Archived Target photo

[pellinore]

I've heard that Target is going to completely phase out the photo labs in the stores.....is this true?

 

[Flabbergasted]

That would anger a lot of guests. Photo is pretty busy at my store, especially around the holidays.

 

[SoftlinesSquirrel]

It would upset guests (at least our photo regulars), but I wouldn't be terribly surprised. While we have been pretty busy with photo these past few weeks with Christmas, it's generally pretty dead over there. That, and there are so few people that know anything about the kodak machines. I'm probably one of the ones at my store with the most knowledge, but all of it's self taught and even I get stumped on certain things.

With no training over there, no hours for photo (at least during the holidays), and some stores moving their guest service desk to the lanes, if photo was removed in that process eventually, it's not surprising.

In fact, I'm convinced half our orders as is are only done for the convenience of having the pictures print while they shop. If it wasn't for those people, it'd be more dead than it already is.

On a side note, I was at the store I transferred from recently on a weekend and noticed their photo lab was dark and they replaced the wet lab with a dry lab. While I'm never there anymore, I can't help but wonder how their photo was affected as far as hours and the way it runs, especially being a higher volume store.

 

[PinkZinnia]

I wish they would - or train more tm's how to use it. It's annoying that 1/2 of guest services don't want to be bothered with knowing it - and it's somewhat their responsibility when no one is at the photo lab.
I have to go over their most of the time to talk guests through pushing the buttons. All they would have to do is read - it's very self explanatory. grrr photo and I are not one with each other.

 

[Kartman]

I wish they would phase out the recycling crap. Morons are bringing in their trash!

 

[WI klab]

it's tuff to manage photo lab, when no hours are scheduled for the department... when I "My Supported" a question, as to how the photo lab will be staffed after the holidays... the answer I got back was, it's up to the STL ...
this next week, I'm service desk... which means I'll be keeping an eye on both areas...
the week after that, hours got deeply cut... got a couple of service desk shifts... cashiering... and one shift in photo lab on the weekend...
Photo Lab can make money & drive sales in other departments (as guests wait for there orders) if only Target would train people & staff the area....

 

[StaticSun]

Yeah, photo lab has been a dying art for the past 5 years. It started back in 2009 or whenever specialists were cut. Not too long after that, hours went from 8a-9p to 12p-6p. Then hours were kind of flexible based upon front-end needs. Neither of the two stores I worked at had photo labs up with guest service. One was tucked away (greatland store) behind MMB, the other store had photo directly behind the check lanes, adjacent to the elevator and in-between intimate wear/accessories.

The store with it behind MMB was tough. It wasn't along the racetrack or or a high traffic area. You had to WANT photo finishing done, or else you'd never know it was there. It was nice hiding back there. No sight lines to any other TM, unless the elec TM was zoning. There was a closet and a fridge, too, so we really loved being there. We had a constant stream of guests. We'd easily clear $600/day, though, due to our up-selling and our great guest service. Culture in the store became hostile towards photo during the 12-6 hours. I was still in school, so I couldn't make it there until 4 at best. I eventually started taking more hardlines and guest service shifts. I eventually got trained in GSA and finally had the ability to xfer out of that hell-hole.

Second store was much more visible. Essentially it was at the focal point of the store. Unless you were going to pfresh or hba, you had to walk right by photo. If you came from pfresh/market to the checklanes, you would end up walking by it to get to the checklanes. You'd think this place would be a goldmine for up-selling, eh? HAHA! It became the "express" checkout aka GSTL/GSA boat. We rarely had anyone in photo scheduled. When there was a person on the grid, it was usually the tail-end of a GSA doing a 239 shift when cashier hours were tight. Or, on Wednesday, that was where the GSTL scheduled his hours so he could go into the office and do paperwork/scheduling. We didn't even have a poster printer there! Those provide the biggest profit margin of all services! Anyways, I ended up taking responsibility for photo and ran most of the orders myself. I trained the other GSTLs/GSAs to do simple picture orders and I tried to teach bookbinding. Haha, that was funny.

Photo is one of those niche services like portrait studio, and optical. Those are probably going away in the near future, too. More stockroom space, am I right? If someone from corporate marketing tried and put a little(!) effort in, photo could be profitable. Even a dry lab with two kiosks, a duplex and a poster printer with an APEX processor with 6 hours of payroll a day can turn a profit if there was some forethought into branding and up-selling.

 

[mrknownothing]

I'd be fine with losing photo if they'd get rid of the damn kiosks that nobody knows how to use because they refuse to figure it out.

