Will the board call for Cornell to retire or resign???

Bri Bri plumped his golden parachute nice and big. We are paying the price. His exit package even at retirement will probably exceed the companies hourly payroll for the year. Allegedly.
charitably, this is not realistic

i am doing some real lazy napkin math here, but you have somewhere in the ballpark of 1900 stores whose payroll needs range from as low as ~800 hours a week total for some small formats to 5000+ hours for supers and UHV stores, so let's find a middle ground and say maybe 2500 hours of payroll per week per store, averaged out chainwide

that's... roughly? four and a half million hours of payroll per month? at a baseline cost of fifteen an hour, that's $71m right there. and that's not counting DC team members, stores where the base pay is over $15/hr, accounting for all of the other costs that go into payroll than just the hourly wage paid to team members, etc.

there is absolutely no way cornell is getting an exit package north of $125m
 
Cornell was the best thing to happen to this company… 20 straight quarters of growth? That’s insane. The freight issue is an industry issue not a target issue. Targets actually one of the few companies smart even to openly talk about lower profits due to moving product at much cheaper prices to alleviate the issues. You do understand target as a company blew threw 5-10 year projections in the matter of a couple years due to the pandemic? There’s only so much one person or even a company can do in such a short time. This is a growing period for target and no one would have been able to predict the last couple year and make the “right” decisions in such unprecedented times. I think target as a company has adapted extremely well through the last few years. What’s your magical plan that a new magical ceo would accomplish?
I disagree. Bob Ulrich was the best ceo Target ever had.
 
Why will I need Target when Amazon will be same day delivering shit to my doorstep in a more efficient manner? Or droning it to me in a matter of minutes?
The largest angle Target has in the retail game is same day delivery. You are undervaluing it. The ability for me to order anything I want and get it not in 2 days (which Amazon has mostly backed down from), not even next say. But the same exact day in as little as two hours. It is ridiculous. Insane. And with Sortation Centers being opened up across the country soon we will be able to deliver anything to anybody in the same manner as Amazon, faster and more efficiently.
 
In 1987 when Ulrich first took over as CEO, there were around 250 Target stores. Ulrich stepped down in early 2008 and there were roughly 1700 Target stores. A 680% increase in Target presence.

Cornell took over in 2014 with ~1800 stores. Fast forward to 2022. 1937 stores, or a whopping 7.6% increase in presence.

Yes, Cornell is killing it. Let me tell you. :rolleyes:
Now look at the number of distribution centers opened since Cornell started.

You are thinking of Target like a retail store. That is not the future. Target is exiting the grocery game. Target is only focusing on opening small format stores. Target has closed many food courts to add more OPU space.

We are turning every store into a walk-in DC. And opening lots of new RDCs, SCs, etc. To accommodate. Spending $$$ updating the DCs with new systems.

We have the stores. The major challenge is updating the distrobution. And there are loads of major changes happening that you dont really see store side.
 
If they want to be like Amazon they need to pay us like Amazon. As a former employee of Amazon they actually gave lots of overtime out and didn’t complain about it as they wanted the job to get done.
 
If they want to be like Amazon they need to pay us like Amazon. As a former employee of Amazon they actually gave lots of overtime out and didn’t complain about it as they wanted the job to get done.
Lmao this mindset is exactly why Target is soft, Pay employees more than $15hr which is already good enough just for more employees to be lazy and managers don’t do anything about it as long as they suck up. Anyone who still works there now should be thankful for the pay they have already even if they don’t do as much.
 
The sales and profit data says Cornell is killing it.

The company action says their vision of the brand is not yours.

These aren't opinions, they're facts. The world is a vastly different place than it was when Ulrich was ceo. It's not an apples to apples comparison.

Everything you say may very well be true but it doesn't change the fact that in store shopping is not the channel they are looking to drive. It also doesn't change the fact they don't give a shit about you.

And if you think companies that care about their employees drive long term growth, I would point you towards Amazon and Walmart, who treat their employees far worse than Target, and have experienced unfathomable levels of growth for many *many* years.

Corporations exist to make money, they have never and will never care about you...at all. If you died tomorrow Target wouldn't give even the faintest farts whisper of a fuck. They would post your position to be filled before your body was even cold.

