Archived I threw away a header

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I've done like four or five salesplanners this morning aand I guess on one of my trips to the trash I accidentally threw away one of the headers for the endcaps. My TL is acting like the end of the wworld and has since been very short and rude wwith me...but he himself said they could just order a rreplacement and purines of the generic LPP ones up... Is it as big of a deal as he is making it?

And not relates but somewhat. If we just throw old headers away when we are done with ththem, could I take one home? We just took down a Lalaloopsy one and I know my 3 year old would go crazy happy if I brought it home
 
You're not supposed to take home any of the ones that have copyrights like toys, movies etc.
Do people do it?
All the time.
Is it worth your job?
You can look up the original planogram and get the number for the header you threw away to order it.
Is it a big deal?
It can be, if the vendor comes in they will whine if they don't see it.
 
Ah okay I wont risk iit then, thanks! I still dont think me accidentally tossing it is worth tthe rudeness though :/
 
I've done like four or five salesplanners this morning aand I guess on one of my trips to the trash I accidentally threw away one of the headers for the endcaps. My TL is acting like the end of the wworld and has since been very short and rude wwith me...but he himself said they could just order a rreplacement and purines of the generic LPP ones up... Is it as big of a deal as he is making it?

And not relates but somewhat. If we just throw old headers away when we are done with ththem, could I take one home? We just took down a Lalaloopsy one and I know my 3 year old would go crazy happy if I brought it home



Don't ever take home signage... especially if it is something with a big name brand.

There are three reasons for this:

1. Target might have a contract with the vendor that forbids transfer of ownership of the signage.
2. Target & the vendor don't want people selling their signage for a profit. (some of the collectors out there are literally willing to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars for in store signing.... simply because it is so hard to obtain)

and the most important reason to you....

3. AP can easily construe it as internal theft. When I was an electronics TL, I used to have TMs beg me all the time for permission take home "cool" signing. I told them no, and that I couldn't give them permission even if I wanted to. This happened all the damn time. (hell, I even had guests do it.... and then some of them would throw a fit and demand to talk to the LOD over it) Sad thing about it? Occasionally we had TMs see the signs in the trash and say "Oh they are trash now so I can take them home" and they would end up termed for theft. Sad, but AP at your store can do it.

Basically, you never want to do anything that AP could even potentially use against you. When I was an electronics TL, I never bought anything from my store. Literally. I never once bought anything the entire time I was a TL. Why? That's how I became a TL.... or at least had the job become open. When I was an electronics specialist, my TL came back to electronics after clocking out for the day and asked for me to pull a TV from the back for him that was on sale.

A few days later he was termed. Why? AP said he was "holding" a sale item (it was the last one).

Well, I happen to know it was bull sh**. I was the one who took the TV back and located it earlier in the day after a guest decided not to purchase it. It was on location and available for guest to buy the entire day. When I went back to get it, it was on location. My TL never had anything to do with the TV the entire day, and he never asked me (or anyone else) to take it off location/hide it for him or anything like that. The TV was available and on location. Yet, they still said he was "holding" it for himself and that when I put it back there it was so it could be "held" for him.... even though I put it back on location after a guest decided he didn't want it and had nothing to do with my TL.

Our STL had always disliked him, and it was an easy way for them to get rid of him.

The problem is, when you are a TL (especially in electronics) you are in a position of authority and control.... so it becomes much easier for AP to say that you arranged things in the department for your advantage, even if you didn't. I told myself I would never even give them the chance to do something like that to me... and I never bought anything at my store for years from that point on.
 
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I had swarms of teachers asking for the bunny signing after Easter. They wanted to use them for bulletin boards, classroom décor, etc. I told them it was licensed & we were under orders to make sure it was destroyed. They were aghast & tried to talk to the ETL who told them the same thing a little more succinctly.
 
The not being able to take home signs thing is ridiculous. It is literally going into the baler to be smushed between a thousand other pieces of cardboard, never to be seen again. I've taken home a sign after getting permission from the LOD AND the AP-TL.
 
The not being able to take home signs thing is ridiculous. It is literally going into the baler to be smushed between a thousand other pieces of cardboard, never to be seen again. I've taken home a sign after getting permission from the LOD AND the AP-TL.

I always let folks take the 'Target' signs and for a long time take the other ones as well.
Then we got a new HR ETL who announced that she would be enforcing the copyright sign rules.
After that I didn't want to risk anybodies jobs by giving it to them.
We did have ETLs take them though so ... hypocrisy.
 
