Archived Singing the SCO Blues

[RedcardReba]

First off, I have a confession. Know that SNL Target lady? Well, I KINDA related to her, um, enthusiasm. I'm in my 3rd year, and when I first started, I got the biggest kick out of this job. I worked in corporate for years, so being able to just help people who loved shopping at Target was neat.

As we modernized, I went through that tough year of helping people adjust to self checkout, with a system that sometimes baffles us, never mind the guests. Today, as surely all of us experienced was crunch time. Nonstop all day, and I feel....sad, mostly. It just plain isn't a good experience anymore, for me, for guests, for cstls.

I still help people, of course...but I spend most of my energy diffusing their frustrations. Prices are way off in toys. They hate BOGO, and often feel cheated when it's not just a simple 50% sale. They are gritting their teeth through self checkout. They don't like the app...too much work. They don't understand why online prices are lower. Our prices marked are so often wrong.

So I spend all day, making it as right as I can, and they are still leaving feeling gypped or irritated.

As one guest said, "This is the stupidest way for retail to save money, and it won't stop until consumers just stop even going in stores."

I'm discouraged. Silly, I guess. But I did so like it when people actually enjoyed our store.

 

[unknown]

As I talked with my STL, I told her Target is sacrificing the in store experience to fund free shipping and personal shopping which is what in store pick up and ship from store is.

Unfortunately, Target isn't the type of place where upper management cares AT ALL for what in store employees think or what the customers think. Until it hits them in the wallet, they won't listen.

For example, they bungled the whole Canada thing wasting billions and billions of dollars. Of course, if was a different management team. Those people walked away with bonuses and golden parachutes. And after this current management team destroys more of Target, they'll do the same. They're all the same inside but with different faces. They know they won't be here in a few years, so it's get all you can as fast as you can.

 

[dannyy315]

We all share your pain. This isn’t the Target way, we’re better than this. It’s a damn shame, Target used to be such a good company to work for.

 

[FlowTeamChick]

I hear you, @RedcardReba, even though I don't work the front end. Our cashiers were crazy-busy today, calling many times for back-up. But @unknown and @dannyy315 are both right. It's part of why I've not been unhappy with having only 15-ish hours a week most of the year. I work other jobs where I get a ton more satisfaction and have a lot more ability to control what I do.

 

[seasonaldude]

Prices are way off in toys.

Not toys TMs fault. Not our fault. Corporate really fucked us this week with the ad and pricing. And, no, we don't have time to fix it we're drowning in freight. But, you can please guests still if you dig through the ad and online prices a bit. Like we carry a Lego Harry Potter whomping willow set. Good set. Typically, it's fairly priced for Legos at $69.99. This week everyone has it on sale at $55.99.Amazon has it at that price. Walmart has it at that price. Target.com has it at that price. Target freaking didn't update the price in store. Morons. But, of course we can price match that and then guests get a $10 gift card for spending $50 on Legos. They get a 700 brick Lego set for basically $45 and that's a steal. (Legos typically run about a dollar a brick or more.) Good building set for kids too.

Made so many lost grandparents happy with that little tip this week. Partner with your toys TMs and let them help you with the pricing. If guests are getting something wrong over and over again, that we can try to make time to fix.