Archived Lights out!

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They have just rolled out a new program at my store & it's called "Lights Out!" During the peak hour when we are supposedly the busiest all team members go up front to cashier for an hour.
Initially TLs and ETLs were to be the only ones on the floor and would respond to phone calls and call buttons. That lasted about a day lol. Now one team member from each section, market, sales floor and soft lines are allowed to stay in their areas. Everyone else stays on the front lanes. Is any one else doing this and how is it working out at your store?
 
It makes me wonder if there is ever a chance that ETLs would just say, "Enough already! This is ridiculous!"
 
Or you could hire more people and give the cashiers longer hours.
Nevermind, I forgot what company this was. Why do anything that makes sense?
What's going to happen when the floor looks like hell because softlines/hardlines can't get all their stuff done?
 
Or you could hire more people and give the cashiers longer hours.
Nevermind, I forgot what company this was. Why do anything that makes sense?
What's going to happen when the floor looks like hell because softlines/hardlines can't get all their stuff done?

Oh, no, haven't you heard? Three cashiers is totally enough coverage for peak sales hours.
 
The problem is we really aren't busy during the lights out hour. There are far busier times of the day when it would be useful for us to be up there. We find ourselves trying desperately to find something to do and being bored out of our skulls.
 
Shouldn't it be "lights on" since all the lane lights are on? Last I checked, cashiers didn't turn on their blinking light when they needed back-up.
 
Shouldn't it be "lights on" since all the lane lights are on? Last I checked, cashiers didn't turn on their blinking light when they needed back-up.

I agree. I don't get the name either. They really come up with some dumb crap!
Lights Out sounds like they're trying to save on electricity by turning some lights off when guests aren't in one area for a long period of time. It would not surprise me in the least if this was implemented. Target is one tight wad these days. :(
 
We used to have the lights out when I worked the book store.
That meant nobody could be in the back, the lights were out in the office and the back room.
There were no breaks scheduled for those times and the bosses couldn't go back to do 'paperwork'.

In that context the term made sense.
Used here, I don't really get it.
How about a "more payroll' hour?
 
Commie! That's it exactly! Normally during our peak hours we are all in a rush to check the guest out and get them out the door. Lights Out! Gives us the opportunity to really connect with the guests. We get to take our time with them & to tell them more about Cartwheel and Red Cards. This is giving us time to form a relationship with our guests. The office lights are out! No one is doing tasks or taking breaks! We're on our assigned lanes as cashiers or baggers. We're VIBBING our hearts out! There are NO guests! That's not true. There are a few guests but not many. Somehow someone got out "peak hour" terribly wrong. It's more like our almost "dead hour." Oh how I wish I was making this up.
 
I'm really confused that no one else here has heard of it. What did my poor team do to deserve this?
 
The name may imply no tasks.
 
Commie! That's it exactly! Normally during our peak hours we are all in a rush to check the guest out and get them out the door. Lights Out! Gives us the opportunity to really connect with the guests. We get to take our time with them & to tell them more about Cartwheel and Red Cards. This is giving us time to form a relationship with our guests. The office lights are out! No one is doing tasks or taking breaks! We're on our assigned lanes as cashiers or baggers. We're VIBBING our hearts out! There are NO guests! That's not true. There are a few guests but not many. Somehow someone got out "peak hour" terribly wrong. It's more like our almost "dead hour." Oh how I wish I was making this up.

At the bookstore they only did it during the fourth quarter and then only during the peak hours.
It sounds like someone worked at another retail store, suggested it to you STL and they ran with it without looking where they were going.
Sorry.
 
I'm really confused that no one else here has heard of it. What did my poor team do to deserve this?

Is it a desperate attempt from your leadership to combat something from guest surveys? It seems like that's the only thing our execs base their decisions off of now.
 
this is what power hour has devolved into at my store and boy is it a snoozefest. everyone is on lane and most of us are banging our heads against the wall out of sheer boredom. This is one thing I cant wrap my head around is how leadership thinks that they can predict peak sales hour when its different everyday. what may have been peak sales hour one week may not be the next. Hey Gregg, Tina and all you other brainiacs in the home office, yeah I'm calling you out, have you even been to one of your stores outside of MN. get a clue you guys you have some decent ideas but they need to be properly researched and implemented strategically. most of what you have been doing as of late is like sidestepping a pothole only to off a bridge. get feedback from all of your stores. you don't want our help fine but only you can get us out of this tailspin if you would stop taking Kool-Aid breaks every five minutes and let the individual stores run the show. yeah its gonna hurt for a bit but in the long run it will pull us out of this nosedive before we run headfirst into the ground.
 
That wouldn't work at my store. We never have more than 1 scheduled in hardlines, 1 in softlines, and 1 in market.
 
Our guests would love to be able to run in and pick up a couple of things around lunchtime. We never have enough cashiers then. Tonight I watched 6 TMs stand around on the GM lanes for an hour. The market side wasn't busy either.
 
I think they've done that. Not using all of the lights during the day.

My boss at my other job has tried many times to implement something like this. Even during the middle of the day when it's sunny, having sections of lights off makes a huge difference in our building and it just looks stupid.
 
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