Target 2022

Predicting the demise of Sears & Kmart since 2017!
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ClownLoach
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Re: Target 2022

Post by ClownLoach »

storewanderer wrote: August 30th, 2022, 10:58 pm Went into the Reno Target tonight. Total disaster. The store was poorly stocked throughout most consumables areas (must have been wiped out by Burning Man, but Burning Man started over the weekend; the local Wal Marts have largely recovered already and WinCo doesn't even look like anything happened).

Then I got over into other odd random areas like drapes, picture frames, entire aisles were nearly empty. No way this stuff got bought up by the Burning Man attendees.

Front end was interesting; it wasn't even 8 PM yet. Only option was self checkout; no regular cashiers open. I saw many employees just standing around talking. I didn't see anyone picking orders and saw one employee attempting to straighten clothing (another absolute disaster area, looked worse than a thrift store). First time I have seen mandatory self checkout at a Target.

Target is circling the drain faster than imaginable.
I wonder how much of this is regional? I had been very critical of Target in recent years but I have seen a tremendous rebound in store condition, merchandising and in stocks in the last six months. The stores do appear to have too much inventory in home decor and electronics so they are aggressively clearance labeled there but the rest of the store is significantly improved. This is primarily Inland Empire in SoCal which used to be one of their worst executed markets and they're outnumbered by Walmart about 2 to 1. Some of the problem areas you've mentioned like drapes are in perfect condition in every Target I've shopped here in the last 90 days, no outs and well recovered even when they were running a 25% off the entire category for a month. (I moved recently and have bought a lot of drapes)

I have long suspected that Target focuses regional management on the major cities with lots of stores and neglects the remote areas. They don't seem to like leaving the urban environment. This might be another reason why they have tried to open so many smaller format urban stores - maybe too many of their regional managers lack experience in staffing and operating stores outside of these areas? It is much more challenging to run stores in a "one store market" where you must have strong leadership that is capable of developing a deep bench within the store for succession planning. In a metro market you can just do the job posting for Team Leader of whatever department and move people from store to store quickly since you have dozens of locations. If a store breaks you can put together an overnight team for a few days and fix it. Not so much in a one store market, and a two or three store market isn't much better. This is where Walmart excels - they aggressively seek managers who will relocate anywhere they're asked to - and they can build a bench within a store to promote from. Hence most one store market Walmart stores are their best run stores - while for Target they are their worst.

They do seem to be testing a solution to the Pfresh/SuperTarget issue in a few SoCal stores. I call it "Pfresh Plus." Long Beach-Bellflower Blvd. was recently expanded and knocked down the walls into the former garden center for a larger grocery section. This is a old store that probably opened in the 80's and does good volume and has been well maintained - it was standard Target size but with this expansion is now probably about 130K Sq ft, a tad smaller than the 150-170K SuperTarget locations. It is more like a Walmart grocery area in a store that didn't have service deli or bakery, and is a larger assortment of foods. It is not as large as the SuperTarget format which they seemed to not be able to keep up with. This is also in place in Redlands which was also recently remodeled and expanded, as well as Camarillo and Temecula. Long Beach, Redlands and Temecula got a second entrance in foods that is actually branded as Target Grocery and the Order Pickup counter moved there along with a few self checkout registers for quick grocery orders; Camarillo maintains the one entrance format and it is furthest from foods. It is definitely a larger assortment of fresh products than the Pfresh which makes it easier to do a complete shopping trip (as long as you didn't want service deli, service bakery or seafood - but Target can't execute any of these categories well anyway so no loss). Instead of one column of aisles there are two columns. This also makes it easier to shop than the SuperTarget format where the aisles are just too long. Redlands is probably the best version of this and leads with produce. I could easily see Target "downsizing" the Super format to this version which doesn't take away as much from the assortment as their locations that were "de-supered" down to Pfresh - and if they maintained the same labor without having to fund losing operations like bakery they might be able to maintain a good standard in the rest of the department and become more competitive with Walmart. If this "Pfresh Plus" format works they could also easily collapse a column of general merch aisles out of conventional Target stores and implement it there as well to gain more food sales.
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Re: Target 2022

Post by storewanderer »

So your stores don't look like this?

This Reno Store has been looking like this for a year or so. Nobody cares. Nothing ever changes.

Also is mandatory self checkout now a Target thing too? I guess it can't be in CA due to the liquor rules...

This is how Reno looks. And I ignored the consumables areas which were in worse shape due to the Burning Man volume they had a few days prior. This is pathetic. This is on a level of bad Kmart bad.

The Wal Marts are a huge mess of unstocked pallets and not easy to shop, but the shelves are stocked a lot more fully than this...
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Re: Target 2022

Post by ClownLoach »

storewanderer wrote: August 31st, 2022, 10:19 am So your stores don't look like this?

