I am still seeing pre-printed shelf labels to plut out item location, but maybe they are missing prices now (that is how Kroger does it). There have been more than a few issues with people removing price change labels and then asking for a lower price since the old price is displayed below the new price. I'm not sure why Target can't install automated shelf tags. A small chain Holiday/Sav-Mor in NorCal has done this to I guess every store and it looks fantastic.ClownLoach wrote: ↑October 10th, 2023, 2:21 pm
I'm not seeing the food SKU reduction in the Super locations here, only regular locations. Definitely not seeing the multiple facings issue either, but I do understand how that happens at Target (clearance items sell out well before a POG reset, so they flex to fill before the next set which can be months out). Bad execution can cause this as well, if the shelf label disappears the item likely won't get reordered. Target seems to have moved away from preprinted shelf strips with labels, and the constant price changes turn into opportunities for bad execution. I've also seen where their c-channel non-adhesive labels are pulled right off the shelf by a customer who takes the label to a employee asking for a stock check. If that label doesn't get replaced there's a good chance that item is going to go missing for a long time unless found on an exception report.
I am noticing that the regular stores are drastically expanding snack items like granola bars and such, more than doubling their space at the expense of other food SKUs. That is a trend elsewhere too, noticing Albertsons is making similar changes reducing SKUs in pasta, rice, etc. "carbs" and canned goods, and shuffling space around the aisles to expand the same bars and such.
The backroom program is not a simplification, quite the opposite. The stores receiving backroom remodels get it for two reasons. First, nearly every Target break room and office area was located at the front end behind the registers. In most locations that has become the Drive Up storage and thus requires them to relocate offices/break room to the back which means they have to rearrange the stockroom to fit it in (employees hate this because they lost their employee "express entrance" and have to use the front doors then walk all the way to the back to put away their stuff, then all the way back up front to clock in and get their assignments). Second, they need more room for shipping e-commerce orders since they've followed the same trend as other retailers and eliminated e-commerce warehouses, instead shipping from store locations. So they have to install the moving racks and different configurations for the backroom to add these two large areas to existing space. Ultimately the backroom is not simplified but made more complex due to the new specialized shelving/racking and fixtures.
I do have an observation that may explain some of the issues being reported here with Target and wildly inconsistent in-stocks. Many stores still do not have "full capacity" e-commerce shipping until they receive backroom remodels that create the staging and packing space. Orders are apparently prioritized by distance; closest store gets the order first if they have all the items available to ship it. Problem is three fold - busier urban stores are more likely to be out of an item, slower rural stores are more likely to be able to fill the orders, and those rural stores will likely ship to a larger territory. So the smaller markets or one store markets likely get far more e-commerce shipping orders than an urban area. So the in-store inventory gets decimated as it's all stocked then immediately picked off the shelves, packed and sent away. And since they are lower volume units they are left with few/no items for the in-store customer. The company doesn't immediately see the issue since a sale is a sale, in fact the rural or small market store could ultimately be seeing sales increases overall even though the in-store experience is being destroyed. My last two orders here in SoCal mysteriously were fulfilled in Flagstaff AZ, Reno, and Sparks, NV (one order from Reno, other order split into two shipments from Flagstaff and Sparks)
I guess General Mills is paying for more shelf space in snack bars now. The snack bar category is over-SKUed and there is going to be a lot of trouble with these expansions on that category. Those are high margin so I can see why they'd try to push those over commodity food type items. Target already had a very excessive amount of space for those categories. I'll have to look and see how they expanded it in my area stores as that category already had basically an entire aisle along with pop tarts and fruit snacks. I am already seeing the snack bars piling up at Grocery Outlet too. They have 15 feet of them.
The other weird thing I am seeing is Target's shelves are a sloppy mess. For instance Friskies Cat Food- in the latest remodel here- they have some flavors with 5 rows, some flavors with 3 rows, some flavors with 2 rows, etc. I get why they are doing it (the higher selling flavors get more rows) but it just looks sloppy. It also seems inefficient.
By backroom simplification I mean it is supposed to be simplified for the handling of backstock from the sales floor. It isn't like it was before. But all of that other complexity you describe to bring in the e-commerce services has created what seems to be chaos.
I've done many Target.com orders and the closest fulfillment I've ever had is Sacramento. I've had fulfillments from all over the country.
