Blog #172  I talked about learning from George and Charles. In this blog I want to talk about The daily routine at Target

As I said in the last blog, Target had different ETL’s for each of the areas. Everything was around getting the trucks processed every day. Trucks would come into the back area and drop off the trailer at the bay doors. Then the Logistics ETL would check to make sure the seal matched before breaking it. It wouldn’t be broken until the truck was ready to be unloaded to prevent theft. On two truck nights there would be two bays with trailers behind them.

Overnight Team

Our overnight team arrived around 9:30 or 10PM to start setting up the rails that would be used to roll the cases down out of the truck. They were folded up after each use like an accordion which made them easy to use. Once everyone was there and the store was closed they would break the seals and two people would climb into the trailer to move the cartons onto the rails. Cartons would be scanned as they left the truck to signify receipt of goods. Anything damaged would be set aside. There was a “hands team” that would place the cartons by dept. so many pallets were used. When a pallet was full someone would take out to the floor and dropped at the appropriate location. A floor team would start stocking the shelves.

After the people unloading the trucks were done they would come out to the floor and help stock the shelves too. They basically had from 10PM to 6AM to complete the truck. Anything not able to stay out on the floor due to the shelves being full would be brought into the back stockroom and scanned into a location.  There would be the Bar-code for the item and another bar-code for each shelf location in the stockroom. This way everything could be found when needed.

Daytime Team

During the day the Daytime team would finish filling the shelves by doing scans as well. With the location system it would lead the person to the location in the stockroom and they would scan it out of location to run to the floor. For Soft-Lines I was in charge of footwear and clothing. My shoe experience helped out but it was definitely a different type of operation. By keeping the shelves full and Requesting fills on hot items from the buyers we had really big increases in footwear.

Customers

Customers were a different type at this location too. Theft was a problem in DVD’s and shaving kits. Usually you had to be the Manager in Charge at some point during the day. Middle of the day was the premium shift because the opener had to make sure everything was good to open and the opposite for closing. Store had to be perfect before you left. While making your rounds walking the floor, it was a common daily experience to see empty packages on the floor from thieves. Security would catch some of them and have the MIC involved searching for the crook. If we caught someone we would have to fill out the theft report and call the Police to arrest them. Needless to say it wasn’t fun.

Target didn’t have a lenient return policy like Nordstrom did so there were always confrontations with customers. Plus Target had a strict policy the ETL’s could not bend. One guy got so upset with me he challenged me to a fist fight outside the store because I wouldn’t give him a refund. Security just watched while he was screaming at me. 

I asked him if he really wanted to fight me over a return? He was an idiot and wouldn’t leave so I threatened to call the police. Then he left… I remained calm during the whole interaction with him. I think he felt if he pushed the limits he would get what he wanted. With Target Policy though my hands were tied. I was so used to the Nordstrom way so I felt bad for the customers in a way. Our security department didn’t take care of unruly customers just thieves. This was the worst part of the job. I hated being the MIC. It really made me question if I wanted to be a store manager after all. If this is the End game, do I want this? We had nutty people at Nordstrom too but this was them on steroids. Sometimes it was nuts.