This Reno Store has been looking like this for a year or so. Nobody cares. Nothing ever changes.

Also is mandatory self checkout now a Target thing too? I guess it can't be in CA due to the liquor rules...

This is how Reno looks. And I ignored the consumables areas which were in worse shape due to the Burning Man volume they had a few days prior. This is pathetic. This is on a level of bad Kmart bad.

The Wal Marts are a huge mess of unstocked pallets and not easy to shop, but the shelves are stocked a lot more fully than this...
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No, haven't seen anything close to that in 2022 at any SoCal Target. Walmart still has the unstocked pallets problem at many stores with "Manager: TBD" on the receipts although I'm seeing the garden centers fully open now with lots of clearance on patio furniture and landscape lighting that was probably late to stock for spring sales.

I'll bet that the Reno stores are either in a Las Vegas or Sacramento district and the DM is too lazy to travel there, plus they know it's a disaster so they don't want to show up or they'll have firsthand knowledge of the mess and will have to clean it up. I would imagine that the freight is piling up in the backroom at this point and probably in storage containers. Some of those specific aisles are in great shape here such as wall frames (which from my past experience carry some of the best profit margin in retail, usually almost 90%)

It sounds like the staffing shortages have hit Reno hard?
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Re: Target 2022

Post by storewanderer »

ClownLoach wrote: September 1st, 2022, 9:07 am

No, haven't seen anything close to that in 2022 at any SoCal Target. Walmart still has the unstocked pallets problem at many stores with "Manager: TBD" on the receipts although I'm seeing the garden centers fully open now with lots of clearance on patio furniture and landscape lighting that was probably late to stock for spring sales.

I'll bet that the Reno stores are either in a Las Vegas or Sacramento district and the DM is too lazy to travel there, plus they know it's a disaster so they don't want to show up or they'll have firsthand knowledge of the mess and will have to clean it up. I would imagine that the freight is piling up in the backroom at this point and probably in storage containers. Some of those specific aisles are in great shape here such as wall frames (which from my past experience carry some of the best profit margin in retail, usually almost 90%)

It sounds like the staffing shortages have hit Reno hard?
Reno is in horrible shape on staffing. It seems like the ability to get bodies into the positions is improving a little bit, but the attitude and environment in many businesses is so broken that these new employees, many of whom have not had a job for 2 years and don't seem to want to be there, have a real uphill climb to even get trained let alone halfway enjoy their new job. There are some stores that stayed fairly well staffed this whole time, that are just fine and running like they always have. Hobby Lobby is one of those stores for some reason. So is Costco. So are some Save Marts. But just about every other chain, has very serious problems. The warehouses around the perimeter of Reno continue to take employees who may otherwise work retail. It is a bad situation. But it isn't just retail, it is everything. If you need medical services in Reno, good luck and see you in November. Emergency? Sorry. Go to urgent care or ER.

I have gotten so much clearance product at Wal Mart. Some of it doesn't even make sense. One store had pallets and pallets of various charcoal for $1 two weeks ago. No clue why they were clearing this out.

The Burning Man event causes a ton of water sales and Wal Marts ordered entire semis of water. Some Wal Marts got the waters out to the floor, some stored them in garden where nobody knew about them, and other Wal Marts failed to get them out to the floor. So now one Wal Mart in Reno on Kietzke has 2.5 gallon jugs of Arrowhead for .50, what looks like an entire semi worth, up in front of the old pick up tower. That Wal Mart was busy with an inventory last week, marking garden stuff manually down to $1, and the softlines problems the past six weeks (unbelievable amount of clearance product).
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Re: Target 2022

Post by ClownLoach »

storewanderer wrote: September 1st, 2022, 10:22 pm
ClownLoach wrote: September 1st, 2022, 9:07 am

No, haven't seen anything close to that in 2022 at any SoCal Target. Walmart still has the unstocked pallets problem at many stores with "Manager: TBD" on the receipts although I'm seeing the garden centers fully open now with lots of clearance on patio furniture and landscape lighting that was probably late to stock for spring sales.

