. Then early on in me being at Spot, I tried to limit a guest who had 20 items to 10 at a time. She said "You could count in 10, then count out 10, then 10 in again and 10 out again and I would have to get fully dressed again halfway through. Or you could count 20 in and 20 out and I don't have the inconvenience of getting dressed and then undressed." She was right, 20 in and out was just as easy as 10 in and out. Since then, guests love not having to figure out what to take in first and not having to get dressed to try on additional stuff that they had to leave outside the room.
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Really GREAT stuff here, @Jenna120 !!! Nice job !! :):):)
 
Curious... how does your daily routine look across softlines. Considering we have to break out truck, push truck, zone, do reshop, get the workload done, and manage the guests. How does it all get done in your store? For us we have a lady who used to be Flow Softlines who continues to break out our truck (most of the time by herself) and detrash and hang. She then pushes zracks into all departments. From there she turns to working on carts while we have two pushers for the racks come in. One manages RTW /Active/Intimates while the other manages all Kids racks. They are supposed to touch up the zone as they put out the hanging. When the truck is done the zrack pushers go to doing reshop. One person manages all the workload for plano and is given help when the sets are huge (if giving help is possible) but otherwise manages alone but when the zone is bad or the fitting room is backed up the person doing workload has to stop and help out. Sometimes this isn't a problem because the sets are light but when they are heavy it means the workload rolls into the next week.

Midshift, we have one person and sometimes two if we get enough hours. If there are two then one does reshop in RTW and the other does reshop in kids and keeps the zones touched up. Usually, however, we are only allotted one and due to corporate mandate they MUST stay in RTW ALL the time.... so then only the RTW reshop gets done.

Close we have one or two people who just work on the zones if they come in late or if they come in for a full shift they start on reshop that's left for the areas they are zoning.

Lately we have had guests trying on oodles of things and buying nothing and we've seen HEAVY traffic for the low volume store that we are.... unfortunately that means carts continuously back up at the fitting room. I wish there was a way to solve this mess. Apparently we need better routines or maybe just a better team. >< Sad thing is that when we get good people in they last a short spell, decide it's not worth it and then quit. The stress levels are high across the board right now and it really sucks.

Just curious what other stores that are "killing it" are doing differently with their routines.... our latest problem is the continuous demand to cut hours from corporate. So not only are we struggling, we're not being equipped to quit struggling. I've been with Target for 12 years now and as time goes on, the more and more I hate the corporate side of this company. They want us to do the full alphabet of work while they only pay for x, y, and maybe z to get done.
 
I need advice on a good alternative. Lately a lot of women have been asking for "house dresses". I know what those look like. We don't have anything like them. To make it more fun, many women are asking on behalf of older relatives so they are dismissing a lot of alternatives because "I don't know if she will like it". If I suggest sweatshirts and sweatpants, they don't want to have to wrestle with the pants. I suggest a shift dress and it's too fancy. I suggest a no pattern shift dress it's cut too "young". When I finally find something that isn't dismissed out of hand, it's too expensive because they just want a house dress.
 
Jenna120 said:
I need advice on a good alternative. Lately a lot of women have been asking for "house dresses". I know what those look like. We don't have anything like them. To make it more fun, many women are asking on behalf of older relatives so they are dismissing a lot of alternatives because "I don't know if she will like it". If I suggest sweatshirts and sweatpants, they don't want to have to wrestle with the pants. I suggest a shift dress and it's too fancy. I suggest a no pattern shift dress it's cut too "young". When I finally find something that isn't dismissed out of hand, it's too expensive because they just want a house dress.
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Mossimo has a lot of t shirt dresses right now. Aren't those house dresses? This one sells pretty well in my store: Women's Ruffle Sleeve T-Shirt Dress - Mossimo Supply Co.™ Burgundy - https://www.target.com/p/women-s-ruffle-sleeve-t-shirt-dress-mossimo-supply-co-153-burgundy/-/A-53276656?preselect=53150613#lnk=sametab
 
I haven't seen that particular style at my store. But similar ones have been dismissed as too short and too expensive.

A house dress is typically worn by older women. It's intended for staying at home, you don't go grocery shopping or get a cup of coffee in it, but since it's outerwear it's not a big deal if your neighbor sees you when you get the paper. It's loose like a shift dress so you don't have to mess with fastenings when it's time to pee, but it's knee length or a little longer (old folks) and made of the cheapest polyester since it's whole purpose is to cover you while you vacuum or wash dishes, which makes the dress dirt cheap.
 
Is there anyone out there doing E2E 100% including pricing. My store is struggling with getting pricing and back-stocking done a regular basis.
 
Jenna120 said:
A house dress is typically worn by older women. It's intended for staying at home, you don't go grocery shopping or get a cup of coffee in it, but since it's outerwear it's not a big deal if your neighbor sees you when you get the paper. It's loose like a shift dress so you don't have to mess with fastenings when it's time to pee, but it's knee length or a little longer (old folks) and made of the cheapest polyester since it's whole purpose is to cover you while you vacuum or wash dishes, which makes the dress dirt cheap.
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My great-aunt (who lives with us) wears these all the time.
She can wear it over a nightgown or a camisole tee depending on the temps; it has pockets for tissue & reading glasses; it's easy on/off because it opens full-length in the front either with zipper/buttons/snaps; they wash up easy & are fairly cheap. I've found most of them at Walmart or on-line.
 
redeye58 said:
My great-aunt (who lives with us) wears these all the time.
She can wear it over a nightgown or a camisole tee depending on the temps; it has pockets for tissue & reading glasses; it's easy on/off because it opens full-length in the front either with zipper/buttons/snaps; they wash up easy & are fairly cheap. I've found most of them at Walmart or on-line.
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That's great that you found them at Wally World. What am I supposed to sell to the guests when they come to Target looking for one?
 
I have no qualms about directing a guest to another store if it's for an item I 'know for a fact' that we don't carry because it's helping the guest find what THEY need vs what I think I can make them settle for.
Quite frankly, Target should expect it to happen more often since their style demographic is so narrow.
 

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