storewanderer wrote: ↑April 12th, 2024, 12:21 am
ClownLoach wrote: ↑April 11th, 2024, 1:43 pm
storewanderer wrote: ↑April 10th, 2024, 12:17 am
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.