Archived I was in Chemicals & Pets the other day

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Since i'm still to Traget. Under a week of total days. I still don't get why they do anything they do yet. I was told i would be working in pets and chemicals stocking the shelfs. Then i was told to face the shelfs while you wait for them to bring a pallet out. This has to be the most donkey backwards thing to do. Pull things to the front so you can just push them back. Waste of energy is what it comes down to. I was working with two other people in that zone.

I would first like to stat out how lazy they are. They skipped over laundry soaps and pet aisle the whole time. But when i walked by an aisle and they had the nerve to say i was skipping an aisle. Note that the aisle how 2 boxes in it and was the one that had pet beds, pet leash and etc. If you ask for help to find something i was told didn't you learn this. I told them i had a 40min crash course on how things work. Then you get the eye roll and the whatever look. What do you want from the new person. I just asked for help. It must be a crime in the store i work in.

When i was stocking the laundry soaps. Since i was only person who didn't skip that aisle. The woolite had a spill that must of been their for a couple of days. I told the team lead about it and was handed a bunch of paper towels and was told to clean it up. I told them i was not trained to clean it up. Then i was told if it not a lake i could clean it up. Then i just put the woolite back on the shelf without cleaning it up. It wasn't my job to clean it & i told the proper person about it.

Cans of cat food can be fun. I had a case of Sheba. I found the spot they went. Low and behold to my eyes. It was filled with the wrong items. Like so many spots in the store. I asked the person who made a big deal about skipping a 2 box aisle. Should i take the wrong item off the shelf and back stock it. So i can fill it with the right item. I was told to just backstock the case and leave the wrong item in the spot. Yea that really happened.

This job blows my mind so hard. It funny just to see how people work and how lazy they are. Let me scan every backstock item in the push cart to see where its goes. I think i was about a good 2-3 mins per item.

I do know one thing. If they loose the use of the scanners. Watching paint dry would be more usefull then the people who work with me. They dont know where anything is. Kinda funny if you think about. Since they work for the Target.

And on a side note. How long does it take you do push 2 very small pallets of pet food bags. To give you an idea on how slow people work. Took more then 3hrs for 1 person to push 2 pallets about 18-24 inches high. Total was about 50-75 pieces.. The person was pulling the 2nd pallet out when i was leaving. A farmer milking a cow does a better job at milking something.
 
Are you flow or opening salesfloor?

The cat food - You were correct. If the wrong item is in the location, it needs to be stocked correctly in its proper location or sent back to backstock and FIFO as well.

For bulky/awkward items - The best thing I can advise is to just fluff or put your hands on everthing. Just make sure the diamonds are covered or the item is to the edge.

Woolite - As a TM, if you see a spill on the floor or shelf, it needs to be taken care of immediately. Failure to clean it up ASAP may result in a future incident. If its a known non-hazardous/non-biohazard chemical or liquid, paper towels or absorbing material will work. If this was not explained at your orientation, then your HR or TL failed to inform you. The only real necessary training only certain TMs will get on spills are for biohazard (pee, poo, fluids, blood, puke, and hazardous materials).

Planogram - Ask your TL for proper training on your store's planogram. You do an Item lookup or LOC on the PDA, you should see something with Aisle# (#) #-#-# (aisle# (type of location) section-shelf-location position). Then then there should be a set of numbers that correspond to the last numbers on the UPC. There will be some weird numbers for Endcaps and displays. But ultimately that help reduce your search time.

Can goods can be very detailed. But the bagged food should be fairly quick. Other than that, there could have been cashier backup or guest service (if the store was open). But also some teams are given so many works to work. If they show they can do the work faster, they can potentialyl lose those extra hours.

Just communicate to your TL that you need proper training.
 
I'm a new flow team member. I havn't even touched a PDA yet.

I had a 4hr orientation and was told that i'm i not responsible to clean up any chemical spills. By the store's HR & the video. I don't have the proper training to clean it. I am only responceable for cleaning up water, juices and things like that.

It was all bag food and this person wan't doing any cashier backup or guest service jobs. It just comes down to being lazy & not caring. But mostly lazy. I had the unload truck/bulk pallets before. I had a 3 stack high of kitty litter, half pallet of bag petfood, 2 full pallets of water that needed to put on the shelf. I got that done and still had time to help with the cosmetic zone of the store before i was done at 9:45.

