Archived Target going downhill?

[Blackbutler42]

Does anyone else think that target (as a whole) is going downhill?

I've been researching and I hear they are hurting for money, thanks to bad corporate management. They had that incident with the red cards getting hacked into and they had to leave Canada after only 2 years. There are other things also that corporate has done wrong.

Do you think Target will have the same fate as Circuit City did?

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Not yet. Only time will tell.

 

[isak922]

Having been employed by Circuit City for the last two years of it's life as a physical store; I can say that Target seems to be in a much better place... purely for the fact that it's not a "Specialty" store. It doesn't focus on one specific set of products. Target has everything you could realistically want or need.

That being said... Have I seen the difference from today, and five years ago? Absolutely. At least in my store, hours are pitiful, morale is down severely, the store looks like complete crap... but can I also see a difference from Last year, to today... in a positive sense? Absolutely. I can see corporate finally getting their feet moving into a somewhat positive direction.

As Hardlinesmaster said... Time will tell.

 

[RTCry]

The Target of today is definitely not the Target of yore. Maybe my perspective has changed going from guest to employee, but I doubt I would have been such a loyal shopper if Target 2000 presented itself like Target 2016.

 

[Firefox]

I don't think so. At least not for the foreseeable future. KMart is somehow still clinging on, and they are way worse off than Target, so even if Target truly turned to shit it would still take a good 5 years for it to fall from the market. As things are now, Target isn't a utopia, but you still have to acknowledge that Target is a massive present in the retail industry and for good reason. As long as Target continues to have products on the shelf and prices stay competitive, it will hang on.

 

[BigEyedPhish]

This will most likely depend on how Target fares in online sales in the future. I can tell you as Signing TM that pretty much EVERY SINGLE sign I have had come in so far since I started mentions Target.com somewhere.. not to mention 90% of our End-caps at the moment. So they are trying......... or desperate.

I am starting to think that Target should have started a different position rather than VML and have an Online Merchandiser TL/Team whose main job would be integrating online sales services with store services.. They would be in charge of FF, Curbside, Cartwheel signing/Cartwheel education, and be given some flashy gadgets to capture online sales in store. This would go hand in hand with the Online Kiosks setup at every (or at least Strategic) Call box in the store. (Or at least the Kiosks I believe we SHOULD have).

I think that Targets entire future (or for at least half their stores, unless they Venture into food Wholeheartedly LOL) hinges in them finding a brilliant way to integrate their store into their website. The only thing Target has against Amazon at the moment is physical locations where you can instantly see/touch/buy mostly what you want, and only if we have it.

I honestly think Target seems like a pretty safe Company if it was able to go through some of the nonsense it has in the last 3 years, and (not including Canada) only closed like 30-40 stores.

 

[dannyy315]

Yes. Didn't even read the rest of your post, just responding to the title. Not financially going downhill, but the way they operate is.

 

[RunForACallBox]

This will most likely depend on how Target fares in online sales in the future. I can tell you as Signing TM that pretty much EVERY SINGLE sign I have had come in so far since I started mentions Target.com somewhere.. not to mention 90% of our End-caps at the moment. So they are trying......... or desperate.

I am starting to think that Target should have started a different position rather than VML and have an Online Merchandiser TL/Team whose main job would be integrating online sales services with store services.. They would be in charge of FF, Curbside, Cartwheel signing/Cartwheel education, and be given some flashy gadgets to capture online sales in store. This would go hand in hand with the Online Kiosks setup at every (or at least Strategic) Call box in the store. (Or at least the Kiosks I believe we SHOULD have).

I think that Targets entire future (or for at least half their stores, unless they Venture into food Wholeheartedly LOL) hinges in them finding a brilliant way to integrate their store into their website. The only thing Target has against Amazon at the moment is physical locations where you can instantly see/touch/buy mostly what you want, and only if we have it.

I honestly think Target seems like a pretty safe Company if it was able to go through some of the nonsense it has in the last 3 years, and (not including Canada) only closed like 30-40 stores.

I like the idea of the online merchandiser. Doesn't sound bad. Venture into food, like Walmart with their Neighborhood Market stores. Target Neighborhood Market.

