Archived The Big & Dandy Backroom thread!

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So Anyone having trouble every now and then, getting pulls done within the hours during this crazy holiday season? I know this is a big no no, but there was a lapse in coverage for an hour (aka I was the only one doing the 1 o'clocks), and I called for back up twice, and no one answered (yeah I answer your guests requests, but when I need help, I get nothing). So needless to say some batches bled over, which hurts our scores (that I think amount to a hill of beans). The only thing makes me bust my butt on the pulls is not getting chewed out by my ETL-LOG.
 
well our store never misses cafs and i mean never ever ever ever ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And if we do our etls and the stl will be back there raising all hell!!! The day of black friday and after the caf batches were HUGE!! what we did was dropped them right in the manual cafs each hour so we didnt miss any! I also wanted to ask if anyone knows if the research batches are timed? My team lead insists they still are but the overnight team lead says they arent! Im also told baffles arent really your fault. they are caused by the other team member before you but than you get blamed!
 
We had got blasted with huge cafs on Sunday. It's no fun when you have massive call outs(more than 5 tm's), a ton of guests, with 15 hl cafs, and have only 5 folks in hl during this time. Beer was a great thing when I left.
 
Our CAFS run over almost weekly. During the holiday season (esp Christmas) it's a little more looked over. If you're running over CAFS let say in March, you'll get a chewing. Haha
 
I also wanted to ask if anyone knows if the research batches are timed?

Yes, they are timed. You have one hour from the time the batch drops to pull the whole thing.

Im also told baffles arent really your fault. they are caused by the other team member before you but than you get blamed!

A baffle is created when there's an item in a location but not actually located there. This is usually caused by people not counting all of the item when STOing it, although sometimes it's caused by people not being observant enough and telling the PDA that they pulled all of an item when there's actually one (or more) or that item hiding in the location somewhere. Simply finding the baffle absolutely doesn't make it your fault; if someone spills something and you find the spill later, are you at fault for that?
 
I'm curious how other backroom tm's workload and daily schedule compare to mine! Does anyone want to share a typical day?

I go in at 5am
help with autofills (when team is not overnights)
tie POGS for that day of the week that TL's or whoever have planned on a list my TL gives me every monday for that week workload
drop a batch, pull them, label them and stage them in designated spots
then I work on the location audit and the date audit

on monday I print and put up the MPG labels
on tuesday I do the merge report and help TL pulls the MIRs
If there is a sweep, I help with that
on wednesday I fix/audit/maintain our ever messed up bike wall (my TL helps because for some reason its always awful)
on thursday I work on "My" backroom asiles (aLL tm's are assigned some) week one of month i do date checks, week two detail report, week three empty locs, week four of month I pull dcode... not always in that order i guess

I also help with any backstock from the truck, do constant clean up, moving trash, picking up after flow, sweep, make a bail whatever needs done in the mornings.... i do it.

As the morning goes on I pull outs and research as they drop into the gun, thoes random autofill in meat, dairy ect that drop in around 7:30 and pull the 11, 12 and 1 caf pulls

With recieving being short handed, I help out where i can there, especially when our TM goes to lunch. I am not fully trained and there never seems to be time for me to learn everything back there! Our goofball ETL's are always dropping EXF batches and then call back to me in a urgent manner... i pull the stuff, let them know and then it sits untouched all day..... why they won't let instocks do their job is beyond me.....

home at 1:30

Im tired!! Sometimes I feel like we have other BR TM who get paid the same as me and do squat spot!! ..... oh and I have broken arm right now.... so i'm doing the best i can, but I can't help be a little disappointed that some of the backroom team can't step up and be a little faster or care just a little to help me out..... but no, they know i'll do it, so they take all the sweet time they like to pull batches and let me be the top puller while i'm injured.... which is pretty sad..... whatever, i do like my job and I like knowing I rock my little stockroom. I would never want to go back to salesfloor!
Must be nice. We can't even get pulls done. My Target isn't 24hr, and they only schedule 1 person in backroom in evenings. They just now put me as mid-backroom and we still barely get everything pulled, pushed and backstocked if at all. Date checks, L&P, manual audits, what are those. We have to climb through our cooler and freezer most of the time just to pull one or two items(no really, crawl over tubs and carts, otherwise it takes 15 minutes to pull everything out to get to a couple pulls). And no, I've been working backroom for about 4 years. Management completely replaced. Nothing changes. What needs changed? More workers, more time to get work done. Will that ever happen? Nope. Stock has gotta go up, right? Where else to get it from other than the engine that feeds it.

