Archived Please be Visual and forget the Technical...

[RightArm]

It seems that corporate has gotten so gung ho with the visual merchandising that they've thrown the basic planogram in softlines under the bus. "Don't place the product according to the POG, place the product according to the pictures we send you."

Juniors (or Young as it is called) in our store is a separate letter in the pog ties. For example, RTW is "R" and Young/Juniors is "S". This weeks 161 pog set literally had me tie a POG in Young/Juniors and then carry half the product across the main aisle to RTW to go in denim/license. So the POG is tied to S22 and yet half of it is over on R14.

Anyone else experience this silliness?

So for those of you working ship from store or flex... I apologize. I'm beginning to think getting our tables labeled properly really isn't going to help you, especially when corporate doesn't care where it's tied so long as it looks the way they say it is supposed to.

 

[SFSFun]

It can't be worse than the Girls dept at my store, where half the tables aren't even tied, and the tables that are tied have random shirts missing and moved to the jeans wall.

We often have Flow helping push softlines since they can't seem to finish, so I feel bad for people unfamiliar with the department trying to push freight in it.

 

[squirrely]

Honestly, it makes sense to me. People in SL aren't scanning product to see where it goes. Honestly, we flex so much anyway, the locations don't mean much.

 

[Noiinteam]

In my store, most of the softline tables do not have label strips anymore. In NIT the Gerber does not have any labels and those items do not have a price on them. Many older guests are always asking for prices. I don't blame them at all. Everyday shoppers use the scanner.

 

[Planosss]

In my store, most of the softline tables do not have label strips anymore. In NIT the Gerber does not have any labels and those items do not have a price on them. Many older guests are always asking for prices. I don't blame them at all. Everyday shoppers use the scanner.

Same here, i was actually shopping at my store for my infant, and got very frustrated NO PRICES!!! On any of the infant stuff, I actually ended just leaving without picking up anything!

 

[BoxCutter]

"Don't place the product according to the POG, place the product according to the pictures we send you."

You would think corporate could tie all items to a POG based on how the pictures look.

In hardlines we are getting shippers and side caps with no POGs. "Just put them up" our PPTL was told. No one has time to store tie all the items to a location so good luck finding them or counting them if any are RIGS.

 

[Bosch]

Honestly, it makes sense to me. People in SL aren't scanning product to see where it goes. Honestly, we flex so much anyway, the locations don't mean much.

They will come to mean something if you are going to be a SFS store.

 

[squirrely]

In my store, most of the softline tables do not have label strips anymore. In NIT the Gerber does not have any labels and those items do not have a price on them. Many older guests are always asking for prices. I don't blame them at all. Everyday shoppers use the scanner.

Tables should have a 7x11 price point, but most items have a price on the tag now.

 

[squirrely]

They will come to mean something if you are going to be a SFS store.

We are getting SFS. My store hasn't been using label strips for over a year and not once have I been called over for an SPU with a folded item. It's always hanging.

 

[RTCry]

It seems that corporate has gotten so gung ho with the visual merchandising that they've thrown the basic planogram in softlines under the bus. "Don't place the product according to the POG, place the product according to the pictures we send you."

Juniors (or Young as it is called) in our store is a separate letter in the pog ties. For example, RTW is "R" and Young/Juniors is "S". This weeks 161 pog set literally had me tie a POG in Young/Juniors and then carry half the product across the main aisle to RTW to go in denim/license. So the POG is tied to S22 and yet half of it is over on R14.

Anyone else experience this silliness?

So for those of you working ship from store or flex... I apologize. I'm beginning to think getting our tables labeled properly really isn't going to help you, especially when corporate doesn't care where it's tied so long as it looks the way they say it is supposed to.

I haven’t. While our RTW/Young Contemporary tables no longer have label strips, they are still tied to POGs and remain in their locations. The only thing I had was folding hanging jeggings to place on a table. And...not having the product to accurately set the VMG.

 

[jenna]

No labels for softlines? That is how I help guests to find sizes and colors, quickly.

Boo, hiss.

 

[Bosch]

We are getting SFS. My store hasn't been using label strips for over a year and not once have I been called over for an SPU with a folded item. It's always hanging.

Different store, different needs.. We pull a ton of kids clothing for store pick up..

 

[beachlover]

Honestly, it makes sense to me. People in SL aren't scanning product to see where it goes. Honestly, we flex so much anyway, the locations don't mean much.

