Target 2021

Predicting the demise of Sears & Kmart since 2017!
storewanderer
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Re: Target 2021

Post by storewanderer »

Target in Reno (there is only one Target) is not a well run store and hasn't been run very well for quite some time. However my last visit the general merchandise shelves looked pretty full. Most of 2020 the shelves were in awful shape in the home, baby, toy, and storage categories. Of course food and consumables has always been an area Target struggles to keep stocked and that is just how it is and has been for years now.

The best thing about Reno Target is the store is such a huge mess, when they do seasonal clearance to 90% off, you can just go around the store and find numerous actually worth buying misplaced products that will scan at 90% off.
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Re: Target 2021

Post by HCal »

babs wrote: April 25th, 2021, 6:19 pm

Pizza Hut at Target isn't a franchise agreement. It's just a license agreement. Ditto with Starbucks. In every other case I am aware of, the store leases space to a franchisee and just collects rent. This is what Walmart does with McDonald's, Subway, and everyone else.
As far as I know, that's still a franchise agreement. The franchisee can either be the retailer itself or a third party. I don't think McDonald's or Subway would license anyone to use their trademark without a franchise agreement to ensure they use it properly.
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Re: Target 2021

Post by buckguy »

At least in the beginning, the Starbucks relationship was a contract, with Target doing the operations and paying Starbucks a royalty. I would guess that Pizza Hut is the same. They don't seem to be closing all of them (the Pizza Huts) but the one closest to me is gone. The store is doing a front end remodel and the space will be used for something else (probably pick-up). Although it's one of the highest volume Target in the chain, the Hut never did much business. The Starbucks nearby has always been more popular.
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Re: Target 2021

Post by storewanderer »

The Starbucks are a licensee arrangement in all cases with Target and most of these grocers. Maybe all of the grocers at this point in time.

I still notice Target sort of promoting the Pizza Hut from time to time with promotions and Target Circle offers. I don't think it sells much, but someone seems to want it to stay for some reason.
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Re: Target 2021

Post by ClownLoach »

Has anyone been into a Vegas area Target lately? The two stores I visited a few months ago had been upgraded to full RFID test systems. The store had large antenna devices from Zebra hanging from the ceiling about every twenty feet. They look almost like a giant projector or speaker, the device is at least 30 inches square. There are antennas that are sloped like a hammock that hang over every doorway, including entrance, exit, Stockroom, hallways and fitting rooms. I haven't seen how the store uses this yet but this is the level of RFID surveillance of the store that if every item was tagged would allow for near exact "GPS" like location of any item of merchandise. It could in theory identify and count for theft daily. All product on hand counts could be happening constantly through the day. Has anyone seen these devices in use anywhere else?

I know Target has used hand held RFID scanners in apparel for a few years where they can just "wave" the device around the clothing racks for cycle counts, but I haven't seen anything on this level anywhere in retail.
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Re: Target 2021

Post by storewanderer »

Given Target has its data center for forensics there in Las Vegas, this makes sense. This could be a great way to track stolen product.

Target comes out and promises some slanted and biased special interest group they won't or don't use facial recognition technology in their stores.

Okay, facial recognition is very yesterday compared to this. Now they won't even need to screw around playing hunt and peck through the security camera logs to see when the same shoplifter is at store A today and then at store B in a week and at store C in a few weeks. Now they can just cycle count the high theft items, turn on the RFID logging device, and know exactly where the item has walked off to and when it walked off. And then they can go straight to the camera number and location where the item is defined by the RFID log as stolen. Which will in turn lead them right to the person who did the shoplifting. It will be easier than ever to build cases, quickly, and potentially recover stolen merchandise.

However I would think the shoplifters will determine a way to kill (or displace) the RFID logging devices. Probably depends when and where the kill or displace happens, how useful the RFID logs may be.
Last edited by storewanderer on August 22nd, 2021, 11:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Target 2021

Post by ClownLoach »

storewanderer wrote: August 22nd, 2021, 11:18 pm Given Target has its data center for forensics there in Las Vegas, this makes sense. This could be a great way to track stolen product.

Target comes out and promises some slanted and biased special interest group they won't or don't use facial recognition technology in their stores.

Okay, facial recognition is very yesterday compared to this. Now they won't even need to screw around using the facial recognition logs to see when the shoplifter is at store A today and then at store B in a week and at store C in a few weeks. Now they can just cycle count the high theft items, turn on the RFID logging device, and know exactly where the item has walked off to and when it walked off. Which will in turn lead them right to the person who was otherwise getting watched via the facial recognition.

However I would think the shoplifters will determine a way to kill (or displace) the RFID logging devices. Probably depends when and where the kill or displace happens, how useful the RFID logs may be.
I probably should have mentioned that these are some of the nicest stores in that market - AND are clearly lower volume boxes. Blue Diamond Rd. and one far, far out west on Silverado I believe. These are both stores so low volume they had combined the Guest Service counters with Checkout lanes 1-3 prior to the rollout of online pickups. Then they had to move them back. (the Guest Service areas became strange little seasonal shops, where the largest signage told you there's more at the back corner of the store).