Dented can of food and open bags of item are still put on the shelfs. Are you still going to say that this is proper way of doing things or they just dont care.

I also forgot to add. I was stocking the deodorant the other day. I found an item that was in 3 different spots on the shelf. It was all was wrong. So i just back stocked it.
 
Their is a quiz you must take before you are allowed/supposed to clean up any chemical spills. So until you take that quiz / I believe it is called "right to know" you are correct to not clean that up. Your team lead should know better.

Putting the dented cans on the shelf is definitely lazy/incompetent.

As a back room team member I hate that backstocking stuff. They have reshop carts up front for a reason. Doing it like that messes up the counts.

edit to say that you will encounter a lot of lazy people while working flow. Don't mind them.
 
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I just have to get used to it.

So instead of backstocking all the items that was in the wrong place. After i properly filled them with the right item. You would want me to take them up front for reshop. If the shelf is already full. What is the piont of making them reshop. Why wouldn't they be backstock. Plus if it was done right the first time. This problem wouldn't be here. For me & you.
 
No, they really can't go in reshop.
That's if you didn't fill them to the right place first.
Most of the time when you're stocking you don't really have time to fix things, you just dump the stuff that's in the wrong place and put the right thing in it's place.
If the right spot is close and empty then it's not a question but all to often it isn't that easy.
Sometimes the spot where it's supposed to go it also filled with the wrong thing.

You should call your TL over to point out the situation.
 
That's kind of what happens when you have a large team full of people making crap pay. For a lot of flow teams, you're scraping the bottom of the barrel for someone willing to work 3-4 measly hours a day for minimum wage. You should still make the attempt to do things the correct way, and blow past everyone doing it incorrectly/slowly.

-Zoning is asinine, mostly for aesthetics. If you're forced to zone, make sure pet food is what you're really going after as it's perishable.
-Your team lead is awful if he actually asked you to clean a chemical spill with paper towels and no further instructions. Things like that have to be cleaned and disposed of properly. You shouldn't be doing it if you didn't take the Hazard test.
-Don't backstock what isn't really backstock. Pull the wrongly stocked item and check it's actual home. Send the rest to backstock. Make sure you're watching for things that may have been flexed so you're not filling a location that isn't currently there, even if it should be.
-Dented cans should be defected out. If it's coming off the truck, put it in the defect bins. If it's off the floor or a pull, send it to guest service.

Pet food is very easy, especially if it's bags. If your flow team lead doesn't feel like holding people accountable, there's not much you can do. I hope your ETL isn't surprised at the bad scores he/she is probably getting. To be honest, this sounds like one of the more poorly run flow teams I've heard of, sorry you're forced to work with them.
 
I've been there a year and a half, and the only training for spills I have taken is the food/water one. At the end of that training, it says that's all you're allowed to clean up until you have the other training. Somehow I think I'd be in huge trouble if I actually tried to get out of cleaning up something else. It might be the "correct" answer, but it wouldn't fly in my store.
 
It's hard for me to remember sometimes that all most people are cleared to clean up is food and water. I'm a PA and I worked FA prior to that so I've had my Hazardous Materials training signed off for years. Some glass broke on the SF the other day and I started to clean it up and a salesfloor TM was like, "Aren't you supposed to call over an ETL?". I looked at her funny until I realized what she meant and explained that I was cleared to clean up glass and whatever.
 
In my store, any spills are required to be "watched over" by the person that found the spill - you have to call out for someone else to come help you with it, because you have to stand by it and warn guests. Nobody else has mentioned it, maybe it's only my store?

That being said, no, if you have not taken hazzardous materials training you cannot clean up any chemicals. But at my store, all TMs are required to take hazzardous materials training as part of their regular training. This might only be my store as well? Seems most in this thread also haven't done that.

Maybe my store is just odd.
 
In my store, any spills are required to be "watched over" by the person that found the spill - you have to call out for someone else to come help you with it, because you have to stand by it and warn guests. Nobody else has mentioned it, maybe it's only my store?

That being said, no, if you have not taken hazzardous materials training you cannot clean up any chemicals. But at my store, all TMs are required to take hazzardous materials training as part of their regular training. This might only be my store as well? Seems most in this thread also haven't done that.

Maybe my store is just odd.

Sounds the same as my store, except for blood that's a whole other training.
 
