You’re probably asking yourself, “What on earth does this have to do with real estate?” Quite a bit actually. All Target stores are located in shopping centers in which it is the anchor store for all the little guys. If a Target store closes it literally brings most of the center with it because they are a big source of the traffic for the shopping center.
Is Target in trouble? Absolutely. And the reason why is poor management in my eyes. Although they pay their employees a reasonable wage, none of them ever work a forty hour work week, so they never receive any benefits or overtime. In the short term this saves Target a lot of money, but in the long run it is a morale killer. When an employee feels undervalued they do not put their heart into what they are doing and it shows. I have yet to meet a happy Target employee and I talk to a lot of them in the stores. With this attitude the shelves are not stocked and sit in the stock room where they are not making money. Why kill yourself to get this merchandise out to the floor when you are not appreciated? The only shelves that are continually stocked are the ones that are monitored by the vendors themselves and that includes things like chips and water, the very items with a low profit margin.
Secondly, the shrink in their stores is out of control. When you walk around the store you can find empty boxes of makeup everywhere. Even stuff like aspirin, trading cards and feminine products are not safe. Customers simply open the packages and pocket what is inside and hide the box in between the food stocked on the shelves.
Thirdly, self checkout is a disaster on a grand scale. Whoever thought that trusting human beings to do the right thing and actually pay for all of their items without oversight is an idiot. The idea was to get rid of human beings as employees to once again save money, but in the long run it actually has cost them more. Skip scanning is one of my favorites. This is when a customer simply puts their hand over the barcode while scanning and then shoves the item into a bag.
Fourth, you can never find help in a store because quite frankly there is none. They work these giant stores with skeleton crews to save money. When a customer can’t find what they want they get frustrated and leave empty handed. Efficiency is maintained with a healthy employee number. Customers get help and merchandise makes its way to the floor. Without this the store is an absolute mess with merchandise strewn all over the place. It doesn’t just look bad, it makes finding what you want impossible.
This is how to solve this problem. First, just throw the water bottles, for instance, on pallets in front of the store. What’s the point of throwing them on a shelf when they will disappear by the end of the day? It is a necessity item so if somebody wants it they will get it no matter where it its. Use that aisle to stock a big seller that actually has a better profit margin. Same goes for soda.
Next, give the employees the option to actually work forty hours. So what if it costs you a bit more. In the end it will make you more because they are happy and happy employees work harder. On busy days and holidays schedule twice the number of employees because at least half will call in sick. The worst case scenario if they all actually do show up is you send some of them home early. And make at least of one of these people what I would like to call a “wanderer.” Their only job would be to walk around the store and pick up out of place items and return them to their rightful place, throw out garbage strewn about, and generally help those that need it. This guy would be the busiest employee in the store.
Second, place a register in the makeup department just like there is in electronics, thus requiring customers to pay for their items there or they can’t leave with it.
Third, and this is a simple one, get rid of self checkout. It’s obvious you can’t trust anyone. And incidentally, this is the one area where cons actually activate gift cards by the dozen and then toss them all over the store in the hope that someone will pick one up out of convenience and buy it. Once their credit card is entered that person that activated it now has you information. Oh yeah, Target does not try to stop them even though they know it is happening right in front of their eyes.
Last, keep the shelves and racks stocked to the rim constantly. Paying someone to work a few more hours to do so will pay off. Implement all of this and the tide will turn. Convincing the powers that be in Minnesota of it is another story. But losing them as an anchor is a shopping center killer and if you work in commercial this can put you out of business.
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