Archived Problem With Abandons/Reshop

[RedShirt1]

Hey guys, long time follower first time poster. I work Hardlines in a very high volume Super T, with an average of 300k sales daily. For a couple months now the sales floor hasn't been able to keep up with our abandons/reshop. We close at 12, often with two tm's and a hltl and work 10-15 carts out after the zone. We usually leave the rest, meaning that anymore we have 40 abandon carts. Pretty much all the time now. Any ideas on tactics to get those worked out faster? Or to reduce abandons made? We do work out half of our carts we make while zoning each night.

 

[CIHYFS]

I am in a high volume Super T also and we are in the same boat as you RedShirt1. Most nights we have 2 or 3 zoners in Hardlines. When I started 2 years ago there was at least 5 or 6 every night. I miss those days. But now we don't even get the zone finished by 1 AM most nights. There is no time to work abandons out in the day because most TM's spend at least an hour (not consecutive) backing up on the check lanes each shift. Something needs to change and adding hours is the only way I can think of. But it won't happen because Target expects more from less TM's. It is rare to get ours down below 30 each day. Tonight was over 40. I have seen it above 60 in the past few months. It is ridiculous. Every once in a while our overnight team will have a canceled truck or something and they'll clear all the abandons, but we definitely can't count on that.

Our store does not scan every item when sorting at the service desk. Does anyone think that those lists help speed things up when putting abandons away?

 

[qmosqueen]

We had 40 carts of reshop last night. We took them all up to guest services and sorted all of them. The team in the morning was suppose to have everyone take 2 carts and push them to the floor. I sure hope that happened, but I am dreaming. let's hope at least half got done, and the other half are stiing in the aisles playing hide and seek.

The key is to take all reshop to guest services and let it sit, so when the LOD or STL come in in the morning, they see how much EXTRA work there is for the entire team of 5 people. lol
leaving the carts scattered through the store, doesn't do any good and looks bad to the guests.
TMs stop hiding your reshop and putting things in the wrong places.

 

[sigma7]

Those lists are a waste of time for anyone that has been there more than two weeks. Also a waste for anyone who has been there for less than two weeks since they don't know what they mean anyway. If I was your STL nothing would be getting done until those returns are worked. 40 carts of returns is insane. We maybe have that many for a day or two after Black Friday or Christmas, but to run that way normally is not good. Those returns sitting around is causing extra work for every other team. We would be team zoning while one person stayed on returns all night. Your store has to get caught up on returns one day and then stay caught up no matter what. Or at the very least not let them get this out of control.

 

[PugMuffin]

Damn, 40 carts of reshop? That's insane! As for reducing the amount of reshop, maintaining a good zone is key. Guests won't abandon things in the wrong spot as often if they see things are clean and organized (just what I've seen from my experience). Also, push out reshop as you zone, and don't take anything out of your area that belongs in your area.

 

[Whenindoubtflexitout]

To get caught up, I would suggest your morning team Smart Huddle all of the reshop. This includes all leaders, SFT etc. It may take an hour to get it worked, but it will be work it in the long run. To maintain it, it is crucial the team completes reshop as they zone. Rolling it up at night as they leave can't be an option. Also, I would remove some of your carts for reshop at guest service. This will minimize how much can fit up there and force the team to keep up with it during the day. My team eventually got down to having just 1 3 tier for hard lines and 1 for soft lines. Good luck!

 

[commiecorvus]

To get caught up, I would suggest your morning team Smart Huddle all of the reshop. This includes all leaders, SFT etc. It may take an hour to get it worked, but it will be work it in the long run. To maintain it, it is crucial the team completes reshop as they zone. Rolling it up at night as they leave can't be an option. Also, I would remove some of your carts for reshop at guest service. This will minimize how much can fit up there and force the team to keep up with it during the day. My team eventually got down to having just 1 3 tier for hard lines and 1 for soft lines. Good luck!

Our store had reshop huddles on a regular basis.
They actually help people learn where things are in sections they aren't familiar with and take a lot of pressure off the teams.

 

[RedShirt1]

CIHYFS - My store has the same problems; too many back up calls from the front end and not enough hours for the hardlines team the way I see it. ON team will sometimes have a cancelled truck and work them out like you said, but understandably they hate it. Last time they had to help out was BTS time, when we had 105 carts between hl and sl. We had carts in 6 checklanes, and the rest stuffed in an HR room and even more in the fitting rooms stockroom.

I have been trying to make sure the reshop from the zones are always finished, and I often take the time to help GS desk sort them so they can get sorted out faster. As far as smart huddles go, we have them maybe once a week but it alternates between helping hl and sl. Thanks for the advice on removing GS sorting carts, that is something my team will have to try.

 

[sigma7]

105 carts?!? That's insane. Hopefully, whoever let it get to that point got ripped a new one and no one is ever going to let that happen again.

 

[mrknownothing]

Those lists are a waste of time for anyone that has been there more than two weeks. Also a waste for anyone who has been there for less than two weeks since they don't know what they mean anyway.

The lists are helpful for re-shoppers who lack PDAs. They're the only way to see 2nd locations without a PDA. Plus, Smart Sorted re-shop carts mean less running around for whoever is working them.

