Target 2022

[ClownLoach]

A few observations - first, I have not seen a single Target with an updated Holiday hours sign. So they have a posted 10pm closing time yet the store is actually open until midnight. Wonder how much of this is intentional (maybe the DM told them not to post it due to short staffing?).

Second - I still am not seeing store condition or in stock issues aside from a few sporadic displays that are known as global problems (like otc cold medicine). I was in the Murrieta store Friday night at 10pm and I would describe store conditions as just plain outstanding despite the fact that the store was busy - there were at least a dozen associates working on recovery and most aisles were already spotless. Seasonal sell through is very good - to the point that they really need to just consolidate their aisles into half the space they're taking and maybe fill the rest of the space in with gifts. Trees all sold out etc. But the regular aisles storewide are probably at a 98% or higher in stock rate. So Target definitely has some regionality to their operating performance. I'm going to see quite a few areas out of state over the next two weeks and I'm very interested in seeing if they're just running a better operation in SoCal vs elsewhere.

I went into the Target in Sparks tonight. They have a sign under the store hours sign with holiday hours- it is a letter sized piece of paper printed in black and white that looks to be out of Outlook Calendar or something. No Target logo, etc. They are open until Midnight every night.

In this store I was surprised to see virtually no clothing on the floor and most of clothing was in good order. Going through the aisles there were some sections that were like 25% in stock, specifically ink cartridges and the entire Lego toy aisle. Other than that this place was in pretty good shape, I would estimate they are easily over 95% in stock if you look across the entire store but some sections had problems that we know about, like baby food/formula, cold/cough medicine, some pet food, also their home improvement area was no more than 60% stocked. But going into home categories, kitchen, decor, pillows, sheets, etc. in stock is easily over 95%. Grocery was also well stocked. Christmas still had plenty of product and already clearance signs at 15% off to 30% off.

I saw at least 15 employees on the sales floor late tonight either stocking or pulling orders.

What is funny is Target seems to have changed their dress code, now the employees just wear whatever and slap on a red vest. Looks like a K-Mart "uniform." But even Kmart had higher standards in the Super Kmart format where a white shirt/black pants were required with the red vest. I have no clue why an employee would want to wear a vest instead of a red polo shirt which was the old Target uniform.

Agreed, they have really let the uniform go. My understanding is that they were supposed to only change the pants - Target used to require khakis but they opened up to allowing jeans. They never have provided a uniform. Employees were told to wear any red shirt and they offered them aggressive discounts on certain specific SKUs of plain red shirts. Since they were not branded they could wear anywhere. Some stores would also spend their recognition funds on team shirts with their store number, and promotions like Circle would be launched with free shirts. The red vest is free from the company so they might have some really cheap employees who don't want to spend three bucks on a subsidized red shirt. I think for some reason it is much harder to enforce a dress code when it is so non specific as any red shirt and blue jeans.

[storewanderer]

Agreed, they have really let the uniform go. My understanding is that they were supposed to only change the pants - Target used to require khakis but they opened up to allowing jeans. They never have provided a uniform. Employees were told to wear any red shirt and they offered them aggressive discounts on certain specific SKUs of plain red shirts. Since they were not branded they could wear anywhere. Some stores would also spend their recognition funds on team shirts with their store number, and promotions like Circle would be launched with free shirts. The red vest is free from the company so they might have some really cheap employees who don't want to spend three bucks on a subsidized red shirt. I think for some reason it is much harder to enforce a dress code when it is so non specific as any red shirt and blue jeans.

I don't see an issue with the jeans. Back in the 90's and 00's, Target had a pretty uniform employee appearance with red polos and the khaki pants. Sometimes the shade of red polo varied but even that used to be uncommon enough that it was not often noticed.

What I saw under those vests ranged from sweatshirts, hoodies, to tank tops, all at the same time in the same store. I would say it looked like Wal Mart, but I have not seen employees in tank tops at Wal Mart (I'm sure someone else has).

[storewanderer]

So other than already clearancing all Christmas items at 15% off to 30% off, Target is also clearancing its "beauty" gift sets (this also includes things like deodorant, body wash, shaving items, beard items, etc.) at 50% off, but this requires using the app. Also they give you a $10 gift card if you spend $30 on those "beauty" gift sets. But the way their promotion works is basically you buy $30 worth of these items at regular price, and then the system gives you a $10 gift card, then it gives you $10 off. So you pay $20 for a $10 gift card and $30 worth of beauty gift sets.

I will be very curious to see how Target does this holiday season. They seem to be aggressively promoting things to get people into the stores. Wal Mart doesn't seem to be promoting much though I heard rumors they will be going 25% off clearance on Christmas items in the next day or two but the stores have to 1: activate the promotion and 2: actually post clearance signs and for whatever reason Wal Mart Stores seem to have extreme difficulty following tasks like that in a timely manner. Wal Mart's general merchandise business this holiday season strikes me as very weak. Maybe price hikes and hardlines along with the ongoing grocery power will save them.

[ClownLoach]

Agreed, they have really let the uniform go. My understanding is that they were supposed to only change the pants - Target used to require khakis but they opened up to allowing jeans. They never have provided a uniform. Employees were told to wear any red shirt and they offered them aggressive discounts on certain specific SKUs of plain red shirts. Since they were not branded they could wear anywhere. Some stores would also spend their recognition funds on team shirts with their store number, and promotions like Circle would be launched with free shirts. The red vest is free from the company so they might have some really cheap employees who don't want to spend three bucks on a subsidized red shirt. I think for some reason it is much harder to enforce a dress code when it is so non specific as any red shirt and blue jeans.

