Archived So I have had Target guests hound me like a dog all week

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So all this week whenever I have visited my Target stores I have had guests hound me like a dog. I explain to them that I work for Sony, not Target, and thus can not check them out, help them get a game, or whatever other issue they have.

So, like normal, I look around the immediate area to try to find a target TM to send them to. Normally I can find at least one TM around, but it seems at every single store this week there haven't been any even close to electronics..... which is totally bizarre. I have hit the call button at the boat for the guests several times this week, and almost every time it went to 3rd request. (Or so I imagine since the typical response time this week seems to be literally about 5 minutes)

Is something going on with payroll? Some new strategy where they are only putting one TM on the whole floor? When I left Target, floor coverage was getting pretty bad.... but it seems to be absolutely ridiculous lately.

Actually now that I think about it, at two stores I am pretty sure it was an ETL that responded since it looked like they had store keys on them.... which is even more weird.
 
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"when I left Target, floor coverage was getting pretty bad"

Implying it was *EVER* good in the first place, huh?

Lol I can see you haven't been at Target long. Believe it or not, during the 90's and the early 2000's floor coverage was actually pretty good. Back then at a C volume store it would be typical to have at a minimum 8 TMs in hardlines and at least 6 in softlines *at all times* while the store was open. It would have been considered an serious problem back then if there were less. Plus you would have TLs and specialists on the floor. Basically, you couldn't go anywhere without seeing a TM.

It was actually pretty nice back then. Things were laid back, and it wasn't uncommon to have several TMs/specs/TLs/ETLs at the electronics boat or fitting room having a 45 minute conversation at multiple times during the day. No one freaked out about this because there were tons of TMs in the store. Best part of all? Turn over was damn low. The people I worked with back then had all been at Target for several years.... even TMs. Every spec/TL had been with the company 8+ years. ETLs were average 10-20 years with the company. I still have pictures from the early 90's of some coworkers of mine and myself at work.... with tons of the old school neon light department signs in the background.

Pay was pretty good for retail. You could even get 3 months raises back then, and promotions were real promotions.... not this "brand TM" garbage. Damn near anyone who showed potential could easily move up to spec and then TL, and the raises were serious raises. A promotion from TM to spec was at minimum a $2 raise. It was not uncommon for people promoting from specialist to TL to get a $3 raise over what they were currently making as a spec.

Target actually used to be a pretty sweet job.
 
I have hit the call button at the boat for the guests several times this week, and almost every time it went to 3rd request.

The first time you did that without clearing it and let it go to a 3rd would have been a conversation with you fully understanding that you would not do that again. The 2nd+ time and you would be leaving the store.
 
Are your stores ULV? I would imagine everyone's been cut since BTS, but at my store, even an ETL would get the button before 3rd request (our STL gets angry when any button hits 3rd request). If you're allowed to use the store phones, call the operator and have them walkie someone to come over.
 
The first time you did that without clearing it and let it go to a 3rd would have been a conversation with you fully understanding that you would not do that again. The 2nd+ time and you would be leaving the store.

I do it all the time. Guess what? Our contract with Target actually says we are *required* to get a TM to help guests up to and including hitting a call button. We forbidden to even speak to a guest about a non-sony product. We are also not allowed to clear target call buttons, but we are told to press them if no TM is around.

It is not our job to staff target stores. All I can do is hit the button if I don't see a TM around. It is *not* our job to search the store for a TM for guests.

Just an FYI - the alternative - *not* pressing a call button and just ignoring the guest - actually looks bad for sony AND target. Guests don't understand that we don't work for target, so if I just told them "sorry, can't help you" and went back to my job, how do you think that would make target look considering as far as that guest is concerned I am a target employee?
 
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You can try that **** all you want but that high and mighty not my job position will get shoved up your ass. If you hit the button then you clear the button, having worked there you know the importance of sales floor speed. You are just a piece of **** drama queen, you wouldn't stay in my store. Eat cancer and die you ****** trash.
 
You can try that **** all you want but that high and mighty not my job position will get shoved up your ass. If you hit the button then you clear the button, having worked there you know the importance of sales floor speed. You are just a piece of **** drama queen, you wouldn't stay in my store. Eat cancer and die you ****** trash.

