No bikes built for over a year at my store.

[commiecorvus]

What would you say would be warning signs to look out for, though?

I've worked for restaurants, grocery store chains and a big box bookstore that went under.
Have they changed leadership a stupid number of times in the past couple of years?
Have any of your paychecks bounced or have they asked you to wait till next week to cash them?
Do they keep coming up with new plans to make things better, usually every 3 months of so? Also known as rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
Are the bill collectors calling the store?
My favorite exchange with a bill collector, was when I was working as the office manager for Borders while it was going down, and a lawyer called about the laundry bills.
I had no skin in the game so I asked him how it felt to work his ass off to get through law school to become a glorified bill collector.
Did they seem to be having meetings every week and now it's dead quiet from above?
There are a bunch more but those are a good start.

 

[Ashfromoldsite]

What would you say would be warning signs to look out for, though?

Even when they lay off thousands at hq they don’t go out of business. Target will be fine for many decades to come.

 

[nevermind]

Everything you see happening in your store = warning signs

 

[Not My Name]

I've worked for restaurants, grocery store chains and a big box bookstore that went under.
Have they changed leadership a stupid number of times in the past couple of years?
Have any of your paychecks bounced or have they asked you to wait till next week to cash them?
Do they keep coming up with new plans to make things better, usually every 3 months of so? Also known as rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
Are the bill collectors calling the store?
My favorite exchange with a bill collector, was when I was working as the office manager for Borders while it was going down, and a lawyer called about the laundry bills.
I had no skin in the game so I asked him how it felt to work his ass off to get through law school to become a glorified bill collector.
Did they seem to be having meetings every week and now it's dead quiet from above?
There are a bunch more but those are a good start.

You're specifically talking about late stage cancer right before the patient dies. I'm talking about a process that typically takes decades to unfold. Target stores have continued to deteriorate for about 15 years now. There has been no up tick in terms of the services or brand offered, and they continue to deteriorate year after year. I don't even know how that would be a debate. Eventually that deterioiration will start to eat into the bottom line as less and less people consume the product/brand. When that truly starts to turn, I don't know. But it will turn.

 

[commiecorvus]

You're specifically talking about late stage cancer right before the patient dies. I'm talking about a process that typically takes decades to unfold. Target stores have continued to deteriorate for about 15 years now. There has been no up tick in terms of the services or brand offered, and they continue to deteriorate year after year. I don't even know how that would be a debate. Eventually that deterioiration will start to eat into the bottom line as less and less people consume the product/brand. When that truly starts to turn, I don't know. But it will turn.

We are in the very messy problems that come with late stage capitalism as it is right now.
Spot is just dealing with the side effects of that.
Sure, they aren't going to last as a company or as a brand but I don't see their actions as being the problem per se.
The entire system as it stands is unsustainable in the long run.

 

[happygoth]

You're specifically talking about late stage cancer right before the patient dies. I'm talking about a process that typically takes decades to unfold. Target stores have continued to deteriorate for about 15 years now. There has been no up tick in terms of the services or brand offered, and they continue to deteriorate year after year. I don't even know how that would be a debate. Eventually that deterioiration will start to eat into the bottom line as less and less people consume the product/brand. When that truly starts to turn, I don't know. But it will turn.

No uptick in services? Drive Up is huge, Pick Up is huge.

What you're talking about is too broad and too long-range. All companies go through restructuring, reorganization, cost-cutting, trying new ways to increase profits. That doesn't mean they are doomed to fail. Lots of companies ebb and flow and rally from down times.

Will Target exist in 100 years? In 50 years? Who knows. It took Eddie Lambert less than 15 years to destroy Sears and Kmart. If and when Target ceases to exist, I don't think people will point to this time in history as the beginning of their downfall. Target is fine.

 

[happygoth]

What would you say would be warning signs to look out for, though?

Store closings on a larger than normal scale. This is a big sign. I don't consider the normal bumps and bruises of doing business a sign that a company is circling the drain.

Once Sears and Kmart started announcing lists of stores that were closing every year, we knew the end was nigh. And it still took several years before it came.

Also ceasing of all new store openings and remodeling of existing stores. I remember Sears had this campaign to have the employees clean the stores, it had a name like "Clean and Brighten" or something like that. I think they supplied us with cleaning stuff and had some type of schedule for getting it done. Not necessarily a bad idea, and I'm sure it was in response to complaints about the stores being dingy and outdated, but it really struck us as so cheap and funny.

