Target Rolls 10 item "Express Self Checkout" Nationwide

[storewanderer]

Sparks Target- no signs about 10 items or less anywhere at their self checkout. All self checkouts open. Two regular registers (of just 6) open.

What is funny is how Target's move to "limit self checkout" (which is a joke since various locations of Target haven't changed anything) seems to have gotten Dollar General to move toward disabling self checkout entirely and has gotten Wal Mart to basically break the front end in some of its stores by making weird self checkout decisions like only opening 4 lanes total of 24+ self checkouts, etc.

I think it has both sparked overreaction from Walmart, and has also further demonstrated how poor execution has become at Target due to a total lack of organizational accountability. There appear to be no incentives to following orders at Target which is why you see widening gaps between their best and worst stores, and company initiatives completely ignored. Target was the model of consistency and has done a complete 180. I'm surprised at this point that the stores even open and close on time.

Well the Carson City Target was basically trying to close self checkout almost entirely. They'd open them a few hours a day but during that time have some kind of manager stand out at the front of it basically gatekeeping the units and pretty much letting almost nobody use them. Due to customer complaints which may or may not have included photos of a long checkout line and idle/closed self checkouts, the regional management ordered them to keep it open during additional hours, but this store still has 10 items signs posted and that management employee claims the machine will lock up if you scan more than 10 items- and THAT is a lie, I tested it at that store.

[ClownLoach]

Sparks Target- no signs about 10 items or less anywhere at their self checkout. All self checkouts open. Two regular registers (of just 6) open.

What is funny is how Target's move to "limit self checkout" (which is a joke since various locations of Target haven't changed anything) seems to have gotten Dollar General to move toward disabling self checkout entirely and has gotten Wal Mart to basically break the front end in some of its stores by making weird self checkout decisions like only opening 4 lanes total of 24+ self checkouts, etc.

I think it has both sparked overreaction from Walmart, and has also further demonstrated how poor execution has become at Target due to a total lack of organizational accountability. There appear to be no incentives to following orders at Target which is why you see widening gaps between their best and worst stores, and company initiatives completely ignored. Target was the model of consistency and has done a complete 180. I'm surprised at this point that the stores even open and close on time.

Well the Carson City Target was basically trying to close self checkout almost entirely. They'd open them a few hours a day but during that time have some kind of manager stand out at the front of it basically gatekeeping the units and pretty much letting almost nobody use them. Due to customer complaints which may or may not have included photos of a long checkout line and idle/closed self checkouts, the regional management ordered them to keep it open during additional hours, but this store still has 10 items signs posted and that management employee claims the machine will lock up if you scan more than 10 items- and THAT is a lie, I tested it at that store.

Inconsistent execution is bad execution.

Someone needs to remind this CEO at Target the old retail saying that you're only as good as your worst store.

The culture at Target is bad, bad, bad under Cornell and he needs to go away. No discipline, managers making up their own policies, lax standards, wild variations in execution from store to store.

It seems that the office is trying to get some good new programs into these stores, the improvements observed in some of the stores with full grocery, some of the new home product is greatly improved quality and the price is the same, removing the obnoxious hurdle of having to manually add all these app only sales. But the stores for some reason now lack the direction, planning, follow up, accountability, etc. to run the programs and operate at a high level. They seem to pick and choose what programs they wish to follow. Leadership is apparently about walking around and taking group photos and having long meetings in the office. I haven't stumbled upon a District Manager or other corporate visitor actually walking a Target sales floor in years, but I have seen walks occurring in multiple Walmart stores just in the last few months. They need to fix this culture quick. I have heard retailers define culture as "How We Get Things Done" and although that is a bad definition, Target does not "get things done" at all currently, which is the worst possible culture a company can have.

Target used to have "best practices" and "policies" but somewhere along the line they blurred the line between the two. A "best practice" was the ideal way to get things done and the ideal standard to strive to achieve whenever possible, or "doing your best." That means it wasn't always perfect but everyone would be aware of the expectations and working to improve if they weren't hitting the mark.

