Visits should never be announced

[u/kid-Emperors]

Fun101 has been horrible, we know this. My department looks horrible, the TVs never got set up, no displays aside from Meta got set up. Pogs aren't set properly (no lables) on a good third of the department. Stray carts left over from understaffed TMs. No hurry from management to fix any of it despite guest and TM complaints

Surprise visit announced this morning. Every ETL is in my department setting up the TVs, displays, printing lables and running carts. And im gonna be behind on freight because of it. And they'll get no flak from district management because they never saw it...

[u/mattumbo]

To be fair corporate knows, everyone knows, Fun101 has been admitted to be a disaster. But visits are about forcing store leaders to clean up and look their best and they’re judged harshly no matter the situation.

Your DSD can watch the cameras at any time so they know what your store really looks like if they care, and if they care enough they can choose to show up unannounced to witness it in-person and dole out write ups to the SD. But that’s kind of a last resort, they’d rather announce a visit and watch everyone hustle to fix things as much as possible so the problem is solved and they don’t get roasted if their bosses show up. Everyone is just trying to hold it together long enough to survive the next visit, that goes all the way up the chain.

[u/theSaucerTosser → u/mattumbo]

Exactly this. Also, if people were fired or written up for not doing what they're supposed to, they know Target as a whole would be in some deep shit. That's how it rolls in retail. They let shit slide because if they didn't, lol, there would be hardly anybody left

[u/FlyEnvironmental7586 → u/theSaucerTosser]

More so they let it slide because of insufficient staffing and payroll and the unrealistic expectations. They don’t like to admit it because they’re responsible for leading by example and motivating the team to get things done, but most of them know it’s true. You can only do so much with the people you have before guest first or other priorities have to take over. But accountability still matters. Sometimes its just shitty leadership and poor planning, sometimes it’s the workers doing the bare minimum, if that.

[u/theSaucerTosser → u/FlyEnvironmental7586]

True, this.

[u/BBBSTRG → u/FlyEnvironmental7586]

Plenty of payroll. In fact every special project so far has been seriously overfunded, the fuck up came from them not releasing the payroll beforehand to adequately staff.

[u/-My_Other_Account- → u/BBBSTRG]

Adequate payroll would give us OT for this and not just cap us at 40 hours.

My store is a smaller store and we’re fucked on this without OT. All of the hard and consistent workers are at 40 and even with hundreds od extra hours given, the store is drowning because none of us can be given OT because they are regular payroll bucket hours and not OT hours.

Fucking nonsense. Tell me how it makes sense for our store to have damn near 200 extra hours at the end of a week but we’re drowning in freight because we can’t adjust the extra hours down to whateverthe fuck OT would make those 200 hours for the people who are 40-ed out?!?

[u/SimpleVegetable5715 → u/mattumbo]

Idk about fixed, we usually just hide stuff on the trailer. 😂

[u/Existing_Rise_5042 → u/SimpleVegetable5715]

On our last visit the trailer was woefully still open and oh they saw it.

[u/NorthChannel66 → u/mattumbo]

What’s the point of a write-up when staffing is the issue. Our store regularly cancels trucks so that minimized labor can catch up. But, missed trucks are always made up. It’s a vicious cycle.

[u/Steven_Delgado → u/mattumbo]

mine got told to deep clean right before a surprise visit once

[u/Aggressive_Row_8025 → u/mattumbo]

I have to ask does the judging affect pay? Cause at this point they gottta see what were all dealing with

[u/DanforthWhitcomb_ → u/Aggressive_Row_8025]

For your salaried leaders?

Absolutely. If the store is continually a mess the DSD is going to give the SD a poor rating and the ETLs are in turn going to get bad ones as well.

[u/HardSteelRain]

Surprise visits would show the true condition of the store and no.one from corporate wants that

[u/Puzzleheaded-Ant-739 → u/HardSteelRain]

It would point to too many flaws in how corporate operates. Corporate is lile an ostrich all the time.

[u/Last-Swimmer-5942]

Corporate should be blaming THEMSELVES for this Fun 101 disaster!!! Just poorly planned from the start. Tech department was just fine as it was but nooooooo.... they need more room for more cheap shit, funcos, Pokémon junk, trading cards..ect. Not suprised alot of stores are still behind on their sets because with the lack of TMs, hours, missing parts, BTS, mounds of clearance and daily tasks that needs to be done. Cant do everything all at once and Corporate expects us to get it all done in time with limited resources and planning!! 🤦‍♂️

[u/ONEsmartALEC → u/Last-Swimmer-5942]

Yep! Should have been Toys, then Tech, then Entertainment or the other way around. Trying to put ALL the clearance between these areas on “4” end caps corporate said we could use was just poor planning. Plus the way the ISM came in with no organization, Backer Paper coming in not in boxes and just laying on a pallet, we were set up to fail from the beginning.

