Archived Shopability

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ClearanceMaster

ClearanceMaster

Price Accuracy TM
Joined
May 31, 2013
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Can someone explain to me what all shopability entails? we were supposed to make sure we were following maps for our store and remove extra racks. we were supposed to not be cramming merchandise out on the floor. ya-da ya-da but our VML is working against everyone. She won't let us extend the bars out at all and if it's not pictured on the adjacency it's not on the floor. this means we have about 20+ z-racks in the backroom plus all of our space up top in the backroom is crammed. our price accuracy team has trouble finding anything and after wasting their time scanning the sales floor we wind up finding all of our first markdowns in the backroom. Then, finding space for it out on the sales floor is another problem as she reduced us from 5 rows deep down to 4. and from like 12 rows across down to 10. that is guesstimated 15-20 quads and convertibles she moved off the salesfloor for one department. how are we supposed to get anything out when we were barely getting it out before then?

HELP. VML SUCKS
 
Yikes! Well, we are supposed to follow the adjacency exactly as regards the number of racks. It is to make the department easier to get through and more attractive to shoppers. However, we should not be back stocking mdse that is not on the adjacency. Everything should be represented on the floor. Part of making the department shopable can include extending 4 way arms. If you lost a row deep, there should be plenty of room to extend the arms. if the VML is making the decision to backstock so much, she should also be spending a considerable amount of time repushing it.
Maybe you can speak with the ETL in charge of the VML.
 
There is no ETL in charge of the vml. I mean, technically there is.. but she pretty much makes her own schedule, makes up her own plan and flat out does whatever she wants. And since there is no softlines TL right now at our store she pretty much runs the roost. I do believe making her own the backstock would solve the problem I just need to get it through an ETLS head now, which is very very hard to do. we tried having a TM scheduled on flow that just worked backstock but she worked against that tm and kept backstocking what she just fit out until they quit.

we pretty much set a size chart down than what we normally would if that makes sense?

Do you know if there is anything on workbench I could print out to back me up when I go to the ETL? they are coffee buddies and I don't think they will take well to me complaining about our VML?
 
I dont know what Target defines at shopabililty but my take is your racks should be aligned and mirror any other department such as girls vs boys so people know exactly where to find cat and jack jeans in both departments. Your able to fit a shopping cart down each aisle. Each rack should be easy for the guest to browse the rack and not have the product fall on the floor. It should be signed correctly to match the product on the rack. This just my opinion based on previous softline experience.
 
If she is using the adjacency for a smaller store, that is just stupid. I would approach the ETL asking for help, rather than complaining about the VML, at least at first. Express your concern about how much is in the backroom and how much clearance you find there. Ask for help finding out which is the correct rack count for your store. "We could use another row of racks for all of this clearance," or something like that. And ask who is responsible for working the stuff out. You don't want a junk shop, but nothing sells from the backroom.
 
Our softlines clearance exclusively uses the high capacity racks. In RTW there are 3 rows, each made up of 3 or 4 racks.
 
Whoa, having that much is the backroom is insane! As a SLTL, that would not fly for me. My job is to make sure product is out, VML should be making it 'shopable'. Utilize as much of the back wall as possible. The deliniations can also hold quite a bit of product. I can't imagine a DTL would be okay with that much in the backroom. Yikes.
 
Our district VML guy comes through our store almost daily. A week or so ago, he and our softlines TLs came in early and got rid of like 20% of racks. I looks a lot better, but it created Z-Racks upon Z-Racks of product in the back. We sell through enough product in a day that our morning SL team can spend their shift pushing those Z's.

Clearance has taken a section of the area's backwalls for a couple months. Just shoulderbar it all. It works well.
 
SFSFun said:
Oh you'd be surprised...
Click to expand...
My vmlbp or whatever has walked past the stack of z-racks we store on the floor without comment. She tripped over one once but never said "wtf are these doing here they look hideous" ...now if one of the Liz fixtures isn't signed she losses her crap, but a giant ugly stack of z-racks? No probs.
 
My store almost never has hanging in the back. Right now we have some kids puffer jackets because they sent so many and they're bulky, but that's the first I've seen back there for a long time.
 
I am a VMTL and that sounds ridiculous. The maps given in the books are not going to exactly match your floorpad. The direction given by our DTL>STL has been to not extend arms on racks, do not raise quads, have no "unnecessary" billboards, and to simply ensure that all product is represented on the floor in a full size run (how many of each size will depend on the item- for example: puffer jackets, we might only have 1 of each size). Side note: if I move racks during an adjacency I always do a test run with a cart to make sure you can easily navigate through our floorpad.
Unfortunately for us, the hanging backstock got messed up by flow team and is now a nightmare to purge. On the plus side, we have a fairly competent softlines team that has a working knowledge of our hanging backstock and checks regularly for fill.
Your VMTL should understand that some of the products NOT shown in the adjacency books can be d-code... that product should be worked *similar to hardlines), and brought to the floor BEFORE it goes clearance. Your VMTL should also ( have enough experience) and understand that it is sometimes necessary to bring out product (not shown in the book), to drive sales...but that's just my opinion.
 
