MEGATHREAD Hang Me (The Softlines Thread)

There's more to it. You have to walk guests to their fitting room, offer to carry their things to the room for them, ask if they need different sizes and go get them if they need it. Idk how those of you who have to man a phone manage to do all of this all the time. They don't let us leave when we're answering the phones, so it's hypocritical. We all feel the walking to fitting rooms and holding their stuff comes off a little "hey, I'm your prison guard, and here's your jail cell!" I wouldn't want that if I were trying things on. It's like we're treating everyone like criminals. And the walking back and forth to get them items (most people don't want this, so it's not bad at the moment) just takes you away from your real work... sorting the damn reshop.

Our closing FR attendant doesn't have to do the RTW Zone and I don't think they put away abandons (idk what that refers to. We don't call anything abandons at my store.) If it's a day where the fitting room isn't busy at night and we're not behind on unsorted (typically we aren't, but the past 3 days, we have been), they'll do RTW tables and clearance, but it's not their responsibility.
 
Disclaimer: I'm not a fitting room attendant. They just schedule me there occasionally, but I swear I won't walk any guests to their rooms or offer to get things for them. If they ask, I usually just go if we're not busy. I don't even count the stuff half the time and I never give out numbers (we only have 1s and 4s lol. It's too embarrassing to hand out a bunch of 1s or a combo of 4s and 1s)

Edit: you also have to "vibe" by asking if they're shopping for specific events and offering alternative items. Most of our attendants don't see anything outside of the portions of RTW that are right outside of the fitting room, so good luck with that.
 
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There's more to it. You have to walk guests to their fitting room, offer to carry their things to the room for them, ask if they need different sizes and go get them if they need it. you also have to "vibe" by asking if they're shopping for specific events and offering alternative items.
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Do you also get them champagne and massages?
Spot is trying to make it seem like they have a high end experience without making any kind of investment.
They do understand that the woman in the stores who are sooo attentive to your every need are getting a bonus if they sell you that dress?
Or they own the shop and will be paying the rent.
I could understand these policies if Spot wanted to provide the hours but once again they have come up with something that will be ignored because it is physically impossible with what they provide.
 
I am a FRO, who mans the phone the entire shift. I have always counted and given number tags out, I have always engaged the guests in small talk(I think it limits the stealing), I have always checked fitting rooms at least twice a shift. I will look for sizes for a guest if it's nearby (and I will always check our reshop) and we have nobody on the floor. Because I see all of the reshop as I am sorting it, I can tell somebody if we have certain items. People will ask my opinion and I will give it but tell them that I am no fashion icon. I also am the only FRO who consistently does rewraps, tags, defects each shift. There are times when it can be overwhelming...but it's usually a non-softlines tm, and not the guests, that sends it into that realm. I WILL NOT hold their clothes, I WILL NOT check the fitting rooms after each guest because I am more worried about the ones who will sneak in while I am doing that(had at least one of those tonight). I also will help zone shoes, men's and plus/maternity when it is quiet and/or I am done with the fitting room duties. I can't imagine not doing these things each shift, the fitting room would be so much more boring.
 
We count and give out number tags. My store DOESN'T HAVE any, though. Except 1s and 4s. Giving out multiple 1s or a combo of 4s and 1s is just embarrassing. It makes it look like Target doesn't give a fuck and can't afford to equip their stores. So, I personally don't do it when I'm in there. Not much theft goes on when I'm in there, so I don't think it's hurting us. We used to check the fitting room every 15 minutes, though. We haven't done it that often because they stopped giving us the sheets to write it down, but still something like 1x per hour at least. Definitely small talk, but I don't push things on them and I admit when something's fugly. I told Target in my interview that I wanted to leave macy's because I hated feeling like a manipulating asshole. I'm not gonna do it. I offer up my opinion, but not the way the training sheet does it. I don't see why they should be going in and out for things that aren't near when they don't schedule them for enough hours to get the rest of the job done in the 1st place. That's what walkies are for. And how would they hear the phone ring if it's our turn for the phone? (they don't do nightbell or whatever anymore)

We don't have any of the little plastic taggy things that go in the gun lolol. So we have a million gloves and socks just sitting around waiting to be reattached to each other.

I'm not saying you should silently point out where the fitting rooms are, because that's just dumb. I'm saying the pushing crap, walking back and forth for sizes, walking in and out with guests to the fitting room, extensive chit-chatting with each guest (am I the only person who doesn't wanna talk to sales people when shopping? If I do, I'll initiate, damn.) takes away from the more important stuff which in my opinion is getting all that stuff prepped to go back on the floor. You're also either superwoman or your FR isn't as busy as ours is.
 