So Anyone having trouble every now and then, getting pulls done within the hours during this crazy holiday season? I know this is a big no no, but there was a lapse in coverage for an hour (aka I was the only one doing the 1 o'clocks), and I called for back up twice, and no one answered (yeah I answer your guests requests, but when I need help, I get nothing). So needless to say some batches bled over, which hurts our scores (that I think amount to a hill of beans). The only thing makes me bust my butt on the pulls is not getting chewed out by my ETL-LOG.

They seem to believe its cool for just one person to pull at all times. Why aren't pulls not getting done? Must just be the person doing them, because the boss man can come back and get them all done within the hour. That's not to say that they'll be piled on tubs and flats in ways that make trying to push them hell and take forever. Oh, and it still takes every bit of the hour, we have to pull AND push it within the hour, not the bossman.

Im also told baffles arent really your fault. they are caused by the other team member before you but than you get blamed!

Yeah, I don't really care. I know I'm nearly flawless with everything I do, and I'm always finding stuff that people screw up, and I see them do it on a regular basis. I'm not management, and if they want to blame me, have at it. Doesn't matter if integrity is important to you and not only aim at doing a good job, but actually do a good job. It's all about numbers and what Target's broken system and management that have no idea what they're talking about say.

Sorry if I sound apathetic, I think I've just been working here too long. Things just seem to get worse and worse.
 
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They just now put me as mid-backroom and we still barely get everything pulled, pushed and backstocked if at all. Date checks, L&P, manual audits, what are those. We have to climb through our cooler and freezer most of the time just to pull one or two items(no really, crawl over tubs and carts, otherwise it takes 15 minutes to pull everything out to get to a couple pulls).
My store's pretty similar, although our new BRTL is actually doing a pretty good job lately. I refused to pull a freezer batch once because of how many vehicles were in there.
 
My store's pretty similar, although our new BRTL is actually doing a pretty good job lately. I refused to pull a freezer batch once because of how many vehicles were in there.
Same, they actually threw someone back there that works. But he has to run around like its the Olympics to get anything done. The first time they moved me to backroom evenings, they would just jampack the freezer, no one cared to make it better, and there were many ways to do so, but they basically did everything they could to screw it up, so I refused to pull. Coached. Things got worse. Moved back to mornings, someone else replaced me. That person just climbed over the stuff and burned pulls. He can get it done, what was my problem. He quits because it's bs(not just the freezer, that's only a small piece of the pie), so they put me back there again. I should have said no, but I needed the hours. Backroom TL did everything they could to throw me under the bus for things that weren't my fault. I requested to be moved. Worked plano and hardlines a bit, then they needed me for midbackroom. I just can't say no, call me a sadist. Though things go way smoother with a mid, and I can get most things done now, things are still screwed up, and it's still too much being holiday season. Things get backed up because there aren't enough people. There should NEVER be only one person in the backroom, at ANY time. It's not even safe... but I couldn't even win with that argument. I just get punished when I open my mouth, so I learned to just take it in the rear and hope for the best.
 
During the rest of the year, our store only has 2 BR TM's (usually one 11-7, the other 12-5:30). But during 4th quarter, we have 4-5 BR Day TM's. And pulls STILL can't get completed...all thanks to P-Fresh and Seasonal!
 
I miss it when it only pulled CAFs 1pm, 3pm, and 5pm. I think it was a lot easier than having to rush back every hour to pull more batches. Pull more batches at one time, push more pulls at one time, saves time, less trips. Of course, if they pulls are going to be 2hr and there's only one person in the backroom, it's not going to work anyways. Also, what I really liked was how they grouped things, like it would wait until 5pm to pull most of the bulk stuff, it would pull softlines stuff a separate hour, cooler freezer another hour, etc. Actually, I wish they could make cooler/freezer strictly manCAFs and have someone pull them at the end of the night. Mixing cooler/freezer with other pulls just slows things down a lot, and you have to get it out immediately, so it kind of interferes with the push process pretty often. Other things that are ridiculous imo, for example, is when it wants you to pull one pack of gum every hour for the checklanes. Checklanes should have their own stockroom. They only push it to half the registers and then dump it on the backroom and it takes 2 hours to backstock it all. Then, once it's backstocked, CAFs have us pull it all back out again because OOPS it should have all gone out. Same for dollarspot/buckspot/chineseslavelabourproducts, should be a separate stockroom and maintained by front end. I hate to impose upon them something that will cut into their talk-time, but I don't appreciate having to work more just so they can have enough time to complain about being bored when there are lulls.

During the rest of the year, our store only has 2 BR TM's (usually one 11-7, the other 12-5:30). But during 4th quarter, we have 4-5 BR Day TM's. And pulls STILL can't get completed...all thanks to P-Fresh and Seasonal!
Yeah, we've had electronics crap sitting in two carts like all week that I've been trying to push out when I can afford the time, and it's futile. I'll get a couple games pushed within an hour, the rest is spent being dragged around the floor like a ragdoll. Should just quit target and offer to be personal shopping helper. Who knows, with the tips I'd maybe be able to afford to heat my house in the winter. One would think that would be included in the whole "cost of living" thing. It's cool I got this, I'll just sleep in the rafters and hug my pipes to keep them from freezing at night.
 
