Re: Target Paid Membership Program?
Posted: March 6th, 2024, 6:23 pm
I got a completely unenthusiastic robotic "do you have a red card" out of a Target cashier this week. That was all she said to me; no smile, barely even looked up at me. Also took like 10 seconds just sort of staring down then over toward the wall after scanning my items, to total it out and activate the pinpad. Same treatment for the customers in front of me and behind me. This is the type of interaction where I say- just let me do self checkout. Terrible interaction. I feel the same way after most fast food counter ordering experiences.ClownLoach wrote: ↑March 6th, 2024, 1:03 pmSo I am one that prefers self checkout too for all the reasons given. Having said that, Target hasn't offered me a RedCard application in years. And it isn't like I give it away easily that I already have one. Target has completely let all standards go away when it comes to their front end operations. There is zero supervision, a total lack of even basic "Hello" and "Thank you" most of the time, visible clutter and mess at the cashier stations, and if I am buying more than 10 items I catch them making a mistake (usually double scan or scanning wrong item twice) because of poor training. They love to try to rearrange items and scan multiples instead of simple scan and bag one at a time which of course is the best way to prevent errors. My understanding is that their current HR practices do not hold them accountable for results, but behavior instead. So as long as they ask if the supervisor is standing next to them watching then they will never get fired even if not a single customer applies for a RedCard. To fire them or write them up "observed behaviors" are required. And of course as discussed most of the cashiers were never on their assigned register in the first place because the lazy managers pull them to the floor where they work with zero sense of urgency because they aren't accountable for anything they do out there. My understanding is that they had also suspended their attendance policies during COVID and were no longer holding anyone accountable for arriving to work on time, not calling out excessively etc.storewanderer wrote: ↑March 5th, 2024, 7:11 pmI see this type of thing all the time in stores. This tells you that many customers DO NOT want to go to a regular cashier. They probably don't want to deal with the superficial interaction, the hard sell for a "red card," not being able to see prices as they scan, etc.ClownLoach wrote: ↑March 5th, 2024, 4:38 pm
Unbelievable. I didn't want to say anything but I saw the exact same scenario in Menifee. SuperTarget store, had the large west bank of self checkouts closed but the small east bank open. Multiple machines out of order. A dozen full service checkouts with several lanes open no waiting. And a long queue of people waiting for the few working self checkouts. Makes me wonder why... Obviously they don't value their time, but also wonder if at least some of them were there deliberately hoping to pull off some kind of scam like ticket swapping, stolen credit card use, fake scanning theft etc. I can't imagine that everyone had some kind of embarrassing personal care items or whatever else that they didn't want to present to a cashier, especially considering there was a employee hovering around the few working self checkouts who would see such items anyway (I've heard this is a popular reason for self checkout use). A employee was telling customers there was no waiting on the full service lanes and most of these people still would not move. Bizarre.
The self checkout there also has a new corporate made sign that says "Express Self Checkout - 10 Items or Less." The closed bank said "Express Self Checkout is Closed - Full Service Lanes Open to Assist You". And unlike the past they were careful to log out all of these self checkouts so nobody could sneak around and use them unsupervised.
https://www.retaildive.com/news/rfid-te ... ry/707312/
It sounds like the forcing the managers not to pull cashiers off the register rule is the beginning of bringing back accountability to Target. They used to be the best "people managers" in retail but this CEO has broken that culture. Supposedly he did the same in his previous companies.