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14 Headshaking Photos that Show Target Canada Has A Major Problem
Having dramatically exposed the dismal state of JCPenney stores and the sad dismantling of Sears, Belus Capital Advisors' Brian Sozzi has gone north and found his another sad retail spectacle... in Target Canada.
Via Brian Sozzi of Belus Capital Advisors,
This can’t be happening, can it?
When I last talked with Target a few months back, best believe that a few moments were allocated to discussing the state of the Canadian business. Strangely, ever since I began to chronicle the Canadian store operations for our coverage on Target, the situation has seemed to worsen. That is quite the opposite of what I was being pitched by Target on the phone, predominately that the business’ operations were on track to be structurally tightened and 1Q14 would represent some sort of mini rebirth. I hung up the phone skeptical, as Target’s assertions did not match what my own two eyes were seeing, consistently, on the ground. Now, that skepticism is at an all-time high, and the 14 photos below bring you into the Target Canada world I continue to study.
Ahead of Target’s May 21 earnings release, this much is clear regarding the Canadian misfit (yes, misfit, not outfit):
- Target Canada does not get in this shape if there weren’t leadership voids inside the operation, from stores to higher up the food chain. No retail executive would want their names associated with a business that is unable to keep basic items such a food and detergent on the shelves.
- Whatever Target Canada’s leadership IS doing, in concert with HQ directives, is not solving the fundamental issues at the stores and within the supply chain.
- With subpar locations that in some cases sell food on the second floor, a new Target CEO must consider using the company’s balance sheet to exit leases early and pare down to the very best sites. From there, once the operations of the business are repeatable, then Target could expand.
14 Photos that Say it ALL About Target Canada
Quick, as you look at this, imagine you are a consumer inside Target Canada. What would you think/feel when seeing this wicker basket presentation? Exactly…
Zombie shelf. (<—trademarked term).
Not only are the display items oddly missing (people must be buying them), where in the world is the inventory. BTW, look in the background, see the barren hanging clog section? Zombie shelves.
Rule #5 in retail: end caps are profit zones. Kids touch end caps and show mom their grabbings, enticing moms to buy. That is not happening at Target Canada, zombie end caps continue to be the norm, showing that void in leadership (no attention to detail).
Sad. Aisles are supposed to draw in your eye from far away. Are you compelled to visit this section?
Unbeatable prices on non-existent merchandise.
The toy section also continues to be a problem zone for Target Canada, consistently out of stock and not merchandised correctly. Here, a flea market feel.
Paging Hasbro, this is how Barbie is being presented at Target Canada.
Time to reorder some out of stock toys?
No, this is not Sears Canada…
A Merona zombie shelf for $10.00. Back up the car, this fixture could be yours!
Maybe Target Canada should reduce the height of its racks to at least make them appear well stocked. There are only seven different rugs on the entire lower shelf.
Yes, hi, 70% off on imaginary merchandise.
Twelve slots to hold pillows. Four slots used.
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Yes, they are struggling, but I'm not sure this is proof of anything. Could have caught it at restock day.
Once again, libtards and golbugz aren't seeing the real thing and are misleading the public by posting pictures of empty shelves. Those shelves are empty because Dr. Bernanke and Mr. Yellen are proving that foodstamps and low interest rates spur economic activity. If nothing else, the people in those Canadian ciites went to Target and bought things they didn't need because they know, deep down, that the road to wealth and prosperity involves buying cheap Chinese garbage that you don't need.
Sincerely,
MDB
Looks very much like a soviet era shopping center...
I'd like to see photos of he parking lot on a recent "busy" Saturday
Local Home Depot and Lowes seem to have similar stocking problems. The plywood and lumber isles are always fully shelved, but wander off into the misc. plumbing and hardware isles and it's another story.
How well are their bearing shelves stocked? *
* j/k, no bearings at those two
Looks like a brand new store with the shelves just being stocked.
Looks like the one near me... or should I say looked. It closed down. Target is done and Walmart isn't far behind. I have no idea where these people will hang out all day. I walk into a Walmart for some cheap Barefoot and the mother fuckers fuck with me. If I wasn't intelligent I would have beat them over the head with the bottle... instead I just remembered what I was taught... "They are worse off than you, they are poor in both skills and education, I should feel better about how lucky and amazing I am." It'll get you through a lot... that, and weed.
Target Canada? Looks like Target Mid-USA
The Target store in my neighborhood has looked like that for 25 years. We always called it the "maybe" store because maybe you would or maybe you wouldn't find what you needed there. Now I find Amazon.com always has what I need.
Out of Barbie dolls? Then it's confirmed! It's the Apocalypse...
No worries man, price controls can fix that.