Nope, never will clear the call button. Not my job, and we are specifically told that we are *not* allowed to clear call buttons for any reason. Sorry to disappoint you.
 
I also think it's hilarious that "stupid rules" is criticizing me for not helping target guests when I:

1. Don't work for Target
2. Don't have the ability to help them (PDA, access to registers, etc.) and
3. Can actually be written up by my manager for doing so.... when "stupid rules" has previously posted the following:

" hate, absolutely hate, the sales floor and all the god damn idiotic guests. The useless specialty teams, the lazy ass front end are wasted payroll. The rere's we have for team members on the sales floor are no better than cardboard cutouts. The etl's...omg I'm not even starting on them, there's not enough time. I can't even describe how bad I hate the sales floor "

""I got my review the other day and just wanted to say this to my anyone who took part in deciding the score - **** YOU AND DIE!"

"I have learned that hard work gets you nowhere and you have to know how to play the game to get a promotion."

Clearly you, "stupid rules", are all about guest service and hard work. :huh:

"NOF is the responsibility of the pricing team"

(Ummm..... I thought you were against "not my job" attitudes?) Before you turn around and tell me you don't have the tools/training to do NOF - just remember I don't have the tools/access to help target guests.

If there is one thing I learned working at Target, it is that the people who accuse other people of not helping/working hard are usually the actual ones who don't help/work hard.....
 
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I wish I could've been with Target back then, it sounds like it was loads better. Then again, I would hate the way it is now more than I already do. :-/

My favorite ETL at my store was with target since i was still sh*tting diapers... I love her LOL i would gladly work for spot if in writing I was guarenteed that she would be my ETL
 
I wish I could've been with Target back then, it sounds like it was loads better. Then again, I would hate the way it is now more than I already do. :-/

I think that is why so many of us jumped ship and now the stores are staffed with 90% people who have been there a year or less.... Seeing the company end up the way it is now, and knowing what was lost, was a big factor in my choice to leave. I think that is true for so many others that jumped ship the past few years.
 
Are your stores ULV? I would imagine everyone's been cut since BTS, but at my store, even an ETL would get the button before 3rd request (our STL gets angry when any button hits 3rd request). If you're allowed to use the store phones, call the operator and have them walkie someone to come over.

I can confirm that we have been cut past the bone. 3rd requests are now common at my store because often the electronics person is the only person on hardlines and the fitting room member is the only member in softlines. Our STL hates it but apparently not enough to schedule more people on the floor so I guess it's OK.
 
I can confirm that we have been cut past the bone. 3rd requests are now common at my store because often the electronics person is the only person on hardlines and the fitting room member is the only member in softlines. Our STL hates it but apparently not enough to schedule more people on the floor so I guess it's OK.

They must kvetch at every huddle about how bad the service scores are and how "we' have to jump on those call boxes.
 
Sadly the service scores are great. We have no idea why other than people are hoping to win the $10K by giving us good scores. Heck they gave electronics a good score and I can confidently you tell that there is never anybody over there 90% of the time.
 
You can try that **** all you want but that high and mighty not my job position will get shoved up your ass. If you hit the button then you clear the button, having worked there you know the importance of sales floor speed. You are just a piece of **** drama queen, you wouldn't stay in my store. Eat cancer and die you ****** trash.

Why should he give a **** about the salesfloor speed score when he doesn't work for Target? What good does him clearing the button do? Whoever was responding then will assume that someone else got it and the guest will be left there waiting for someone who isn't coming. That'll affect the survey scores. He should in no way be clearing the damn button, that's a TARGET Tm's responsibility. You must be a joy to work with.
 
Everyone is talking about how great Target was back in the day. Sorry for going off topic, but can someone explain what was so different/better? Thanks, I am just curious.
 
Here is the answer broken into simple sections so you can follow. He can tell the elec tm that when the box goes off and is cleared that it's him and the tm needs to come to the boat. See how simple that is?
Target mobile does that at our store. The guest doesn't need him to hit the button in the first place. Am I a joy to work with? Nope, in fact you would HATE it because I wouldn't tolerate your laziness or ignorance.
 
