Archived Target is not going out of business because hours gets cut!

[StateofTarget]

I have seen so many posts recently forecasting imminent doom for the company because of hours cuts, etc.

Sure, it makes us feel good to think the company is going to go under because they are screwing TMs..... but guys, let's get real ok?

Target is not even close to going out of business. It is not even close to what would be called "struggling".

The stock price is currently at $62.49. This is highest it has been in 5 years. It is above even pre-recession levels.

Obviously what they are doing has made the company a boat load of cash even during the worst recession since the great depression.

Why do you think ETLs still make 50K and have not seen a cut in pay while everyone below them has been screwed over? Because no one below ETL level matters! As long as corporate has the loyalty of the ETLs (50K fresh out of college is great to buy someones loyalty.....) then things will keep chugging along. As long as the ETLs are willing to work TMs to the bone it is smooth sailing. With most college grads lucky to land a job at McDonalds for $7.25/hour these days, the ones who end up at Target making 50K are clearly willing to bully/harass/intimidate as many TMs as they need to while doing it with a smile.

The fact is, 99% of TMs will cry and moan about it, but they will show up to work everyday just the same and work like a dog to keep things going. The occasional TM who gets fed up and quits? No big deal. There are plenty of 18 year olds out of high school with no job prospects waiting in like to replace that TM.

And I will say this - everyone here knows I hate a lot of sh** about this company, but I swear if there is one thing I admire about target it is how good they are at making money and finding new ways to do it. The fact is, corporate IS coming up with strategies to make money. Yea, some of them bomb <coughrecenteventsinsoftlinescough>, but god damn, look at the marketing. Look at the sales, TPCs. Look at the damn ad! And I mean really look at the ad. Read it like you were a guest, not a TM just trying to audit sale signs. It is usually marketing genius.

The recession is now over people. Let me say that again - the recession is now over. The market will continue to get better for at least the next few years.

This year, Playstation 4 and the Xbox Next are coming out. With the economy getting better, people once again have money for neat toys. Sales will be slamming in electronics through at least 2014-2015, and christmas is going to be a mad rush in toys this year.

What else did Target do during the recession? P-fresh!!!! Damn near every store in the company has it now. Prior to the recession, P-fresh was just a dream in the eye of a CTL in charge of most stores chips & candy sections. This is going to continue to make tons of cash.

Oh, and what else happened during the recession? Tons of competitors went out of business! Tons of mom and pops are gone, and even major players like Circuit City were wiped out in the recession. That makes Target's life that much easier. Less competition, more money.

Even other competitors are bleeding out fast. Take a look at Best buy stock:

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=BBY+Interactive#symbol=BBY;range=5y

If that isn't a nose dive, I don't know what is. When I was a playstation rep, damn near every best buy employee I stood around and talked with (from grunt all the way up to store management) told me everyone knows they will be out of business. They only wonder if it will be two more years or less.

Gamestop has announced they are closing 500 stores this year. Plenty of others are on their death bed as well. The recession knifed them in the gut, and now they are just waiting to bleed to death.

Anyway, the point is that if you are thinking Target is going to suddenly going to start handing out hours because the way they have been treating TMs is hurting them, think again. If I was at HQ, my ass would be finding ways to cut even more.... because obviously the cash has still been coming in. That's just the cold hard reality of it. Life for TMs will not be getting better anytime soon.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Did your hours get .cut?

 

[StateofTarget]

Did your hours get .cut?

I was basically just hired, so it's hard to say they have been "cut" when I haven't had any to begin with.

Have they been cut compared to when I was a TL? Hell yes.

 

[StateofTarget]

And before anyone says I am out of touch - I was hired back at $8.50/hour and I have only managed about 20 hours a week. I used to make $16.32/hour as a TL full time.

I literally was talking to the ETL-GE when I was clocking in the other day and I said something like "Wow, I sure miss my old pay and hours!" and she said to me "What do you mean? Don't you make a decent amount?"