A policy was a direction that gets followed everyday by everyone and choosing not to follow it is choosing to be fired. I don't see keeping the self checkout open as a best practice but rather a policy matter, it should not be open to debate or discussion especially if you know the Regional gave the order reestablishing the policy. The fact that anyone even thinks they can't or shouldn't follow this proves the entire breakdown of the company culture. Apparently nobody cares about best practices, and policies are now thought of as gray areas instead of the letter of the law within the company. I wonder how other parts of the Target policies are being enforced (or not)? Do they still enforce the safety policies? Security? I hope so for the sake of employees and customers but I fear those areas are neglected too now... They had a fabulous safety culture before but now I see signs of that going by the wayside too.

The COO is gone and replaced, so in theory execution should be improving but I think the culture problems are so widespread at Target that Cornell should step down along with much of the regional leadership. When they arrived the store culture was the best in retail, but the corporate office was making poor decisions like Canada and inept data security. They shored up the office but then made poor decisions in recent years (like the pride fiasco). But right now the hallmark of their leadership is the destruction of the culture of excellence, and that in my opinion undermines all the other good work they've done to grow sales and profits because they put those results at serious risk.

[storewanderer]

Inconsistent execution is bad execution.

Someone needs to remind this CEO at Target the old retail saying that you're only as good as your worst store.

The culture at Target is bad, bad, bad under Cornell and he needs to go away. No discipline, managers making up their own policies, lax standards, wild variations in execution from store to store.

It seems that the office is trying to get some good new programs into these stores, the improvements observed in some of the stores with full grocery, some of the new home product is greatly improved quality and the price is the same, removing the obnoxious hurdle of having to manually add all these app only sales. But the stores for some reason now lack the direction, planning, follow up, accountability, etc. to run the programs and operate at a high level. They seem to pick and choose what programs they wish to follow. Leadership is apparently about walking around and taking group photos and having long meetings in the office. I haven't stumbled upon a District Manager or other corporate visitor actually walking a Target sales floor in years, but I have seen walks occurring in multiple Walmart stores just in the last few months. They need to fix this culture quick. I have heard retailers define culture as "How We Get Things Done" and although that is a bad definition, Target does not "get things done" at all currently, which is the worst possible culture a company can have.

Target used to have "best practices" and "policies" but somewhere along the line they blurred the line between the two. A "best practice" was the ideal way to get things done and the ideal standard to strive to achieve whenever possible, or "doing your best." That means it wasn't always perfect but everyone would be aware of the expectations and working to improve if they weren't hitting the mark.

A policy was a direction that gets followed everyday by everyone and choosing not to follow it is choosing to be fired. I don't see keeping the self checkout open as a best practice but rather a policy matter, it should not be open to debate or discussion especially if you know the Regional gave the order reestablishing the policy. The fact that anyone even thinks they can't or shouldn't follow this proves the entire breakdown of the company culture. Apparently nobody cares about best practices, and policies are now thought of as gray areas instead of the letter of the law within the company. I wonder how other parts of the Target policies are being enforced (or not)? Do they still enforce the safety policies? Security? I hope so for the sake of employees and customers but I fear those areas are neglected too now... They had a fabulous safety culture before but now I see signs of that going by the wayside too.

The COO is gone and replaced, so in theory execution should be improving but I think the culture problems are so widespread at Target that Cornell should step down along with much of the regional leadership. When they arrived the store culture was the best in retail, but the corporate office was making poor decisions like Canada and inept data security. They shored up the office but then made poor decisions in recent years (like the pride fiasco). But right now the hallmark of their leadership is the destruction of the culture of excellence, and that in my opinion undermines all the other good work they've done to grow sales and profits because they put those results at serious risk.

Yeah there is a culture thing at Target where the "leadership" finds it very productive to do a bunch of group photos and other stuff that looks more like what you'd expect in a high school than in a retail store. This was the culture that completely killed the Reno Target and despite a manager change where all of that formally stopped (management was no longer walking around taking the photos and posting them to social media...) the store stayed broken because the people who "worked" there thought it was a place to go hang out/talk and not actually.. work. It seems to have taken a new regional manager to really push the store to execute better and it has gotten better the past couple months but there are still times where the employees revert back to not working.

Target has gotten out of the "get things done" culture by how and who it tried to market to. It lost discipline because it tried to cater to a "free spirit" type of customer. That works fine until it doesn't. At some point there has to be accountability.

