Target 2021

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

Post by ClownLoach »

storewanderer wrote: January 4th, 2022, 12:15 am
ClownLoach wrote: January 3rd, 2022, 11:32 pm
There are several of these projects where dozens of storage containers are out front but it looks like nothing happened inside. These are stores where they are doing a complete backroom remodel to add a sortation center. Target historically has run massive backrooms with 60 all the way to 100 aisles of storage. The largest backroom stores are getting this space downsized to use for some sort of e-commerce sortation process for store fulfilled orders. Costa Mesa and Garden Grove-Harbor Blvd in Orange County are undergoing the same process. For both of those they just enclosed the long mothballed garden center space for the project but did not add an inch to the sales floor. Costa Mesa was also a Greatland but it opened with a smaller than normal stockroom only on the right side by grocery which must add a million footsteps to the stocking process.
Interesting. This Greatland opened in the late 90's and has a massive backroom so this must be exactly what is happening. Given it is the only Target in Reno it makes sense to do this as I think they have a high order volume in the area (also Sparks which has a newer and high traffic Target and isn't set up well for online orders at all).

I also notice the inventory level in this store seems much lower than it used to be. I thought maybe it was something to do with the remodel, or perhaps a very high volume of customer traffic. The other Targets I've been into do not look that way, and also appear to be having a very high volume of customer traffic.
The problem I find today at Target is that the high demand limited quantity items get sucked up immediately by online buyers so there's nothing left for the in store customers. These stores with the new e-commerce facilities are even worse. I'm sure once the supply chain problems get cleaned up this won't be as much of a problem, but it's very odd to see that the small format stores look fuller and better in stock than a full line store right now. And you shop in the morning to see one crew stocking the shelves from the truck while another crew is pulling that merchandise off the shelf for e-commerce shipping.
The small format stores do not ship out e-commerce orders, only regular stores. I think the end goal is that they find a happy medium and pull e-commerce shipping out of the highest volume stores so they stay in stock for the customer, then shift the order fulfillment to the low volume, high square footage stores which seem to mostly be old Greatland and SuperTarget boxes. Target moved 95% of order fulfillment to the stores while they were restructuring under Cornell to cover up the plummeting comp sales that were resulting from so many product lines being discontinued while new lines were still transitioning in. If it ships out of a store you can call it comp sales, and Wall Street will pulverize your stock if you are not meeting comp expectations. It's an easy cover up for business problems.
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