I told her I made $8.25 and she said "Oh really? I thought TMs made more than that."

The freaking ETLs don't even know how much TMs make. Though, why would they care to find out I suppose.....

 

[ISIS639]

And before anyone says I am out of touch - I was hired back at $8.50/hour and I have only managed about 20 hours a week. I used to make $16.32/hour as a TL full time.

I literally was talking to the ETL-GE when I was clocking in the other day and I said something like "Wow, I sure miss my old pay and hours!" and she said to me "What do you mean? Don't you make a decent amount?"

I told her I made $8.25 and she said "Oh really? I thought TMs made more than that."

The freaking ETLs don't even know how much TMs make. Though, why would they care to find out I suppose.....

I have asked several ETLs, including my STL and ETL-HR what the starting wage and neither could answer me. I understand that it is considered "improper" for a potential hire to ask about their starting wage before a job offer, but many people wouldn't spend the hour filling out the application if they knew we start at something like $8 and hour. Its not an unreasonable question.

And also, I have not read every post on here, so I may have missed something, but I think most people's comments are that Target gets to brag each year on higher profits, so the stockholders are happy, however, at the same time, sales are not increasing at the rate profits are increasing, therefore, the thing causing the higher profits are cuts. Its great, but not a completely sustainable way to run a business, in the long run. Eventually, they'll have to find a way to increase sales by a higher percentage if they want the stockholders to get the payouts they are used to. You can only cut so much.

 

[talan123]

Meh... If it's one thing that I have learned, it's that the Markets know exactly jack.

Now Target is valuable for some reason right now, what changed in the last year? Perception that it is a good deal. My inbox is flooded with all of these "tips" about how Target is a great buy right now. I have no idea where they are getting the idea other than Sales increased over last year. Which is true unless you take into account inflation and then it just appears to be "Meh" performance.

Target did do the P-fresh thing but then look at this: It got scammed out of a hundred million dollars by contractors that started in 2009... How much else is out there that we don't know about? I know the electrical work in a lot of stores is just as bad as the parking lots. We had one Beats support schmuck come in and complain that all Target's account for 75% of his traveling.

But then there are those points you did share but it just depends in how you look at it.

 

[StateofTarget]

And before anyone says I am out of touch - I was hired back at $8.50/hour and I have only managed about 20 hours a week. I used to make $16.32/hour as a TL full time.

I literally was talking to the ETL-GE when I was clocking in the other day and I said something like "Wow, I sure miss my old pay and hours!" and she said to me "What do you mean? Don't you make a decent amount?"

I told her I made $8.25 and she said "Oh really? I thought TMs made more than that."

The freaking ETLs don't even know how much TMs make. Though, why would they care to find out I suppose.....

I have asked several ETLs, including my STL and ETL-HR what the starting wage and neither could answer me. I understand that it is considered "improper" for a potential hire to ask about their starting wage before a job offer, but many people wouldn't spend the hour filling out the application if they knew we start at something like $8 and hour. Its not an unreasonable question.

A few years ago before the recession started I was sitting in clerical. The ETL-HR had her door closed and was doing an interview. All of a sudden I heard this lady say really loud "ARE YOU KIDDING ME? $6.50/HOUR?" and then all of a sudden this 40 something year old lady opened the door and stormed out of clerical. The ETL-HR just looked at me and shrugged her shoulders like nothing happened.

Guess that's why they don't like to talk about pay with people....

 

[pfreshdude]

Ya its great they are making money in the short term, fantastic, but how is the long term going to play itself out is the question. Even in the short term all the target special lines seem to always flop at my store, for example, Nieman Marcus and "The shops" endcaps where you can buy the same candy on the endcap for $2 more than whats down the aisle. And the vibe? Are you %#% kidding me. Cut hours left and right and expect team members to just go all out and guest service, which even if we wanted to do, we cant, because we have the same workload with half the hours. Target is big on presentation and brand, and those, in my opinion will keep declining if they keep cutting to the bare minimum to just get by in a day. In my store our Pfresh hours are now 8-8. That is insane that we only have 12 hours of pfresh/market a day considering for closing we have to zone all of dry market along with the usual tasks. Also dont have flow push any of our product from CAFS like some stores do in the morning.