More stockroom space, am I right?

Nope. More flexible fulfillment space. Having more stockroom space would make too much sense.

 

[RunForACallBox]

My store never had a lab, but we had several kiosks up at GS. They were removed about 2 or 3 years ago along with a few other machinery. Took down our large Photo sign, too. Now it's just a big empty space up at GS where they store excess carts of Reshop and hold items.

 

[Signkitty]

I'd be fine with losing photo if they'd get rid of the damn kiosks that nobody knows how to use because they refuse to figure it out.

More stockroom space, am I right?

Nope. More flexible fulfillment space. Having more stockroom space would make too much sense.

Having the Flexible Fulfillment right at GS is pretty sweet. Now you fill the order and bring it up there, instead of filling the order putting it in the back of the stockroom then having to get it for GS when the guest comes to pick up.

 

[mrknownothing]

I'd be fine with losing photo if they'd get rid of the damn kiosks that nobody knows how to use because they refuse to figure it out.

More stockroom space, am I right?

Nope. More flexible fulfillment space. Having more stockroom space would make too much sense.

Having the Flexible Fulfillment right at GS is pretty sweet. Now you fill the order and bring it up there, instead of filling the order putting it in the back of the stockroom then having to get it for GS when the guest comes to pick up.

We actually use the former photo closet (from the wet lab days) as FF space as well as a storage closet by the TSC. At my store, it would be insanely stupid to keep FF orders in the backroom.

 

[WI klab]

I agree with you... if Target could put a little training & payroll into Photo Lab, it can be very profitable...

 

[Not Alex]

My store doesn't have one.

 

[thatcashierdude]

I'd be fine with losing photo if they'd get rid of the damn kiosks that nobody knows how to use because they refuse to figure it out.

More stockroom space, am I right?

Nope. More flexible fulfillment space. Having more stockroom space would make too much sense.

Having the Flexible Fulfillment right at GS is pretty sweet. Now you fill the order and bring it up there, instead of filling the order putting it in the back of the stockroom then having to get it for GS when the guest comes to pick up.

This is how we do it for most things. Larger things get shoved in the cart attendant closet that has FOS locations, and backroom only has a couple holds for giant things like TVs. For some reason one of those locations is a BRR and the other one is a SDR...makes it very confusing since SD is supposed to only be for service desk locations. With the time it takes to get someone from backroom to grab an order...there would be so many pissed guests if we put everything there.

 

[Flabbergasted]

Oh god those damn kiosks. I had a woman the other day actually demand that I "do everything for her, because I don't understand these stupid computers." Lady, if you just hit this button, this button and follow what the words tell you to do on the screen, you're good to go.

 

[thatcashierdude]

Oh god those damn kiosks. I had a woman the other day actually demand that I "do everything for her, because I don't understand these stupid computers." Lady, if you just hit this button, this button and follow what the words tell you to do on the screen, you're good to go.

Well that's a shitty attitude from her. I don't have a problem helping people since it is sometimes really slow back there, but nice people get better service than cunts.

I do understand the frustration with those things, they seem to be overly complicated and since I don't have much experience back in photo I'm usually winging it. For example, there is an option to make a banner in the kiosks. We apparently don't support banners even though we have a poster printer, so it doesn't work. It would be better for the option to just not be there. Then there is the difference between "hour photo" and "prints in seconds" that isn't very clear unless you know that they lead to different photo sizes.

 

[Bosch]

Photo is one of those niche services like portrait studio, and optical. Those are probably going away in the near future, too. More stockroom space, am I right?

In our last remodel we lost a stockroom for optical. So no optical is not going away out west it is getting larger.

 

[StaticSun]

In our last remodel we lost a stockroom for optical. So no optical is not going away out west it is getting larger.

Weird. In the NE, we're losing them. There's only 2 stores in my area that I know of that have Optical. Out of like 30 stores.

 

[Bosch]

I will say we are only one of two stores that have an optical dept. In our group.

 

[EMFlow]

In our last remodel we lost a stockroom for optical. So no optical is not going away out west it is getting larger.

Weird. In the NE, we're losing them. There's only 2 stores in my area that I know of that have Optical. Out of like 30 stores.

The North Brunswick Target that just opened last October has optical

 

[Signkitty]

In the I can think of a few stores with optical; Abington, KoP, and Plymouth Meeting.

 

[thetargetman]

I wish they would just take it out or give TMs proper training. Right now we have 5 TMs who know how to do Photo well. I somewhat know Photo but I am willing to learn more.