 

[qmosqueen]

nope just read this

Big-box behemoth Target saw a strong surge in online sales in the most recent quarter, the company reported Wednesday, a sign that it is perhaps gaining some momentum in its ambitious attempt to establish itself as a more serious player in the e-commerce category.
Digital sales at Target shot up 34 percent during the quarter that included the holiday season, a figure that looks especially strong when you compare it to what occurred in the broader retail industry during that time: The National Retail Federation has reported that online sales grew 9 percent in November and December for the industry overall. And last week, Target’s chief rival, Walmart, said that its e-commerce sales ticked up just 8 percent in the same quarter.
click below to read rest ...
Target reports surge in online sales. Now, it must maintain the momentum.


and this article
Mannequins, home decor kept Target turnaround successful in Q4

 

[Firefox]

Honestly, I think it was pretty smart of Target to come up with implementing Ship from Store. SFS is a large percentage of our sales at my store, granted we are ESFS, but even so it's a really cool process to have in-store. As far as I'm aware, no other retailers have a similar program.

 

[NPC]

I mean, I think Target would have to go full Canada to really mess up. Despite whatever business mistakes they're making, Target's marketing is spot on, and I think the "20-30 something hipster demographic" they appeal to is a pretty loyal consumer and they stay pretty up to date in terms of trends and online business. I feel like my store is as busy as ever. I wouldn't be surprised if they had to close underperforming store, which I think they already did. But no, I don't see them going out of business any time soon.

 

[Asuras]

My store also has Instacart grocery delivery service. And that is really popular, a lot of people use it in my area.

 

[SnorlaxTM]

The Target of today is definitely not the Target of yore. Maybe my perspective has changed going from guest to employee, but I doubt I would have been such a loyal shopper if Target 2000 presented itself like Target 2016.

What? You mean you don't like waiting in the only open cashier line at 6 PM? Or seeing trash, unpushed carts and reshop everywhere?

 

[BlueSide]

I actually think Target is headed UPhill compared to the last 3 or 4 years...

 

[Guest]

I think the question should be changed to "has Target management gone downhill".

Management has definitely gone downhill. They care more about saving payroll than profits. When you have that mentality, it's a recipe for a failure and chaos.

 

[ISMike]

Honestly, I think it was pretty smart of Target to come up with implementing Ship from Store. SFS is a large percentage of our sales at my store, granted we are ESFS, but even so it's a really cool process to have in-store. As far as I'm aware, no other retailers have a similar program.

AFAIK BestBuy has been shipping out of stores for a while now - longer than Target to my best knowledge. I've seen some random orders come from different store locations when looking at the detailed UPS information. (Labels etc just show the return warehouse address still)

 

[PassinTime]

Right now Target and Penney's are the retail darlings, quarterly profits are up for both. While Kohls, Macys, Walmart, Sears are struggling with declining sales. Both WM and Kohls are closing stores this year. A lot of Spot's credit is being given to its online sales and trying to compete with Amazon.

 

[thetargetman]

Target is not at the "point of no return".... yet. but with time and if the company does not change or learn to get better ETLs in their stores the company will crash and burn!

 

[Guest]

Amen brotha!

 

[Tired Grunt]

Focus will be on margins, especially since competing over e-commerce sales, Target needed to promote free shipping which hurts margins. I fear in order to make up, they might continue to eat into payroll to offset the drop in margins... I could be wrong, they can of course stop offering free shipping unless the orders reach a certain total (Wal-Mart does free shipping for 50.00 or more) but it would hurt sales.

 

[PassinTime]

Focus will be on margins, especially since competing over e-commerce sales, Target needed to promote free shipping which hurts margins. I fear in order to make up, they might continue to eat into payroll to offset the drop in margins... I could be wrong, they can of course stop offering free shipping unless the orders reach a certain total (Wal-Mart does free shipping for 50.00 or more) but it would hurt sales.

Amazon just jacked up their threshold for free shipping, if you don't have prime. This will give Target some breathing room on this front.

I wouldn't be surprised to see the stores as a showcase for Target . com, much like Best Buy is for electronics.

 

[Ringwraith917]

No. I think we've begun the incredibly long, slow journey uphill. It was easy and quick to cut payroll and let "the brand" go to the back burner. It will take another 3-5 years (at least) to regain what we've lost.

 

[Bosch]

No. I think we've begun the incredibly long, slow journey uphill. It was easy and quick to cut payroll and let "the brand" go to the back burner. It will take another 3-5 years (at least) to regain what we've lost.

We grunts who do the work will see nothing however.

 

[SFSFun]

they can of course stop offering free shipping unless the orders reach a certain total

They do that already. It's $25 minimum or free when using a redcard.

 

[sher]

I mean, it's going downhill as far as employee satisfaction, I think.

Some target stores are a mess, but between the lower free shipping threshold, all the coupons curbside sends (I just received my 4th in email and I've never invited anyone to curbside), flex fulfill, a lot of the guests never even step far enough into the store to see the messes.