 

[sigma7]

If you've been working for more than a month and can't do a cart of returns without a PDA or smart sort list, then you need to spend some time memorizing where things are at. Take an empty cart to get your returns and sort them by aisle then. At least you'll know what's in your cart as you walk by aisles. Unless everyone is sorting every item through smart sort, the lists will not be accurate. They also don't account for vendor items and the stuff that came up as backstock.

 

[IhaveaDream]

How are you a Super T and have 3 hardlines closers? I am D-volume and have 3 hardline closers.

 

[SalesflrTL]

We are a d volume store, close at 10 every night except saturdays which are 11. We generally have 1 or 2 closers each side and we simply don't allow reshop at the front. Everyone pushes it when they see it or pass it to a team member working the departments. Nothing is allowed behind IGS except returns which get picked up after every time someone clocks on, back from a break or lunch, or anytime they head to the front for anything. This is a new concept and for the first time in 5 years I no longer stress about abandons. We don't allow any three tiers behind guest service either, there is just a tub for returns to be put on and thats it.

 

[RedShirt1]

@IhaveaDream I have no idea. My store is a Super T but I don't know what volume we are....I do know we are the largest in in my state out west....

We used to close with 6-7 people in hardlines, but ever since mytime came along it seems like we are getting 2-3 closers, 5 max on Saturday if no one calls out. We never get time during the day to reshop seeing as our cafs go from 11am to 7pm (12's, 4's, 5 o'clocks today were 50ish batches). I just hate seeing reshop build up!

 

[neversaynever]

Thanks for the advice on removing GS sorting carts, that is something my team will have to try.

Our new ETL-GE did this, because they did it in her first store.

It sucks for us (we have 1 3 tier, top is SL, bottom 2 hard lines). We went from not having a reshop issue, to a horrid one (for us). I'm guessing no one wants to go get it because they have sit and sort it out before they get theirs. Everyone hates it, it looks like crap, and now it's backed up everywhere.

I can honestly tell a difference in the store since that date.... Ugh.

 

[redandkhaki]

our abandon might build up but we have a rule that going into the weekend we have NO abandon built up. So every friday morning we smart huddle abandon until everything is cleared including the fitting room. We also smart huddle it on sunday and usually by monday morning it's gone.

4th quarter is another story though. We usually leave about 40-60 carts a night but the truck team takes care of it over night. It's a good trade off because 99% of the time we are doing their leftover freight on truck days during the rest of the year.

 

[oath2order]

My store, we schedule the hardlines people to have an area to zone (typically the closers, though some mid people have a zone as well). Our midday people tend to focus on the push (though our zoners help push for their department if it's backed up), and the midday people do reshop (again, the zoners are expected to do reshop for their area though).

Cashiers and GSAs do front-end/dollar spot reshop.

 

[Rock Lobster]

105 carts?!? That's insane. Hopefully, whoever it get to that point got ripped a new one and no one is ever going to let that happen again.

That is the problem with high volume stores. The payroll does not scale correctly from what I have seen. At a certain point it plateaus and the team consistently just struggles. Target's processes are not made to handle 350K on a consistent basis.

 

[loser girl]

I don't think our store even has 105 carts.

 

[bikebryan]

Reshop never stops and I'm convinced it reproduces asexually. Many nights I closed we would scrub the floor from one end to the other, and as sections finished they brought up things not belonging to their area to guest service. We would sort everything into one cart for each area, leaving maybe six sorted carts. I would then sweep one last time to ensure that was it. Somehow there ended up being 15 to 20 carts up there by the time the opening crew came in. When closing you would always get hate messages from the STL berating you for leaving so much not done.

I'm convinced that O/N flow and backroom was dumping things into the carts they couldn't finish and stashing them at guest services with our carts. There could be no other way those carts got up there. Of course the STL never wanted to believe that.

 

[mrknownothing]

105 carts?!? That's insane. Hopefully, whoever it get to that point got ripped a new one and no one is ever going to let that happen again.

Wow. When I did overnight re-shop, I thought 30 carts of toys was bad. A+ volume during the holidays.

 

[signingminion]

Way lower volume store, but if we have more than two carts for our area we get our assess handed to us. Midday usually clears through each area of reshop and cafs and gets a small 4x4 done.

I catch flo putting cases of spices in my cart all the time, as well as random holiday cases unopened. And our electronics closer loves to push up two carts as well as a half worked caf at the end of the night, but that's not every night.

 

[Backroom81]

How are you a Super T and have 3 hardlines closers? I am D-volume and have 3 hardline closers.

Seriously? My store is a AA Super and we only have 4 closing in hardlines most nights (that's including electronics too). On weekends, we'll get a fifth.

 

[whippingboy]

When my store first opened we had 57 carts of reshop lined up from the checklanes to the back of the store on Christmas morning. That was back when we had hours and bodies to do everything. This year is going to suck, big time.

We have at least three huddles a day for reshop. Seasonal in the morning, softlines in the afternoon and HBA in the evenings (super Target). The LOD will pull everyone to do it including Bakery and Produce team members.

 

[IhaveaDream]

How are you a Super T and have 3 hardlines closers? I am D-volume and have 3 hardline closers.

Seriously? My store is a AA Super and we only have 4 closing in hardlines most nights (that's including electronics too). On weekends, we'll get a fifth.

Your ETL-OPS needs to hand out payroll better :/