Wal Mart seems to have constant management walks occurring with market management in the stores on a daily basis. The problem is when they have broken stores they seem to have some trouble trying to fix them efficiently. Generally speaking the people working in Wal Mart in the lower positions like stocking, cashier, etc. are much more efficient and professional than the Target employees that I deal with. Target has some good ones but it seems like they have a lot more who just do not care or have any sense of urgency and also have lousy attitudes. When Wal Mart increased its starting wage there was a VERY NOTICEABLE improvement in their quality of employee and attitude of employee of the front line employee- the cashier, the stocker, the greeter, the refund desk employee... Target's wage increase seems like it caused a very noticeable DECREASE in quality and attitude of the front line employee (no clue how that happens- the employees seem to have an entitled attitude).

I think the regional leadership is the root cause of the problem, not Cornell. The problem is Cornell allowed this to happen and did not get control over regional leadership. So this seems to imply a lot of changes need to be made at a lot of levels. But when you look at their stores- who do they promote to move up to regional/corporate? Do they do outside hires? Do they start hiring Wal Mart people (assuming they'd leave... good luck with that...). The Pride Month fiasco is an example of how upper management is not managing things properly at this company, it is like they don't know what is going on. They are counting on the lower levels to "connect" to the free spirit customer and if it works it works but when it doesn't work it is very destructive.

[ClownLoach]

Inconsistent execution is bad execution.

Someone needs to remind this CEO at Target the old retail saying that you're only as good as your worst store.

The culture at Target is bad, bad, bad under Cornell and he needs to go away. No discipline, managers making up their own policies, lax standards, wild variations in execution from store to store.

It seems that the office is trying to get some good new programs into these stores, the improvements observed in some of the stores with full grocery, some of the new home product is greatly improved quality and the price is the same, removing the obnoxious hurdle of having to manually add all these app only sales. But the stores for some reason now lack the direction, planning, follow up, accountability, etc. to run the programs and operate at a high level. They seem to pick and choose what programs they wish to follow. Leadership is apparently about walking around and taking group photos and having long meetings in the office. I haven't stumbled upon a District Manager or other corporate visitor actually walking a Target sales floor in years, but I have seen walks occurring in multiple Walmart stores just in the last few months. They need to fix this culture quick. I have heard retailers define culture as "How We Get Things Done" and although that is a bad definition, Target does not "get things done" at all currently, which is the worst possible culture a company can have.

Target used to have "best practices" and "policies" but somewhere along the line they blurred the line between the two. A "best practice" was the ideal way to get things done and the ideal standard to strive to achieve whenever possible, or "doing your best." That means it wasn't always perfect but everyone would be aware of the expectations and working to improve if they weren't hitting the mark.

A policy was a direction that gets followed everyday by everyone and choosing not to follow it is choosing to be fired. I don't see keeping the self checkout open as a best practice but rather a policy matter, it should not be open to debate or discussion especially if you know the Regional gave the order reestablishing the policy. The fact that anyone even thinks they can't or shouldn't follow this proves the entire breakdown of the company culture. Apparently nobody cares about best practices, and policies are now thought of as gray areas instead of the letter of the law within the company. I wonder how other parts of the Target policies are being enforced (or not)? Do they still enforce the safety policies? Security? I hope so for the sake of employees and customers but I fear those areas are neglected too now... They had a fabulous safety culture before but now I see signs of that going by the wayside too.

The COO is gone and replaced, so in theory execution should be improving but I think the culture problems are so widespread at Target that Cornell should step down along with much of the regional leadership. When they arrived the store culture was the best in retail, but the corporate office was making poor decisions like Canada and inept data security. They shored up the office but then made poor decisions in recent years (like the pride fiasco). But right now the hallmark of their leadership is the destruction of the culture of excellence, and that in my opinion undermines all the other good work they've done to grow sales and profits because they put those results at serious risk.

Yeah there is a culture thing at Target where the "leadership" finds it very productive to do a bunch of group photos and other stuff that looks more like what you'd expect in a high school than in a retail store. This was the culture that completely killed the Reno Target and despite a manager change where all of that formally stopped (management was no longer walking around taking the photos and posting them to social media...) the store stayed broken because the people who "worked" there thought it was a place to go hang out/talk and not actually.. work. It seems to have taken a new regional manager to really push the store to execute better and it has gotten better the past couple months but there are still times where the employees revert back to not working.

