MEGATHREAD Hang Me (The Softlines Thread)

[PackAndCry]

Can anyone explain to me why SL hanging isn't in location in the back but the folded has to be?

I wonder if this'll change now that hanging softlines goes down the aisles instead of on the hanging bars. It'd certainly make replenishment easier. I've heard rumors that some stores somehow had backstocking for hanging softlines enabled, but I've never seen any evidence that it was true. I think the idea was that the high hanging bars are so jammed full that having them in location would have been difficult, but with the new way of organizing them I really hope it changes.

 

[IcePeasant]

Are sets in SL supposed to be located? ie: tieing a VA to an aisle? I always thought this was true.

 

[SpilledTea]

I wonder if this'll change now that hanging softlines goes down the aisles instead of on the hanging bars. It'd certainly make replenishment easier. I've heard rumors that some stores somehow had backstocking for hanging softlines enabled, but I've never seen any evidence that it was true. I think the idea was that the high hanging bars are so jammed full that having them in location would have been difficult, but with the new way of organizing them I really hope it changes.

At my store at least (we're in the middle of remodeling our backroom) the hanging isn't going to be located.

 

[Tessa120]

I. Hate. Baby. Food. I hate it. Hate, hate, hate. Shards of glass everywhere and goop that is not liquid enough to be easily wiped up with a paper towel but not solid enough to be scooped up with a paper towel.

 

[SigningLady]

I. Hate. Baby. Food. I hate it. Hate, hate, hate. Shards of glass everywhere and goop that is not liquid enough to be easily wiped up with a paper towel but not solid enough to be scooped up with a paper towel.

That's when you are supposed to use Xsorb to clean up spills. Available in the spill stations on the salesfloor and will help solidify liquids for easier clean up and to minimize any liquid left on the floor to avoid slippery spots.

 

[Luck]

At my store at least (we're in the middle of remodeling our backroom) the hanging isn't going to be located.

My store has it all located. If we were doing non-locs we would just stuck with the upper racks. In fact we got permission from our DTL to continue using them for items we might not want to have pull and so on. So far the system seems stupid to me as a BR TM. Half the entire aisle is dedicated to hanging and yet there is so little hanging that doesnt just go straight to the floor that its practically worthless. Maybe down the road spot plans on ramping up the hanging freight but as it stands I have the equivalent of 2 aisles near empty and the half aisle allocated to us for boys/girls/NIT is stuffed to the brim with folded. I showed my BR TL how bad it is and he agreed we need to get rid of most if not all hanging locations for that aisle and just make it all wacos.

 

[can't touch this]

The other day I had a pull that sent me to the softlines wacos. Apparently they're stowing baby clothes in the softlines wacos now so this was the very first time that I've had to go to the softlines aisle to pull.

Holy thundering Zeus, what fresh hell is this. First I had to pull out 4 fully loaded carts and Z-racks of backstock to even get down the fucking aisle. Many pairs of pants hanging on the cart handle, dragging across the filthy backroom floor and getting caught in the wheels. Then when I finally find the waco I need, it takes 10 minutes per DPCI because there are literally 9,000 different sizes stuffed into each waco. Many MANY tags getting snagged in hangers. I made it to "30 out of 189 tasks completed" before realizing that I would probably qualify for retirement benefits before this was ever finished so I said "WELP I'M OUT" to nobody in particular and got the eff out of there. At long last I have found something even more horrifying than cashiering on Black Friday. YIKES.

 

[countingsheep]

Whelp our time had come the fancy new white racks have been tsken away (less than 4 months after finally getting thrm) anf now among every other task we are told to get reshop every 15mins both from the front and thr fitting room and push it all immediately. Also we are being timed in our zones and are being tasked with deep zoning while foing reshop and truck. We have lost 4 more tms since the changes this weekend. I have seen spot do ALOT of changes but this to me is just insane.

 

[SpilledTea]

Why were they taken away?

 

[countingsheep]

They said its part of modernization? They want nothing at the fr our stl is working taking the desk completely out as well. We have heard rumors about it all year but they finally implemented it.

