Archived STL told me today that Ship from Store is going to Compete with Amazon Prime

[Kompa]

I almost held in my laughter lmao. Amazon has everything and it's 2 day shipping with Prime.

Target has disgrunted workers that kick the shit out of boxes because someone thought it was good idea to cram 5 sweaty packers in the small ass bike building area.

Either way, I don't see how we can compete with that unless it's a race to the bottom

 

[Bosch]

They can try. But it won't happen spot will want to do it on the cheap and it will be a cluster. Cause Prime runs on inventory and having it correct and at fingertip reach. Spot doesn't want to spend on making sure their inventory is accurate with the proper resources to actually move it properly.

Amazon is a fucking machine when it comes to moving freight, spot is a fucking train wreck.

 

[theanimal]

Side note: Prime also runs on robatics

 

[PassinTime]

And Amazon (in my area) advertises warehouse worker pay up to $15.25/hr.

 

[H2Owned]

Honestly I could see target competing with Amazon prime when it comes to 2 day shipping... its probably the main reason why they added sfs to so many stores... so guest in the area get there order sooner... the problem target face is inventory, management , and fact everything is never in the right place... flex endcaps... product on pog pallets that doesn't set for two weeks...

 

[On6]

Until Target invests money (A lot of money) in improving their inventory systems they will not be able to compete with Amazon.

Amazon does so good because they basically have distribution centers practically everywhere. Target is trying to build on this by making every store a mini distribution center. In my opinion they're spreading the resources too thin by doing that. They need to find something in between the large DCs we currently have and the store level to make it work.

 

[HRZone]

Honestly I could see target competing with Amazon prime when it comes to 2 day shipping... its probably the main reason why they added sfs to so many stores... so guest in the area get there order sooner... the problem target face is inventory, management , and fact everything is never in the right place... flex endcaps... product on pog pallets that doesn't set for two weeks...

We dont have the inventory to compete with Amazon they have 800,000 square foot fulfillment centers and work with third parties. We cram SFS into something the size of a studio apartment and pay our employees crap.

 

[Castagnier]

After the SFS servers did their best eHR server impression earlier this week?

Oh yeah, totally.

 

[H2Owned]

We dont have the inventory to compete with Amazon they have 800,000 square foot fulfillment centers and work with third parties. We cram SFS into something the size of a studio apartment and pay our employees crap.

Honestly target.com can send more Web only items especially to my ESFS... a couple of our webs only a aisles are half empty.. just don't send more furniture.... and honestly the space doesn't really have anything to do with 2 day shipping . .. it just puts a strain on the number of orders your store can handle . ... that is why you have ESFS near regular sfs to help knock out more orders in that area...

 

[BullseyeBabe]

I don't know about you guys but we have a steady stream of guests calling with complaints about the web site, getting broken mdse, the wrong mdse or stuff they never ordered. That's in addition to all the guests at guest service everyday doing the same. Picking up orders takes forever also. If Target is seriously doing the best they can, we're doomed.

 

[icedjeff314]

I am not sure how many of you have been with spot more than a year. But I would like to share/remind folks why Spot started SFS last year in the stores. It was because the DC's could not keep up with the website orders. There were too many and lots of angry guests online and on the phone venting about items coming well after the promised delivery window.

Last year, SFS began and helped alleviate the DC's quite a bit, but in usual Spot fashion, they didn't add payroll or people to keep up with orders now being placed on the stores. I remember hearing some TM's saying they were scheduled 40hrs but offered unlimited OT to help with SFS after their scheduled shift.

This year it sounds like stores came prepared with payroll and TM's to manage the orders, but Spot in usual fashion had some back-end tech problems that prevented all orders from reaching the store. Which is leading to unusually high amounts of orders dropping in now without having a balance of TM's to manage the load. WAY TO GO SPOT!!!

If they truly want to compete, with Amazon Prime... That's fine, just remember you need to add TM's and payroll to cover this. And... you will need to build out rooms in some stores just for these TM's to be successful. If they have no where to store, pack, and place orders on a pallet for UPS, then you are only hurting the team and the store.

Depending on your store, you should have at least 3 bays to place trailers. Some stores have UPS park a trailer there and replace it everyday or every other day. If you can squeeze it in and your ETL-Logistics is OK with it, order an empty trailer to be stored at your store to be used for SFS until the Holidays are over. This gives you work space and storage space. Just be frugal and remember to use vertical space to store your supplies inside the trailer.