I don't see an issue with the jeans. Back in the 90's and 00's, Target had a pretty uniform employee appearance with red polos and the khaki pants. Sometimes the shade of red polo varied but even that used to be uncommon enough that it was not often noticed.

What I saw under those vests ranged from sweatshirts, hoodies, to tank tops, all at the same time in the same store. I would say it looked like Wal Mart, but I have not seen employees in tank tops at Wal Mart (I'm sure someone else has).

Again the polo was never an actual uniform, but they used to do a much better job of policing actual standards of dress (clean, neat shirt with no large print or graphics, etc). Now it is literally anything goes and just check out a red vest to put over it in most stores. I don't think the dress code allows for this, but they clearly are just happy to have people show up for work and aren't going to send them home unless they are wearing something obscene.

[storewanderer]

Reno Target continues to have major problems. Also the customers who seem to be so comfortable throwing stuff on the floor... must be quite frustrating. The amount of stuff on the floor it is like hundreds of customers have decided to throw stuff on the floor.

Also these photos are categories that aren't even busy at Christmas. Toys seasonal electronics and many busy areas were in even worse shape than the areas in these photos.

[jamcool]

It looks inside like the W Goodyear (AZ) SuperTarget, except the SuperT has empty grocery shelves as well.

[storewanderer]

It looks inside like the W Goodyear (AZ) SuperTarget, except the SuperT has empty grocery shelves as well.

I don't know what they are doing. I know the store has obviously been very busy, it is December the week before Christmas, but there is no excuse for a store looking the way this store did. Or how it has looked. As usual I saw almost no staff on the sales floor (not even anyone pulling orders) and when I went up front to pay there was one employee watching self checkouts and about 5 employees huddled in a group talking near customer service. This store never changes. The employees change, management changed, yet the culture does not change.

I am wondering if the "backroom remodel" Target did to this store basically ruined the store. The store seemed to get really messed up when the remodel was taking place and it has never recovered even with the remodel long being completed. Target clearly needs to get its act together. Having stores like this will plunge them to a Kmart-type image with customers in short order. Maybe it is time to un-do that backroom remodel and run actual warehouses to fulfill online orders. No clue how this joke of a store can fulfill any online orders completely with such empty shelves anyway. I am sure they can do a lot of partial fills then bump parts to other stores to fill and ship separately. Maybe this type of thing is why back in 2020-2021 when I was ordering online from Target, I was getting 5-6 boxes from random locations across the US for $35 orders.

[storewanderer]

Reno Target continues to be a complete and total disaster area. I'm not sure if anyone ever picked up the clothes from the floor from two weeks ago. They probably got rid of 90% of their Christmas items though, so there is that. The signs all say 50% off, but the food only scans 30% off, but their employees will tell you it is 50% off that is being scanned. They've been out of stock on all but about 2 SKUs of cough drops for two weeks now. The cosmetics area is probably out of stock on 80% of its items at this point, looks like a liquidating store. Theft must be horrendous. They had a uniformed security guard standing near the doors by the pharmacy/Starbucks (cosmetics is right there too) staring off and looking half asleep. This place is a complete joke. Self checkout only seems to be their policy after about 7 PM.

Sparks Target was interesting, went over there after, they still have a ton of Christmas food left, only 30% off according to signs. Very little other Christmas left, probably enough to fill up a few shopping carts (excluding boxes of gift wrap on the floor, ton of that) at 50% off. The rest of the store there is fairly neat; they had about 5 employees working in clothing and while there are a lot of out of stocks in toys, kitchen, home, drug, and cosmetics, most other areas look good and even the areas with out of stocks look organized and neat.

[BillyGr]

Reno Target continues to be a complete and total disaster area. I'm not sure if anyone ever picked up the clothes from the floor from two weeks ago. They probably got rid of 90% of their Christmas items though, so there is that. The signs all say 50% off, but the food only scans 30% off, but their employees will tell you it is 50% off that is being scanned.

Target has been doing that for a few years now, giving a smaller % off on food items than on other seasonal items. Why the signs are put in the wrong places is the question (since they should have the 30% signs by the foods, unless they recently condensed leftovers and forgot to move the signs?).

They should fix that issue if that is what they posted (even though it is wrong), and as I remember if you scan an item on the scanners around the store it will show the original price, so you can easily prove it is not, in fact, coming up at 50% off.

[storewanderer]

Target has been doing that for a few years now, giving a smaller % off on food items than on other seasonal items. Why the signs are put in the wrong places is the question (since they should have the 30% signs by the foods, unless they recently condensed leftovers and forgot to move the signs?).

They should fix that issue if that is what they posted (even though it is wrong), and as I remember if you scan an item on the scanners around the store it will show the original price, so you can easily prove it is not, in fact, coming up at 50% off.

Last night Reno Target had no signs that said 30% off at all. All of the seasonal had signs that said 50% off.

Today however Target has moved to 70% off on Christmas Food and on Christmas Non-Food including pet items. I have not seen them jump the food from 30% off straight to 70% off like this before.