 

[Yetive]

Brand new remodels still have a desk.

 

[SpilledTea]

Oh, you had them parked at/in the FR? We have them, but they're for reshop, only. No vehicles parked there, at all.

 

[countingsheep]

Yeah we had three at the fr one for guests to hang on. One for rtw and mens reshop and one for the other areas expect kids thst went in a three tier. Now we have no racks, no three tiers, and are no longer allowee to use carts to zone or do reshop or truck. We literally are tasked with physically grabbing reshop from the fr and front every 15 mins. While only using u boats and tubs for truck. No other vehicles period. Its insane.

 

[SpilledTea]

We have metro racks with wacos for truck push, hopefully you'll be getting those soon because it makes pushing the truck a lot easier. The reshop thing has been a continuous struggle for my team, unfortunately.

 

[Tessa120]

So you grab reshop every 15 minutes to keep from having to use carts or use the fitting room as a staging area. But when and where do they expect you to get it in a condition suitable to go on the floor? Guests don't bring the stuff back in pristine condition perfectly hung on a hanger. Reshop requires hangers, size tabs, tag guns, folding surface, sometimes even tape. And what happens when a guest brings back the unwanted stuff from a baby shower? I've seen those returns fill two shopping carts so high you can't see over the boxes on either cart.

 

[vendordontmesswithme]

Just where are the new racks (they a a little basket on the bottom) supposed to go when not in use? Oh I know the backroom where there is so much open space.

 

[Tessa120]

How do you all manage to keep the off-stage fitting room area clean? Areas like the closet, on the desk and under the desk?

I work about 30 hours a week, likely operator for most of that, and everyone else has over 100 hours a week to stash stuff there. Anonymously too, no one with the authority sees them put it there so no one with authority tells them to not put it there again. I am not physically there at all times to tell them nope. I don't have time to keep the fitting rooms and clearance clean, sort and put reshop, zone RTW or men's or sleepwear, and clean up everyone's crap by taking a cart or two full of fixtures and signs to the fixture room and backstocking all the stuff that doesn't have a set date yet (which at times has been 3 repack boxes full). Plus people just forget stuff exists. I was told that some merchandise had to stay on the desk because there was no location, and it stayed. Last night I scanned it and it's had a location for weeks. But no one who was setting the planogram came to collect them, and there's no actual physical setup for them in that area.

I've actually had a bit of a bickering match a couple times over keeping the area clean. Once I was told to clean the closet, given time to make it sparkling clean, and I was told that no fixtures were to go back into it. Got the closet done an hour before the end of my shift, and 5 minutes before the end of my shift another TM arrives with a cart full of fixures and starts unloading them. The closet hasn't even been clean for an hour, and had it been 10 minutes later all my work that day undone. I said nope and she said "Fine, you take it to the fixture room then." Another TM put some opened, partial underwear packages on the desk and I said nope, take it to GS for salvage and she said that it had to be on the desk.

It's like everyone understands the expectation that the desk and closet should be clean, but in their minds it's no one else should put stuff there, but they need their stuff easily accessible and therefore it has to be on the desk or in the closet. Every time I do have time to ditch the fixtures people act like the world is ending next time they need a fixture.

So yeah, for those who have limited hours in the store, how do you keep the area looking good?

 

[countingsheep]

I feel like we are behind in actually implementing alot of the changes like this. No

So you grab reshop every 15 minutes to keep from having to use carts or use the fitting room as a staging area. But when and where do they expect you to get it in a condition suitable to go on the floor? Guests don't bring the stuff back in pristine condition perfectly hung on a hanger. Reshop requires hangers, size tabs, tag guns, folding surface, sometimes even tape. And what happens when a guest brings back the unwanted stuff from a baby shower? I've seen those returns fill two shopping carts so high you can't see over the boxes on either cart.

