Archived Price Change rant #9,723

[JustJoe]

I've either been a participant in or a creator of threads where I say I'm going to quit, but I'm too lazy to search.

A few months ago our ETL-AP (who got smart and quit) and STL did an inventory of our MyDevices and linked serials to numbers on the equipment log. As a result, of this teams who should have priority in the morning were "allocated" specific devices so we can do our job. Then, when we are done for the day they are free for all to use. This worked for about a day as our ETL-LOG deems it so flow takes all of the equipment and uses it UNTIL we come and claim it from them. This worked fine when we still used LPDAs and PDAs because we could just swap out the batteries. But now the MyDevices don't come with swappable batteries so we are lucky to get equipment that will last until our break/lunch and we can get them on the charger for a few minutes.

Today we came in at 4 to audit Monday's workload since we were missing about 500 DPCI from kids. Four of us needed all four of our MyDevices. I got mine... with a dead battery. So did two others. So we're piddling around for a half hour so we could get a little charge. So that's 90 minutes of lost time to tackle our workload just waiting for equipment. Then, the battery on the scanner sled decided it wanted to die. I put it on the charger as sometimes it helps get it going again... 3 scans later and it dies again. So I'm scanning Z-racks of RTW with the iPod camera.... If you go through the motions of scanning a piece of clothing you probably spend about 5 seconds on it. With the camera it is closer to 15 seconds. It took me almost 30 minutes to scan 1 full Z-rack (two, but only one row on each).

I got more and more fed up by the minute. I'm almost at the point where I could walk away from Spot, but not quite there yet. However, I had decided that today would be a good day to put in my two weeks. While my MyDevice was charging I went back to the computer in our fixture room and printed off the resignation form. The thing that stopped me from filling it out and turning it in was that I had printed it on label paper.

 

[redeye58]

The thing that stopped me from filling it out and turning it in was that I had printed it on label paper.

lol. I'd have turned it in any way, readability be damned.

 

[signingminion]

If I had a dollar for every important thing a tl had handed to me on label paper I could retire...

 

[Retail Girl]

Is it just our stores where flow is taking all of the equipment all of a sudden, or is it a company wide thing? They used to leave it, but now on truck days, we come in to all of the equipment snapped up by the flow team, leaving everyone else begging/scrambling for whatever scraps they can find.

 

[Retail Girl]

If I had a dollar for every important thing a tl had handed to me on label paper I could retire...

Some genius kept putting the label paper in the TSC printer, would print their stuff out, and then walk away, leaving the label printer in the printer, for the next person to discover when they printed their stuff out. This went on for about a week before a stern note went up on the printer stating the obvious: if you put in special paper, take it out when you are done.

 

[redeye58]

Is it just our stores where flow is taking all of the equipment all of a sudden, or is it a company wide thing? They used to leave it, but now on truck days, we come in to all of the equipment snapped up by the flow team, leaving everyone else begging/scrambling for whatever scraps they can find.

Even when I still worked there months ago, I'd be waiting to clock in early morning & you could hear the fight for equipment play out over the walkies.
Ugly stuff.

 

[Bosch]

Is it just our stores where flow is taking all of the equipment all of a sudden, or is it a company wide thing? They used to leave it, but now on truck days, we come in to all of the equipment snapped up by the flow team, leaving everyone else begging/scrambling for whatever scraps they can find.

That is normal in a overnight store. I have to have two of them one to charge while I kill the other, leaving none for salesfloor cause In-Stocks and Pricing has to do this. Cause they are dead everyday we come in. Everyday.

And I would have just turned it in, not like they actually care about anything.

 

[Kompa]

Sucks but has the priority as a team. The floor needs to get filled to do anything else

 

[Retail Girl]

What happened to using pick labels for the stuff that isn't repacks?

 

[Kompa]

What happened to using pick labels for the stuff that isn't repacks?

second locations

 

[Ashfromoldsite]

I used to get to work at 7:30 just to grab equipment for Hardlines and softlines then wait to clock in.
I gave up about thanksgiving with the damn flow team. Now I get there at 7:55 and if I don't have equipment, I'll just walk around or do reshop. If they want endcaps set, they will GET me equipment or I'll waste the day away doing reshop and helping guests.

 

[Txcpht]

I know this is a ridiculous suggestion...but why doesn't Target allocate more equipment for stores? Every morning when I come in to work I hear price change begging for equipment. I'm positive it happens with other work centers also. We have to beg to use a pdt for 5 minutes to acknowledge pharmacy orders. It's a waste of time for everyone!

 

[Signkitty]

second locations

Use the price scanners.

 

[mrknownothing]

Use the price scanners.

The price scanners only show one location, just like the pick labels. You can only see second locations on a PDA or MyDevice.