Target has gotten out of the "get things done" culture by how and who it tried to market to. It lost discipline because it tried to cater to a "free spirit" type of customer. That works fine until it doesn't. At some point there has to be accountability.

Wal Mart seems to have constant management walks occurring with market management in the stores on a daily basis. The problem is when they have broken stores they seem to have some trouble trying to fix them efficiently. Generally speaking the people working in Wal Mart in the lower positions like stocking, cashier, etc. are much more efficient and professional than the Target employees that I deal with. Target has some good ones but it seems like they have a lot more who just do not care or have any sense of urgency and also have lousy attitudes. When Wal Mart increased its starting wage there was a VERY NOTICEABLE improvement in their quality of employee and attitude of employee of the front line employee- the cashier, the stocker, the greeter, the refund desk employee... Target's wage increase seems like it caused a very noticeable DECREASE in quality and attitude of the front line employee (no clue how that happens- the employees seem to have an entitled attitude).

I think the regional leadership is the root cause of the problem, not Cornell. The problem is Cornell allowed this to happen and did not get control over regional leadership. So this seems to imply a lot of changes need to be made at a lot of levels. But when you look at their stores- who do they promote to move up to regional/corporate? Do they do outside hires? Do they start hiring Wal Mart people (assuming they'd leave... good luck with that...). The Pride Month fiasco is an example of how upper management is not managing things properly at this company, it is like they don't know what is going on. They are counting on the lower levels to "connect" to the free spirit customer and if it works it works but when it doesn't work it is very destructive.

My understanding is that Cornell was trying to make similar cultural and structural changes when he ran Michaels prior to Target, and he was dismissed because his ideas would have bankrupted the company. He ordered up new prototypes that cost a fortune and were impossible to operate on their payroll model. After he was dismissed they had to fully remodel all his luxurious prototype stores right back to the previous format. They replaced him with a Walmart person as their next CEO and he turned the entire company around and prepared them for a successful IPO. They would have gone out of business if Cornell was able to complete his work, but the corporate office pushed back.

I agree the quality of the Walmart employees did a 180.

[storewanderer]

My understanding is that Cornell was trying to make similar cultural and structural changes when he ran Michaels prior to Target, and he was dismissed because his ideas would have bankrupted the company. He ordered up new prototypes that cost a fortune and were impossible to operate on their payroll model. After he was dismissed they had to fully remodel all his luxurious prototype stores right back to the previous format. They replaced him with a Walmart person as their next CEO and he turned the entire company around and prepared them for a successful IPO. They would have gone out of business if Cornell was able to complete his work, but the corporate office pushed back.

I agree the quality of the Walmart employees did a 180.

I don't know what the prototype Target remodel is. I have 3 "remodeled Targets" around me and one is hardly remodeled at all, one was heavily rearranged but kept a lot of old flooring/shelves, and the other which is the newest building got a top to bottom remodel throwing in a cement floor but keeping a lot of old shelves. I've seen some much more extensively remodeled stores out of town. The first two of the "remodels" remind me a lot of Big Kmart remodels... a lot of rearranging/moving around and a lot of paint but no new flooring and not enough new shelves... but Target was working with much nicer facilities to begin with so maybe they can get away with these cheap "remodels" that don't change floors/shelves.

I am really impressed by the improvement in the quality of the Wal Mart employees. I see it everywhere I go. It keeps getting better and better. They could be more efficient but attitude and professionalism is so much better than it once was. At locations I visit frequently I notice far less employee turnover than before and the employees seem better trained than ever before. I think having a higher starting wage than most retailers is helping them significantly. But Target also has that higher starting wage and I do not know what the deal there is..

[ClownLoach]

My understanding is that Cornell was trying to make similar cultural and structural changes when he ran Michaels prior to Target, and he was dismissed because his ideas would have bankrupted the company. He ordered up new prototypes that cost a fortune and were impossible to operate on their payroll model. After he was dismissed they had to fully remodel all his luxurious prototype stores right back to the previous format. They replaced him with a Walmart person as their next CEO and he turned the entire company around and prepared them for a successful IPO. They would have gone out of business if Cornell was able to complete his work, but the corporate office pushed back.

I agree the quality of the Walmart employees did a 180.