I'll bet that the Reno stores are either in a Las Vegas or Sacramento district and the DM is too lazy to travel there, plus they know it's a disaster so they don't want to show up or they'll have firsthand knowledge of the mess and will have to clean it up. I would imagine that the freight is piling up in the backroom at this point and probably in storage containers. Some of those specific aisles are in great shape here such as wall frames (which from my past experience carry some of the best profit margin in retail, usually almost 90%)

It sounds like the staffing shortages have hit Reno hard?
Reno is in horrible shape on staffing. It seems like the ability to get bodies into the positions is improving a little bit, but the attitude and environment in many businesses is so broken that these new employees, many of whom have not had a job for 2 years and don't seem to want to be there, have a real uphill climb to even get trained let alone halfway enjoy their new job. There are some stores that stayed fairly well staffed this whole time, that are just fine and running like they always have. Hobby Lobby is one of those stores for some reason. So is Costco. So are some Save Marts. But just about every other chain, has very serious problems. The warehouses around the perimeter of Reno continue to take employees who may otherwise work retail. It is a bad situation. But it isn't just retail, it is everything. If you need medical services in Reno, good luck and see you in November. Emergency? Sorry. Go to urgent care or ER.

I have gotten so much clearance product at Wal Mart. Some of it doesn't even make sense. One store had pallets and pallets of various charcoal for $1 two weeks ago. No clue why they were clearing this out.

The Burning Man event causes a ton of water sales and Wal Marts ordered entire semis of water. Some Wal Marts got the waters out to the floor, some stored them in garden where nobody knew about them, and other Wal Marts failed to get them out to the floor. So now one Wal Mart in Reno on Kietzke has 2.5 gallon jugs of Arrowhead for .50, what looks like an entire semi worth, up in front of the old pick up tower. That Wal Mart was busy with an inventory last week, marking garden stuff manually down to $1, and the softlines problems the past six weeks (unbelievable amount of clearance product).
And you hit the nail on the head when you talk about warehouses. The real reason for retail job shortages are warehouses, especially Amazon. Amazon basically will take the best and hardest workers from retail stores (usually the freight team), pay them significantly more than retail, basically let them work the shift they want to work, and then they're pulled off the job market. Since so many retailers won't give full time status to anyone these workers are prime for recruiting to Amazon, pardon the pun. Then they turn in their resignation at the two or three retailers they worked part time at, going from job to job to job. There's your staffing shortage. Raising pay rates does nothing to solve the problem - retailers don't want to pay benefits or give enough hours. Amazon is full time and benefits on day one.
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Re: Target 2022

Post by storewanderer »

ClownLoach wrote: September 1st, 2022, 11:19 pm

And you hit the nail on the head when you talk about warehouses. The real reason for retail job shortages are warehouses, especially Amazon. Amazon basically will take the best and hardest workers from retail stores (usually the freight team), pay them significantly more than retail, basically let them work the shift they want to work, and then they're pulled off the job market. Since so many retailers won't give full time status to anyone these workers are prime for recruiting to Amazon, pardon the pun. Then they turn in their resignation at the two or three retailers they worked part time at, going from job to job to job. There's your staffing shortage. Raising pay rates does nothing to solve the problem - retailers don't want to pay benefits or give enough hours. Amazon is full time and benefits on day one.
At this point fast food is paying above many retailers. The fast food also have some pretty major staffing problems and employee quality challenges. I went to a Chickfila today that was dirty, unkempt staff, place smelled like a McDonalds (that awful old grease smell), depressing inside, food was great though; signs up for hiring at $17/hr and they still can't get the right employees. I was ignored for 3 minutes when I walked in, despite 5 different employees seeing me. For a minute I was starting to think I was a ghost. Eventually I was acknowledged and helped.

The number of warehouses in Reno is a big issue. They sign on bonus to employees and pay a higher wage and benefits. Not only full time with benefits but as much overtime as you want or don't want.

Target in Reno though is quite well staffed. The issue with Target is most of the employees, at least on the late afternoon/closing shift, seem to think working at Target involves going to the store and standing around in a big group of employees talking or pretending to look busy. The only employees who seem to work hard are the ones who do the order fulfillment picking and the few who are directly working front end. But there is a big group of employees who simply does not work much while they are there.
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Re: Target 2022

Post by ClownLoach »

storewanderer wrote: September 1st, 2022, 11:26 pm
ClownLoach wrote: September 1st, 2022, 11:19 pm

And you hit the nail on the head when you talk about warehouses. The real reason for retail job shortages are warehouses, especially Amazon. Amazon basically will take the best and hardest workers from retail stores (usually the freight team), pay them significantly more than retail, basically let them work the shift they want to work, and then they're pulled off the job market. Since so many retailers won't give full time status to anyone these workers are prime for recruiting to Amazon, pardon the pun. Then they turn in their resignation at the two or three retailers they worked part time at, going from job to job to job. There's your staffing shortage. Raising pay rates does nothing to solve the problem - retailers don't want to pay benefits or give enough hours. Amazon is full time and benefits on day one.
At this point fast food is paying above many retailers. The fast food also have some pretty major staffing problems and employee quality challenges. I went to a Chickfila today that was dirty, unkempt staff, place smelled like a McDonalds (that awful old grease smell), depressing inside, food was great though; signs up for hiring at $17/hr and they still can't get the right employees. I was ignored for 3 minutes when I walked in, despite 5 different employees seeing me. For a minute I was starting to think I was a ghost. Eventually I was acknowledged and helped.

