Archived I was ok with this Vibe BS at first..but now I realize it hugely affects me AP side.

[AssetsProtection]

I had a guest that insisted that she had picked something with the sign under it saying it was like 5$ but the item was 20$.
I reviewed video saw that she picked from the wrong spot in the first place. But the LOD didn't want to call her a Liar. So she had to "vibe" it up and gave her up to a 40$ discount. If it were up too me I would have just said" hey the sign may have been in the wrong spot but I apologize the difference is just too steep to change" and just probably take the guests relations complaint...

Spot....oh how you have disappointed me so...I thought you were so great until this.. :'(

 

[Potsdamgraduate]

I had a guest that insisted that she had picked something with the sign under it saying it was like 5$ but the item was 20$.
I reviewed video saw that she picked from the wrong spot in the first place. But the LOD didn't want to call her a Liar. So she had to "vibe" it up and gave her up to a 40$ discount. If it were up too me I would have just said" hey the sign may have been in the wrong spot but I apologize the difference is just too steep to change" and just probably take the guests relations complaint...

Spot....oh how you have disappointed me so...I thought you were so great until this.. :'(

I think it's just a big flopping waste of time. I've come to realize that guests are just annoying parasites that need to be coddled and baby sat until they leave the store. I wish "The Vibe" allowed us to usher them outside; the best part of working at Target is when the store is empty. I realize those people are the business and give us all a paycheck, but god damn really? The way some of them behave is just appalling and we're supposed to "go the extra inch" to help these assholes? That coupled w/ the attitudes of a lot of the senior people, who ***** and moan at us, for no good reason... is WAY more than I can take for $7.50/hour. Seriously people, what the hell are you so upset about? CALM THE **** DOWN AND DON'T TAKE IT OUT ON YOUR CO-WORKERS! THE JOB IS STRESSFUL ENOUGH AT TIMES!

 

[dek067]

had a lady try the same thing the other day. sign said 2999, was obviously labeled for the item above where she picked up. she tried to argue and say it was 499. nope. not gonna do it. especially since the sign plainly listed the item and had "fallen in the floor" and i watched her put it back incorrectly. she can vibe with her movie for full price.

 

[SuzyTarget]

I had a guest that insisted that she had picked something with the sign under it saying it was like 5$ but the item was 20$.
I reviewed video saw that she picked from the wrong spot in the first place. But the LOD didn't want to call her a Liar. So she had to "vibe" it up and gave her up to a 40$ discount. If it were up too me I would have just said" hey the sign may have been in the wrong spot but I apologize the difference is just too steep to change" and just probably take the guests relations complaint...

Spot....oh how you have disappointed me so...I thought you were so great until this.. :'(

I hope that LOD learned a lesson from this for your sake. I personally have no issue with the whole vibe thing. It's really not a change at all, just a reminder to provide great guest service to drive sales (albeit delivered in an incredibly obnoxious package). But what it shouldn't be is an opportunity for liars, thieves, manipulators and those who simply look for openings to take-advantage to coerce us into helping them steal from our stores even more so than that which already occurs. It's so easy for products and signs to be moved around by anyone, or for guests to misunderstand signs and displays (I swear at least half the people that come into our store must be functionally illiterate judging by their inability to read a simple sale sign *here's a tip for them--read all the words; not just the biggest ones at the top!*), that we should be very reluctant to honor this kind of request.

 

[RednTacky]

The thing about the Vibe that many people probably don't realize is that you're supposed to "go the extra inch" within reason, and yeah, it's going to largely be a judgement call. I don't know if some of the more "scammy" type of guests have picked up on Target's change in attitude, but I've noticed an increase in guests complaining about price adjustments in electronics. When I stand firm and tell them no, I've actually had a few say "well the other Target let me!" ... wat?

 

[ZenLikeABOSS]

There's going an extra inch and then there's bending over. I've never worked retail, I've only been in the military till now.I've heard that the customer is always right, which I think is BS. Is it wrong to believe that if the customer is actually wrong then I'm going to respectfully tell them that? Target is a money making business right? It sounds to me that your LOD lost the store money and even worse, set a bad precedent. Now that customer knows he/she can be totally wrong and walk all over Target employees and be rewarded for it. Would it have been wrong to firmly say "No that isn't the price and here's why...."?