The sales and profit say that he is killing it in the short term. Short term thinking almost always ends in disaster. Why Target is continuing to get away with this when the stores look like utter shit, I'm not entirely sure but I suspect it's still largely reputation among other things such as that the clothing is better than Wal-Mart and the home goods are as well, usually anyways. Because the service is just a bad and the stores look worse.

You're acting as if I don't know the retail landscape is changing. More than retail, the labor market is changing and our lives are changing at extremely rapid paces. Of course retail is changing, but that doesn't mean Target is taking the correct path. He's just bleeding it until he's out. There is no long term vision and he doesn't give a fuck. No long term vision that will differentiate Target from other retailers, and certainly nothing like what differentiated Target previously and made it successful in the first place.

They're going to do what? Compete with Amazon at trying to be Amazon? We'll see how that goes. Maybe they put another spin on it and I end up being wrong. Time tells all.

None of that changes the fact that their primary sales driver is still in person... in stores... and the stores look like utter HORSE SHIT. The zone legitimately looks worse than Wal-Mart, which is unfuckingvelievable and I would have never guessed it would ever go that way. I am curious if there is concrete data or at the very least strong estimates on how much of those digital sales would go elsewhere if allowing guests to be lazy as fuck wasn't a thing.

They competed previously and carved out a space against corps like Wal-Mart not by trying to be Wal-Mart, but by being Target. A lot of the early decisions Cornell made were trying to turn Target into Wal-Mart. And you can still see those decisions to this day.

You're just going to keep reverting back to "sales and profit" "sales and profit" "sales and profit" as if the primary drivers for sales for him have not been inflation and the primary profit driver has not been payroll slashing. You do realize that a lot of these companies are all experiencing record profits, right? If you want to make a sound argument, impress me and do the math. I'm not going to do it. Compare the profitability of Target year by year, adjusting for inflation, to its main competitors. Then we'll talk further about how good he's doing with profit and perhaps get into further nitty gritty details, the nuance and other undiscussed variables.

Also, other than your first statement which just lines up with what I said his thinking was(mostly short term), you're telling me a bunch of bullshit that I never argued with. I never said they cared about me and I never said corporations shouldn't try to make money or that businesses shouldn't. Of course they should, that's the whole fucking point. But what happens, as it always does, ok... is that these companies do something that is really fucking great, they corner a large section of the market, the founder or visionary that drove the success dies or retires and some asshole in a suit comes along and bleeds it dry. Makes a ton of money for shareholders, inflicts a shit ton of emotional pain on employees and society at large because they drove a bunch of people out of business.

Of course businesses exist to make money... the question is... do you honestly believe in your heart of hearts that Cornell has steered the ship in such a way that has maximized the long term potential of the company? Clearly, you do. That's because you are fucking clueless.
 
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The sales and profit say that he is killing it in the short term. Short term thinking almost always ends in disaster. Why Target is continuing to get away with this when the stores look like utter shit, I'm not entirely sure but I suspect it's still largely reputation among other things such as that the clothing is better than Wal-Mart and the home goods are as well, usually anyways. Because the service is just a bad and the stores look worse.

You're acting as if I don't know the retail landscape is changing. More than retail, the labor market is changing and our lives are changing at extremely rapid paces. Of course retail is changing, but that doesn't mean Target is taking the correct path. He's just bleeding it until he's out. There is no long term vision and he doesn't give a fuck. No long term vision that will differentiate Target from other retailers, and certainly nothing like what differentiated Target previously and made it successful in the first place.

They're going to do what? Compete with Amazon at trying to be Amazon? We'll see how that goes. Maybe they put another spin on it and I end up being wrong. Time tells all.

None of that changes the fact that their primary sales driver is still in person... in stores... and the stores look like utter HORSE SHIT. The zone legitimately looks worse than Wal-Mart, which is unfuckingvelievable and I would have never guessed it would ever go that way. I am curious if there is concrete data or at the very least strong estimates on how much of those digital sales would go elsewhere if allowing guests to be lazy as fuck wasn't a thing.

They competed previously and carved out a space against corps like Wal-Mart not by trying to be Wal-Mart, but by being Target. A lot of the early decisions Cornell made were trying to turn Target into Wal-Mart. And you can still see those decisions to this day.