Oh thats something you have to figure out on your own. I asked about that and got told I need to adapt quicker and have a more positive attitude. All I asked was what the best suggested way to grab overflowing reshop and prep it would be. So just figure out or get fired is the answet to this :/ we lost 4 more apparel over this 1 of which was hired last week. Our stl is going to rip out the desk so all we have is the closet back there so we will be tasked with entering the fr every 15mins asking if everyone in would like other sizes or options (like we even know what they went in with anyway) and grabbing the reshop ij the rooms and running them out.

We are literally going to look more like a thrift store than ever. Our white racks are supposedly being stored somewhere but the grapevine says they are being trashed instead so who knows. Cant wait till black friday and hell forbid halloween.

 

[SoftlinesTM2018]

A question for all of you fellow softline TMS, which areas do you think get the most love at your store and which seem to be neglected and need some serious TLC? At my store Shoes and RTW gets all the attention and Men's is neglected even though Men's for the year so far has sold more than RTW.

 

[countingsheep]

Honestly shoes and infants are thr only ones thst get consistent work. Everything else is a bad yard sale

 

[Black Sheep 214]

Oh thats something you have to figure out on your own. I asked about that and got told I need to adapt quicker and have a more positive attitude. All I asked was what the best suggested way to grab overflowing reshop and prep it would be. So just figure out or get fired is the answet to this :/

That’s lack of leadership. Any leader who criticizes how you are doing your job should have the knowledge to answer your questions about how they expect you to do it better. 🙄

 

[countingsheep]

Thats been our whole modernization so far. No leadership no explanations just coachings and firings for not getting done what we didnt know we should do. If you do reshop but not truck you get talked to. If you start truck but not reshop talked to. If you are deep zoning you get talked to we dont do that anymore. If your zone looks like hell you arent doung you job even though truck and reshop are clean and you helped 17 guests and was thr only one backing up.

This situation at my store is beyond a shit show its down right dangerous to your mental state. There is a reason not one new hire has lasted their first 30 days here and going into Q4 I dont see much changing.

 

[Black Sheep 214]

Thats been our whole modernization so far. No leadership no explanations just coachings and firings for not getting done what we didnt know we should do. If you do reshop but not truck you get talked to. If you start truck but not reshop talked to. If you are deep zoning you get talked to we dont do that anymore. If your zone looks like hell you arent doung you job even though truck and reshop are clean and you helped 17 guests and was thr only one backing up.

This situation at my store is beyond a shit show its down right dangerous to your mental state. There is a reason not one new hire has lasted their first 30 days here and going into Q4 I dont see much changing.

Sounds very familiar. My boss would give contradictory instructions so that whatever direction you followed, you would be in trouble for not following the other one. No wonder people are fleeing at every opportunity. What a way to run a business...into the ground.🙄

 

[RightArm]

So, when we got into that "no cart" phase... you MUST use "approved vehicles" on the floor (u-boats, 3 tiers, metros, and flat beds if neccessary) it got really difficult at first because we just didn't have enough vehicles to go round. TMs were getting yelled at for resorting to carts and when they said "WHAT do you want me to use?" they'd get "DON'T USE CARTS!" One of our ladies who pushes truck in Infant Hardlines was telling me she was so FED up with it. Our HRETL overheard us talking, stepped into our line of vision, and said, "That's because we don't know; we don't have the answers." Sad... I said, I don't mind being corrected if I'm doing something wrong SO long as you tell me HOW to get it done the right way that works. Otherwise, no... just no. I am a rebel who will eventually get fired if I step on the wrong toes and I don't care and they know it. I will use approved vehicles IF they are available and I DO look to make sure I use them IF I can. But if there are none, RightArm grabs carts. No way in heck am I losing time to get my job done based on stupid corporate idiocy. Target is known for getting the cart before the horse ALL the time and eventually the horse gets run over by the cart before the order corrects itself (IF that's possible).

 

[redeye58]

I will use approved vehicles IF they are available and I DO look to make sure I use them IF I can. But if there are none, RightArm grabs carts.

All the 3-tiers were being used today so I used a Uboat to take a single box of cups out.
One. box.