The number of warehouses in Reno is a big issue. They sign on bonus to employees and pay a higher wage and benefits. Not only full time with benefits but as much overtime as you want or don't want.

Target in Reno though is quite well staffed. The issue with Target is most of the employees, at least on the late afternoon/closing shift, seem to think working at Target involves going to the store and standing around in a big group of employees talking or pretending to look busy. The only employees who seem to work hard are the ones who do the order fulfillment picking and the few who are directly working front end. But there is a big group of employees who simply does not work much while they are there.
Again though the pay rate isn't the real issue, but it's the hours, schedule and benefits. Some of the fast food places are hiring at $20 or more but the employees are getting an inconsistent number of computer scheduled 4 or 5 hour shifts that are not worth showing up for. So the best, most hardworking employees are winding up getting picked off by warehouse jobs even if they are not the highest prevailing wage. Better the job with a fixed schedule and fixed hours even if the work is harder and the wage is slightly lower but benefits are included. The folks who can't make it in those warehouse jobs are the remaining workforce that you're seeing standing around doing nothing.
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Re: Target 2022

Post by buckguy »

storewanderer wrote: August 31st, 2022, 10:19 am So your stores don't look like this?

This Reno Store has been looking like this for a year or so. Nobody cares. Nothing ever changes.

Also is mandatory self checkout now a Target thing too? I guess it can't be in CA due to the liquor rules...

This is how Reno looks. And I ignored the consumables areas which were in worse shape due to the Burning Man volume they had a few days prior. This is pathetic. This is on a level of bad Kmart bad.

The Wal Marts are a huge mess of unstocked pallets and not easy to shop, but the shelves are stocked a lot more fully than this...
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Have been to 3 different Targets in the last couple weeks for different reasons. Nothing like this at any of them. Two in the city (one big, one small) and one in the ‘burbs. The smaller store in the city is next to American University and they seemed to be doing pretty well keeping up with students and parents who were buying lots of stuff for back to school.
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Re: Target 2022

Post by storewanderer »

Reno Target did have one cashier this time, but store continues to look terrible. Out of stocks literally everywhere. Multiple broken self checkouts. Trainwreck store. Limited staff present and not working, saw a pack of staff walking around talking. Usual for this store. Just awful. Also noticed some items they had price increased and were about 10% above Wal Mart, have had price cuts and are now matching or within a cent or two of Wal Mart. At least is is a clean looking mess of a store. Problem is with so many out of stocks it is also a largely useless store.
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Re: Target 2022

Post by ClownLoach »

storewanderer wrote: September 20th, 2022, 10:56 pm Reno Target did have one cashier this time, but store continues to look terrible. Out of stocks literally everywhere. Multiple broken self checkouts. Trainwreck store. Limited staff present and not working, saw a pack of staff walking around talking. Usual for this store. Just awful. Also noticed some items they had price increased and were about 10% above Wal Mart, have had price cuts and are now matching or within a cent or two of Wal Mart. At least is is a clean looking mess of a store. Problem is with so many out of stocks it is also a largely useless store.
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My guess is that the backroom is throwing up freight out every door except the ones that lead onto the sales floor. That store is so hopelessly behind on getting the merchandise out to the floor that they're probably missing sales plan by heavy double digits each week which means that they have to cut labor to make payroll despite the work not being done. It is in a death spiral. Then the best employees leave because they're mad that their hours are being cut due to the fact that their coworkers are lazy. The rest stand around because the managers are overwhelmed and don't know what to fix first because the whole store is broken. They are probably behind on plano grams too which means they can't even fix the freight backlog because many new items are piled up but they don't have a home on the (empty) sales floor yet. So they have to reset the empty aisles before they can stock them with merchandise. They need to fire every manager in the store and start from scratch then they have to invest a boatload of payroll to get the broken store caught up.

There is one Target near me that is not quite this bad but it is a very low volume SuperTarget, and it is obvious that they struggle to get the freight out. They're always last to set new seasonal and frequently I find markdowns have automatically posted despite the shelf labels and item stickers not being changed. It's definitely not a well run store but it doesn't look anything like this Reno disaster.

The model of "make sales or cut labor hours" has probably created more broken stores for retailers than any other recent labor practice. Retailers have probably lost more sales and profit from the resulting broken stores and cost of fixing them than they would if they just gave the stores a fixed labor budget each week and left them alone.
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