Archived No more "processes"

[BackroomAlpha]

Stores are steering away from "task" oriented processes. End to End leading the way as the beginning construct to the "new way" or sales driven culture spot is trying to build. End goal? Keep all hard task processes Distrubution side so stores can focus more on making the sale. Eventually pallets will come prewrapped by department? Repacks organized straight from DC? There seems to never be enough time to accomplish replenishment goals and this may be a way to deliver day to day replenishment while also offering guests more face time with TMs.

Just some interesting thoughts of mine after this mornings huddle.

 

[HRZone]

End goal? Keep all hard task processes Distrubution side so stores can focus more on making the sale.

Good post. While I don't love all the steps I do get the end goal.

I do think having guest driven people in the store is important the key will be having a balance. We have some completely task driven people at my store and they drag the process down just as much as the social butterflies who can't follow directions.13ra

 

[No I in Team]

It reminds me of what a grocery store mgr told me about the rationale for staying open 24 hrs. They were fully staffed with associates stocking the shelves so it made sense to stay open. They trained a few to take turns running the cash register and it actually paid off with additional sales.

The only significant difference is that store traffic is much lighter at night vs day, the reason they went over night. It made the process much more efficient.

 

[BoxCutter]

The problem being, retail being retail, if the new system calls for, say, a minimum of 7 TMs working on the sales floor, the store will only be given enough hours for 4 TMs. Even with switching to pre wrapped departmental pallets and eaches separated by vallies in repacks, hours will still not match what is needed and instead of cases waiting to be pushed you will have the pre wrapped pallets and repacks.

 

[unknown]

Who's going to do all the jobs no one else wants or has time to do?? Right now, when we do "smart" huddle, the ONLY people in the store who do it are POG, pricing, and the one hrtm. The market end to end team doesn't have to go.

Who backup cashiers. Pog, pricing. The market e2e team doesn't go. Nor do the softlines style team.

So it'll be fun to watch all this happen cause all I hear in the walkie at 1pm is "we need at least 2 to the front lanes." Then the Stl says, "pog ... pricing... who can go up."

And don't get me started on getting carts twice last week.

 

[SquishySquishy]

Who's going to do all the jobs no one else wants or has time to do?? Right now, when we do "smart" huddle, the ONLY people in the store who do it are POG, pricing, and the one hrtm. The market end to end team doesn't have to go.

Who backup cashiers. Pog, pricing. The market e2e team doesn't go. Nor do the softlines style team.

So it'll be fun to watch all this happen cause all I hear in the walkie at 1pm is "we need at least 2 to the front lanes." Then the Stl says, "pog ... pricing... who can go up."

And don't get me started on getting carts twice last week.

Should schedule better at the front. We hardly ever need back ups.

 

[Bosch]

It reminds me of what a grocery store mgr told me about the rationale for staying open 24 hrs. They were fully staffed with associates stocking the shelves so it made sense to stay open. They trained a few to take turns running the cash register and it actually paid off with additional sales.

The only significant difference is that store traffic is much lighter at night vs day, the reason they went over night. It made the process much more efficient.

Where spot is doing the opposite, cram 20 people in the workspace of five with equipment for three and expect the work to still get done.

 

[BackroomAlpha]

I really feel this company is going under. I love it a lot but do not see a bright future. I am sad to say.

 

[WinterRose]

It reminds me of what a grocery store mgr told me about the rationale for staying open 24 hrs. They were fully staffed with associates stocking the shelves so it made sense to stay open. They trained a few to take turns running the cash register and it actually paid off with additional sales.

The only significant difference is that store traffic is much lighter at night vs day, the reason they went over night. It made the process much more efficient.

I would love the idea of being open overnight (bec that would mean I can go work overnight lol) but when I was working in Home Depot, they were telling me how it was good that they're not open 24 hours anymore. Lots of thieving and drunk customers at night. This idea might work for a grocery focused store but maybe not for store who sell a lot of expensive stuff like in electronics, somewhat similar to how expensive items are in Home Depot.

 

[SFSFun]

They really should have waited to make changes until AFTER the store's DC has made the change to palletized freight.

On the bright side, unless things change by Q4, I predict a metric fuckton of overtime for everyone during the final 6 weeks of the year.

 

[No I in Team]

I would love the idea of being open overnight (bec that would mean I can go work overnight lol) but when I was working in Home Depot, they were telling me how it was good that they're not open 24 hours anymore. Lots of thieving and drunk customers at night. This idea might work for a grocery focused store but maybe not for store who sell a lot of expensive stuff like in electronics, somewhat similar to how expensive items are in Home Depot.

I was talking with a Walmart associate and he told me the worse time for theft is mid afternoon when staffing is light. I guess it is all about location.