We're a small store but our back room is starting to fill up for the first time due to over sending on the part of the DC. I believe I was told something to the effect that they would be shutting down at a point during the season and were trying to get the stores supplied to carry through... in this case "over supplied" at the moment. But since our BR has not had to backstock SL in so long they've pretty much forgotten how to use the monkey clips. It's getting to be a mess.... Then we have the problem of SL Flow over pushing to the point that when you try to browse a rack it falls on the floor..... or my least favorite, over extending the NIT arms past the last stop so that if you were to pull on them they'd come right out and dump everything on the floor. :p
 
How does the BR team have any space to move with that many Zs is the back? If anyone in my store tried to bring that much merchandise to the back, and then let it go clearance without being represented on the floor, they'd definitely get cursed out.

Target makes it's money on the high-margin merchandise in SL. Can't sell what's not on the floor. I can't believe the logistics ETLs/TLs are not combatting this issue already.
 
SrTLall said:
How does the BR team have any space to move with that many Zs is the back? If anyone in my store tried to bring that much merchandise to the back, and then let it go clearance without being represented on the floor, they'd definitely get cursed out.

Target makes it's money on the high-margin merchandise in SL. Can't sell what's not on the floor. I can't believe the logistics ETLs/TLs are not combatting this issue already.
Click to expand...

We are lucky and have the biggest backroom in the district for our size store..Considering we are only B volume.
My ETL is too busy spending her time flirting with the ETL-GE guy. I swear my store sucks. 2 years ago it used to be the best.
 
RightArm said:
We're a small store but our back room is starting to fill up for the first time due to over sending on the part of the DC. I believe I was told something to the effect that they would be shutting down at a point during the season and were trying to get the stores supplied to carry through... in this case "over supplied" at the moment. But since our BR has not had to backstock SL in so long they've pretty much forgotten how to use the monkey clips. It's getting to be a mess.... Then we have the problem of SL Flow over pushing to the point that when you try to browse a rack it falls on the floor..... or my least favorite, over extending the NIT arms past the last stop so that if you were to pull on them they'd come right out and dump everything on the floor. :p
Click to expand...

That sounds right. they keep saying we are receiving 9% more hanging freight this year than we have in the past and that is why we have so much backstock. but there's a 500% increase in the amount of backstock in the backroom so I believe that is a crock of shift. shopability should have only doubled the amount of stuff rotating in and out of the back. we shouldn't have more freight in the back than we do on the salesfloor.
 
SrTLall said:
How does the BR team have any space to move with that many Zs is the back? If anyone in my store tried to bring that much merchandise to the back, and then let it go clearance without being represented on the floor, they'd definitely get cursed out.

Target makes it's money on the high-margin merchandise in SL. Can't sell what's not on the floor. I can't believe the logistics ETLs/TLs are not combatting this issue already.
Click to expand...
We had to hang a lot of it up above the main because it was wasting too much time moving the racks around in bulk for the constant putting up and taking down of 2 day ad pallets. We also get creative with storage areas other than the backroom.
 
We removed a shelf in the steel and have a few metal pipes hanging by chain to hang the backstock on. 3 2-tier hanging things holds a lot of clothing and we still have 5+ z racks at all times.
 
All I know is that my backroom is packed full of hanging softlines and that there's apparently no room on the sales floor for it. Getting ladders in and out of aisles is really fun, now. I'm wondering if this is someone's failure or if a B volume store should really have this much crap back there.
 
glo said:
Our district VML guy comes through our store almost daily. A week or so ago, he and our softlines TLs came in early and got rid of like 20% of racks. I looks a lot better, but it created Z-Racks upon Z-Racks of product in the back. We sell through enough product in a day that our morning SL team can spend their shift pushing those Z's.

Clearance has taken a section of the area's backwalls for a couple months. Just shoulderbar it all. It works well.
Click to expand...

We have double-shoulder barred the back wall for years. finally our VML said no it was ugly and took it down. now we have convertibles joined together on the floor.

Our VML always says she's too busy to help with the backstock. really the only thing she can ever prove she did though was change a rug and a throw pillow on the focal. I mean really.. 40 hours a week? SR. TL pay? Nobody in softlines? work that damn backstock...
 
Our hanging backstock is jam-packed end-to-end and I have a crick in my neck from peering up at it looking for SFS picks. On the floor I can barely touch a rack or walk by it without something falling off.
 
Flo Schmo said:
Our hanging backstock is jam-packed end-to-end and I have a crick in my neck from peering up at it looking for SFS picks. On the floor I can barely touch a rack or walk by it without something falling off.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you all need a few cold days to clear out some stuff! (Well if you're drowning in coats/sweaters/PJs)
It finally started getting cold where I am and the coats, sweaters, cold weather accessories etc. started selling!
 
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