You're just going to keep reverting back to "sales and profit" "sales and profit" "sales and profit" as if the primary drivers for sales for him have not been inflation and the primary profit driver has not been payroll slashing. You do realize that a lot of these companies are all experiencing record profits, right? If you want to make a sound argument, impress me and do the math. I'm not going to do it. Compare the profitability of Target year by year, adjusting for inflation, to its main competitors. Then we'll talk further about how good he's doing with profit and perhaps get into further nitty gritty details, the nuance and other undiscussed variables.

Also, other than your first statement which just lines up with what I said his thinking was(mostly short term), you're telling me a bunch of bullshit that I never argued with. I never said they cared about me and I never said corporations shouldn't try to make money or that businesses shouldn't. Of course they should, that's the whole fucking point. But what happens, as it always does, ok... is that these companies do something that is really fucking great, they corner a large section of the market, the founder or visionary that drove the success dies or retires and some asshole in a suit comes along and bleeds it dry. Makes a ton of money for shareholders, inflicts a shit ton of emotional pain on employees and society at large because they drove a bunch of people out of business.

Of course businesses exist to make money... the question is... do you honestly believe in your heart of hearts that Cornell has steered the ship in such a way that has maximized the long term potential of the company? Clearly, you do. That's because you are fucking clueless.
I don't disagree with anything you're saying (except the clueless part). Share held organizations rarely make decisions for long-term growth. This is a well demonstrated truth, they make decisions to make shareholders money. The ever-increasing march for profit. Reduce cost, increase productivity. Do more with less. This is the battle-cry of the retail industry, it has been for many years. Shareholders are very short-sighted.

For what it's worth, Targets YoY growth @ April 22' was 4.03%, Wal-Mart was at 2.34%. Though this could be a reflection of Target positioning itself better during the pandemic than Wal-Mart. Inflation is irrelevant because both companies exist in the same inflated market.

Do I believe Cornell has steered the ship to maximize long term potential? Yes and no.

Yes - Because the decisions he made whether through foresight or luck positioned Target to do very well during the pandemic. Which probably let to a much better position than it otherwise would have been. The in-store experience is just not the future for most people. In an economy with a vanishing middle class, people want quick and they want cheap. Gone are the days where they want bright and clean. In this way he has made some strategic decisions that promote long term growth.

But also no. Because a large portion of the vertically integrated supply (mainly softlines and some home) is driven by the in-store shopping experience. I have not worked at Target in some time, but I would be interested to see a breakdown of profit percentage by category. Softlines I suspect would still occupy a healthy percentage of that. And the state of stores definitely does play a large factor in this.

It remains to be seen (at least to me) how this will play out from a longevity standpoint. In my mind, one of two things happens:

- They choose to reduce labor force to maintain labor costs. Amazon and Wal-Mart use their supply-chain dominance to strangle Target. Target dumps anything perishable, pivots completely to SFS/Curbside, and goes all-in on the Cornell vision of an Amazon 2.0. Reduced salesfloor footprint, with stores becoming essentially mini DC hubs and chink away at competitors by instituting last-leg delivery.
- A new CEO comes in and they choose to re-invest in stores. Increase labor force and increased labor cost. Lower profits but improved store experience, focused mainly on vertically integrated product, such as softlines and owned brands.

My gut tells me number one is going to be what happens.

One thing I do know for sure. 5 years from now we will still be here complaining about the good-ole' days while Target profits disgusting amounts of money and reaps the fruits of our labor as workers, and our complacency as consumers.

The real answer is to just leave retail. Let it all burn.
 
Profits down nearly 90% for the second quarter, following dismal results for the first quarter. Way to go, Corporate!
Target is circling the drain. A retail company that has to cut benefits and payroll to the point that workloads cannot be completed nor guest service provided instead of increasing or at least maintaining sales to affect the bottom line is failing both in the short and long term.
The signs for Spot are all there. The wrong product being ordered in massive quantities leading to stores stuffed with merchandise that isn’t selling blocking new product that might sell from getting to the floor. Understaffed stores burning out the team with impossibly high expectations leading to constant turnover. Severe understaffing causing uncompleted workloads because team members are constantly pulled to either back-up the front or pull for FF. The few people scheduled are either ringing or pulling orders for a high percentage of their time, and as a result the floor doesn’t receive the attention that it needs, zone is horrific and guests are ticked off because they can’t find anyone to help them. Not good for a company that built its reputation on neat, clean stores and outstanding guest service. Add to that the fact that Spot has higher prices and depends on discretionary purchases more than Walmart, and apparently can no longer offset either with well-kept stores and excellent guest service, and it’s clear that changes need to be made ASAP.
 