TL DR Our Fitting room attendants in my store weren't completing the workload often enough that it just makes 0 sense to me to add these rules. Maybe it'll work out in the stores that are less busy. (and no, I don't know what volume the store is.)
 
sher said:
We count and give out number tags. My store DOESN'T HAVE any, though. Except 1s and 4s. Giving out multiple 1s or a combo of 4s and 1s is just embarrassing. It makes it look like Target doesn't give a fuck and can't afford to equip their stores. So, I personally don't do it when I'm in there. Not much theft goes on when I'm in there, so I don't think it's hurting us. We used to check the fitting room every 15 minutes, though. We haven't done it that often because they stopped giving us the sheets to write it down, but still something like 1x per hour at least. Definitely small talk, but I don't push things on them and I admit when something's fugly. I told Target in my interview that I wanted to leave macy's because I hated feeling like a manipulating asshole. I'm not gonna do it. I offer up my opinion, but not the way the training sheet does it. I don't see why they should be going in and out for things that aren't near when they don't schedule them for enough hours to get the rest of the job done in the 1st place. That's what walkies are for. And how would they hear the phone ring if it's our turn for the phone? (they don't do nightbell or whatever anymore)

We don't have any of the little plastic taggy things that go in the gun lolol. So we have a million gloves and socks just sitting around waiting to be reattached to each other.

I'm not saying you should silently point out where the fitting rooms are, because that's just dumb. I'm saying the pushing crap, walking back and forth for sizes, walking in and out with guests to the fitting room, extensive chit-chatting with each guest (am I the only person who doesn't wanna talk to sales people when shopping? If I do, I'll initiate, damn.) takes away from the more important stuff which in my opinion is getting all that stuff prepped to go back on the floor. You're also either superwoman or your FR isn't as busy as ours is.
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our attaching guns needles are all broken...I will gladly send you the attaching thingie's....we have 8 extra boxes I think. Somebody needs to order new numbers...they don't take all that long to come in. You are right that would be ridiculous to give them a combo of numbers. I give my opinion honestly....but I will say something just isn't right for the person (wrong color for example) rather than say it's fugly...though the guests and I will go on about the butt ugly choices they have for the limited plus size section.

My store is not ULV but it is definitely not super busy, except for right after work and Friday and Saturday nights. I am not super woman but do my job well and I know it (I also make mistakes, I am human and will admit it)
 
Sher, walkie Guest Service and ask them if they have any of the tag things. They should have a tag gun up there too, so they may have the things. Have you asked your TL or ETL about ordering more numbers?
 
They've been ordering numbers for the whole year I've been there. We had a few of each except 6 when I got there, then we had no numbers at all and now we have a bunch of 1s and 4s. They know about the lack of tag things. I'm on a staycation now haha, but if there are still no tag things when I get back, I'll ask again.

SL in my store has just been getting the short end of the stick a lot, lately. Some days we have a total of 4 people for the whole day on the floor. A few times, recently, they scheduled the fitting room in a way that there was only one person in there from 3 or 4 til around closing.

I still think you're superwoman, though haha. I think half the women I work with are superwomen (they do it all, quickly, without huffs or puffs, despite all the b.s.), so maybe I just give the title out easily. I'm only actually good at folding, I'm good at putting reshop away until they change the plano or whatever. I'm helpful and friendly, but if guests are snotty and inconsiderate, lately, I can't find my ability to kill em with kindness. I think that's my biggest issue with the new rules. 60% of the guests don't deserve to be treated so well.
 
sher-softlines gets the short end of the stick in my store on a lot of things. On that number thing...we are having the same problem with the headband holders, we don't even have a whole row so when a POG says to do two rows (as the new girls xhilaration accessory POG does) I have to stuff 50 headbands on an area meant for maybe 20.

I am one of the few tm's who picks up hours so the last few weeks I have been helping with adjencies (or however it's spelled) and setting POG's...you should see the ETL's faces when they see me on the floor versus the fitting room...it's priceless.
 
I got one of my TL's to move our whiteboard that says the guest's name and item number, and then my other one made us move it back because it's not brand for it to be in sight. I get where they're going with the FR, but there's so much traffic, that it's like, I can't vibe with every guest and tell them the same thing about getting other sizes. Complain, complain, complain, but we work really hard, guys.
 
