Archived Help me be less Target-ignorant!

[Jill of All Trades]

Hopefully you guys can help me out a little with this.

I'm a GSA, and before that I was a cashier and guest service TM. My background before Target is in the hospitality industry. I know front end inside and out, but since I have zero retail background, I am a little hazy on the inner workings of the store. I've read all the acronyms but they don't all make sense to me. Sometimes I feel like I'm not asking the right people the right questions when I'm talking to sales floor and back room.

What I need is a basic description (with acronyms) of how product flows through the store, and a brief job description for non-front-end positions.

Can you help a sister out?

 

[whippingboy]

Hmm... you're asking the motherload. Too bad I only have ten minutes left on my lunch break. The wiki is quite useful though... (link on top of this page)

 

[Circle9]

Here's how product moves around, more or less. At least how it goes at my store:
1) 3-4 times a week a GM (general merchandise) truck comes early in the morning. Flow team unloads truck and sorts some of it to go out on the floor and get pushed, while some of it goes straight to the backroom to be backstocked. There's also a food truck that handles the fresh and perishable stuff. And the vendors (Nabisco, Kellogg, beer and wine, etc) that come in a few times a week and do their thing.
2) Instocks goes around checking item counts. Sometimes they just move product around between its multiple locations, e.g. school supplies from stationary to "back to school" in seasonal. Sometimes they have the backroom pull more product from the backroom and either instocks or salesfloor pushes that to where it needs to go.
3) Autos. I they're called CAFs but everyone just says autos or pulls at my store. Backroom pulls these at the start of the day, then hourly starting at noon until 6ish I think. These are based on sales so if you've got a lot of shopping going on the autos are going to be huge.
4) Reshop. Stuff that guests don't want or returned or just get left in the wrong place. So back to the shelves it goes.
5) Defectives. All the broken or expired stuff has to be tossed out after it's scanned into the system as such. Our store also donates some of its soon-to-be-expired product to a local organization.

I'm not sure how much that helps you; got any specific areas you want to know more about?

What acronyms are you having trouble with? I work in logistics and I can't think of many we use aside from CAFs, PTMs, RIGs (maybe this isn't one? I dunno) and HBA.

 

[PugMuffin]

Well, here's a brief job discription of the salesfloor (I've worked there more often than in other workcenters):
Hardlines/Softlines (General Merchandise/Clothes)
-assist guests with any and all questions they may have
-keep a clean and well-organized store environment (basically zoning)
-keep shelves well stocked with product (pushing product to the shelves from pulls and reshop)
-backup cashier and help other workcenters with their workload when needed
Then there are the "specialties":
Electronics Team Member
-all the duties that regular salesfloor has
-be knowledgeable in the electronics products that the store has so you can better assist guests in your department
-drive AAR (Accessory Attatchment Rate) by "pushing" for attatchments (basically, inform and recomend accesory products that go with a "core" item)
-drive SPR (Service Plan Rate) by "pushing" for service plans
-keep the electronics area well stocked by shooting outs and flexing discontinued product
-inform AP of any suspicious activity and CIHYFS guests to the point of annoyance who are suspected to be shoplifting (that's everyone's job, but it happens in electronics fairly often)
Operator
-same duties as regular salesfloor
-answer calls and transfer them to the appropriate team member/department
-check guests in and out of the fitting rooms
-sort reshop left by guests at the fitting room desk and in the fitting rooms
Consumables/Market
(I don't know much about this because I've never worked in a P-fresh or Super, but from what I've read they work extensively in the market area)

As far as how product flows throughout the store here's a brief rundown:
-Truck comes in and product is pushed to the floor by flow.
-Product that doesn't fit goes back to the backroom and is backstocked by backroom TMs.
-Instocks goes around and checks item counts.
-Backroom TMs pull items from the backroom in batches regularly throughout the day.
-Salesfloor pushes the "pulls" from the batches to the floor and brings the product that didn't go out back to be backstocked.


There's a lot missing from this, I just wanted to bring up the main points. Is there anything specific you're curious about in non front-end positions?

 

[Leonhart621]

BRTMs in my store use "MyFA" rather than the word "flexible fulfillment." A lot of TMs outside backroom are clueless when we use it.

 

[Signkitty]

Brief description of signing incoming.

There are two different categories for signs. Promotional which are the ad signs and ISM, In Store Marketing.

Promotional signs arrive in three different batches, the circular box, temporary price cuts and ad correction. The circular box and the temporary price cuts normally come early in the week and get worked together. The correction normally comes friday and then needs to be mixed in. There is also an ad prep report that needs to be ran on Friday or Sat before the set. Ad set up varies by store.

ISM is every other sign.

The specific duties of the signing tm seems to vary by store. Personally I do a lot more with the ISM and making sure things are set right then the ad.

 

[Jill of All Trades]

What do CAF and ISM stand for?

Thanks for the replies guys. I realize I'm asking for a lot of info and I appreciate the effort you've put into your replies!

Also, what is "the line" and what does "bowling" entail?

 

[Circle9]

What do CAF and ISM stand for?

Thanks for the replies guys. I realize I'm asking for a lot of info and I appreciate the effort you've put into your replies!

Also, what is "the line" and what does "bowling" entail?

The line's in the Receiving side of the backroom, where the trucks and vendors come in and out. At our store there's a conveyor line. This is where the action happens when a truck's being unloaded. When there isn't a truck they tend to put pulls, pallets, bales, vendor product, etc on both sides of it. Bowling is taking a pallet or other vehicle of freight and pretty much throwing boxes down the aisles they go in. Or I guess you could do it with more care and place them near where they go, also known as "breaking out." Its not something you normally see going on unless its a truck day and people are working in that area because apparently guests don't like seeing a bunch of boxes on the ground.

 

[PugMuffin]

What do CAF and ISM stand for?

Thanks for the replies guys. I realize I'm asking for a lot of info and I appreciate the effort you've put into your replies!

Also, what is "the line" and what does "bowling" entail?

CAF stands for "Create Auto-Fill" and ISM stands for "In-Store Marketing."

 

[Noiinteam]

Check out the wiki and the guides. Wealth of information.