In my store, any spills are required to be "watched over" by the person that found the spill - you have to call out for someone else to come help you with it, because you have to stand by it and warn guests. Nobody else has mentioned it, maybe it's only my store?

That being said, no, if you have not taken hazzardous materials training you cannot clean up any chemicals. But at my store, all TMs are required to take hazzardous materials training as part of their regular training. This might only be my store as well? Seems most in this thread also haven't done that.

Maybe my store is just odd.

Each Team Member has to do the basic hazardous materials training as part of their Learning Plan. Clean-up exceptions for which only a Team Lead or ETL are required to perform the cleaning is for any bodily fluid (bio hazard), any cleaning supply (corrosive), and a few other items like lamp oil or charcoal starter (flammable). For in-store use items that only the store uses or the cleaning crew uses would follow the same guidelines.
 
We only do them when the system flags hr that they need to be done. For example, I was there a year before I came up needing to do the food one. I have coworkers who last summer were flagged for doing the chemical one after 3 to 5 years. I asked about doing the chemical one and was told that I could do it when I came up in the system as needing to do it.
 
I don't know if this applies to every store or if has to do with state regulations but over here if you are certified to clean chemicals you have to be recertified every year. This goes for both the hazardous materials overview (ST0020) and cleaning up hazardous materials (ST0030)
 
I don't know if this applies to every store or if has to do with state regulations but over here if you are certified to clean chemicals you have to be recertified every year. This goes for both the hazardous materials overview (ST0020) and cleaning up hazardous materials (ST0030)

You are correct. These are annual re-certifications. Power equipment is good for 3 if I am not mistaken.

If it matters, I am a TL in my store, so that may make a difference for the frequency.
 
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I've been there a year and a half, and the only training for spills I have taken is the food/water one. At the end of that training, it says that's all you're allowed to clean up until you have the other training. Somehow I think I'd be in huge trouble if I actually tried to get out of cleaning up something else. It might be the "correct" answer, but it wouldn't fly in my store.

Go for haz mat training, in case there is a chemical spill at front end.
 
As soon as I come up on their list for needing it, I will! Until then, I'm just expected to clean them up as best as I can.
 
I JUST did the hazardous material training, and the ONLY thing TMs are allowed to clean up is food item and rain/snow. Only Emergency Response Team people are allowed to clean up anything else (including broken glass, laundry detergent, bodily fluids, etc).
 
I JUST did the hazardous material training, and the ONLY thing TMs are allowed to clean up is food item and rain/snow. Only Emergency Response Team people are allowed to clean up anything else (including broken glass, laundry detergent, bodily fluids, etc).

That might have something to do with the state you're in, over here if you do the "cleaning up hazardous materials" training you can clean any hazardous spills. So what happens if you have a broken picture frame at your store? Do you have to call an emergency response team to pick up the glass?
 
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That might have something to do with the state you're in, over hear if you do the "cleaning up hazardous materials" training you can clean any hazardous spills. So what happens if you have a broken picture frame at your store? Do you have to call an emergency response team to pick up the glass?

Oh maybe. Yeah that's what it said to do. I've never actually called for someone to come clean up a spill for me (unless it was blood); I only ever call for assistance (since we're supposed to stand by the spill until we get a spill cone).

I wonder if this means I can't actually be required to clean up poop in the bathrooms. My GSTL always tells me to suck it up.
 
You're right about the difference between being Hazardous Materials trained and the next level up with is ERT. I know all ETL's and TL's are ERT; PA's as well. I would have thought cart attendants would be as well due to the nasty nature of their job but maybe not? Anyway, if you took a quiz that lectured you on blood borne pathogens and gave you the option of getting a HIV shot if you wanted it, then you're part of of the ERT and can clean up whatever.

ETA: Not HIV; Hep shot. Got 'em mixed up.
 
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You're right about the difference between being Hazardous Materials trained and the next level up with is ERT. I know all ETL's and TL's are ERT; PA's as well. I would have thought cart attendants would be as well due to the nasty nature of their job but maybe not? Anyway, if you took a quiz that lectured you on blood borne pathogens and gave you the option of getting a HIV shot if you wanted it, then you're part of of the ERT and can clean up whatever.

Receiving / Reverse Logistics TM's also have an exception for HazMat. It is after all, that team who has to properly bag and sort all the damaged stuff to go to the company who picks it up at the store.
 
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