Um.. they are not spotted by China or..
they have not figured out the channel stuffing fix.
or.. they are hosers, eh?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsgVspgy184
You are killing me with all your negativity ... look at the bright side, which is that at least they don't have so much money tied up in working capital. Same story at WMT. Wonder if the CFOs of these places understand that you have to have inventory on hand to have stuff to sell and make more money. Nah, they're proud at how effective they are at reducing their working capital.
"There, but for the grace of God, go I".
These images don't mean much, but from my personal experience, the few times I've entered a Target store here I felt like the only person in the store. Very few customers or staff to be seen. Poor stocking - worse than the original Zellers. I'm just waiting for them to back out of Canada with their tails between their legs.
I was in a Target recently. Shelves were LOADED! But no customers. I'll bet there weren't 12 people in the whole store- more employees than customers. http://screencast.com/t/f72JSRn5tl
Did Target start offering the extra wide fatty scooters like WalMart? Ride on in with your EBT and your ultra-fatty disability check. Grab a BigMac before shopping!
Being fat and/or old apparently makes you disabled in the new 'Murka', or so it seems nowadays. Don't forget to get that plum parking space with your special "handicapped" tag/mirror hanger.
shop at lowes - home depot supports Shariah law
I helped build those Targets, they got a great deal on the buildings using long term leases, then spent double on the remods. (oops) All the Canucks I talked to couldn't wait for the stores to open wanting to buy new products at lower prices. But Canada makes Target Canada sell 50% Canadian product and the cost of getting the product to the shelf in Canada is more sooooo the Canucks are still crossing the US border to buy at Target!!
(Target is taking a bath on this one)
In Russia, YOU are the Target!
So, the NSA is a Russian operation. Huh?
At this point would you be surprised if the NSA was working for Russia, or China, or the UN, or anyone besides us?
Or Israel?
Or Goldman Schlepps?
Well, it's definitely un-American.
Been to a Wal-Mart recently? Not as bad as these pictures, but getting there.
DHS issues statement that photographs inside retail stores are terrorist activities.... /s
Not to worry - Potemkin retail stores will be established where one will be able to take pictures.
Given the way this circus is going, that might just come true.
Kim Jong Un meets Truman!
What a show....
The fish is starting to smell....vis a vis Wally World.
http://www.businessinsider.com/wal-marts-business-struggles-2014-5
not what I have noticed at walmart recently..
They are so fucking desperate for additional profit centers, they have paid displays set up all over the fucking store. It's so bad, you can barely get past the lazy fucks on the store supplied 'rascals'. It used to be just some $5 garbage dvd bins but now there are litterally huge bins and small cardboard displays in every aisle.
Sounds like K-Mart before it tanked
Looks very much like a soviet era shopping center...
You think THAT looks Soviet-era? You should see inside our governments!
You mean all those sweaty, fat, greasy weasels?
I think the man with the camera was comming late... everything sold out so far.
Yep,
Sales are so brisk, they can't keep the shelves stocked.
(maybe)
Someone's getting fired. Probably the guy who ordered all those excess shelves...
ZH should vet his articles, this is for the unsold autos post a few days ago.
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/unsold-car-stockpile-photographs.shtml#.U3omR...
thanks, wonder if ZH has a rebuttal, although it was from a contributor to ZH
Good eye bpj. Thanks.
A little due diligence is always in order... in the meantime looks like Chrysler will be using the Silverdome parking lot for storing... wait for it...
Cars.
Meanwhile back at the outhouse.... things were beginning to pile up...
"Pontiac Building Director Jeff Bowdell said Silverdome representatives recently received a permit to lease a portion of the venue’s parking lot for the storage of new Chrysler vehicles. A bond had to be paid upfront, and a new fence and guard shack are being constructed, Bowdell said."
http://www.theoaklandpress.com/general-news/20140320/no-word-on-future-o...
who by god gives a flying flub if there is more or less junk on the shelves of a junk store?
smells like a bull market when zerohedge is talking about anything but the bull market.
bpj ZH should vet his articles, this is for the unsold autos post a few days ago.
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/unsold-car-stockpile-photographs.shtml#.U3omR...
----
Yea, perhaps you should delve a little bit further for your rebuttal. According to the data they cite, current sales for the year just ended, US auto sales rose 13.5 per cent to nearly 14.5 million new vehicles, the best performance since 2007, according to Reuters calculations.
Then they make thise statement
In the decade prior to 2008 when the recession slowed the industry, US auto sales averaged nearly 17 million vehicles a year.
Thus sales still haven't reached the levels in the decade prior to 2008.
Link: http://www.smh.com.au/business/world-business/us-car-sales-post-best-yea...
Incidently, it cites the UK sales being the best since 2007. Again the same situation.