I know this time of year sucks and I don't envy any of you involved in the process but may the Elves be with you.

 

[BackroomAlpha]

Hah

 

[instockout]

Target should start up their own mail delivery haha, order online, shipped within the next day and a half.

 

[H2Owned]

Target should start up their own mail delivery haha, order online, shipped within the next day and a half.

OR we could start using drones for delivery!!

 

[Firefox]

Honestly target.com can send more Web only items especially to my ESFS... a couple of our webs only a aisles are half empty.. just don't send more furniture.... and honestly the space doesn't really have anything to do with 2 day shipping . .. it just puts a strain on the number of orders your store can handle . ... that is why you have ESFS near regular sfs to help knock out more orders in that area...

We have 13 light duty web aisles, and I think 2 are being used for overflow from DIPR and TOY1-3. The rest are fairly empty.

Depending on your store, you should have at least 3 bays to place trailers. Some stores have UPS park a trailer there and replace it everyday or every other day. If you can squeeze it in and your ETL-Logistics is OK with it, order an empty trailer to be stored at your store to be used for SFS until the Holidays are over. This gives you work space and storage space. Just be frugal and remember to use vertical space to store your supplies inside the trailer.

My store is an A+/AA volume ESFS store, so we have 4 bays but that isn't even enough right now. We have the last two bays parked with UPS trailers that both get dropped off and picked up once a day. One of them is a bog-standard 53' trailer while the second one is smaller. Everything packed by the morning crew goes onto the 53' trailer, and it gets picked up at 4:30pm and everything packed by the evening crew/overnight team gets put onto the smaller trailer, which is then picked up in the morning.
However, it's causing a lot of trouble for the receiver since we're high volume, we take 11 trucks a week atm and so bays 1 and 2 are almost always occupied by either empty GM trailers or the sweep. I have no idea how we're taking vendor deliveries atm, I've only been doing closing shifts for the past while so I can't say for sure.

 

[Redzee]

More flung spaghetti. Eventually none will be sticking.

 

[BigEyedPhish]

I am not sure how many of you have been with spot more than a year. But I would like to share/remind folks why Spot started SFS last year in the stores. It was because the DC's could not keep up with the website orders. There were too many and lots of angry guests online and on the phone venting about items coming well after the promised delivery window.

Last year, SFS began and helped alleviate the DC's quite a bit, but in usual Spot fashion, they didn't add payroll or people to keep up with orders now being placed on the stores. I remember hearing some TM's saying they were scheduled 40hrs but offered unlimited OT to help with SFS after their scheduled shift.

This year it sounds like stores came prepared with payroll and TM's to manage the orders, but Spot in usual fashion had some back-end tech problems that prevented all orders from reaching the store. Which is leading to unusually high amounts of orders dropping in now without having a balance of TM's to manage the load. WAY TO GO SPOT!!!

If they truly want to compete, with Amazon Prime... That's fine, just remember you need to add TM's and payroll to cover this. And... you will need to build out rooms in some stores just for these TM's to be successful. If they have no where to store, pack, and place orders on a pallet for UPS, then you are only hurting the team and the store.

Depending on your store, you should have at least 3 bays to place trailers. Some stores have UPS park a trailer there and replace it everyday or every other day. If you can squeeze it in and your ETL-Logistics is OK with it, order an empty trailer to be stored at your store to be used for SFS until the Holidays are over. This gives you work space and storage space. Just be frugal and remember to use vertical space to store your supplies inside the trailer.

I know this time of year sucks and I don't envy any of you involved in the process but may the Elves be with you.

I don't pretend to be a business expert, but I know one of the top 5 rules in business (in ANY area) is if you want to Compete, you have to be willing to Invest (In not only TECH(if we can call it that), but PEOPLE).

Will Target do that?

Their track record is laughable, they try out new ideas, without either thinking them fully through, or fully investing in them.

"Shit guys, I knew I forgot something" - Some Target Exec, when realizing he made a mistake when forgetting the fact that selling products requires some form of Logistics, as he watched a hockey game, didn't realize it was ice, so Magic must exist in Canada. It's also ironic how the root word of Logistics is "Logic" or Logical.