-Zen

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Wally World & toy r us are pricing match spot too..

 

[mxrbook]

I'm shocked at the "extra inch" our ETLs are insisting that we give. I watched dumbfounded as an ETL approved a $30 coupon on a video game with the date cut off. When scanned, it came up "expired." No worries. We're giving good Vibe.

I was also told that if the guest states that that the price is within $20 of the real price, then we are to let 'em have it. So if guest states that the $25 item is really only $5, no problem. Give them that inch.

And whose bottom line does that affect? Think we'll get raises next year? Uh, profitability has dropped so that $0.18 raise you were expecting. Not gonna happen. That's not rage you're feeling; that's the Vibe.

Really?

 

[rhguy]

The thing about the Vibe that many people probably don't realize is that you're supposed to "go the extra inch" within reason, and yeah, it's going to largely be a judgement call. I don't know if some of the more "scammy" type of guests have picked up on Target's change in attitude, but I've noticed an increase in guests complaining about price adjustments in electronics. When I stand firm and tell them no, I've actually had a few say "well the other Target let me!" ... wat?

Yeah, the whole vibe thing is within reason. I was told by my SrTL that if it seems 'reasonable' okay, do it. Also if people give you the whole target thing, i was told early in my target experience to tell people target prices vary from store to store.

 

[Rarejem]

I'm shocked at the "extra inch" our ETLs are insisting that we give. I watched dumbfounded as an ETL approved a $30 coupon on a video game with the date cut off. When scanned, it came up "expired." No worries. We're giving good Vibe.

I was also told that if the guest states that that the price is within $20 of the real price, then we are to let 'em have it. So if guest states that the $25 item is really only $5, no problem. Give them that inch.

And whose bottom line does that affect? Think we'll get raises next year? Uh, profitability has dropped so that $0.18 raise you were expecting. Not gonna happen. That's not rage you're feeling; that's the Vibe.

Really?

The $20 empowerment rule has been around for the 12+ years that I've been with Target. This is not new.

 

[Barcode]

The $20 rule isn't supposed to be taken literally either.... For example if they say a 200 item is 180, then sure thats okay, but you don't make a 20 dollar item 1 dollar... You have to use common sense with it. As long as it sounds somewhat reasonable I have no problem doing a price change without checking (most of the time its a sign sales floor left up on saturday night anyway). Thats what PCV is for anyway.

And rj is correct, the $20 empowerment has been around for the entirety of the 3 years I've been with spot, so its not new.

 

[mxrbook]

Until recently, our empowerment has been 20%, not $20. The only ones taking the $20 literally are a couple of the newish ETLs. You know, the ones who have no retail experience. We're still using reason as a basis for price change until the guest insists on seeing the LOD. In that case, it depends on the luck of the draw for the guest. If he gets one of the new ETLs, he gets the jackpot price. If he gets the experienced ETL, he gets the reasonable price. You can see the team members cringe when a particular ETL shows up. lol

 

[Rarejem]

Until recently, our empowerment has been 20%, not $20. The only ones taking the $20 literally are a couple of the newish ETLs. You know, the ones who have no retail experience. We're still using reason as a basis for price change until the guest insists on seeing the LOD. In that case, it depends on the luck of the draw for the guest. If he gets one of the new ETLs, he gets the jackpot price. If he gets the experienced ETL, he gets the reasonable price. You can see the team members cringe when a particular ETL shows up. lol

I think you are mistaken about the 20% over $20. If the guest challenge is within a $20 limit, the cashier is empowered to make the adjustment in favor of the guest. Empowerment does not require you to make the adjustment. If a guest says that the price is 6.99 and it's ringing up at 9.99 you adjust to what the guest says. If the guest says it's 6.99 and it's ringing at 29.99, you check. Not all of the cashiers would be able to quickly say it's more than $1.40 difference and call for a check.