I cannot refute the use of the photos but ZH has done a on the subject of channel stuffing. There are more people, more supply, yet not enough demand to meet that supply.
ZH should vet his articles, this is for the unsold autos post a few days ago.
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/unsold-car-stockpile-photographs.shtml#.U3omR...
ZH should vet his articles, this is for the unsold autos post a few days ago.
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/unsold-car-stockpile-photographs.shtml#.U3omR...
I voted you down this time because twice is enough!
Good fact checking BTW...
ZerOhead I voted you down this time because twice is enough!
Good fact checking BTW.
-----
Bloomberg Business Week:
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-07-31/american-automobile-glut...
Some 3.27 million new cars are now sitting on lots across the U.S., more than there have been in almost five years, according to Automotive News. That’s a lot of cars—just enough to equip every man, woman, and child in the state of Iowa with a new vehicle, and just slightly less than the number of iPhones added to Verizon’s network last quarter. A year ago at this time, by contrast, there were 2.7 million vehicles lying in wait across the country; summer 2011 saw an inventory of about 1 million fewer cars.
---
I don't think there are hidden lots where cars go to die. I do think that sales lots are full because of channel stuffing.
I know I know... the inventory of new and unsold cars are in fact piling up. I actually know people in various segments of this industry and even one guy who leases his lot to a manufacturer.
The Oakland Press article above shows you what Chrysler in Michigan is doing about it's surplus inventory.
The problem for me occurs when pictures of cars in parking lots are not actually the current pictures of cars in parking lots as the story implies. Kinda like the misrepresentation the Kiev Junta was trying to pass off of supposed "Russian" soldiers in East Ukraine.
Tainted pictures (regardless of the veracity of the underlying story) taint the readers perception of reality which is getting tough enough to figure out these days already....
ZH must have ruffled someones feathers, it seems these disclaimers appear everywhere. If you read the article that included those pictures you would have noticed that the author did indicate that some of the sites had indeed had the cars removed. But others were date stamped and were pretty accurate. I'd sa go long car movers, as the companies start rotating locations so that they are harder to identify.
For what it is worth, I know a guy in CA that has a car moving company... he said business is booming. He also confirmed channel stuffing out the ying/yang.
When all of a family's money is spent on servicing an inflated mortgage, then retail will die a natural death. See Australia also, and US in a year or two.
A 1400 sq ft muli-story, 6 including the roof-deck, townhouse sold for 61k over the 559k asking price. Interest rates are as low as 1.99 percent now. That's less than a grand a month in interest. I sure hope they aren't counting thwe stairs in the sq ft calculation. It's pretty cool to see hanging vines in the stairwell or to spit from the top. All that for only 2500 a month? And Zeller's only sold out to Target because they had killer leases they turned into billions of dollars in profit. Who is Target selling to?
Store closing to be announced soon? Why stock if you are gonna have to reload it. move it and restock it?
Don't show those pictures to the EBT crowd. They'll freak!
[MSM spin mode]: it must be that cold Canadian weather that has enticed buyers to show up in record numbers, and the supply chain simply can't keep up. THAT's how great the economic 'recovery' is doing! [/MSM spin mode]
sadly, Target management gets the blame. But if you know Canada then you know the Olive Garden, a beloved restaurant of almost all Canadians, had to shut down. I talked with an executive as to why they would shut them down when Canadians are pouring into the US just to visit Olive Gardens.
His response floored me "we couldn't find competent people to manage them". So maybe this is the reason for Target's troubles in Canada?
Translation; We do not pay our managers jack shit, and expect them to work 70 hours a week for a crappy salary, and as a bonus, they get to deal with a monumental number of dipshit employees who work for minimum wage and never show up for work. Also, if the business does not hit the numbers that corporate wants, then we threaten them - that is our sophiticated management style. We learned that at the shitbag community college MBA program.
Idiots.
Maverick
Target screwed up the market research on Canada. It's like they don't get us. I want my Zellers back.
Suppliers have cleary stopped extending credit to Target Canada.
Looks like the welfare checks stopped coming and the locals cleaned house!
Wake me when those are pictures of shelves that normally hold essentials.
Fuck target.
Fuck target and all other Chinese designed to fail product sellers.
Target doesn't sell ammo.
Empty shelves don't kill retail... cameras do!
Target Target
That's our store
We shop there
'Cause we're too afraid of Wal-mart
:|
Even armed (CHL), I will not go to Walmart after dark. Walmart is just too much of a freak show after dark.
