Archived Is Target is Outsourcing AP?

[TiedAndDropped]

Saw this about Walmart apparently using the local police as their AP. Seems like Target has cut back AP in the last two years - could they be following Walmart's lead?

Why would Walmart pay guards when it can make taxpayers pay for its security?

 

[Infinim]

No

 

[Rock Lobster]

Saw this about Walmart apparently using the local police as their AP. Seems like Target has cut back AP in the last two years - could they be following Walmart's lead?

Why would Walmart pay guards when it can make taxpayers pay for its security?

The article is an anti-Walmart one, because its revealing that Walmart stores do not solve their own problems but instead just call the cops since they cut their AP down so low. It was showing another reason that Walmart is so bad for communities, because they attract crime and depend on the local tax payers to solve it.

I do think Target needs to majorly re-think their AP structures. It is rather obvious its a giant patchwork of old structures that have been cut and reworked to the point it doesn't even make sense anymore! I say cut all ETL-APs, make them all APTLs, use the money you saved to bring back an APBP per district, and lump together TPS hours into a per market bucket and let the APBP decide where they go. Let APTLs wear normal clothes everyday they work since they are not ETLs.

 

[EagleEye]

The article is an anti-Walmart one, because its revealing that Walmart stores do not solve their own problems but instead just call the cops since they cut their AP down so low. It was showing another reason that Walmart is so bad for communities, because they attract crime and depend on the local tax payers to solve it.

I do think Target needs to majorly re-think their AP structures. It is rather obvious its a giant patchwork of old structures that have been cut and reworked to the point it doesn't even make sense anymore! I say cut all ETL-APs, make them all APTLs, use the money you saved to bring back an APBP per district, and lump together TPS hours into a per market bucket and let the APBP decide where they go. Let APTLs wear normal clothes everyday they work since they are not ETLs.

You know, that makes sense. ETL-APs are being used as "filler ETLs" now it seems. The store I was just working at had an ETL-AP that worked 3 LOD shifts along with his day of meetings and such. He got 1 AP day a week. Keep in mind we also had an ETL-GE, ETL-LOG, ETL-SF, and ETL-HR...(and three Sr TLs)

 

[StrawberryBanana]

Tampa Bay Walmarts get thousands of police calls. You paid the bill.

Here is the original article from the Tampa Bay Times in case anyone is curious. It was actually a pretty interesting read. It also compares Wal-Marts and the nearby Targets to show the difference in the amount of calls to police.

 

[GlitterBerries]

We have one ap and an ap ETL and 9 times out of 10 neither one is there when crap goes down.

 

[On6]

Walmart's rules allow for pretty much anyone in the store to call police. The same cannot be said about Target.

That being said, last time I checked theft is a crime everywhere. Whether the taxpayers like it or not it is the responsibility of law enforcement to respond to crimes in progress. Yes that even includes retailers.

A three minute response for a $6 toothbrush seems like the police in that town aren't very busy anyway. Police are dispatched on a priority basis (ex. They will respond to a bank robbery before a shoplifting call). We would never get that kind of response where my store is at unless there was a weapon involved. Even then it's iffy.

 

[SeniorAP]

AP being contracted out to a private company is certainly a possibility in the future. Target Mobile does it already. Pharmacy did recently with CVS. When you get a separate company to manage a certain sector of the store, it allows Target to focus its energy elsewhere and hold these contractors to higher standards to improve metrics. They've already basically stripped all new TPS' of apprehensions with the elimination of the senior role, and substantially downgraded their capabilities with the massive reduction of what were the 'Investigation Centers' and traveling undercover 'Investigation Specialists.' Even new TPS' wear polos and help zone, restock, ect. basically responsibilities regular TM's have... With everything that's changed over the last 3-5 years, it's not crazy to imagine the company outsourcing their AP resources to more specialized companies dealing with this stuff.

 

[iBowlGood]

If someone is committing a crime police are going to be called anyway. AP is mainly to protect assets...duh. They still call in uniformed real cops to make a real arrest and charge them with real charges.

Its not just the sheer amount of calls thats important. Its where the walmarts are, foot traffic, and the type of customers attracted in comparison to Target.

Its not that big of a deal. Its not like LEOs are constantly in a shoot out every minute and if they are arresting shoplifters then they aren't in a shootout. Thats not how it works.