Sounds like they're trying to make it more "upscale". I worked at a women's clothing store for a couple years that had us do exactly that. Not counting items so much, but bringing other sizes, checking on them, and bringing accessories to make the sale. At least you don't have to push the redcard there.

If these rules had been implemented before I left, this would have forced me out the door early. There's too much to do back there without having to add all that extra stuff. It's enough to juggle the phone, counting items, rewrap, reshop, and zone.
 
The new fitting room rules I got didn't say anything about walking guests to the rooms or checking after each individual guest. Maybe I misread, we stay so busy that I hardly have time to read it while I'm working, much less have time to do that. Half the time I'm taking a phone call while counting guests into the fitting rooms. It did say we needed to be pushing redcards back there, though. I'm not sure when or with what context. I barely feel comfortable harassing people about it when I'm on a lane, no way am I going to do it when they just want to try on a t-shirt.

At my store the fitting room attendant is also the operator. I don't know how I'm supposed to get them other sizes of items that I don't even know the locations of, especially when I can't leave the desk in case someone else needs a fitting room or the phone rings. And I get plenty of guests who would happily sneak into a room when my back is turned for half a second.

Speaking of locations, does anyone else have a store where they have completely scrambled up RTW? On nights that I close, I always help put out reshop after the store is closed. It used to be simple enough because things were sorted more or less by brand, so I could tell roughly where an item belong and just have to wander around in a small area trying to find the specific location. Now all the brands are mixed up and it's nearly impossible to put things away, especially if you haven't been out on the floor that night.
 
littlewhiterat-all of our usual RTW team member's have complained about the messed up state of RTW. Last year all of the sweaters together which makes (some) sense....the other mixing up is just to screw with us peons.
 
If you guys get confused, you can always check out the adjacency floor maps. Sometimes we won't be able to set it 100% to the map, but it's usually close, at least the fixture positions. There should be a sweater shop up in your RTW now which screws up re-shop for awhile since brands mix in there. I get lost in RTW a lot because I work a chunk of overnights, then go back to dayside for awhile. Things change frequently, but I've set every RTW adjacency for the last few months in a 24 row store, so at least I know where stuff is for a couple days :\


* I read back a couple pages about the new Fitting Room rules. I haven't heard about that yet. Yikes. I man the fitting room once and awhile when the FR person is on breaks. Answering phones when there's no one in TSC, counting clothes, and greeting guests is bad enough as it is in an insane store like mine. Our FR was told by district (during a visit, no less) to up the item limit from 6 to unlimited. Each guest could bring in as many items as possible, which is nuts. Our ETL team brought it down to 12ish items. We already had numbers 1-6, so now we looped a bunch together to make 7-12 (3+4, 4+4, etc). Sometimes our fitting room gets so busy that one person ends up manning the phone while the other handles guests. The only time the FRO has any time to leave to zone/reshop (and it's only plus, maternity, and men's basics) is like five minutes before close.
 
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sher said:
I hate those Mossimo Black dressy tees so much.
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So glad I'm not the only one! My SL-ETL decided for awhile that we would hang them as we didn't have enough to properly fill a 5 level shelf anymore. We were all so happy :3 ... and then we got a fuckton in. And they went back to the shelves on convertibles. And I died a little.
 
HappyBunnyFlower said:
sher said:
I hate those Mossimo Black dressy tees so much.
Click to expand...

So glad I'm not the only one! My SL-ETL decided for awhile that we would hang them as we didn't have enough to properly fill a 5 level shelf anymore. We were all so happy :3 ... and then we got a fuckton in. And they went back to the shelves on convertibles. And I died a little.
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My co-worker and I just laughed over this for awhile because I think everyone hates it. I can't wait until they're gone... but if you fold them up into three folds, they should be better.
 
I can fold them and get them to look pretty good, but if I have to lift others up to put one in in order, it doesn't look good anymore. *whispers* I leave those shirts out of order when I fold them
 
Hey everyone. I will be joining as an ETL sl and I was wondering if anyone could give me details or tips of the job.
 
KunciJay said:
Hey everyone. I will be joining as an ETL sl and I was wondering if anyone could give me details or tips of the job.
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I suggest keeping up with your softlines team - great communication is the key, especially in such a tight knit family. I wish my SL ETL checked in with what was working and what wasn't more often. I'm sure you'll do great!
 
Appreciate the advice. I'll keep that one ready to use when I'm in the job.
 

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