I'm getting there. Had a guy try to bum money off me in the liquor aisle one night a few weeks ago. Claimed it was for food...I would have given him a few bucks if he didn't stink of cigarrette smoke. If you can afford to smoke these days, I don't need to fund your food purchases. Also, I notice there is always at least one uniformed cop hanging out near the front of the store after dark...I'm sure that's just a coincidence though.
Just before these Target retards bought Zellers , ppl in Canada were really liking Zellers. It was a shame to see Zellers go.
But since fundamentals don't matter , isn't this bullish ? The stock should be at 52 week highs
Remember, Use Cash!
Could be a store re-org. Seems like every week one reatil or another wants to completely re-arrange the store.
In 7 or 8 different departments at the same time?
You've never worked retail?
Nope - I was waiting tables or tending bar in the years I would have otherwise been working retail...excuse my ignorance if this sort of thing is common in department stores.
#FUKU......https://www.facebook.com/groups/nucleartracktown/ ..the Canooks know what's coming..so do the Quantum Computers.
Zero Hedge Bitchez
fc
don't be postin' no facebook links. I refuse to sign up to see 'em. And it says a lot about who you are.
Wow, looks to me that demand is so great that they can't keep the shelves stocked.
Just hope the customer is not charging my credit card.
isudas
Wow, the economy is so good they can't keep the shelves stocked!!! Buy the dip!
Walls and walls of cheap plastic garbage destined for a landfill. Why do people shop in these places? I went to a target once to replace our metal garbage can ( mr miffed took a bat to ours after a bad day) and was shocked to find they no longer stock metal cans, only plastic. So, mr and I reshaped our can which is somewhat functional if leaded against a wall. My contribution to the economy.
Miffed;-)
Metal Garbage are still available, You just have to go to a real hardware store. ACE Hardware sells them
Right.
Tried to find a metal sewer drain cover - cast iron. No luck at Lowe's or Home Despot; guy at Lowe's even claimed they were no longer made.
A stop at Trader Horn and a new cast iron cover found a new home.
Well not in China they aren't.
Target seems like China-Mart. Picked over garbage.
Why go to these stores when you need cards? The Dollar Tree store has cards for 55 cents. Helium baloons for $1.
Cell phone plans with data $25/month. In the mean time steak is $10/lb and other food just keeps going up.
Welcome to the new economy!
double
Bacon $5.00 a pound, guess we'll have to get out the string and just take turns chewing it awhile... BTW the string is in case anyone TRIES to swallow it!
12oz isnt a pound. Just sayin
Retail is for suckers. On the meat, you have 2 ways to save:
1. Find someone with wholesale access (either a restaurant/shop owner or someone who runs a non-profit church, school etc) they have access to places like Jetro, Cash n Carry, which have much better prices on meat, veg, etc. Yes you do have to buy more, but a chest freezer or sharing among friends and relatives will work too.
2. Buy direct from farmers or CSAs. I can get organic, grass fed 1/4 beef about $5/lb dressed and packaged (about 100 lbs).
Of course, it's always good to buy from your small, local butcher or fishmonger (they do still exist!).
Yea.
I picked up a half of beef, grass fed from this Amish farmer 'bout an hour North of where I live - for less per pound than WalMart's beef of dubious origin.
Had to buy a new chest freezer for it but they are surprisingly cheap.
Check out eatwild.com
Looks more like a store that is about to be shuttered
These stories will go on forever for one simple reason: retail giants were born to die.
One story I havent seen in the news is the explosion of second-hand stores, aka "places where people go to buy other people's garbage." And the second-hand stores are not just appearing in bad neighborhoods but upscale suburbs across the country. Over the last few years its become fashionable to shop at the Salvation Army. If that's not a sign of the times, I dont know what is.
Around here I get almost brand-new shirts, etc-- major labels!
Wifey brought home a vault dehumidifier for 3$ US. Found a brand new motorcycle helmet DOT 3 for 5$.
Now, dumpster diving is one off our family traditions due to LCs wild early lifestyle, so we are already primed. I remember I found 5000 pharmacy company pens- nice ones- once, sold em for 10 cents each. When my kids were little, and we'd be driving, they would shout out: "Look, dad! a loaded dumpster!" Well, that was all it took.
Lots of "trickle down" goodies here!
See ya at the swap meet/flea market.
I bought a pair of good gold Gucci Galoshes for only 8 bucks and they retail for more than what I paid for my first used car.
True story.
It is not just Target in Canada you see that at. Years ago when I worked in a supermarket as a kid they used to have a presentation trick for this it was called pulling all the stock forward and creating the illusion of a full shelf. That was considering more important than actually stocking the shelves full in the first place.
It's called "leveling and facing off"
It is done for presentation not to hide empty shelves.
That is done in all stores today.
The other side of the problem:
HAVING PROBLEMS PAYING SUPPLIERS?