The ceo is about to retire and he has ties to Walmart, he doesn’t care about the company going down. It’s time to throw him out and hopefully this news will set the motion for it to happen.
 
Profits down nearly 90% for the second quarter, following dismal results for the first quarter. Way to go, Corporate!
Target is circling the drain. A retail company that has to cut benefits and payroll to the point that workloads cannot be completed nor guest service provided instead of increasing or at least maintaining sales to affect the bottom line is failing both in the short and long term.
The signs for Spot are all there. The wrong product being ordered in massive quantities leading to stores stuffed with merchandise that isn’t selling blocking new product that might sell from getting to the floor. Understaffed stores burning out the team with impossibly high expectations leading to constant turnover. Severe understaffing causing uncompleted workloads because team members are constantly pulled to either back-up the front or pull for FF. The few people scheduled are either ringing or pulling orders for a high percentage of their time, and as a result the floor doesn’t receive the attention that it needs, zone is horrific and guests are ticked off because they can’t find anyone to help them. Not good for a company that built its reputation on neat, clean stores and outstanding guest service. Add to that the fact that Spot has higher prices and depends on discretionary purchases more than Walmart, and apparently can no longer offset either with well-kept stores and excellent guest service, and it’s clear that changes need to be made ASAP.
Even with under-staffing it could be done if they sent decent trucks. I am not even talking about the multiple items being sent, we are getting clearance and salvage on our trucks. With profits down 90% they should fire a top manager in the logistics chain, Brian seems untouchable so I doubt he will go anytime soon. Even if they started changing things today these trucks will still be a mess for Christmas. Already started getting Christmas lights on Tuesday so we will see if anything changes.
 
Honestly Q1 and Q2 in a normal pre-pandemic world don't matter. They never mattered. We never made substantial gains in those quarters. 2020 and 2021 just horribly skewed all our data and forecasting models, as we expected more of the same in 2022 and its not happening due to a variety of factors including a recession that no one was ready for.

Q3 and Q4 were always our bread and butter. They're the ones that matter.

I was here during Target Canada, during 2014 and in Q1 and Q2 when we were hemmoraghing money no one cared. But when we bombed Q3 and Q4 (and the data breach) suddenly we had a new CEO and a bunch of new senior execs upstairs.

If we bomb Q3/Q4 then we can circle back to the board dropping Cornell. Otherwise I think he's pretty safe.
 
It’s going to get bad because payroll is getting slashed. My store is still going over our sales goals and comp is up. Freight is still crazy and we don’t have the hours we need to push it all to the floor along with all the other tasks we have.
Our store is the exact same way. Even though it seems bad now, I think we're only at the very beginning of the dumpster fire.
 
It’s going to get bad because payroll is getting slashed. My store is still going over our sales goals and comp is up. Freight is still crazy and we don’t have the hours we need to push it all to the floor along with all the other tasks we have.

^^ This. Not sure how we can adequately function with the payroll cuts that are coming down. It's ridiculous.
I noticed that the next two weeks hours are cut at my store, at least in Style. It's the end of the month but still - the situation is so rough now, it will only get worse with less hours/bodies on the floor. Nothing else to do but embrace the chaos I guess.
 
Guys guys guys.......it was cancerous and toxic when things were going well and executives were making millions of dollars. Imagine what it will be like now that they can't buy their 13 year old a Ferrari. Working for Target is soon to be a past tense.
 
Had a visit with the gvp. She wanted to make sure we were scheduled appropriately and had enough coverage for pulls zone and push. So we did what she asked and posted the schedule 900 hours over 🤣. Might not like it when they make us cut but for now we might be able to have a relatively ok inventory and be caught up on freight for the first time since february.
 
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