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Actually, I wish they could make cooler/freezer strictly manCAFs and have someone pull them at the end of the night. Mixing cooler/freezer with other pulls just slows things down a lot, and you have to get it out immediately, so it kind of interferes with the push process pretty often.

At my store, SFTMs push the CAFs, and they leave all the cooler/freezer stuff in there until after the last CAFs are pulled, so they don't have to drag the cart out so many times.
 
At my store, SFTMs push the CAFs, and they leave all the cooler/freezer stuff in there until after the last CAFs are pulled, so they don't have to drag the cart out so many times.
I usually do that if I can, but a lot of times there's no room at all for any extra carts to leave in there. If it's one or two things, I'll try taking it with me. If it's too much, I'll try leaving it on top of something where I'll [hopefully] remember to grab it later. Dunno, it's just dumb imo, it should just pull all at once. Chances are, anything freezer/cooler isn't time sensitive pulls. Most of the time it's just pushing one thing in a location that holds several of the item.

The whole CAF system is a waste of time the way it's done. There could be a lot more productivity if it were done differently. For one thing, having us pull everything that's just been backstocked because it wasn't previously located needs to stop. I understand the reason for it, but it's mostly fail. It's been the same way for years, and it just wastes time. Sometimes it will go out, but most of the time it just came back a couple hours ago and it won't go out. In one day, I or whoever pulls and pushes ends up wasting hours on this sort of thing. If a lot of items are coming back that would fit out on the floor, then someone isn't doing their job, and it's not backroom that's failing. I shouldn't have to do the impossible because flow team hires noobs, don't bother teaching them how to push properly, or they're just lazy. We don't even have a process for challenge. I'm the only one that DOESN'T backstock challenge, and it will just sit there if I don't push it myself. If I try mentioning something about it they just ignore me. Currently, there's a cart in my backroom of challenge that's been sitting there since Monday... this is Friday. If I had time, I'd just push it myself, but I don't have the time, and it shouldn't be my responsibility anyways. Most of the time, when I push anything challenge, it goes out due to the wrong item being in it's place, or multiple locations that were missed, or someone just can't read apparently.
 
I feel like sharing something, even though I probably shouldn't. But maybe someone out there would feel my pain.


Granted, my freezer doesn't always look like that, but way more often than it ever should. When it's like that, I have only a couple minutes(as in like 2) to pull everything, so there's no time to pull everything out. So that means climbing over everything. Gets interesting when you have to pull from a bin below tub level. I'd like to add TL's added a "Why We Work Safe" billboard in the breakroom where they want you to post pictures of your family or such. Backroom is excluded from it, but it's okay, we're used to being excluded from most things. Like the whole "team" thing.



The cooler generally always looks like this, actually it's usually worse tbh. However decided to have the entrance to the freezer at the back of the cooler needs to be locked in there for a few hours.
 
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I have a baffle question. Me and my team lead in the back have alot of baffles! Someone thought it would be nice since we have our big plastics located in the truck on pallets to delete everything or LOCU the whole truck but for a couple boxes which were still located probably backstocked during the day! Well when we did the caf pulls i started noticing nothing was coming out because i would toggle over and see that i was actually locating everything that wasnt scanned in! So my question is this. After the cafs I had LOCU everything in the truck and scanned it back in using LOCU. Can that give me baffles errors or was when i was pulling cafs and actually scanning the boxes that werent actually located in there? Thanks


Also to uncorporateds post. literally shocked at how small your freezer/cooler space is!! We cant put tubs in our freezer at all! Today we had a safety guy ( i forgot the name of his company or whatever ). He said we immediately had to remove the tubs from the freezer and was very picky saying everyone needs to wear a holster if they are using a pdt! Anyway in our coolers we have 1 guy dedicated to just the coolers all day. I also have a tip for back stocking! take a clean green rack outside the cooler loaded with wacos and a rack full of loose crap and back stock outside! Its much easier if you dont already and you wont freeze your butt off lol. The same with boxes to! As to pictures i would post a few but wouldnt want to give my position away or anything!
 
Other things that are ridiculous imo, for example, is when it wants you to pull one pack of gum every hour for the checklanes. Checklanes should have their own stockroom. They only push it to half the registers and then dump it on the backroom and it takes 2 hours to backstock it all. Then, once it's backstocked, CAFs have us pull it all back out again because OOPS it should have all gone out. Same for dollarspot/buckspot/chineseslavelabourproducts, should be a separate stockroom and maintained by front end. I hate to impose upon them something that will cut into their talk-time, but I don't appreciate having to work more just so they can have enough time to complain about being bored when there are lulls.