There aren't enough Zebras in our store for SL floor staff so we don't scan when re-shopping. There isn't a communication plan for changes so we walk into areas that have been redone seemingly overnight with no idea the logic behind the change or where to find the items. Infants is a good example. Some toys or stuffed animals are in the aisle with bottles/bibs, unless they are adjacent to toys, or perhaps in infant bedding with cloud island. Many times, I find one of each in flexed into all three areas and also, maybe in the clothing area since staff just flex because, now, we're moving trucks as well. The Target app on my cell phone is the most useful 'map' of the store I've found, especially when helping guests.

 

[squirrely]

There aren't enough Zebras in our store for SL floor staff so we don't scan when re-shopping. There isn't a communication plan for changes so we walk into areas that have been redone seemingly overnight with no idea the logic behind the change or where to find the items. Infants is a good example. Some toys or stuffed animals are in the aisle with bottles/bibs, unless they are adjacent to toys, or perhaps in infant bedding with cloud island. Many times, I find one of each in flexed into all three areas and also, maybe in the clothing area since staff just flex because, now, we're moving trucks as well. The Target app on my cell phone is the most useful 'map' of the store I've found, especially when helping guests.

My store keeps an adjacency at the fitting room that has a map/layout of each department. I suggest all TM's working in any SL departments look at them to gain a better understanding of the layout. Each department is supposed to have mini shops within them. Example: there's a girl's license shop, a girl's Art Class shop, girls C&J, girls commodities (shirts, jeans, leggings), and an athletic shop. Once you look at the map, you see how each shop fits into the department.

 

[SFSFun]

You would think corporate could tie all items to a POG based on how the pictures look.

In hardlines we are getting shippers and side caps with no POGs. "Just put them up" our PPTL was told. No one has time to store tie all the items to a location so good luck finding them or counting them if any are RIGS.

Just deal with shippers the way my store does: Backstock it and it will either sit there until it gets pulled in a pog batch or until it goes clearance.

 

[RightArm]

I haven’t. While our RTW/Young Contemporary tables no longer have label strips, they are still tied to POGs and remain in their locations. The only thing I had was folding hanging jeggings to place on a table. And...not having the product to accurately set the VMG.

Then you haven't done this week's pogs for Young Contemporary/RTW... because there is a POG that is literally split between Young/Contemorary and Denim/License. Same POG # but half the POG is placed in Young Contemporary and the other half in Denim/License. I don't know about your store but with the remodel our Young/Contemporary got redesignated with the same location letter as Accessories while RTW has a separate location letter. So that means this POG is literally tied in one dept while half of it is in another dept.

Side note: We do have Flexible Fulfillment AND Ship From Store... so this kind of thing can be annoying for them when they're hunting for the second half of the POG that's tied in Young Contemporary and have no clue it's actually over in RTW. All I can do is inform them. There's nothing I can do to fix the stupid. Our SL gals, though, are very good about helping our SFS/Flex team and teaching them how to find stuff as well.

 

[RightArm]

You would think corporate could tie all items to a POG based on how the pictures look.

In hardlines we are getting shippers and side caps with no POGs. "Just put them up" our PPTL was told. No one has time to store tie all the items to a location so good luck finding them or counting them if any are RIGS.

You would think so but that statement or something very close to it is in the front of every VMG - Set the POGs according to the VMG and not according to POG label placement. I find it stupid that they go to the trouble of giving these items a designation in a POG (like 1-1-1) then the pictures tell you to set it at say 2-4-1. Why the POG placement can't match is beyond me.

I tend to tie shippers to the closest thing with location number and then call it section 99 or 95 so we know it's a shipper and not section of a table. Thing is, though, our STL hates shippers. She doesn't let us put up the back to school basics shippers anymore because the product in them never goes clearance, it just gets moved to the salesfloor location. So she makes us kill the shippers and work the product into their home locations. Of course with the 2.0 we don't seem to have as many shippers. Guess we'll see come Christmas if that remains true.

 

[RTCry]

Then you haven't done this week's pogs for Young Contemporary/RTW... because there is a POG that is literally split between Young/Contemorary and Denim/License. Same POG # but half the POG is placed in Young Contemporary and the other half in Denim/License. I don't know about your store but with the remodel our Young/Contemporary got redesignated with the same location letter as Accessories while RTW has a separate location letter. So that means this POG is literally tied in one dept while half of it is in another dept.