 

[RedMan]

I know an ETL GE/AP. How does that even work? Hey, I'm gonna do a receipt check at the door, but if you sign up for a REDCard, I might let ya go? Talk about good cop/bad cop, but I don't know which is which.

 

[carramrod]

There's some things in this article that I agree with, and some that I don't. First off, I disagree with the author basically saying that Wal Mart should not be trying to catch shoplifters. Shoplifters are still criminals, and some of them turn out to be even bigger criminals, with warrants or priors, so catching them is a good thing. Further, the police do not have to arrest every shoplifter that Wal-Mart catches, even if WM wants to prosecute. The shoplifters can still be trespassed, escorted out, and then released with a notice to appear, meaning that they are charged and have to appear in court, but will not take the ride to jail that day. It's basically like be arrested, charged, and released all at once. That is up to the discretion of the individual officer. Further, the author states that the comment that one officer makes about it being "a revolving door" is a complaint about Wal Mart. Clearly, it is not. It is a complaint about the fact that some people are just scumbags, and they get arrested one week and then are back stealing the next week. The cop is complaining about the people he has to arrest, not Wal-Mart.
Now for the part I do agree with. Although I generally dislike the way Target has been treating the TPS position lately, I think it is good to have uniformed security in a store. The cops don't need to be called because someone is loitering in the parking lot or being loud in the store, or skateboarding, or whatever. A uniformed security guard can go over and tell these people to beat it and 99% of the time, they'll leave right away and not come back. The cops can be called for the remaining 1%. Even if a store doesn't want to invest in uniformed security, a manager should be able to fairly effectively deal with this stuff without calling the cops. There was only one person I ever had to call the cops on because they refused to leave. Everyone else just gave up and took off when someone if a uniform told them to hit the bricks.
I did note that the Wal Mart near me has uniformed contract security guards, one patrolling the parking lot in a vehicle and one at each exit door, but I assume that is because they are a supercenter with very high volume in a very sketchy area. Also, Wal Mart has announced that they are rolling out a new "customer host" position that sounds a bit like a TPS in the job description, so we'll see if that makes any difference as to the PD call volume.

 

[On6]

^
As far as not having to arrest shoplifters they could just do it like where I'm at. The police don't even charge or arrest the subject in my city for shoplifting (unless it's a felony amount). All they do is come out, identify the person, and run them for warrants. It's our responsibility to file charges at a later date through the court. I meet weekly with a prosecutor to file charges.

 

[Rock Lobster]

You know, that makes sense. ETL-APs are being used as "filler ETLs" now it seems. The store I was just working at had an ETL-AP that worked 3 LOD shifts along with his day of meetings and such. He got 1 AP day a week. Keep in mind we also had an ETL-GE, ETL-LOG, ETL-SF, and ETL-HR...(and three Sr TLs)

Right now there is a bit of panic coming from the AP world. I am guessing that the message is, "Improve inventory results this year to prove you are worth the money, or we are just going to sell off our AP to a company that can do it better." You can just tell that now all of a sudden they are in a panic to improve inventory results by any means necessary, and its the same type of panic that happens in all areas seeing a cut soon. Now there is a sudden push to get more results around theft through apprehensions, internals, recoveries etc. The leaders that are on the chopping block are making a classic Target mistake, which is losing their cool and focusing on things that make them look good on paper instead of fixing actual problems.

Guess what, there will always be theft. You can't always stop it, which is why you are not going to get a 0% loss on inventory. If you want to improve inventory for the COMPANY by a certain amount, then find what is causing the biggest losses and stop them. If Cosmetics is the worst area when it comes to loss for the company, then lets get someone over there most of the time? Let's get some tools for tracking it (RFID)? If you want to fix shortage then fix the FDCs, because they are our biggest thieves on paper, and making us look terrible on paper to stockholders when it comes to shortage.

This is the same mistake that happened with sales a few years ago. Stores were struggling with sales, so what was the solution? Vibe. Did we get more payroll to provide better service? Did we get better resources? Did we change our workloads so that there was time to provide service? Was there even proof the service was improving sales (or were we just giving stuff away at the cost of margin)? At the end of the day, someone said, "Hey fix sales or you are out of here" and they didn't address any of the actual problems, and just started measuring a random metric so they could go to a meeting and show an improvement (even though sales stayed the same). Its the same in the AP world. "Hey fix shortage or you are out of here"... ok well we doubled our apprehensions and recoveries from the year before! "Did your inventory come back better?"... Nope, it got 5% worse... "Ok, so you didn't fix it then"