Archived New to softlines need help with doing BIGS(?) Not sure if that's the name..

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Nov 24, 2013
Messages
2
I really hate BIGs. Not so much the boys+girls. Just babies. I'm really frustrated about it. I've worked for 8 days in Target. Four of the days devoted to BIGs. So far I've had BIGs 3 days straight. I'm really upset about how every time I'm paired with an experienced team member we always fall short on the right time for the section we're in. We don't get the time needed to do babies. I've never been able to complete babies. Babies is always such a mess and there's always one shirt that never has a right place.

Tonight especially made me upset because of our TL (or whoever) wanted us to keep our karts empty so we don't have go-backs. So the team member I had was anal about me putting clothes in the cart. At first I understood what she wanted (If I know where it goes put it away), but the rest of the time I would put things in the cart I had no idea for where it belonged and she would remind me and then literally tell me to go "Over there in the (back/front/occasional finger point)". That worked 1/3rd of the time. So the entire time I had clothes hanging off of my arm while I'm trying to zone as fast as I can. What really frustrated me was these shirts that had no place whatsoever and she told me to put it "Over there" so I spent who knows how long looking for where to put the shirt. At that point I gave up and got angry and just hid it inside the clothes that matched the color since it was taking too much time.

I got so much training on doing Men/Women's/Shoes. That section didn't even need training!!! It's like common sense. Babies however I would really love to have in-depth training on. So if someone could please give me some tips or describe how they do BIGs I would really love it. I'm really upset about me and my team member taking so long. I want to be experienced already..

Today is the first day I have not said I love working at Target.
Also I do closing times 6:45-11:30 mostly. Tomorrow I'll be working from 10:30 am-3:00 pm. It would be nice to have tips before I have to go and do BIGs possibly again..
 
If you're working that early, I wonder if they'd even have you zone. You might just be doing re-shop.

Softlines team, can we get some help here please?
 
Infants is generally split into three categories: Toddler girls, Toddler Boys, and Newborns. Right now the Seasonal items like sweaters, Dresses, Jackets, and the like should be at the first impressions so anything winter related should be on the outer perimeters of Infants.

Sleepwear is in the back and generally together (except for newborn which just stays in newborn).

There is no real organization as far as brands go since it's age categorized rather than brand in infants. I wouldn't suggest trying to find a pattern to that, if there is one it's totally coincidental.

There is no tips for infants otherwise, unfortunately. Just understand what's girls, boys, and newborn and from there use your best judgement. All brands should stay together on the same rack, and if you find something that doesn't seem to have a location, just assume it's one of many orphan clothes and put it in the appropriate brand, gender, and price point. That section of apparel transitions faster than women's so stuff will fly in and out weekly.

edit -

You're still very new and it took me a couple weeks minimum in Infants to start remembering where everything went. Try not to get frustrated, I'm sure your TL means well but is just freaking out themselves due to the season. It will start to get easier (at least knowing where something goes) as time goes on. As for easier to zone? ehhhh, Infants always sucked to zone since the beginning of time. Especially when the clearance blocks come back to haunt us all.
 
Last edited:
Thank you for your replies!! And yeah at 10:30 I was just doing go-backs~~ So nice to be working at that hour. I even got my hours extended to 6:15!! Those hours are the best.

Thank you especially Neo
I asked one of my team leaders a bunch of questions about BIGs. She answered all of my questions no problem and was super friendly (I LOVE HER SO MUCH). Your post especially put me at ease and answered again all my worries. Good to know that I still have room to learn until they move things again lol. It's nice that infants is suppose to be evil so hating it is normal. :) TARGET IS BEAUTIFUL. Cannot thank you enough xD
 
Welcome! This may help you too.
I'm afraid I don't work mornings much, so I can't write a guide for that portion of the softlines work. I do know about closing in softlines though. :)


There are two main ways of zoning - which you do depends on how many softliners are closing.

On busy days when there are four or more team members in softlines, everyone will have their own areas. Typically, it's dividied up into: men's and baby basics, toddler racks and boys, girls and shoes, and ready-to-wear. On top of that, accessories, intimidates, and the pulls are given to the team members that arrive earlier than the others. (the team member who arrives at 4 pm might have intimidates and the pulls on top of their two other areas, for example.) Sometimes there is also a team member who's sole job is to do foreign when there are five or more team members on duty. Everyone's duties, at least at my store, are written down at the fitting room.

On slower days with only three team members working, typically one person will start in men's, the next in baby basics, and the last in toddler racks. When the zone in their areas are done, they go to the next area on the circuit that hasn't already someone zoning it. The circuit is, men's, baby basics, toddler racks, boy's, girl's, accessories, intimidates, shoes, then ready-to-wear. Ready-to-wear is typically zoned from Merona to Xhileration, as Merona gets less traffic - that means your zone lasts longer.