The only way I could see Target truly compete with Amazon is if they opened a bunch of DC/Regular Target Hybrids, but in strategic travel-hub like locations, similar to Cost-Co/Sam's Club, Think about how many Target locations there are, each of these (all the stores we work at) can serve as a point of delivery, lowering shipping costs if it is "In-House" so to speak, until a local level.

 

[BigEyedPhish]

Another thing they would have to do is to do all of what I stated above, as well as implementing a "Fulfillment Team", at the store level, with maybe even an actual TL, instead of just saddling that onto the back of another work center, therefore partly sacrificing the service that they already had. Target needs to realize that yes, Internet shopping is huge and will keep growing, to a saturation point, that is until teleportation is invented.

 

[BackroomAlpha]

We got in a 2017 valentine's shipper today . .......................

 

[Doglover89]

Another thing they would have to do is to do all of what I stated above, as well as implementing a "Fulfillment Team", at the store level, with maybe even an actual TL, instead of just saddling that onto the back of another work center

Maybe I'm just ignorant, but I thought this WAS the setup most stores have. We have a fulfillment team, with that as their workcenter. Then we have the backups (like myself) who fill in as needed, and we're in a variety of areas normally- presentation, softlines, electronics, consumables, etc. We do not have our own TL currently, although our SFS captain is a former TL whos been with Target for years. He for all intents and purposes is the TL, just without the title. Its only a matter of time before it'll be official, sounds like.

What's it like at your store? Do you not have tms with flexible fulfillment as their workcenter?

 

[Bosch]

Maybe I'm just ignorant, but I thought this WAS the setup most stores have. We have a fulfillment team, with that as their workcenter. Then we have the backups (like myself) who fill in as needed, and we're in a variety of areas normally- presentation, softlines, electronics, consumables, etc. We do not have our own TL currently, although our SFS captain is a former TL whos been with Target for years. He for all intents and purposes is the TL, just without the title. Its only a matter of time before it'll be official, sounds like.

What's it like at your store? Do you not have tms with flexible fulfillment as their workcenter?

Nope. That at most stores especially SPU/STS like mine the job got dumped on the dayside backroom with no hours, in fact they cut hours when they changed the CAF rounds. So you may have one person who is supposed to pull all the SPU orders, process all the STS incoming(stow into location) and pull all research, POGs, EXFs and guest pulls, that helps with sweep, MIR & audit batches. Don't forget backstock whatever crap comes back from those batches.

 

[HRZone]

It will go as well as our market expansion...

 

[SFSFun]

STL told me today that Ship from Store is going to Compete with Amazon Prime

Anyone could have told you that, and it shouldn't be surprising. They aren't trying to conquer Amazon, they're just trying to increase Target's market share.

But I would like to share/remind folks why Spot started SFS last year in the stores. It was because the DC's could not keep up with the website orders. There were too many and lots of angry guests online and on the phone venting about items coming well after the promised delivery window.

We've had SFS for over 2 years now and the main reason they started it and keep expanding it is to deal with the exponential increases in online orders. They opted to start leveraging the merchandise and resources already in stores instead of building a new fulfillment center.

 

[squirrely]

Honestly, Target needs to step up its logistics game. I ordered something and had it shipped across the country. They shipped it as sfs from a store local to me, not the destination. Seriously mind boggling.

 

[Rock Lobster]

Honestly, Target needs to step up its logistics game. I ordered something and had it shipped across the country. They shipped it as sfs from a store local to me, not the destination. Seriously mind boggling.

Logistics as a whole is overdue for a revamp. I still have problems believing we still unload the trailers the way we do. I am not the first to point out that plenty of retailers have their trucks on pallets for multiple benefits (ability to segregate a trailer, ability to take multiple deliveries in a day etc) but we are still stuck with the old version. You also realize that every store could get rid of their line and tracks and turn that into more storage space in receiving?

To tack onto the other points being made, its true that Target hasn't planned out ahead before it made some big rollouts. Do they not think its a problem that they rolled out pick up in store a long time ago, and every store is still struggling to find where to actually store the merchandise? There is not tons of room at service desk so many stores are using off stage random locations to store the items. How about a bit of an investment in converting photo lab into pick up centers/stockrooms that are actually staffed full-time (and make that position the operator!) so that Fitting Room isn't just swamped?