 

[StateofTarget]

Ya its great they are making money in the short term, fantastic, but how is the long term going to play itself out is the question. Even in the short term all the target special lines seem to always flop at my store, for example, Nieman Marcus and "The shops" endcaps where you can buy the same candy on the endcap for $2 more than whats down the aisle. And the vibe? Are you %#% kidding me. Cut hours left and right and expect team members to just go all out and guest service, which even if we wanted to do, we cant, because we have the same workload with half the hours

It not just short term.... Go pull up a 5 year stock chart of Target. They have been pretty much banking the past 5 years....

 

[Barcode]

You hit it pretty dead on SoT.... Spot could give every one of us a dollar raise, and they would still be far from struggling. Of course it would affect the stock prices though so they would never do that Some of the local grocery stores around my area pay $13/hr starting for Cashiers, and they still turn a decent profit. Spot is all about MAXIMIZING profits.

 

[pfreshdude]

It not just short term.... Go pull up a 5 year stock chart of Target. They have been pretty much banking the past 5 years....[/QUOTE]

Ya but you cant just keep cutting hours and cutting hours to gain more profit, eventually it will not work. In just two years my store has cut alot of hours and positions. For ETLS we only have ETL-Log, ETL HR, and ETL GE, HL,SL, yes they have the WHOLE floor. Then our STL of course.

I wont lie and say they havent been doing well profit wise. Im sure that between alot of competition struggling or going out of business and launching pfresh to add some guest traffic they have jumped a decent ammount with cutting hours and positions and benefits. Thats another thing I havent seen mentioned in this thread is benefits. I bet they are saving a BOAT LOAD by going to the benefits they are doing now

 

[pfreshdude]

You hit it pretty dead on SoT.... Spot could give every one of us a dollar raise, and they would still be far from struggling. Of course it would affect the stock prices though so they would never do that Some of the local grocery stores around my area pay $13/hr starting for Cashiers, and they still turn a decent profit. Spot is all about MAXIMIZING profits.

Pretty soon you will have few choices of where to go, Walmart and then Walmart Junior (Target)

 

[targetgirl123456]

It's good to have as many team members as possible working in the store to help every guest in the store & to help make the isles really neat. With cut hours and not enough people working in the store, Work load is going to get overloaded, and Guest need team members to help them find what they need in the store so they can have a fully fun shopping experience. If not many people are there and mostly TL's, most of the time they are going to be busy and not able to help every guest. So guests won't be able to have a successful shopping experience and find what they need & are gonna want to go to another store with more service.

 

[targetgirl123456]

And what I mean by work is going to get overloaded, I mean with not enough team members zoning isles each night, the isles are going to get worse and worse and not catched up on. It's already happening where we don't get every department zoned each night. We sometimes are rushed and there's nothing we can do about it but do a fake zone.There's going to be more and more isles that are going to be needed to be deep zoned. So Team members are important. And I think we should get more hours. Without more hours & not enough people working in the store means that guest service rates will go lower

Not enough can I help you find something & more guest walk outs

 

[RedDog]

Ya its great they are making money in the short term, fantastic, but how is the long term going to play itself out is the question. Even in the short term all the target special lines seem to always flop at my store, for example, Nieman Marcus and "The shops" endcaps where you can buy the same candy on the endcap for $2 more than whats down the aisle. And the vibe? Are you %#% kidding me. Cut hours left and right and expect team members to just go all out and guest service, which even if we wanted to do, we cant, because we have the same workload with half the hours

It not just short term.... Go pull up a 5 year stock chart of Target. They have been pretty much banking the past 5 years....