 

[Not My Name]

We are in the very messy problems that come with late stage capitalism as it is right now.
Spot is just dealing with the side effects of that.
Sure, they aren't going to last as a company or as a brand but I don't see their actions as being the problem per se.
The entire system as it stands is unsustainable in the long run.

Probably accurate. But what system is better? The root problem is that people are shit and treat each other like shit. *shrugs*

No matter what type of government and system a country has, psychopaths(no I am not talking about the directly murdering kind although there are a few of those also) rise to the top of these power structures and people suffer for it.

 

[Not My Name]

No uptick in services? Drive Up is huge, Pick Up is huge.

What you're talking about is too broad and too long-range. All companies go through restructuring, reorganization, cost-cutting, trying new ways to increase profits. That doesn't mean they are doomed to fail. Lots of companies ebb and flow and rally from down times.

Will Target exist in 100 years? In 50 years? Who knows. It took Eddie Lambert less than 15 years to destroy Sears and Kmart. If and when Target ceases to exist, I don't think people will point to this time in history as the beginning of their downfall. Target is fine.

The stores are clearly hurting in a big way. The reasons for which are clearly multifaceted, some self inflicted, some not. Point being, ok, sure, they've added drive up and pick up, but do you think Target will survive a transition to where these are their primary services? If not, and I think it's obviously not but am open to being wrong, how do they cope and survive with the in store experience clearly suffering in a major way that has massively deteriorated over the past 15 years? And there's no reason to think this trend will reverse, but rather, worsen. And given that in store experience is the primary driver of sales and will very likely continue to be until its dying day, I would say its days are numbered.

 

[commiecorvus]

Probably accurate. But what system is better? The root problem is that people are shit and treat each other like shit. *shrugs*

Probably a conversation best held over in the political thread.
This one has gone way off track as it is.

 

[happygoth]

The stores are clearly hurting in a big way. The reasons for which are clearly multifaceted, some self inflicted, some not. Point being, ok, sure, they've added drive up and pick up, but do you think Target will survive a transition to where these are their primary services? If not, and I think it's obviously not but am open to being wrong, how do they cope and survive with the in store experience clearly suffering in a major way that has massively deteriorated over the past 15 years? And there's no reason to think this trend will reverse, but rather, worsen. And given that in store experience is the primary driver of sales and will very likely continue to be until its dying day, I would say its days are numbered.

Don't forget, guests don't see the store the way we see it. We know that the backroom is horrible and resets and price changes haven't been done, etc., but they don't. People still come to shop here in droves. People still love Target.

 

[Luck]

I think there is merit to concern over Targets direction. We are in an akward transition moment between Brian Cornells Target and prep for a new CEO. Brian brought his vision of stores as mini fulfillment centers and it was a huge success. But there is no question that it is straining the rest of the process.

The large corporate focus for the last few years was behind the scenes inventory issues. There was zero else that mattered. Hopefully now that those are mostly alleviated, the focus can be shifted to the stores and problem solving ways to maintain store front operations while still expanding the "backroom" operations.

I beleive the largest fault with Targets corporate strategy at the moment is standardization. Yes having network wide standards is important but we all know that Target stores are setup unique enough that some staffing plans, task assignments, etc. Dont necessary work for some locations the way they do for others.

 

[WHS]

What would you say would be warning signs to look out for, though?

Easiest one? Stock prices. Kmart and Sears saw stocks plummet in the years and decades leading to their demise. Targets has only gotten stronger and stronger.

 

[Target81]

Hardly

Spot isn"t going anywhere, when a User with the name "Times Up" disagrees with their predicted demise !

 

[Ringwraith917]

Got the new $1500.00 e-bike in. 2 spider wraps and a security device attaching it to the shelf. It'll probably still got stolen

 

[SugarSugar]

Got the new $1500.00 e-bike in. 2 spider wraps and a security device attaching it to the shelf. It'll probably still got stolen

It will lol. I'm guessing a wire cutter and emergency exit sounds about right 🤣

 

[HNL2PDX]

I feel like bikes are stolen more than they are bought.

I spiderwrap the bike wheel to the rack when I check which 3x5’s I need to print.

 

[Powerwalker]

Got the new $1500.00 e-bike in. 2 spider wraps and a security device attaching it to the shelf. It'll probably still got stolen

We aren't putting it out.