But how would he tell the electronics TM if the TM isn't there to tell? If the TM was there, he wouldn't have to hit the button in the first place. And if the request is cleared, then the TM has no reason to continue to the call box.
 
Everyone is talking about how great Target was back in the day. Sorry for going off topic, but can someone explain what was so different/better? Thanks, I am just curious.
More hrs so people had a decent paycheck (instead of scheduling you low enough to keep you from qualifying for benefits), promoting from within so you had EXPERIENCED people advancing to leadership (instead of hiring newbs with NO retail experience whatsoever), decent/affordable health insurance (which will be replaced by HSA/HRA next yr), better floor coverage so you could actually help guests & do necessary tasks (instead of 2-3 people on the whole floor), leadership who didn't hesitate to nail your a$$ when you deserved it but would also back you up (as opposed to throwing you under the bus first chance), consistant adherance to policy (instead of overruling you at every turn), fair reviews that resulted in decent raises (not these nickle & dime raises we get now)....the list is endless but I'm sure other long-timers can add to it.
 
Here is the answer broken into simple sections so you can follow. He can tell the elec tm that when the box goes off and is cleared that it's him and the tm needs to come to the boat. See how simple that is?
Target mobile does that at our store. The guest doesn't need him to hit the button in the first place. Am I a joy to work with? Nope, in fact you would HATE it because I wouldn't tolerate your laziness or ignorance.

Dude, I know you said in your previous posts you work logistics.... so maybe that is why you are not grasping the basics of how the sales floor actually works.

When I hit a button or tell a guest to hit a button (whichever of us is closer), I don't know how long it will take for a TM to get there. They might get there in 10 seconds or 5 minutes. If it is one of those situations where the only TM available is on the other side of the store, and I were to clear the button before that TM got there, then guess what? That TM is going to go back to what they were doing because they assume some other TM cleared the button. Once again, I DO NOT WORK FOR TARGET therefore I do not have a walkie in which to tell that TM I still need him to come to electronics. So if I clear the button because a TM isn't going to make it in time, then guess what? That guest is going to look at me and say "WTF did you clear the button for? I thought you didn't work here? Who the fu** is going to help me now?". So, the situation will have gone from bad to worse because now NO ONE is going to help that guest.

Now, let's go back to what I said before. "They might get there in 10 seconds or 5 minutes" Guess what? Target promises guests help within 60 seconds. (It even says so on some call buttons) I don't run the damn store, I am just a vendor. If the floor has piss poor coverage and it takes 5 minutes for a TM to arrive, then that is a problem Target needs to address because obviously they are not meeting their service promise. I don't know what will happen when I push the button. I don't know if it will take 10 seconds or 10 minutes. All I can do is hope a TM gets there fast. I don't know the current condition of the store.

Guess what? The fact is if I wasn't there, the guest would be pushing that button without me telling them to do it. The fact is, they only did *not* press the button because they came over to me assuming I work for Target. If I hadn't been there, they would have gone straight for the button. If a TM doesn't make it by 3rd request, then guess what? Whether I was there or not doesn't make a difference. In either situation, the button would have gone to 3rd request.

Do I care that it goes to 3rd request? Nope. Well, actually a little because during that 5 minutes I often have the guest looking at me under the assumption I DO work for Target and just don't want to help them, which is pretty akward. But beyond that, not really.

Sometimes I have zero communication with TMs in electronics. Sometimes I just come in to update the store binder. I don't need keys, PDA, or anything else. I don't have time to walk the store trying to find out who is the electronics TM to let them know that I am back there and may need help. Again, it is not my job to worry about store coverage. I am just a vendor. My goal is to be in each store 20 mins at most on many days. If I go over that guess what? My boss is on my ass and I could lose my job. Sometimes I may visit 25 stores in one day. I don't have time to find out what the staffing situation is in each store I enter. All I have time to do is hit the button and get my job done. I simply don't have the time to stand around wondering when a TM is going to show up.
 
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