I do not believe these are for loss prevention purposes. This is for inventory cycle counting and management. By having this technology in theory the constant scanning of out of stocks is no longer needed as the store becomes self counting. I think it is for labor savings so they can repurpose store payroll into other parts of the business. These stores were both very slow, and very large buildings that were behind the curve on remodels and updates as well, they STILL had the blue/green/yellow/red neon until just a few years ago. The Zebra antennas are placed in a strange grid creating isosceles triangles across the ceiling. If they didn't have the typical Target drop ceilings you probably wouldn't notice them.

But having a RFID tag embedded in each item opens a world of possibilities including for LP purposes. I do not believe the concept of RFID would work well on a high shrink environment, I'm pretty sure these two stores are super low shrink despite being in Vegas.

I didn't know they have a LP office there. My understanding was that the entire Division Asset Protection team is based out of Fullerton. The store at Harbor and Orangethorpe that is a single story sales floor but is in a former multi story Montgomery Ward - the entire upstairs is the divisional investigation team. All the video feeds go there and they can investigate internal theft, external case building etc., then they support the agents in the field at the stores.
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Re: Target 2021

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ClownLoach wrote: August 22nd, 2021, 11:26 pm I probably should have mentioned that these are some of the nicest stores in that market - AND are clearly lower volume boxes. Blue Diamond Rd. and one far, far out west on Silverado I believe. These are both stores so low volume they had combined the Guest Service counters with Checkout lanes 1-3 prior to the rollout of online pickups. Then they had to move them back. (the Guest Service areas became strange little seasonal shops, where the largest signage told you there's more at the back corner of the store).

I do not believe these are for loss prevention purposes. This is for inventory cycle counting and management. By having this technology in theory the constant scanning of out of stocks is no longer needed as the store becomes self counting. I think it is for labor savings so they can repurpose store payroll into other parts of the business. These stores were both very slow, and very large buildings that were behind the curve on remodels and updates as well, they STILL had the blue/green/yellow/red neon until just a few years ago. The Zebra antennas are placed in a strange grid creating isosceles triangles across the ceiling. If they didn't have the typical Target drop ceilings you probably wouldn't notice them.

But having a RFID tag embedded in each item opens a world of possibilities including for LP purposes. I do not believe the concept of RFID would work well on a high shrink environment, I'm pretty sure these two stores are super low shrink despite being in Vegas.

I didn't know they have a LP office there. My understanding was that the entire Division Asset Protection team is based out of Fullerton. The store at Harbor and Orangethorpe that is a single story sales floor but is in a former multi story Montgomery Ward - the entire upstairs is the divisional investigation team. All the video feeds go there and they can investigate internal theft, external case building etc., then they support the agents in the field at the stores.
They have a forensics lab in Las Vegas (another back in MN). It is used to help with organized retail crime among many other things. Loss prevention is perhaps not its main function but certainly a companion function. They also provide services to various third parties. And by that I do mean provide. They do not bill when assisting law enforcement even for work that has nothing to do with Target.
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Re: Target 2021

Post by ClownLoach »

storewanderer wrote: August 22nd, 2021, 11:49 pm
ClownLoach wrote: August 22nd, 2021, 11:26 pm I probably should have mentioned that these are some of the nicest stores in that market - AND are clearly lower volume boxes. Blue Diamond Rd. and one far, far out west on Silverado I believe. These are both stores so low volume they had combined the Guest Service counters with Checkout lanes 1-3 prior to the rollout of online pickups. Then they had to move them back. (the Guest Service areas became strange little seasonal shops, where the largest signage told you there's more at the back corner of the store).

I do not believe these are for loss prevention purposes. This is for inventory cycle counting and management. By having this technology in theory the constant scanning of out of stocks is no longer needed as the store becomes self counting. I think it is for labor savings so they can repurpose store payroll into other parts of the business. These stores were both very slow, and very large buildings that were behind the curve on remodels and updates as well, they STILL had the blue/green/yellow/red neon until just a few years ago. The Zebra antennas are placed in a strange grid creating isosceles triangles across the ceiling. If they didn't have the typical Target drop ceilings you probably wouldn't notice them.

But having a RFID tag embedded in each item opens a world of possibilities including for LP purposes. I do not believe the concept of RFID would work well on a high shrink environment, I'm pretty sure these two stores are super low shrink despite being in Vegas.

