COVID-19 Weekly Ad in the Time of a Global Pandemic

Bufferine said:
Probably the same reason they make you come inside to get essentials and not offer them for pick up.
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That's actually more a limiting factor than anything else most likely. If it's available for order pickup you can get around limits rather easily and prevent others from getting too. Not to mention the insanity that would ensue if someone tried to pick it for an OPU and customers saw.
 
ISMike said:
That's actually more a limiting factor than anything else most likely. If it's available for order pickup you can get around limits rather easily and prevent others from getting too. Not to mention the insanity that would ensue if someone tried to pick it for an OPU and customers saw.
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Stores need to be smart about that. Fulfill and cancel. It's what I do if someone uses OPU to get around limits.
 
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ISMike said:
That's actually more a limiting factor than anything else most likely. If it's available for order pickup you can get around limits rather easily and prevent others from getting too. Not to mention the insanity that would ensue if someone tried to pick it for an OPU and customers saw.
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They are doing it at other stores with limits and no problems. You know the stores that have their clothes and nonessentials roped off. Target wants shoppers!! Target wants shoppers in their stores shopping! Adding a little of this and a little of that while they pick up their toilet paper.
 
NoTasking said:
The new ad out today offers lots of deals on “non-essentials”—why is Target not taking this opportunity to drive guests to online fulfillment (and keep them OUT of the stores) by making the deals online only?
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You mean the essentials like TP and paper towels that we can't keep in stock? They are selling themselves, no need to advertise.
 
I scrolled through my app and saw they were encouraging Drive-Up, but how many of our guests are going to take the time to do that?
 
Bufferine said:
They are doing it at other stores with limits and no problems. You know the stores that have their clothes and nonessentials roped off. Target wants shoppers!! Target wants shoppers in their stores shopping! Adding a little of this and a little of that while they pick up their toilet paper.
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What other stores have store pickup enabled for things like clorox wipes and lysol spray? I haven't seen a single one. Rarely shipping or go and buy in store only. No pickup
 
Someone in chat yesterday said they weren't distributing the print ad for the time being. Was that not correct?
 
ISMike said:
Probably pre-planned and designed months and months ago as well. Why bother changing it when it doesn't matter anyway - people are gonna do what they're gonna do regardless.
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Not sure about that, in years past every ad would have a foot and drink section, even around Easter. Maybe they made last minute changes.
 
Oh hell no if u trying to bring all of the guests in my department. It's bad enough in the morning. Let them cough in electronics and bed and bath department too.
 
The biggest hassle with the weekly ad is the coupon-required offers. Guest doesn't read the sign - or understand what they read on the sign. Guest comes to check out, expects a fat juicy gift card but doesn't mention the sign (so we could find a backup code if neeeded) or give us the paper coupon, scannable digital code or digital coupon. Guest completes payment without comment, then after the receipt is handed over, casts a nasty glance at the Guest Advocate demanding, "where's my gift card?" Once the sale is finished, we can make an adjustment but it's never as easy as if Target hadn't simply offered the deal without demanding a bunch of redundant extra steps.

Would it really be too much to ask Corporate to put a moratorium on gimmick category coupon offers for the duration? If the store wants to offer a deal, then offer the deal without demanding extra steps from our stressed-out guests. And stop making the offers so friggin' selective as to what qualifies and what doesn't!
 
jackandcat said:
The biggest hassle with the weekly ad is the coupon-required offers. Guest doesn't read the sign - or understand what they read on the sign. Guest comes to check out, expects a fat juicy gift card but doesn't mention the sign (so we could find a backup code if neeeded) or give us the paper coupon, scannable digital code or digital coupon. Guest completes payment without comment, then after the receipt is handed over, casts a nasty glance at the Guest Advocate demanding, "where's my gift card?" Once the sale is finished, we can make an adjustment but it's never as easy as if Target hadn't simply offered the deal without demanding a bunch of redundant extra steps.

Would it really be too much to ask Corporate to put a moratorium on gimmick category coupon offers for the duration? If the store wants to offer a deal, then offer the deal without demanding extra steps from our stressed-out guests. And stop making the offers so friggin' selective as to what qualifies and what doesn't!
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Pro tip: Spend certain $ needs a coupon. Buy certain number is automatic. Easy way to remember.

They definitely need to loosen up on selectivity though, I agree.
 
Amanda Cantwell said:
Pro tip: Spend certain $ needs a coupon. Buy certain number is automatic. Easy way to remember. They definitely need to loosen up on selectivity though, I agree.
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Not all that easy. If the guest mentioned the promo at the beginning, we could scan all the eligible items together along with the coupon to see if the guest's purchase is enough to qualify. I've seen far too many times where:
1) the offer required $75 of eligible items, but the guest's purchased items only added up to $74.92,
2) the offer required $75 of eligible items, but only $41.40 of qualified because the offer excludes some brands (i.e. LEGO, Disney, Apple, Harry's ad nauseum), or
3) the offer required $75 of eligible items but the category is vague, is the item "health" or is it "beauty" when the offer only covers "beauty"?

In better times, I'm more than happy to go through the list to help the guest get a great deal, which often involves buying one more qualifying piece of merchandise or substituting one brand-name item for a participating brand-name item. When we're dealing with COVID-19 stuff and limited staffing, this kind of time-consuming charade is a real headache which can create longer guest line-ups even when we are efficient at working with the guest to help them obtain the lucrative gift-card bonus. This kind of headache does no real favors for an individual store's revenue bottom-line, for Target's senior management, or for Target's shareholders.

My two cents' worth....and I actually LIKE helping guests with stuff like this although at least one TL in our store gets real edgy when we actually spend the time needed to satisfactorily solve these issues and actually help the guests..
 
I can see the reason for all the coupons....if Target's front end wasn't near universal a yes desk. The restrictions are a good way to funnel traffic to certain categories and brands. The need for a paper coupon gets people looking at the ad. A finite supply of paper ads pushes people towards the digital coupon in the app, which allows for Target to sell information (like all companies, no surprise) and create brand loyalty through special offer gratification through the app. The more you can involve people in creating their own savings, the more they are going to feel ownership which will bring them back a lot more.

Who comes in more? The person who grabs a paper ad and goes shopping? Or the person who installs the app, uses Circle offers, uses the electronic coupons and sees the options for OPU and DU?
 

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