 

[AssetsProtection]

So...After this little rant.. I decided I'm going to do my job vibe or not... I had 3 guests try this similar thing . Denied all 3 of them = 3 Guests Relations complaints...Dont care..

 

[redeye58]

We always had the 20/20 rule: 20% or $20 whichever was the more 'reasonable' amt off.
Sadly, 'reason' left our store a couple yrs ago & hasn't been seen since.

 

[researchr]

I actually heard a guest say to one of his friends.."you just say there's a sign that says it's $3 and they just give it to you! No questions asked!" Sometimes people make me sick.

 

[mrknownothing]

So...After this little rant.. I decided I'm going to do my job vibe or not... I had 3 guests try this similar thing . Denied all 3 of them = 3 Guests Relations complaints...Dont care..

That's the spirit! (no sarcasm intended) Vibing would hurt the integrity of your workcenter.

 

[mxrbook]

I think you are mistaken about the 20% over $20. If the guest challenge is within a $20 limit, the cashier is empowered to make the adjustment in favor of the guest. Empowerment does not require you to make the adjustment. If a guest says that the price is 6.99 and it's ringing up at 9.99 you adjust to what the guest says. If the guest says it's 6.99 and it's ringing at 29.99, you check. Not all of the cashiers would be able to quickly say it's more than $1.40 difference and call for a check.

I'm not mistaken. When our GE ETL explained that the new vibe was $20 instead of 20%, I questioned her, along with another GSTL who has been in this store for the past 12 years. She insists that we now have to give the guest the item at the price the guest requests as long as it is within $20 of the ring price. I asked, "So if the item is $24.99 and the guest says it is $4.99, we are to change the price to $4.99?" She replied, "Yes, that's the new vibe."

 

[LowlyETL]

So...After this little rant.. I decided I'm going to do my job vibe or not... I had 3 guests try this similar thing . Denied all 3 of them = 3 Guests Relations complaints...Dont care..

Changing prices doesn't effect shortage or unidentified sales...just margin. Why is that of concern for AP? Obviously everyone should care about margin but AP specifically isn't held accountable to it.

 

[buliSBI]

I might as well demand a $19.99 DVD is for free, and Target must pay me 1cent if guests can get $20 knocked off no matter what.

 

[Rarejem]

I'm not mistaken. When our GE ETL explained that the new vibe was $20 instead of 20%, I questioned her, along with another GSTL who has been in this store for the past 12 years. She insists that we now have to give the guest the item at the price the guest requests as long as it is within $20 of the ring price. I asked, "So if the item is $24.99 and the guest says it is $4.99, we are to change the price to $4.99?" She replied, "Yes, that's the new vibe."

Yes, i get that this is what you're doing now. I was just saying that we never had a 20% rule, it was always $20 (at our store, at least) - and it was completely up to the discretion of the cashier, thus the word "empowerment".

 

[greatteam]

Here's the thinking behind the vibe.


Help the guest more because we're going to cut hours like crazy, so you're gonna have to be amazing to do that and get all your work done at the same time. However, we think you're all replaceable monkeys and you won't get the work done, therefore, push the $20 rule even more because most likely the items will be in the wrong spot because we're taking away your hours, so you won't have time to actually properly zone. But vibe it up and help that guest create an amazing moment so that they keep coming back to shop with us, because everything we're doing is going to make it so that people stop shopping with us. Btw, you're not gonna get any additional payroll for the holiday season. Just make us more money, but we ain't giving it to you because it's time to focus on Canada.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Here's the thinking behind the vibe.


Help the guest more because we're going to cut hours like crazy, so you're gonna have to be amazing to do that and get all your work done at the same time. However, we think you're all replaceable monkeys and you won't get the work done, therefore, push the $20 rule even more because most likely the items will be in the wrong spot because we're taking away your hours, so you won't have time to actually properly zone. But vibe it up and help that guest create an amazing moment so that they keep coming back to shop with us, because everything we're doing is going to make it so that people stop shopping with us. Btw, you're not gonna get any additional payroll for the holiday season. Just make us more money, but we ain't giving it to you because it's time to focus on Canada.

This ^^^^^^