A Flow Team member who does his paper work for their primary job while sitting in a Walmart parking lot eating lunch confirmed this when he saw the same couple walking out the side door with large big ticket items. Not just one day, but every couple of days like clock work.

He tried to call but no one answered the first time he saw it. He went in the second time and told them. Didn't appear to matter given he saw them again.

 

[No I in Team]

They really should have waited to make changes until AFTER the store's DC has made the change to palletized freight.

On the bright side, unless things change by Q4, I predict a metric fuckton of overtime for everyone during the final 6 weeks of the year.

I think they really missed on identifying what the root cause of what happened to our sales/profitability. Not switching the DC's was not the best move and IMO done for other reasons.

As far as OT, I don't know if we'll see it or not. Last 4th qtr, we did not hire any seasonal and were sent home at 40. The residual was covered by whoever else was in the store. Every morning we were greeted with a lot of unprocessed freight. It was a terrible.

 

[No I in Team]

I really feel this company is going under. I love it a lot but do not see a bright future. I am sad to say.

I don't know if it will go completely under, but I think our foot print will change considerably.

If you use Google maps' satellite view (aerial) and compare our stores proximity to one another. Then compare our foot print to the closest competition along with the stores' selection. I can see a lot of consolidation and expansion (groceries) that's not even being mentioned taking place to remain competitive. In a lot of cases, our foot print is considerably smaller and puts us at a competitive disadvantage.

We'll loose some stores along the way, but Target closes about 12 stores a year on average. I believe I read that in one of the corp. reports. So closing some stores is not a big deal unless it is done a large scale. That could trigger a lot of problems for Spot.

We are opening quite a few small foot print stores across the country over the next couple of years. I don't know how they'll do since the cost to operate them will be substantially higher given their locations and small footprints (urban areas and college campuses). We averaged about $290/sq ft in sales in 2016. I seriously doubt that would cover the cost of operating stores in an urban area given the "cost of rent". Not to mention college campuses are not year around operations either.

These stores will need to perform at a rate that is at least double that amount or better to break even IMO. That's a lot to ask given their limited offerings and traffic patterns.

Small scale stores are nothing new either. JC Penney, Montgomery Ward, Sears come to mind and they all eventually consolidated or closed them.

Walmart recently opened up quite a few and since closed a number of them due to the lack of profitability.

The biggest thing to overcome IMO is that we narrowed our selection too far and lost substantial amount of guest along the way.

To survive, Target is going to have to go back to a time where they offered more to remain competitive. If not, they'll have no choice but to reduce their foot print. We don't offer enough to justify the number of stores/sq ft. Especially with the push for online shopping.

Something will change, no doubt.

 

[SFSFun]

As far as OT, I don't know if we'll see it or not. Last 4th qtr, we did not hire any seasonal and were sent home at 40. The residual was covered by whoever else was in the store. Every morning we were greeted with a lot of unprocessed freight. It was a terrible.

I forgot that different stores obviously handle things differently. At my store, a week or so of that would lead to them calling other stores for support and giving OT to catch up. But if everyone is having the same problem, there won't really be any support help available and they would skip straight to offering OT.

I will say it's going to really suck for Flexible Fulfillment...

 

[Frontlanegirl]

I would love the idea of being open overnight (bec that would mean I can go work overnight lol) but when I was working in Home Depot, they were telling me how it was good that they're not open 24 hours anymore. Lots of thieving and drunk customers at night. This idea might work for a grocery focused store but maybe not for store who sell a lot of expensive stuff like in electronics, somewhat similar to how expensive items are in Home Depot.

I've worked my fair share of closings, and yes, more scammers at night

 

[No I in Team]

I forgot that different stores obviously handle things differently. At m store, a week or so of that would lead to them calling other stores for support and giving OT to catch up. But if everyone is having the same problem, there won't really be any support help available and they would skip straight to offering OT.

I will say it's going to really suck for Flexible Fulfillment...

We would have just enough to add a partial flat or pallet to an area. It would never pile up to a point to were you had to "push the button". But it was obvious we needed an extra body or two.

We're lucky in that we have a solid core of Flow/Backroom Team members. Although the number is dwindling fast.

With what we're picking up with SFS in the 4th, I don't envy anyone involved in that aspect of the business.

 

[oath2order]

Great yes put more people on the floor to help guests. This does nothing to solve issues like the style team at my store majority does not speak English, the majority of flow in general does not know how to actually help a guest

 

[Frontlanegirl]

Great yes put more people on the floor to help guests. This does nothing to solve issues like the style team at my store majority does not speak English, the majority of flow in general does not know how to actually help a guest

Especially when MyTime does not appropriately schedule the front lanes and we constantly need to call for backups. We cannnot run the check lanes with one scheduled cashier from 6 to 9.