I don't know what the prototype Target remodel is. I have 3 "remodeled Targets" around me and one is hardly remodeled at all, one was heavily rearranged but kept a lot of old flooring/shelves, and the other which is the newest building got a top to bottom remodel throwing in a cement floor but keeping a lot of old shelves. I've seen some much more extensively remodeled stores out of town. The first two of the "remodels" remind me a lot of Big Kmart remodels... a lot of rearranging/moving around and a lot of paint but no new flooring and not enough new shelves... but Target was working with much nicer facilities to begin with so maybe they can get away with these cheap "remodels" that don't change floors/shelves.

I am really impressed by the improvement in the quality of the Wal Mart employees. I see it everywhere I go. It keeps getting better and better. They could be more efficient but attitude and professionalism is so much better than it once was. At locations I visit frequently I notice far less employee turnover than before and the employees seem better trained than ever before. I think having a higher starting wage than most retailers is helping them significantly. But Target also has that higher starting wage and I do not know what the deal there is..

I was referring to when Cornell was CEO of Michaels, where he had very luxurious prototypes built that resembles a Barnes and Noble/Toys R Us type store with custom fixtures everywhere, lower gondolas like CVS, fancy signage and screens everywhere. They went in during 2008, and by end of 2009 they had to throw away every bit of it after he was sent packing. He also made personnel and cultural changes that had to be revoked after his departure. He nearly bankrupted that company. The problems he had there have come to Target. This is why I say he is definitely part of the problem.

Walmart has upgraded employee quality but also established pride in the workplace. Target has tried too hard to make a relaxed atmosphere of no accountability. That explains the difference.

[storewanderer]

I was referring to when Cornell was CEO of Michaels, where he had very luxurious prototypes built that resembles a Barnes and Noble/Toys R Us type store with custom fixtures everywhere, lower gondolas like CVS, fancy signage and screens everywhere. They went in during 2008, and by end of 2009 they had to throw away every bit of it after he was sent packing. He also made personnel and cultural changes that had to be revoked after his departure. He nearly bankrupted that company. The problems he had there have come to Target. This is why I say he is definitely part of the problem.

Walmart has upgraded employee quality but also established pride in the workplace. Target has tried too hard to make a relaxed atmosphere of no accountability. That explains the difference.

I never saw that prototype. Did they cut SKUs? Was it just too high cost to operate?

[ClownLoach]

I was referring to when Cornell was CEO of Michaels, where he had very luxurious prototypes built that resembles a Barnes and Noble/Toys R Us type store with custom fixtures everywhere, lower gondolas like CVS, fancy signage and screens everywhere. They went in during 2008, and by end of 2009 they had to throw away every bit of it after he was sent packing. He also made personnel and cultural changes that had to be revoked after his departure. He nearly bankrupted that company. The problems he had there have come to Target. This is why I say he is definitely part of the problem.

Walmart has upgraded employee quality but also established pride in the workplace. Target has tried too hard to make a relaxed atmosphere of no accountability. That explains the difference.

I never saw that prototype. Did they cut SKUs? Was it just too high cost to operate?

It's almost impossible to find pictures. They actually added SKUs and put the over stock all on walls in hidden cabinets only accessible by scissor lift or ladder. Luxury custom light fixtures, kiosks, furniture, mobiles and fancy signage. It was an unmitigated disaster. I knew some finance people there and it was a mutiny, he was going to convert the entire chain even though they couldn't operate the new store format for less than double the labor.

I forgot that they basically traded execs with Walmart to get rid of him and Cornell became CEO of Sam's Club, running that into the ground as well and laying the groundwork for years of store closures until they finally got the new leadership in place that finally returned to growth in 2019 and beyond. Michaels got a Walmart guy in 2009 who undid every last change Cornell made and turned the company from brink of bankruptcy to prepped for a successful IPO, then the Ulta CEO ran it from there.