Target has lots of long term problems. The entire electronics are is becoming a dinosaur. All the money spent on low to no profit margin food that was suppose to drive an increase in higher profit areas of the store has not happened. The cheaper trendy rep is almost gone. Its reputation for great guest service continues to decline. To make it simple they are wrecking the brand. Short term this is easy to cover with cutting hours and other costs. But, you look at same store sales growth in particular for the 4th qtr over the last few years and compare it with others and it gets kind of scary. Not to mention they are losing money by price matching with Amazon etc. Target can still create returns for its stock holders by cutting more and more. At some point they will run out of room to cut and then you will see that stock crash unless they have found so new ideas.

 

[StateofTarget]

And what I mean by work is going to get overloaded, I mean with not enough team members zoning isles each night, the isles are going to get worse and worse and not catched up on. It's already happening where we don't get every department zoned each night. We sometimes are rushed and there's nothing we can do about it but do a fake zone.There's going to be more and more isles that are going to be needed to be deep zoned. So Team members are important. And I think we should get more hours. Without more hours & not enough people working in the store means that guest service rates will go lower

Not enough can I help you find something & more guest walk outs

Honestly, the zone is not *that* important. Everything doesn't have to be 100% zoned to planogram every second of the day.

Have you been to a Wal-Mart recently? Their idea of a clearance section is about 10 baskets stuck in a random aisle with tons of random clearance product thrown in them for people to hunt through.

Take a look at wal-marts aisles sometime on a busy weekend..... sh** is all over the place. Yet, they do just fine.

The fact is, even with payroll cut to the bones aisles *will* be zoned. Will they all be zoned perfectly every single day? Nope. It might be a day or two or even three before an aisle gets a good zone. But honestly, unless product is just thrown all over the damn place (pretty rare on most aisles), it isn't going to really be a problem other than not "looking" good.... and honestly, who (guests) give a damn?

In all my years working retail, I honestly can't even think of one instance of a guest complaining about the zone to me. Never once. I have never had a guest come up to me and say "Hey, I want to complain because the zone could look better at your store"

Now, I have had guests complain to me about tons of silly crap. I've had guests complain to me that there were too many people on the store on previous black Fridays. I've had guests complain to me that we won't personally drive to another store, get an item for them, and come back to our store with it. I've had guests complain that they walked under an air duct and didn't like the AC blowing on them for 3 seconds. Fu**, I've even had a guest complain to me that it was too hot walking through the parking lot. But a complaint about the zone? Honestly, it has never happened.

 

[Barcode]

They asked me why I couldn't set an endcap on a busy night (they actually used it against me in my CCA, even though I communicated that I couldn't complete it), and I told them because I'm driving great guest service and keeping checkout is fast! Can't be speedweaving when I'm buried in fixtures/merch.

With all the cutting they're doing, guest service really deteriorates and we all have to be on our A-game. Sadly ETLs don't seem to give 2 ****s about guest service anymore, they just want tasks completed no questions asked.



SOT,

A good zone helps guests find what they need quicker. If they can't find what they need and there isn't a TM around to find it for them, most of the time they'll just walk out without buying the item.

 

[StateofTarget]

They asked me why I couldn't set an endcap on a busy night (they actually used it against me in my CCA, even though I communicated that I couldn't complete it), and I told them because I'm driving great guest service and keeping checkout is fast! Can't be speedweaving when I'm buried in fixtures/merch.

With all the cutting they're doing, guest service really deteriorates and we all have to be on our A-game. Sadly ETLs don't seem to give 2 ****s about guest service anymore, they just want tasks completed no questions asked.



SOT,

A good zone helps guests find what they need quicker. If they can't find what they need and there isn't a TM around to find it for them, most of the time they'll just walk out without buying the item.