Side note: We do have Flexible Fulfillment AND Ship From Store... so this kind of thing can be annoying for them when they're hunting for the second half of the POG that's tied in Young Contemporary and have no clue it's actually over in RTW. All I can do is inform them. There's nothing I can do to fix the stupid. Our SL gals, though, are very good about helping our SFS/Flex team and teaching them how to find stuff as well.

Which POG is that?? I’m intrigued.

 

[BigEyedPhish]

I'll never forget setting those POG's for CVS when they took over pharmacy, in a set, 2-1-3 (1 was actually the TOP Shelf, not the bottom, you don't think it makes that much a difference till you realize how much Target is ingrained in you).... I was wondering wtf was going on till the CVS (I guess CVS-Remodel equivalent?) Told me that, that number was actually the top shelf, not the bottom.

My mind was blown, henceforth.

 

[beachlover]

No map in our fitting room for SL. ASANTS, I guess. Although I will say at my store, actually reading information (for example the notebook that provides assistance for answering the FR phone isn't encouraged. When I was reading it at the FR I was informed that standing around under camera view "wasn't the best use of my time". Reminds of the elusive Cashier notebook that we saw during our 25 minute 'training' and never saw again. Don't even get me started on trying to re-shop shoes.......

 

[jenna]

I dislike the BTS shippers, too. They become "dump bins" and look messy all the time.

 

[RightArm]

Which POG is that?? I’m intrigued.

In our store it is POG #A161EJS... when you tie it and pull it the product for the table in the Juniors section of the 10-1-2017 RTW VMG labeled F3d (the button up cardigans MSC) and the product for the table labeled F1 under Denim & License (the pullover sweaters MSC) will come out on that pull. If you scan either type of sweater you'll find them both tied to the same POG (or rather we did) but they want you to put them in two different depts. The other possible POG numbers they give are A161EJZ, EJW, ETE, EJV, ESG, EJT.... you'll also note that on that cardigan table in juniors they want you to place the license folded shirts on the back while the pullovers move to license to take their place.

I also had fun with the POG numbers for the back wall of seasonal and the feature table in AND being switched... minor stuff but annoying... now I have to retie the tables correctly... though as some have said it doesn't matter to most.

 

[RightArm]

I dislike the BTS shippers, too. They become "dump bins" and look messy all the time.

Just like those little white round baskets we received with the 2.0 remodel

 

[Backroom81]

They will come to mean something if you are going to be a SFS store.

We are a SFS store, aisle location means nothing anymore.

There's a hole? BETTER FLEX OVER IT! Then when the product comes in, don't remove the flexed product, just flex it in somewhere else (or backstock it). Literally every time I help out the sales floor, I spend an hour putting an aisle back to planogram, and shoot the outs. Every time, 2/3 of the outs are in the backroom. I try to approach the sales floor ETLs about it, and they keep saying it's fine.

It's almost like a guest will come in looking for an item, can't find it or even a tag for it on the shelf, and will go somewhere else while our ETL staff is scratching their heads wondering why we can't make sales. Working in SFS is especially infuriating because we spend a stupid amount of time looking for the item that the sales floor TM decided to flex in 8 feet away from where it was supposed to go.

 

[RightArm]

We are a SFS store, aisle location means nothing anymore.

There's a hole? BETTER FLEX OVER IT! Then when the product comes in, don't remove the flexed product, just flex it in somewhere else (or backstock it). Literally every time I help out the sales floor, I spend an hour putting an aisle back to planogram, and shoot the outs. Every time, 2/3 of the outs are in the backroom. I try to approach the sales floor ETLs about it, and they keep saying it's fine.

It's almost like a guest will come in looking for an item, can't find it or even a tag for it on the shelf, and will go somewhere else while our ETL staff is scratching their heads wondering why we can't make sales. Working in SFS is especially infuriating because we spend a stupid amount of time looking for the item that the sales floor TM decided to flex in 8 feet away from where it was supposed to go.

That's what I'm trying to get across here. It's not always (in Softlines at least) that a TM has flexed something eight feet away just because they decided to do so on a whim or to fill a hole. Sometimes we're simply following the VMG we have been ordered to follow. When you are given a split pog by corporate that can only be tied in one location but you're being told to put the product in two different depts there is little you can do about that. And when the VMG tells you to put the product in position 2-4-1 while the POG says it goes in 1-1-1 there is little you can do about that either. Yes, sometimes it is just as you say and randomly flexed for the heck of it but not always...