Bingo! It seems that getting someone to stock stuff would be a no-brainer, but not if the loading dock's empty.
I heard on Canadian radio recently that Wal-Mart is doing fine up there while Target struggles.
At a guess, Canadian labor laws do not allow Wal-Mart's usual labor practices to tarnish its reputation, while Canada's demographics mean fewer mouth-breathers (a/k/a "People of Wal-Mart") to make regular customers uncomfortable.
That leaves Target with scant intangible advantage by comparison, and still at a price disadvantage.
I agree. In Canada, the people at the Walmart are just like the people at the other stores. I have heard other posters mention police at the Walmarts at night and skeezy people in the aisles. I have seen picture montages of what people wear to walmarts and I've never seen that here.
Many people refuse to shop at Walmart because of their questionable practices but really in Canada it is the major player in low cost groceries and general merch.
Although I do love my Giant Tiger.
Target came to town acting like we were lucky to get them. No grand opening sales, no door crasher sales. They did not understand the Canadian psyche. And I still don't know anyone that goes there regularly.
Crap, crap, crap - so much crap.
I can't believe all the crap I see in stores.
Plastic mostly, a lot of it poorly made or of materials that give it a 6 month -1 year life expectancy.
I miss the days of metal and chrome, of mechanical gears and levers, of leather and linoleum, of stairs and chairs that would last a generation not a season.
+1
Resource limits. Regular Joe simply won't pay what such products cost to build. Although over their lifetime they will likely pay more for multiple products. The moral is to buy better even if it means you buy less.
Salvage, repair, make. For the price of a high-end couch, you can buy the tools and make 50 couches.
Zappa summed it up years ago, just substitute American with Chinese
I'm a moron, 'n' this is my wife
She's frosting a cake
With a paper knife
All what we got here's
American made
It's a little bit cheesey,
But it's nicely displayed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKE3ZLj7_V8
I'm still using a stapler I bought 42 years ago; used! Made by PILOT in the US, it still works better than anything on the market today. I believe it's in the Smithsonian Museum of Industrial Design.
I'm still using a Spear and Jackson (English) garden spade I bought about 22 years ago. It's as good as new.
As any mechanic or gardener will tell you; you never regret buying good quality tools.
"The price is forgotten, while the quality is remembered."
Did Canada start sanctioning chinese imported goods without telling anyone else?
I had the misfortune of stopping by Target this weekend. The store was literally like " Weekend At Bernies". I hadn't been in a Target for at least a year, and it will probably be at least 10 before I go again.
It was packed like a sardine can full of zombie trinket shoppers with their evil spawn run amok, drooling MERS, SARS and God knows what else everywhere. The place looked a cyclone had swept through it and was full of overpriced junk, so I gathered myself together and B-lined it out of that hellhole....
funniest thing I read all day.......
Here was me thinking the pro-creating goons/neds were just a problem in Scotland. Good to know it's a US and Canada issue too lol. Maybe we can do a goon swap and create a derivative etf from it.
We're also sprouting pawn shops and 'cash for your telly' outlets this side of the pond (never mind cash for gold)! The big department stores are going the sad way of Target and Walmart too, never seen such volumes of cheap plastic tat in my life. Best to buy local, buy quality and never need to buy again.
After last week's bogus (or severely outdated) new-cars-sitting-on-the-docks story, it is hard to take too much here seriously. Where is the editorial review? I know, I know...I'm responsible for doing my own research. Still, you guys should at least review some of the stuff you throw up here or else this place is no different than a simple Google or Bing search. I mean, really...who uses Google Earth to make any kind of statement on new car inventories??? And with the article at hand, how do we know that this isn't just some disinformation moron feeding another crap story to Zerohedge? Anybody can take pictures of empty shelves. That doesn't equal the end of the world.
Don't misunderstand me, I am firmly in the camp of "Something ain't right in the world". However, screaming louder and more hysterically only serves to discredit your viewpoint. The huge assumptions here are that your goals aren't to discredit this website and that you are looking for more than just click-throughs.
After my local Zellers got closed after the Target takeover, alot of locals vowed never to set foot in a Target. While our town didn't get a Target (just an empty building), I have been to nearby communities that did get a Target, and they look just like these pics. Empty shelves, and items on sale were not available.
From my viewpoint, this article is right on target (pun intended)
+1
I think the pics are accurate for my location too.
It's reallly quite simple. Major retailers try to control price, quantity, quality, and delivery date. The only variable factor for manufacturers is labor cost. And now that the rest of the world is ready to dump the dollar the for international settlement, this is exactly what you get.
I find myself laughing uncontrollably. What else can you do at this point?
Our bastardized version of capitalism, I mean fascism, I mean communism, I mean socialism is eating itself.