Yes, I understand why a good zone is important.... but can you honestly give me an example of a bad zone making it impossible to find an item? Let's be real, if the zone was that fu**ed up, (unless it's black Friday or something) then something really weird is going on.

I can only think of a handful of aisles that *maybe* a guest couldn't find something because of the zone being bad. I mean, what about the tooth paste aisle? You know how bad the zone would have to be to not be able to find something? It would be pretty much impossible to be that badly zoned.

Honestly, I think the *only* department that a guest wouldn't be able to find something due to a bad zone would be MMB and stationary. Honestly, those are probably the only departments. Maybe toys.... maybe. Every other department, the zone would have to be a complete cluster fu** to honestly not be able to find something.

 

[redeye58]

You know how bad the zone would have to be to not be able to find something? It would be pretty much impossible to be that badly zoned.
Every other department, the zone would have to be a complete cluster fu** to honestly not be able to find something.

You just described my store...

 

[talan123]

They asked me why I couldn't set an endcap on a busy night (they actually used it against me in my CCA, even though I communicated that I couldn't complete it), and I told them because I'm driving great guest service and keeping checkout is fast! Can't be speedweaving when I'm buried in fixtures/merch.

With all the cutting they're doing, guest service really deteriorates and we all have to be on our A-game. Sadly ETLs don't seem to give 2 ****s about guest service anymore, they just want tasks completed no questions asked.




SOT,

A good zone helps guests find what they need quicker. If they can't find what they need and there isn't a TM around to find it for them, most of the time they'll just walk out without buying the item.

Yes, I understand why a good zone is important.... but can you honestly give me an example of a bad zone making it impossible to find an item? Let's be real, if the zone was that fu**ed up, (unless it's black Friday or something) then something really weird is going on.

I can only think of a handful of aisles that *maybe* a guest couldn't find something because of the zone being bad. I mean, what about the tooth paste aisle? You know how bad the zone would have to be to not be able to find something? It would be pretty much impossible to be that badly zoned.

Honestly, I think the *only* department that a guest wouldn't be able to find something due to a bad zone would be MMB and stationary. Honestly, those are probably the only departments. Maybe toys.... maybe. Every other department, the zone would have to be a complete cluster fu** to honestly not be able to find something.

Yeah, that's the problem. You have to find stuff nowadays instead of it being available for everybody. People do not want to spend all day sorting through our crap to find the one piece of good stuff. There are lots of reasons why a zone could be so bad that nobody can find it such as a untrained sales floor team member who just put something there and it was the last one. Pulls that aren't getting done is another bad one, we once had three days of pulls in the backroom because they didn't want to pay for the additional team members to put it out on the sales floor.

If I hear about the "Softlines is 75% of our profit" from them one more time then I am going to scream. Unless we are willing to communicate to our guests that it is now going to get all of our store's attention then their expectations are not going to change.

Target ain't going out of business but it's ability and it's potential have gone their separate ways.

 

[commiecorvus]

Of course Spot isn't going to be locking it's doors any time soon.
It takes a major company years to cripple itself and sometimes many more years to run itself to the ground.
But when you're on the inside you can see the early signs it's going lame.

 

[sher]

With all the blog posts, tweets and pins I've seen from people making that same joke about going to Target for one thing and leaving with a cart full, I'd never make the assumption Target was going out of business. I spent $30 today and I wasn't supposed to be shopping at all. I'm probably gonna buy a Prabal dress tomorrow. Plus twitter and celebrities are going cray cray for that collection. NM and The Shops were missteps, but not big enough to put the company out of business.

As a shopper, I love Target. As an employee, though, there's definitely room for improvement.

 

[targetgirl123456]

Post was deleted

 

[targetgirl123456]

This post was deleted

 

[Retail Girl]

People are more likely to spend more time in a store that looks nice and things stand out because they can see them. Also, things in the wrong spot cause issues with prices at the registers, which leave people with a bad taste in their mouth on their way out the door.