Archived Welcome back me...I suppose.

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Hey team,

So I recently found myself in the position of coming back to Target after a long time gone (5+ years) and boy has it changed. What was once a store that had team members stocked in every zone, team leads for most zones, and a bustling number of ETL's has now slimmed down to 4 ETL's (not including the STL) and shrunk the lead staff by what feels like half. I don't even know that there's the standard sales floor grid isn't even there anymore.

I was hired for sales floor, but worked all cashier shifts (about a week) and didn't remember having to do that before.

Has a lot changed with how stores are run?

I'm having trouble finding anyone who can speak to the changes (why?), or what's changed (corporate level) and it's just...really confusing being back.

I remembered Target as being one of the most fun places I had ever been employed. I met my wife there, had a ton of friends who worked there, and just really enjoyed the atmosphere.

I don't know if it's just having all of the team members be different, or the drastic "overhaul" feeling that the store has...but it really doesn't feel like the happy place I left.

Do any other stores have this melancholy feeling? Is there anyone else here that returned after some time and were left feeling like it was...lacking?

Thanks for listening.
 
Welcome back.....sort of.
I've been with spot over eleven yrs & have watched it decay from being a fun place I was proud to work at to a wisp of what it once was: popular programs replaced with bad ideas, perks whittled away, leadership attitude becoming harder/harsher, guests treating TMs like lower-class life forms.
Our store is permeated with a feeling of hopelessness.
 
Thanks, I think that really summarized what I felt. I had the only two team members I really got along with that are still there give me very....strange welcome backs. I think it was pity...or just that they felt bad. I feel like I am not going to like this leg of the Target journey in my life.

Is it simply far less profitable these days?
 
Target was for those in the south who know it just like the grocery chain Publix. Clean, bright stores, great guest service, no lines, lots of motivated and happy team members, promotion from within, perfect zones, chic merchandise and prices that were a bit higher but, people were happy to pay. Target and Publix both had middle and upper middle classes locked up. Then Target decided it would wanted more money and decided that it would try and steal some of those Walmart shoppers. So things like the One Spot showed up, lower prices, more sale items. Of course this meant having to cut something to make up for those lower prices. So they cut people. And so the cycle began. Target began to become Walmart only it did not have the volume so it had to just keep cutting more and more. In the process the people who used to come in and drop $200 a visit became the people who now drop $40. Less service, less staff, less chic means less people with money spending it at Target.

So Target came up with its first magic bullet. P-Fresh. It was suppose to increase sales by at least 20% and lure more people in to buy low profit items like fruit and meat and then spend money on high profit items like domestics and clothing. It was a dud. All it did was increase the need for more staffing to maintain that area with none of massive increase in profitable sales that were suppose to follow.

More staffing cuts followed to pay for all these P-fresh remodels that were not paying off. Then came Target Canada. That was the answer of course. Open up a bunch of stores in Canada all at once and cash in, what could go wrong? Everything of couse. A broken logistics system meant half filled stores. Half filled stores meant cutting staff. And now you have Target Canada that has the reputation of not having anything in stock and bad guest service. And it is losing millions.

That is the Target you have come back to. Broken, failing and out of ideas. Walmart light you could say.

Oh and if you recall the grocery chain I mentioned called Publix? Well they kept on they way they were and the way Target used to be. And you know what they call them now? The Walmart Slayer. http://www.forbes.com/sites/brianso...ople-first-culture-is-winning-the-grocer-war/
 
I went to a Publix when visiting family in Florida. Very nice atmosphere for a grocery store. It made my local grocery chain seem so run-of-the-mill.
 
RedDog, I wish I could like your post a million times. Very good overview!!
 
I moved from the Southeast to the Southwest about 5 years back. I miss Publix :(

Hell when our A&P turned into a Publix in high school a friend of mine got hired there shortly before they opened...at $10/hr. That was 13 years ago, and that's more than I make right now at Spot.
 
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Welcome back, I guess.

The folks at Spot have a lot to answer for.
 
Been with Target for 8 yrs. I also miss the days of Fast, Fun and Friendly! We used to have so much fun at work. Huddles were a riot with games and snacks, lots of food days, bbqs, incentives for red cards. Now it's just nothing. Go to work, muddle through for X amount of hours, go home.
Yeah, not happy either.
 
I just want to thank everyone who's replied, especially RedDog for that fantastic overview. I wish that Target could have kept on keepin' on.
 
Quick question, in regards to being a new team member, I was hired back as sales floor and had only backup cashiered before, and on my schedule are a bunch of cashiering shifts. I have found that because I am tall, I basically have to be at a constant incline all day to reach items on the belt/bag them (especially bagging) to the point that I start to sweat and my lower back aches.

I purchased a back brace, but being new I am scared to voice my concerns over the 8 hour cashier shifts they have lined up for me.

Should I simply suffer through it because I'm new and don't want to make a bad impression, or talk to someone?
 
Talk to your GSTL and express your concerns if they dont listen go to your ETL. They might be able to offer a stool to sit on while cashiering, we have a few at my store that do that for pretty much the same reason.
 
Quick question, in regards to being a new team member, I was hired back as sales floor and had only backup cashiered before, and on my schedule are a bunch of cashiering shifts. I have found that because I am tall, I basically have to be at a constant incline all day to reach items on the belt/bag them (especially bagging) to the point that I start to sweat and my lower back aches.

I purchased a back brace, but being new I am scared to voice my concerns over the 8 hour cashier shifts they have lined up for me.

Should I simply suffer through it because I'm new and don't want to make a bad impression, or talk to someone?

8 hour cashier shift???!!! Eeeeeekkkkk! I would seriously die. I can handle 4-5 and then my knees and back are killing me! Tell them the amount of hours you can physically handle and see if they'll go with that.
 
I have been with Target for 5 years. Things have gone downhill a lot. But just making friends with your coworkers and having a good time with them while working will make it better. If you focus too much on the negative you will become a sour TM and hate your job. Yes there are less positions, less hours, and more and more work everyday.. but once youve done it for a while, I wouldnt say it gets better.. but it definitely becomes routine and doesnt feel so bad. When I first started helping sales floor i used to freak out seeing a whole clearance rack on the ground, or the towel aisle when someone decides to change the color scheme in their bathroom.. now the sting of it is gone..

stick it out, and make some friends. Hopefully things improve or become more bearable.

A stool might help.. but if your legs are long, theres nowhere to tuck your legs on our registers.. cant speak to some of the newer register set-ups. The thing that helped me was just walking away from the register. Gather hangers and abandons, straighten the registers closest to you.. Tell the gstl your reasoning for it. If they are a jerk like mine sometimes, go over their head to HR

If your store is set up with MyTime you are probably being generated into the schedule as a cashier..
 
When ringing out your guests & they have more than 2 bags, walk around & put the bags in their cart.
It lets you stretch your legs (after standing in one spot for too long), you can look under the kiddie seat & below to make sure you didn't miss anything (like that bottle of Tide that's almost the same color as the cart), it eliminates paid & left merchandise & it's a good guest service touch that can send them off with a good last impression.
 
I had the same problem when I cashed. When I first started, my legs and feet would be sore and my back would hurt. Now that I've finally been switched to the sales floor, I don't have to deal with that anymore because I'm constantly walking instead of standing in one place and leaning.
 
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