What's their inventory turnover?
These pictures either represent products "flying off the shelves" or a horribly mismanaged supply chain.
Get rid of all the shelving they can't fill. Then use the 75% of the floor space left for something else. I recommend electric indorr go karts.
Strippers. I go to Target for the strippers.
My first thought too. ( for so many things....)
Seriously. Sublet floor space to various small business. Use the Target checkout system to collect and remit sales to renters, while automatically collecting rent.
A mini mall in the Target store.
"Use the Target checkout system..."
Then again... maybe not.
Great idea!!
Booth one: "Kebab here! kebab here! Goat! Pig! Keeebab HERE!"
Booth two: Self serve dentistry!
Booth three: Have you heard the good news? Jesus loves you!
Booth four: "shine your shoes Guv'ner? I'm powerful hungry!"
Booth five: "sign up for ObamaKare and get one free carton of Pall Malls!"
Actually, that'd be awesome.
The Target flea market....with free fleas
Electric indoor go karts...
...you mean like the ones for fat people? They've already got those.
This could have been nothing more than simply well timed pictures between a sell off for an inventory reset. The reset could have been for line changes between seasons or manufacturer change or something else. Pictures without understanding the full context is simply conjecture
EMPTY SHELVES...coming to EVERY STORE in the United States SOON!
Get used to this sort of stuff.
"Hello, is this the store with no shoes?"
"No. This is the store with no food. The store with no shoes is next door."
"Thank you."
--Old joke from the USSR, now a new joke for the USSA.
Target Canada = Zellers. Name has changed, failure remains.
I've worked a long time in retail management, and I'll tell you exactly what's going on here.
An underperforming store got its deliveries cut back to maybe once or twice a week. Meanwhile, a scheduling computer program which auomatically allocates hours based on "store needs" (which the local managers are powerless to change and get in trouble when they override) has decided that the stocking crew can only work for eight hours this week, from 3 AM to 7 AM on Monday morning and again from 11 PM to 3 PM Thursday night (for $8.25/hr). Fed up with the ridiculous schedule and no pay, everybody who can, quits the job. Personnel is an endless turnover of the very young, the desperate, and the lowlifes. Managers who have had their hands completely tied by the corporate wing are genuinely not allowed to address this situation in creative and responsible ways. Computer programs make all their deisions for them, and their job is really just to make the data look right...or else. As a result, managers who are decent human beings also quit, and the promotion pool is filled by the dirtbags, psychopaths, and losers who contrive to stick around long enough to fill a slot. They wouldn't know how to find shoes in a shoebox, and with their heavyhanded determination to please their corporate overlords they run off everybody actually interested in doing a good job. Conclusion: No competent employees, no competent management, no merchandizing, shitty customer service, reduced sales, vicious circle, more of the same, and retail collapse.
My family has roots going back many decades in the grocery business, and I've seen this happen to one grocery chain after another after another. The list of dead grocers is almost endless, and they've all died the same way. The cancer sets in whenever some consulting firm convinces the dipshits at the corporate level that they can squeeze more profit out of their stories by adopting "scientific" management techniques. They begin by forcing store managers and department managers into their Procrustean bed of number-juggling and demanding results which their own policies render impossible. They use the "failure" of management to perform as an excuse to usurp more and more local authority. It can take a solid decade or two for the results to fully filter through the system, but the final state of affairs is a computer-controlled clusterfuck wherein no competent human being can be found to address the problems. Customers vote with their feet, and the only ones who end up benefitting from this are the original consultants, the snake oil salesmen of our time.
Kroger, currently the second biggest grocery retailer in America, is just now tipping into the catabolic phase of this life cycle. Their version of scientific managment goes by the name "Key Retailing." Go ahead, ask any employee of a Kroger-owned affiliate what Key Retailing is, but be prepared to offer them a kleenex. The horrors of this system have destroyed the lives and happiness of innumerable human beings. In ten years' time Kroger wil look like Albertson's does today. In fifteen years, it will look like the pictures above.
Hate to say it, but it seems like the zombie banking loan officers have moved into the reatail management sector.
How I long for the good old days, where the title "Store Manager" meant more than "I got this title in lieu of a raise".
Albertsons was just re-purchased by the original owner so they might be looking up. First thing the new/old owner did was to stop the loyalty card program! The reasoning? Everyone gets the best price offered whether or not they have a Albertsons card. What a concept. Its the only store in my town but I still try to reward theym for not tracking me that way.
Zerohedge gets a glitch...
and I get triple posted...