I just bring it up because Cornell has a rather suspect retail job history and things seem to start falling apart under his programs. Sam's Club easily could have completely closed in his aftermath. The only reason he looked successful at Target is because he took over in a massive crisis and frankly anyone who could get a decent result from the data breach and Canada crisis would look like a superhero whether they were actually competent or not. It's going to take years to correct the inconsistent execution and very bad culture that has developed. I can already see lost sales and profits all over these stores. Despite the fact that volume has increased substantially, it could be so much more.

https://www.retailcustomerexperience.co ... xperience/

https://web.archive.org/web/20090715014 ... id=194&s=7

[storewanderer]

I was referring to when Cornell was CEO of Michaels, where he had very luxurious prototypes built that resembles a Barnes and Noble/Toys R Us type store with custom fixtures everywhere, lower gondolas like CVS, fancy signage and screens everywhere. They went in during 2008, and by end of 2009 they had to throw away every bit of it after he was sent packing. He also made personnel and cultural changes that had to be revoked after his departure. He nearly bankrupted that company. The problems he had there have come to Target. This is why I say he is definitely part of the problem.

Walmart has upgraded employee quality but also established pride in the workplace. Target has tried too hard to make a relaxed atmosphere of no accountability. That explains the difference.

I never saw that prototype. Did they cut SKUs? Was it just too high cost to operate?

It's almost impossible to find pictures. They actually added SKUs and put the over stock all on walls in hidden cabinets only accessible by scissor lift or ladder. Luxury custom light fixtures, kiosks, furniture, mobiles and fancy signage. It was an unmitigated disaster. I knew some finance people there and it was a mutiny, he was going to convert the entire chain even though they couldn't operate the new store format for less than double the labor.

I forgot that they basically traded execs with Walmart to get rid of him and Cornell became CEO of Sam's Club, running that into the ground as well and laying the groundwork for years of store closures until they finally got the new leadership in place that finally returned to growth in 2019 and beyond. Michaels got a Walmart guy in 2009 who undid every last change Cornell made and turned the company from brink of bankruptcy to prepped for a successful IPO, then the Ulta CEO ran it from there.

I just bring it up because Cornell has a rather suspect retail job history and things seem to start falling apart under his programs. Sam's Club easily could have completely closed in his aftermath. The only reason he looked successful at Target is because he took over in a massive crisis and frankly anyone who could get a decent result from the data breach and Canada crisis would look like a superhero whether they were actually competent or not. It's going to take years to correct the inconsistent execution and very bad culture that has developed. I can already see lost sales and profits all over these stores. Despite the fact that volume has increased substantially, it could be so much more.

https://www.retailcustomerexperience.co ... xperience/

https://web.archive.org/web/20090715014 ... id=194&s=7

This interior... I think the store in Chico may have opened with it... only went in because I was already next door... and I was drawn in by their total and complete lack of effort on the exterior hiding the previous tenant.

[ClownLoach]

I never saw that prototype. Did they cut SKUs? Was it just too high cost to operate?

It's almost impossible to find pictures. They actually added SKUs and put the over stock all on walls in hidden cabinets only accessible by scissor lift or ladder. Luxury custom light fixtures, kiosks, furniture, mobiles and fancy signage. It was an unmitigated disaster. I knew some finance people there and it was a mutiny, he was going to convert the entire chain even though they couldn't operate the new store format for less than double the labor.

I forgot that they basically traded execs with Walmart to get rid of him and Cornell became CEO of Sam's Club, running that into the ground as well and laying the groundwork for years of store closures until they finally got the new leadership in place that finally returned to growth in 2019 and beyond. Michaels got a Walmart guy in 2009 who undid every last change Cornell made and turned the company from brink of bankruptcy to prepped for a successful IPO, then the Ulta CEO ran it from there.

I just bring it up because Cornell has a rather suspect retail job history and things seem to start falling apart under his programs. Sam's Club easily could have completely closed in his aftermath. The only reason he looked successful at Target is because he took over in a massive crisis and frankly anyone who could get a decent result from the data breach and Canada crisis would look like a superhero whether they were actually competent or not. It's going to take years to correct the inconsistent execution and very bad culture that has developed. I can already see lost sales and profits all over these stores. Despite the fact that volume has increased substantially, it could be so much more.

https://www.retailcustomerexperience.co ... xperience/

https://web.archive.org/web/20090715014 ... id=194&s=7

This interior... I think the store in Chico may have opened with it... only went in because I was already next door... and I was drawn in by their total and complete lack of effort on the exterior hiding the previous tenant.

Probably ran out of money gutting the mess inside and couldn't afford to fix the outside. They don't seem to have a "signature" exterior design. They just take what is there.