Archived Yet, another zoning question thread...

[Obeast]

Hi, Break Room! I got hired at my Target store a couple weeks ago doing sales floor hardlines with some cashier training. So far, I'm really enjoying it and every team member I've met/worked with are nice. But, I'm really disappointed in myself because I can't get a grip on zoning my area in a four hour closing shift. I'm wondering if anyone has any good tips or even little personal systems on zoning in a four hour shift.

My system is mostly zone as fast as I can first, then do go backs. But, if I find an item that's in the wrong spot in the correct aisle, I try to find where it goes in about 10-15 seconds, or it goes in the cart for go backs (items from outside my zoning block go in directly in the cart). However, it feels like my problems are that I either take too long trying to find where an item goes, and by the end of my zoning, I tend to have a full cart of go backs that I have to take care of and it mentally throws me in a loop since I usually feel like I don't have enough time to get everything put away (thankfully, my fellow team members are good about helping me tackle the go back cart). I also try to organize my block's go backs by general areas and keeping the items from outside my area and defects separate, but my cart gets so full so fast that everything gets mixed up anyway. :/

To be fair, I know I'm still pretty new and I should just keep at it. But, I'm just wondering if maybe I'm doing something wrong or what.

 

[Super]

I do zoning myself...and I can honestly tell you bud that it will get easier with time You will train your brain to think fast and retrieve fast

By the way, Welcome to TBR

 

[glo]

It takes a month or so to develop your own rhythm.

Take your reshop cart and an empty cart to your area. Leave the cart with the reshop at the end of whatever aisle you're working in and toss whatever doesn't belong in that aisle in the other cart as you zone. After you zone both sides of that aisle, take whatever reshop that belongs to your area and toss it in the reshop cart. At ~10 PM, take the out of area up to guest services, sort that stuff out, take whatever reshop is there back to your zone and finish zoning. Sort your carts so that one half of your area is in one cart and the other is in the other cart. Take one of the carts and start working it. At the end of the night, if you haven't finished, condense it into one cart and replace it with the cart up at guest service.

That's what I do, at least. Works pretty well for me. Some find using a three tier to be a better option, but my store never has any available. I'm sure you'll figure it out, just don't stress. Do what you can and you should be fine.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Welcome! Give yourself some time. A suggestion, do a fast zone on the shelve or 4 ft section when doing reshop. That will save you some time. Price checker can tell you where items go too.

 

[commiecorvus]

Greetings and salutations.
Welcome to the Break Room.

 

[buliSBI]

Zoning performance really depends on what area you are working. Areas like towels, picture frames, chemicals, toys, and Market are always hard to zone.And it really just takes some prioritizing.

My system was:
-Clock in
-Grab equipment, announce that I am on the floor and check in with the closing TL/figure out what area I am working.
-Grab your area's reshop from GS. Work those items first. If its a lot, I will put them back as I zone.
-Zone the bulky items and lesser shopped areas first.
-Concentrate on zoning on smaller items and heavy shopped areas for the rest of the night.
-When I return from break or lunch, I always checked my areas reshop and work it quickly as possible.

There will be nights (especially during the holidays) where you will just be concentrating on zone. Reshop will be pushed to the backroom, and be worked slowly.
And there will be nights you will be reshopping till closed.

 

[redeye58]

If I'm in an area of small stuff (HBA, market) I'll use the one cart & use the kiddie seat for the strays as I'm zoning & doing the go-backs. When the amt shifts to less go-backs & more strays, I'll swap the diminishing go-backs to the kiddie seat & use the rest of the cart for collecting strays; larger items go on the bottom.

 

[sigma7]

As I'm zoning:

top part of basket - strays for my area
big part of basket - returns for rest of store
bottom of basket - backstock

 

[pharmtechno]

Biggest parts of a zone: end caps, floor, and base decks. If you cannot touch a THING else... do those.

End caps: full (don't worry about full to capacity, but at least a few deep). Pull from the home location. There should be one until we really get into seasonal and things start setting ONLY on endcaps. Avoid emptying a home location for an end cap when possible... but if you have to choose between having product in one location or the other, choose the end cap.

Floor: everything off the floors in the aisles. Simple in theory, but you'd be surprised the sh*t you'll find all over the place. There shouldn't be anything on the floor.

Base decks: nothing should be on base decks, aside from those random aisles where product is actually located on base decks. Some notorious aisles are the hair accessory aisle in A, the bike wall, anything in electronics. Even if you're on your way out for the night and you don't have a second to figure out where anything goes, at least get the stuff up off the base deck and onto the closest, most comparable peg hooks.

 

[pharmtechno]

And you CANNOT be a perfectionist. When zoning, you go, go, go. Different stores place different amounts of emphasis on reshop vs. zone, so it depends on your store handles it. However, at my store, I'll throw out whatever reshop I'm passing anyways and know for sure where it goes, but anything that takes time I will wait until my zone is done unless otherwise directed.