Men's, toddler racks, boy's, girl's, sleepwear, and ready-to-wear:
- Help guests find what they want.
- Collect any foreign that doesn't belong in your areas.
- Refold any unfolded shirts on the tables and make them look neat. There's a pull out folding tray on some of the tables that you can use, if you'd like.
- Make sure all the clothing is hanging correctly. The hanger should be turned so that when the clothing is facing you, the top of the hanger makes a backwards C.
- All jackets should be buttoned up or zipped up so that they look nice and won't fall off the hanger.
- Clothes should be in size order. XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL, XXL for men's, girl's, boy's, and ready-to-wear. For toddler racks, it's NB, 3M, 6M, 9M, 12M, 18M, 24M, 2T, 3T, 4T, 5T. For pants, the numbers should go from small to large. Also, 6X goes behind 6. (6X is a size typically seen in girl's pants)
- Make sure the racks are aligned properly; they should be in a neat grid pattern.
- Move any abandoned carts out onto the race track so they can be pushed back to the front of the store.
- Finger space all the hanging clothes. Don't bother finger spacing the clearance racks on the first zone - wait to do that until touch ups, because the spacing will be destroyed quickly after the first zone if you do it.
- Get the foreign for your area from the fitting room and put it all back where it goes. If you are unsure where something goes, ask another team member. If the item is the last one of it's kind (you can use the PDA to check), hang it with similar items.
- Have a pen on you to write on any tags of stolen product you find. Include the time you found it, the date, where you found it, and your initials. The tags all go to the fitting room for the operator to handle.

Baby basics:
- Pull all the produce forward so that it covers the holes on the shelf.
- Make sure hanging product is hanging with similar products on the right peg.
- Diapers should be not be stacked on top of each other on the top shelf, stacked two high on the middle shelves, and stacked three (or as many as will fit neatly) on the bottom shelf.
- The food aisle should have all the food pulled forward, facing forward, and looking neat. The glass cans of food should be stacked two high; it makes it easier in the long run if you try and keep the cans deep zoned (pulling all the product forward, not just the first two or three) but you might not have time for that. Be careful handling the glass cans - they like to fall. If one does fall, follow typical target spill procedures to clean it up.
- If someone wishes to purchase a crib, check on the PDA to make sure the crib the guest wants is in stock, then have it pulled. If you don't know how to pull something yourself, call backroom and have them pull it for you (have the DCPI of the crib ready for them if you do this.)
- Stack the Similac baby formula two high; on some of our product, we turn the second formula on it's front and balance it on top of the bottom Similac.

Intimidates:
- Pull the bras forward so that they're not all pushed to the back of the rack.
- Make sure all the bras are on the hanger correctly. There shouldn't be more than an inch between the hanger and where the triangular part of the bra starts. (no bra should be dangling at the end of it's straps.)
- Bras should be hanging with similar bras, unless they are on a clearance rack.
- We don't put our bras in size order, but this may be different at other stores.
- Panties should be in bins with similar panties. When putting back foreign, it helps to take note of whether they are Gilligan or Xhileration, as the two brands have their own separate bin areas.
- Panties should be pulled forward in the bins, so that the guests can see them easily.
- Xhileration socks, the folded ones in the bins, should be laying neatly on top of each other, sorted together with similar socks.

Accessories:
- Purses, hats, scarfs, belts, and gloves should be on the correct peg with similar product together. People like to move stuff around, so you need to look for anything that obviously is out of place. (red gloves hanging on a rack with a bunch of blue purses, for example.)
- Purses should be zipped and buttoned up if possible.
- Double check any hats on shelves and make sure the stacks of hats haven't been moved to over the wrong price.
- The wallet/clutch display tends to be irrevocably mixed up at our store, but do your best to move all the product forward and stuff with similar stuff.
- Look through the jewelry wall and jewelry turn tables for any out of place jewelry or any empty packages.
- Make sure all the jewelry in the $4.99 is actually the $4.99 jewelry and isn't out of place jewelry.

Shoes:
- Pull all the boxes forward and make sure they're neatly stacked on top of each other.
- Make sure the display shoes pairs are pushed together and facing forward. Boots should be standing up right, if at all possible.
- If you find an empty box, try and find the pair of shoes that go in them. Keep in mind the size - don't put a size five shoe in a box labeled as size 11. If you can't find the shoes for the box, put the box in your cart.
- At the end of the day, take your empty shoe boxes to the baler. Make sure nothing but friendly baler material goes into the baler!
- Keep an eye out for shoes that Target doesn't actually sell. Some people leave their old shoes when they steal our's.
- The slippers on the back wall should be on the correct size peg. The slippers in the bins should be neatly ordered and the cartoon kid slippers should be all facing forward.


... I think that's all. It's all I can think of right now, at least. :)
 
^I like how "intimates" is called "Intimidates" up there, because it certainly intimidates me.