Excellent explanation of the typical result of centralized management guided by bad consultants. The really important point that I picked up was that this can take a decade or two to play out, destroying the organization from within. I went though this with W.T. Grant's chain (if anyone is that old), Woolworth's Woolco excursion to take on K-Mart, and speaking of K-Mart, K-Mart. With no local control over resources the managers are hamstrung and just praying to make it to retirement before they get let go or the company goes belly up.
This all sounds like the big engineering firm I work for. Probably ought to look for the exit. Thanks Goose!
@ GooseShtepping Moron
Great assessment of the retail grocery business.
Question? How does Publix get it right? Their stores work and are a delight to shop in.
Publix is owned by its employees.
I'm glad you asked.
The long and the short of it is that Publix is employee-owned. Managers and employees have a direct stake in the future success of their enterprise, and all policies are oriented by that overarching concern.
Grocery stores only work well with two models: Either they are employee-owned and practice profit sharing, or they are pivately owned by the original founder and his family who still look upon them as "the family business" and not "the family cash cow" (Wal-Mart is the odious result of a family-owned business degrading to cash cow status). The founders of local chains often act like public tribunes and make a point of engaging with the community in productive, mutually beneficial ways. By doing this they build solid brand recognition and trust.
When grocery stores sell out to corporate interests their days are numbered. The grocery business cannot function based on the Wall Street model. It is not a growth industry and it does not generate large returns on investment. Profit margins in grocery retail struggle to reach 1-2% of revenues. The only way that a grocery chain can be "made profitable" is to cannabalize its existing pool of resources, labor, and public trust. This is what I mean by "going catabolic." Dying grocery chains gut themselves in a last-ditch effort to meet the demands of scientific management.
If you want to do grocery with your life, you have to look upon your role in the community in much the same way that a small town sheriff would look upon his: "These are my people, damn it, and I'm going to take care of them." You cannot be in it for short term gain, for there is none to be had. A grocer who does this will eventually prosper in the slow, organic way so characteristic of genuinely human things; but when the business is used as a pawn in the rehypothecation games of Wall Street money-pirates, it is simply burned up, strip mined, and left to rot.
@goose,
Both your posts explains the corp model nicely. I've seen it with my own eyes. The suits take inventory mgmt away from local store mgmt and let the computers algo's (VMI, POS) run inventory right into the toilet.
Thank you Goose. This post, and the one you made just above it, while not telling me anything I didn't already know, allowed me to finally make some connections I hadn't made before. Cheers!
Publix stock split 5-1 in 2006...took my shit and dipped.
Goose, you are spot on and I hear the frustration in your tone. I have a similar story of frustration. Once upon a time a company that I worked for which primarly dealt with contractors but also did retail was bought out by a much larger company from Moline, Illinois. Yeah, that company who just sold 60% of in interest to ServiceMaster because they so thoroughly fucked things up that customers fled to the hills and they did it with a corporate populated by people who had never worked the stores and were unfamilar with the windows based sales and forcasting systems of the company they had purchased.(they were still using MSDOS) They got the bright idea to try to sync the systems and as you would expect the shit hit the fan and being the fucking genuises that this corporate was, decided to implement this oh so brilliant idea right before our busiest time of year. The equivalent of a big box retailer doing the same right before halloween.
Predictably, the platforms were not compatible and interfered with the Windows based sales, quoting and forcasting programs. Seeing as how the new corporate gets a boner over firing the old corporate and IT dept, there was no one left to fix it. They fired alll of the buyer so there was no one left to address any issues. Half of the time we did even have working computers and had to write orders by hand. We could't tell what our costs were, which other of the 450 stores had what on hand we couldn't even run a simple sales order but this only occurred in the stores that acquired in the buyout. That wasn't the only problem of course. The acquiring company had a completely different product line than the acquired and they began channel stuffing that shit down our throats. Truckloads of product would show up and we had no idea what the hell the stuff even was so we would just receive it and stack it somewhere. None of our existing customers knew what the it was either and sure as hell weren't going to buy it.
Enter the magical accounting practice known as SVA charges (shareholder value added accounting). 12% APR charged off the store's P&L PLUS the cost of whatever the merchandise was. This pissed off a lot of managers and soon the firing began because of poor P&L statements and "lost" imaginary inventory. Shipments that were sent incomplete could not be challenged very easily because you would not know who cut the original PO's with out making a hundred phone calls. And when you might be receiving 20 POs per pallet and 20 pallets a day, you never could catch up. I caught on to what they were doing and started documenting it and making copies of things. I had them by the shorthairs but good. I told my new Area Manager about all of things I was seeing and showed him a bankers box full of contradictory documents. The Regional Vice President flew into town just special to talk to me and my manager.(I was an assistant manager at the time) By some "miracle", I was not fired but my manager was they closed the store and transferred me to one of their original stores.