I didn't know they have a LP office there. My understanding was that the entire Division Asset Protection team is based out of Fullerton. The store at Harbor and Orangethorpe that is a single story sales floor but is in a former multi story Montgomery Ward - the entire upstairs is the divisional investigation team. All the video feeds go there and they can investigate internal theft, external case building etc., then they support the agents in the field at the stores.
They have a forensics lab in Las Vegas (another back in MN). It is used to help with organized retail crime among many other things. Loss prevention is perhaps not its main function but certainly a companion function. They also provide services to various third parties. And by that I do mean provide. They do not bill when assisting law enforcement even for work that has nothing to do with Target.
Their loss prevention folks are amazing. They assisted with one of my stores that was next door to theirs. They were building a case against a ORC team that was hitting everyone in the shopping center. The successful arrest (in California I might add with the current laws) happened in my store. All it takes is one of these guys to take tens of thousands of dollars per store, a few pieces at a time. At the time of the arrest they only had about $300 worth of our product in a bag but Target LP folks had been waiting for this bust, worked with our LP, and their LP manager was able to present a huge case including a thumb drive full of video and a detailed report of losses covered in those videos to the Sheriff Deputies in our office to ensure the case stuck. I might add that the ORC leader had been spooked by the Target LP and left their store empty handed, but they saw them walk next door to us and they were not going to let them get away this time. We learned they stole from only four departments in our store - shrink dropped dramatically across those 4 departments on the next inventory and has not gone back up after. It showed us this one guy and his crew were responsible for a third of our annual shrink.

Target is doing what the police won't do - they're taking these professional shoplifters off the streets which helps everyone in retail. And they are doing it without destroying their customer experience. Was looking at Yelp reviews for a 2 star rated Walmart supercenter - half the recent reviews are that the customer gave up after waiting 20 to 30 minutes for someone to unlock glass cases containing basic products. The reviews said that all camping gear, men's underwear, and other products were completely locked up in that store. I was at a CVS in the nice part of East Long Beach recently and they had glass cases for shampoo and body wash! The cashier was clearly motivated by her manager to beg me to take their survey. I blasted them and said that clearly if this store is in such a high theft area that a bottle of CVS brand body wash for $3.99 needs to be locked up - then clearly it isn't a safe environment for customers to shop in without guards, etc. and maybe should just be drive thru only like the original Walgreens were in SoCal.

There seem to be two schools right now - loss prevention (which Target has mastered), and sales prevention (Walmart, CVS and others). The sales prevention guys might as well be buying Amazon stock because they're driving their sales at their own expense.
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Re: Target 2021

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ClownLoach wrote: August 23rd, 2021, 11:21 am Their loss prevention folks are amazing. They assisted with one of my stores that was next door to theirs. They were building a case against a ORC team that was hitting everyone in the shopping center. The successful arrest (in California I might add with the current laws) happened in my store. All it takes is one of these guys to take tens of thousands of dollars per store, a few pieces at a time. At the time of the arrest they only had about $300 worth of our product in a bag but Target LP folks had been waiting for this bust, worked with our LP, and their LP manager was able to present a huge case including a thumb drive full of video and a detailed report of losses covered in those videos to the Sheriff Deputies in our office to ensure the case stuck. I might add that the ORC leader had been spooked by the Target LP and left their store empty handed, but they saw them walk next door to us and they were not going to let them get away this time. We learned they stole from only four departments in our store - shrink dropped dramatically across those 4 departments on the next inventory and has not gone back up after. It showed us this one guy and his crew were responsible for a third of our annual shrink.

Target is doing what the police won't do - they're taking these professional shoplifters off the streets which helps everyone in retail. And they are doing it without destroying their customer experience. Was looking at Yelp reviews for a 2 star rated Walmart supercenter - half the recent reviews are that the customer gave up after waiting 20 to 30 minutes for someone to unlock glass cases containing basic products. The reviews said that all camping gear, men's underwear, and other products were completely locked up in that store. I was at a CVS in the nice part of East Long Beach recently and they had glass cases for shampoo and body wash! The cashier was clearly motivated by her manager to beg me to take their survey. I blasted them and said that clearly if this store is in such a high theft area that a bottle of CVS brand body wash for $3.99 needs to be locked up - then clearly it isn't a safe environment for customers to shop in without guards, etc. and maybe should just be drive thru only like the original Walgreens were in SoCal.

There seem to be two schools right now - loss prevention (which Target has mastered), and sales prevention (Walmart, CVS and others). The sales prevention guys might as well be buying Amazon stock because they're driving their sales at their own expense.
By far the most effective loss prevention group and program in national retail is at Target. What surprises me is these ORC groups continue to hit their stores. Almost like it is a challenge for them. Any facial covering requirement was/is great for ORC- made it so it was tougher to identify them. But can still use eyes and other facial features.

CVS actually preaches that most theft is internal and yet there is zero accountability of what is in those merchandise totes that come from the warehouse to the store. Definitely a different mindset... I used to see loss prevention walking around a couple of the Wal Marts in my area in the evening, it was pretty obvious who they were. I haven't seen them in months. Maybe they have been replaced with better decoys.
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