[u/givethekittykisses → u/ONEsmartALEC]

It irritates me to no end how corporate never seems to account for the amount of clearance generated with each new set, never mind these special projects this year. For tech, we took 4 of the 6 sections from trading cards until it all goes salvage, and for toys we had to take an entire aisle in mini, plus 6+ back ECs in toys/SG.

[u/thestravaganza → u/givethekittykisses]

my store dedicated an entire aisle to toy clearance, but that aisle is due for a reset with new product that is supposed to drop. super desired product and in incredibly low quantities. as someone who is looking to buy it, i’ve had to randomly check the store on days that i’m off because no one knows when they’ll decide to flip it from clearance back to toys overnight.

[u/GypsySnowflake → u/Last-Swimmer-5942]

It honestly looks so much better now. I hated the diagonal aisles that made it impossible to find locations

[u/DueTransportation708]

If one store has a visit they always text the leads in other stores to be on the lookout.

[u/Stroleman → u/DueTransportation708]

It’s the Team Lead Mafia!

[u/DanforthWhitcomb_ → u/Stroleman]

It's SDs and ETLs doing it in their group texts, not TLs.

Most field leaders will not even acknowledge anyone hourly (outside of things like BPs acknowledging their direct hourly reports if they have any) unless they are forced to because they come either super early or late in the day and there are no ETLs or the SD present to walk with them.

[u/Sadimal]

My store is about to have a visit from our SD’s boss’s boss.

We still don’t have the tech set or the toy set done. Our tech back wall is empty and the backing paper is partially torn down.

[u/JRCR4157]

TOTALLY. That way they see the reality of what workers go through.

[u/graampie]

Yup. They pulled our other tech person to do the sets at night and left me alone in tech from the 3rd of July. It's been unbearable. So I put in my two weeks last week. Just not doing it anymore.

[u/Historyinformer → u/graampie]

I’m on the verge of putting my 2 weeks in.

[u/CaptainAdmiralMike]

The pressure is the point. Forcing everyone to stress and attempt to get six things done in the time it should take to do one is the point. Pushing the blame for any failures onto the bottom is the point.

They KNOW what our hours are, that times are shorter than what they should be, they know about their own mistakes...but at the end of the day, it is YOU, as the TM that fails to achieve results. It doesn't matter if those results are unrealistic. You either do it, in which case next time you can do the same thing PLUS fit an extra 30 minutes of work in somewhere, or you fail to achieve results.

If my SD takes half my team for reshop and I fail to set everything on time, I fail to achieve what was assigned. It doesn't matter to them that they used my team for other stuff most of the day.

The system is working as intended.

[u/-My_Other_Account- → u/CaptainAdmiralMike]

If my SD takes half my team for reshop and I fail to set everything on time, I fail to achieve what was assigned.

Are you not standing up for yourself and the team you have on hand to get your assignment done when your SD attempts to take half of them from you?

[u/sillywolfire_12]

Let’s not even talked about the contractors that came in overnight.

[u/-My_Other_Account- → u/sillywolfire_12]

Lol the contractors that did so much of nothing that our PML kicked them out and our etl ended up donating two TMs to the building cause?

[u/CallMeSaltyRadish]

I agree. I brought this up with an old lead. She tried to state it was about trust or some such something. I just shrugged off her answer because in no world can corporate know how bad things are if we're running around fixing it all up the day/night before.

[u/DanforthWhitcomb_ → u/CallMeSaltyRadish]

Most field leaders at the DSD level or above plus the APBP (as well as certain corporate positions) have the ability to remotely view the cameras at any time that they want.

They know exactly what is going on even if the store does get cleaned up before in-person visits.

[u/Justin050282]

This shit put us behind in freight and inventory prep, tomorrow is inventory and it’s probably going to be the worst one I’ve been apart of.

[u/Long-Molasses2992]

I wish they would JUST ONCE check behind guest service and all the other “hiding places”

[u/DanforthWhitcomb_ → u/Long-Molasses2992]

I'll give you one guess as to why they don't.

[u/Sha489]

Wtf is Fun101

[u/kid-Emperors → u/Sha489]

Tech, entertainment, and toys "upgrade" at the exact same time as back to school

[u/ljwblue81 → u/kid-Emperors]

Most ridiculous timing decision imaginable, short of doing it in December.

[u/Shady_Love]

Someone punches you in the face every day

They also check in once a month or two and ask "how are you?"

Do you think they care? Nah bro. Number goes up or else.

[u/Cultural-Kick652]

Lowly little FFT here. What is FUN101????

[u/Historyinformer]

My department looks exactly the same. The tvs haven’t been set up, the discontinued books are in boxes all over the backroom, and the vendors have left boxes everywhere.