I always just tell everyone to ask the LOD. Unfortunately that then prompts the LOD to immediately call me. As the signing specialist it is my job to know and to say that because of copyright laws and licensing, we cannot give out any signing (actually it is that we are required to destroy any signing, but guests take that really hard and usually use the fact that it is trash to push harder for it). So, if you ask me, I have to say that, or technically I wouldn't be doing my job. I always refer to the LOD though because really whatever they says goes, and they can overrule me. I used to get a mixed bag of answers, but now they all default to me. I always feel like I'm ruining everyone's day, but I don't want to get fired, and I would hate to see someone else get fired for taking a sign out of the trash.
 
I always just tell everyone to ask the LOD. Unfortunately that then prompts the LOD to immediately call me. As the signing specialist it is my job to know and to say that because of copyright laws and licensing, we cannot give out any signing (actually it is that we are required to destroy any signing, but guests take that really hard and usually use the fact that it is trash to push harder for it). So, if you ask me, I have to say that, or technically I wouldn't be doing my job. I always refer to the LOD though because really whatever they says goes, and they can overrule me. I used to get a mixed bag of answers, but now they all default to me. I always feel like I'm ruining everyone's day, but I don't want to get fired, and I would hate to see someone else get fired for taking a sign out of the trash.

<sigh> I wish people would stop saying "copyright laws" prevent giving away signs. Copyright laws *only* prohibit people from *reproducing* something that is copyrighted. Unless you are actually manufacturing whole new signs in store, you are not violating copyright laws.

Giving a sign to a guest may violate a *licensing agreement*. This is a *contract* between Target and whoever gave them the signage, and there could potentially (but not always) be a clause in that contract that prohibits Target from giving the signs to someone else. Because stores do not have access to the text of these contracts, no one at the store level can make the determination whether or not giving away a sign violate the contract. Yes, that includes the STL. The fact is, they simply don't know what the agreement says.

(FYI - you have entered licensing agreements probably dozens or even hundreds of times your self. Ever install a piece of software? Usually you have to accept a licensing agreement. This is basically restricting what you can do with the software. For example, when you install Windows Home edition the licensing agreement may say that you agree only to use the software on a computer at home and not at a company.)

Now, could Target "get in trouble" if a TM gave away a sign to a guest? Sure, but only so far as the company the sign belonged to decided to take the matter. The most the company could do? Take Target to civil court for breach of contract. This is because violation of licensing agreement (a contract) is a violation of civil not criminal law. Now, in reality, would a company be stupid enough to do that? Would that company dump thousands of dollars down the drain in litigation expenses AND risk ending a very lucrative business arrangement with Target over a sign? Extremely unlikely. And what could the company hope to gain? In civil court you have to prove damages. Could that company legally prove that they were "damaged" because a random TM gave away a sign to a random person? Probably not.... at least not more than perhaps the cost of the sign. So maybe after dumping thousands of dollars in litigation costs, they might get compensated for the cost of the sign. Maybe 25 cents.

So, take the software licensing agreement I mentioned. Totally unknown to you, you probably have violated the terms of software license agreements more times than you could count. (have you ever actually read the 100+ page contract you agree to when you install software before clicking "I Accept"?) But, do that company ever sue you? Absolutely not. Could they? Hell yes. But to whose benefit? So they can dump thousands in litigation expenses to possibly get a small cash sum from you? Or so they can cause themselves a PR nightmare for suing the poor end user who was ignorant they violated some clause in their agreement?

The fact is, licensing agreements basically exists as a way for companies to cover their ass in the case of real a** holes who want to completely screw them over. For example, take some clever IT guy who decides to buy up 1000 copies of Windows 7 Home edition and install them on 1000 corporate computers for his company. Windows 7 Home edition costs way less than Windows 7 Enterprise edition. He could have just easily cheated Microsoft out of $300,000. Is he getting sued? Yup. If you have a small business with 2 or 3 computers at home and technically should be installing Windows 7 Pro according to the agreement and not Home, are you getting sued? Nope.

Nevertheless, in the corporate world, being known for not doing your utmost to meet your contract responsibilities is terrible for business.... and if it became a pattern (i.e. hundreds of stores were doing it all the time), then yes, litigation might occur.

Like I said before, the biggest risk is to the TM not Target.... because that TM could easily be nailed by AP for causing "loss" to the company, and they could even twist it to theft for giving away company property. (which, btw, is a violation of criminal law not civil law.... so unlike the IT guy that ripped off $300,000 above and only gets sued with no nail time, you, the retail worker making minimum wage and "stealing" a 25 cent sign, go to jail. Lesson here? White collar crime pays.)
 
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I get your point about the licensing agreement stateoftarget.
In my case I was using shorthand so folks could understand the difference in the signs.
Anything that is copyrighted would have a licensing agreement with Spot and that's why they don't want the signs floating around.
The stuff Spot comes up with is owned by Spot.
 
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