Only 2 people in my store are good at infant/toddlers and a bunch of them have been there forever. I always get sent there because everyone else always messes it up. The infant side can be confusing, because except for the JOY, everything stops at 9mos. JOY goes up to 18m in a bunch of stuff, though. But JOY also does all those pajamas that are in the toddler portion. As far as having something that has no place, it could just be the last one/last few and it no longer has a real location... or it's impossible to find because you have all of them in your hand. In that case, do the same thing you'd do anywhere else... make sure it's not just unmarked clearance, and if it isn't, put it behind something that's similar and/or the same brand. Only time I don't do that is when the most similar item is below signage that doesn't apply to the thing that has no location.

My Infant dept does have brand separation, though. It's just separated within the 3 sections. GK Baby, Cherokee Baby, JOY Infant; then toddler boy is cherokee, GK, circo toward the back; and Girl toddler is Circo, Cherokee, GK toward the back. Fancy holiday outfits are in front and winter stuff (coats, hats, gloves/mittens) are in the back. Boys and Girls licensed are in the back right where boy/girl meets. PJs are toward the front where they meet. They change it all around often, but they usually keep the brands separated.

The toddler PJs are the part I hate the most. There's always like 341 different colors/patterns on each rack.

In conclusion, though, infant/toddler has a definite learning curve. I think it was weeks-months before I realized which stuff was which. Sometimes, there are baby/infant clothes that are exactly the same as some of toddler-sized ones and I just didn't figure out that they didn't belong together right away.

I hope any of that made sense. I'm a sleepy insomniac so Idk how well I'm forming sentences/paragraphs.
 
We don't separate infants from toddlers - there's just girl (toddler and younger) and boy (toddler and younger). I think knowing where things go will just come with time. I don't do it often, so when I first head in, I take an overview look of everything to try to have an idea of what goes where. Then I just start zoning. Softlines is all about appearances, so yes, that one lone pink ruffled top "belongs" with the similar pink tops even if they aren't the same thing. And if you have to guess where something goes, keep it in mind as you zone, so if you come across another one you can put them both together. In the past few days, tons of stuff has gone on clearance, so if you can't find more of something, always check the tag and make sure it doesn't belong on the clearance rack.
 
Your store has all the JOY by C mixed in with the bigger babies... Err toddlers stuff? That sounds easier because no one in my store knows the difference between the big JOY stuff and the little stuff anyhow. Baby "sleep and play" outfit things mixed with toddler blanket sleepers like cray. Tiny Cherokee on big Cherokee racks. Be easier if we just stopped fighting it and just simplified the organization.

Even though with the current layout, it kinda is boys on one side girls on the other, itty bitty baby is still down the middle. When they did that new mannequin and fixtures additions the big rack thing that says "baby" was put in the middle with a gender on either side so it sorta works the same way. The PJ row and the outerwear corner ruin the simplicity, so it's not really the same.

I wrote that other post over a year ago and we're basically back around to that same layout. Also once again, I'm facing insomnia and idk if my sentences are sentencing properly right now.
 
Before Baby360, I sort of knew where things were in infants........sometimes. The back half was furniture and gondolas, and the front half was (from the main aisle) toddler girls, toddler boys, newborn, then the next department over (which in my store was intimates). Now that we have Baby360, the entire department has been re-arranged and I don't know where anything is anymore.
 
At my store we call it GBI. Interesting to see it called something else. I'm not in softlines anymore, but I know everyone has a hard time in GBI/BIG. Guests have their strollers/toddlers/etc. and so it can get trashed really fast. Just keep doing your best! :)
 
Your store has all the JOY by C mixed in with the bigger babies... Err toddlers stuff? That sounds easier because no one in my store knows the difference between the big JOY stuff and the little stuff anyhow. Baby "sleep and play" outfit things mixed with toddler blanket sleepers like cray. Tiny Cherokee on big Cherokee racks. Be easier if we just stopped fighting it and just simplified the organization.

Each rack or wall is either infant or toddler (I think - they seem pretty well defined to me anyway), but they are in the same section. Toddler/Infant boys and toddler/infant girls are divided by an aisle that has the Baby Registry table, stools and i-Pads. The littlest things are generally located closest to the registry table, but not always. Maybe it's because I have kids, but to me it's pretty easy to tell a toddler clothing item from a baby clothing item. I don't know . . . I have way more issues finding the right location for ready to wear items than BGI (that's what we call it). Look . . . it's a gray sweater . . . that looks like every other of the hundreds of slightly different gray sweaters in ready to wear this season. Now to guess where it goes . . .
 
Yea, I don't have kids, but baby is easier for me too. I always work baby so I notice the mistakes other people are making. I've been sent doll clothes from guest service and a fitting room attendant put it in my cart without batting an eye, so I shouldn't be surprised by how many people don't see the difference lol.

I did have trouble in the beginning though.. My first Easter at target they had baby Cherokee and toddler Cherokee dresses that were exactly the same.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top