 

[Guest]

The lack of equipment is a result of two things:
1. team members steal, lose, and/or break or damage equipment
2. STL is a cheap ass and refuses to fork out the money to replace/fix equipment because he/she wants the budget to be at just the right amount at the end of the year so he/she can get their bonus for maintaining the budget of the store.

 

[Retail Girl]

Actually, for PDAs and my devices, stores have to get approval from the district to buy more if the ones they have are lost/stolen.

 

[Ashfromoldsite]

The Stl can't just fork out money to replace them. The store only gets so many. If the store loses one the store is sol. The Stl has to have dtl approval to get another one. the Dtl isn't going to give the Stl approval if the store loses it from not following a good sign out/in program.

As far as fixing equipment, yes the STLs are cheap. Our walkies all have broken antennas, and dead ones aren't replaced til the etls panic a month before Christmas.

At one time my store had 12 working walkies for tm to share. We would get cussed out every day for not answering endymes and backups until a few of us at huddle got angry and spoke our minds. Can't respond if I DONT KNOW backup is needed because I don't HAVE a walkie. If you WANT guest service scores to go up, you NEED to provide is w walkies.

Our Stl is a complete dumbass!

 

[Ashfromoldsite]

I have to add....with the 12 working walkies....food ave, deli, pharmacy, price change and Plano would take them. I'm sorry, if you're not going to answer Hardlines or softlines phone calls and run to endymes, you shouldn't be taking a walkie. The lods never told them to stop. So out of 5 on the entire Supertarget salesfloor, we were lucky if 2 had a walkie.

 

[jadzia]

Sucks but has the priority as a team. The floor needs to get filled to do anything else

The reality is that MyDevices are more of a priority for other teams besides Flow, in EVERY store. How can Price Change even start their workload when all the devices are dead and dayside backroom needs the PDAs to pull CAFs and flexes? How can the SF team do price audits, set salesplanners, help guests etc. if we're all sharing one working device for the entire store?

ASANTS, but you know how many people on our Flow team actually check second locations? Probably one. I come in every morning to endcaps right next to the home location completely empty while the home location is completely overpushed. 90% of the TMs on our Flow team take a MyDevice because they're too lazy to read pick labels or nobody has ever taught them how, I have seen it with my own eyes. And they refuse to take PDAs even if they're available because they're "too slow". So this topic definitely pisses me off because all the equipment in our store is being burned through by people not even doing their job properly, and it backs up the workloads of all of the other teams.

 

[Guest]

From how I see things, Target has a gazillion dollars so money is infinite. An STL can replace equipment and do the right thing so there is an ample amount of equipment. It's not about "can". It's more about " won't ". Everything that the STL does is motivated by money. If you don't know that then you're living in the twilight zone. And the DTL is even worse. They are greedier and a bigger piece of shit than the STL.

 

[Kompa]

The reality is that MyDevices are more of a priority for other teams besides Flow, in EVERY store. How can Price Change even start their workload when all the devices are dead and dayside backroom needs the PDAs to pull CAFs and flexes? How can the SF team do price audits, set salesplanners, help guests etc. if we're all sharing one working device for the entire store?

ASANTS, but you know how many people on our Flow team actually check second locations? Probably one. I come in every morning to endcaps right next to the home location completely empty while the home location is completely overpushed. 90% of the TMs on our Flow team take a MyDevice because they're too lazy to read pick labels or nobody has ever taught them how, I have seen it with my own eyes. And they refuse to take PDAs even if they're available because they're "too slow". So this topic definitely pisses me off because all the equipment in our store is being burned through by people not even doing their job properly, and it backs up the workloads of all of the other teams.

In my store logistics is a priority for PDAs. We have plenty of mydevices but in the event that someone is setting endcaps or doing price change and a log TM tells the the LOD that they need to backstock, Pricing and Salefloor will just be forced to give up their device

 

[jadzia]

In my store logistics is a priority for PDAs. We have plenty of mydevices but in the event that someone is setting endcaps or doing price change and a log TM tells the the LOD that they need to backstock, Pricing and Salefloor will just be forced to give up their device

Logistics is a priority for PDAs in my store as well. I'm saying they are not a priority for MyDevices, especially if they don't need them. If they need them, like to backstock in your example, then that's fine. But my point was that the majority of the Flow team does not need them and takes them anyway, which hurts the dayside teams who come in early and can't get their workload done or even started because all the devices are dead.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

This might help:this might help you:

 

[BlueSide]

Bottom line: We need more devices.

 

[Quattro]

Target needs more of everything.

More devices so that people can do their work (and do it properly).
More cashiers scheduled at one time, so that we aren't constantly taking people off the sales floor for backup.
More walkies so that people can communicate with each other.

I would say we need more batteries to keep these devices/walkies running, but we have plenty. It really just comes down to lazy a-holes leaving dead batteries laying around/in the charger incorrectly so that they aren't charging. This is one of my biggest pet-peeves.