I help to push gum and candy at the lanes sometimes. The reason so much goes back is because so much more is brought out than we need to replenish. Sometimes we'll get five or six boxes of XYZ gum, but we'll only need, say, half of one box to fill holes, so the rest all gets sent back to be backstocked. I don't know if it's an accumulator issue or what, but we always seem to get tons more than what we actually need.

I don't know how most stores handle OneSpot, but at my store, backroom TMs send out boxes periodically and a designated "OneSpot TM" just pushes all of it in the morning. Since our OneSpot is impossible to keep zoned, most of it ends up in different spots anyways (as long as the price matches the label). I've never heard of any of our OneSpot being backstocked.
 
I feel like sharing something, even though I probably shouldn't. But maybe someone out there would feel my pain.


Granted, my freezer doesn't always look like that, but way more often than it ever should. When it's like that, I have only a couple minutes(as in like 2) to pull everything, so there's no time to pull everything out. So that means climbing over everything. Gets interesting when you have to pull from a bin below tub level. I'd like to add TL's added a "Why We Work Safe" billboard in the breakroom where they want you to post pictures of your family or such. Backroom is excluded from it, but it's okay, we're used to being excluded from most things. Like the whole "team" thing.



The cooler generally always looks like this, actually it's usually worse tbh. However decided to have the entrance to the freezer at the back of the cooler needs to be locked in there for a few hours.

That is INSANE!!!! Your TL should definitely assign one person to backstock cooler and freezer until everything goes smooth again. Leaving everything runs the risk of reordering, which for the food trucks would be terrible. Also why are the dates written with a marker? Print Barcodes section has "UPC plus Date".
 
Wow uncorporated , if my ETL-LOG could see this he would have a gasket blown lol. I don't think I have ever ever seen a electronics stock or cooler/freezer stock get that bad! And I totally agree with you. Us in the Backroom are not part of the "team", because believe it or not, we are treated like ************ often, and gosh during Christmas time with all those guests requests, it's like they think we do nothing else rather than get stuff for guests out of the backroom. I hate it when I am the only one pulling and I get like 5 guests request, there are still 10 batches in the gun and only 5 minutes left in the hour, that always ends well, NOT!
 
That is INSANE!!!! Your TL should definitely assign one person to backstock cooler and freezer until everything goes smooth again. Leaving everything runs the risk of reordering, which for the food trucks would be terrible. Also why are the dates written with a marker? Print Barcodes section has "UPC plus Date".

Lol the picture even shows that the UPC's they're printing have the dates on them. Sooo why the extra work of manually writing it? We used to write the expiration date on the packages but that practice became extinct.
 
I feel like sharing something, even though I probably shouldn't. But maybe someone out there would feel my pain.


Ok, now take this and make it three times the width and twice as deep, but still full of ************. That's my freezer after a 1400 piece food load. It takes ...a while to backstock!
 
Lol the picture even shows that the UPC's they're printing have the dates on them. Sooo why the extra work of manually writing it? We used to write the expiration date on the packages but that practice became extinct.

I guess someone didn't trust the printer. :D
 
As someone who's worked primarily in the Backroom for the four years I've been at Target I'd have to echo many of the concerns uncorporated has brought up in this thread. CAFs are near impossible for one team member to pull and push though that is the expectation for small volume stores (like mine). Our cooler/freezer used to look very similar to yours until we changed our process for backstocking it. We have one team member who is given a shift just to backstock in there on truck days with the rest of his shift being either POG or bike building. With one dedicated team member doing it he's been able to keep it relatively clean.

On the STO/SUBT subject anyone who says SUBT9999 has no place in the backroom has clearly never pulled CAF batches before. STO should be used on all truck backstock or anything that's been on a tub for awhile, but anything that has been killed from an endcap, brought back by POG team, from previous CAF push or backstock from instocks should ALWAYS be backstocked with SUBT9999. If you don't there's a good chance that it will come right back up in the CAF batches and either force you to burn them (gasp!) or pull something that won't go out only to STO it again later and repeat the process.
 
On the STO/SUBT subject anyone who says SUBT9999 has no place in the backroom has clearly never pulled CAF batches before.

THANK YOU! I can't stand when people say SUBT9999 is cheating/not fulfilling sales. If used correctly, it is a blessing. End caps and POG bring back bulk items all the time, usually later in the day. If you don't SUBT9999 those items, they will keep wasting the dayside BR's time. I honestly wonder how some Backroom's work with so much miss communication going on. Why keep your guys pulling the same unneeded items all day long?
 
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