I did pretty well at that store and we set some good numbers as I learned the new product lines. Some things had improved by that point until one of our competitors went out of business and we quickly scooped up their sales locations and as many of of their employees as we could. I was offered a manager position and after some debate, I took it and had to move again. I had a customer base already the area but it was not primary to what I was doing in a major metro area.
The hell began again. Even though quite a few of the bugs had been worked out and the MSDOS was trashed, but they hadn't stopped messing with the programs used to run a store. We were the only new store in the U.S. opening in 2010 thanks to the ever "recovering" economy and the buyers were not used to seeing the P.O.'s for a new store. We had no sales history so the buyers wouldn't see any history and would cancel the order. This drove me batshit crazy so now you are on the phone all day with 30-40 different buyers trying to get a P.O. cut. "Well, you are going to need corporate approvall for that P.O.". I would reply, "They approved opening the store the so I don't think they would mind if we HAD SOME PRODUCT to sell?" It was like pulling rotten wisdom teeth to get anything but I got my stuff. This went on for a couple of years. New products come out on the market all of the time and you want to have those new products right but stick to your core margin makers right? WRONG! 50 e-mails a day would come in to my inbox either saying you did not comply, are in violation of corporate policy or didn't do some ridiculously retard thing. Corporate is pushing this new product that the CEO's red-headed stepchild designed into your store that no one will buy so open your gullet and get ready to suck on it.
I managed to turn a profit that year and even the Senior Vice-President flew into town to meet with me. He was actually alright although I do not think he has ever been a with a female and judging by the silk white shirt he was wearing, has never picked up a broom much less a shovel. Smart guy though. He just wanted to know how I showed profit in my first year. I was diplomatic. Lots of phone calls and lot's of e-mails. So the next year(2011) they built on to the store and doubled the size of the store. Costs went through the roof! All of a sudden I was losing money just for that fact of the building. Wait a minute here, was I consulted about this? No! This is a limited market, you don't want to outgrow yourself and run expenses beyond income. Then they did something else. They started shipping product and I mean truckloads of product. One day I saw a semi-truck back up to the dock wondered what the fuck was going on so I came out and asked the truck driver "How much of this is mine?". The driver handed me the paperwork and said, "All of it."
Does anyone want to take a guess what was on that truck? What was the price of copper in 2011? That's right, TONS of copper wire. No, not figuratively speaking, but literally speaking. I unloaded around 12 tons of copper wire. I was beside myself. I saw the handwriting on the wall. I was going to be done. I found the P.O.s and they were issued by corporate. Naturally, I had to inquire and was that told there was a copper shortage. By then I was already a posting ZHer and had read some of Tyler's durable goods reports and I brought it up to the buyer, the vendor, upper management and corporate. I sort of went ballistic in truth. We are not talking small change here on finished and coated irrigation wire. It was not bullion copper. It was more than all the all of the entire state of Minnesota would buy and sell in a year. Don't you think I, as manager, should know about that sort of a purchase?
I decided to retaliate, so in my mandatory "development action plan", I stated that I wished to join JPAC.(polical action committee) and I set my goals. I achieved them all without bring up the company but they got nervous. I had to go. It was no secret that I was political and part of the Ron Paul 2012 so on the very first day of the state convention to which I was delegate, I was fired. I should not even have been at work when the area manager showed up but I stayed because a customer requested a loaner machine. I wanted to make sure the paperwork was in order. So it goes. There is a lot more to the story but that is more than enough. I did work for a Target in the US and A part time too to help pay off my student loans.(which are paid) You would not believe the crap they have in the back rooms. Just tons of shit that no one is ever going to buy. How did it get there? Corporate.
Sorry for the long post but Goose is right on track. It sounds so familiar to me that it just has to be the same thing that I experienced. I think many of us have experienced this and it does not matter if it is Canada or the U.S., you get frustrated and the managers take all of the heat from both the customers and the morons at corporate. That would explain why my hands are covered in blue PVC glue right now. It's why I make my business partner do some of this dirt work too. We are a small business. After coming out that corporate situation as middle management, I am firmly convinced that the best managers are the ones who started at the lowest levels and have worked their way up and those are the ones you want. We have employees and some of them are not, shall we say, Einsteins, but what they do like is if you will go out and do what they are doing with them. You get down in the dirt and you fucking dig with them. You don't send a nasty e-mail to them telling them what to do and then bitch at them because they did it wrong. You don't make them take retarded online training course made by idiots who do not know what they are talking about.
And you know what, sometimes they come up a better fixit ideas than mine. The idea is to build the sense in them that if we don't all do this correctly, then we are ALL going to be fucked.
Is that a record long post for me that no one cared to read? I apologize, I just had to say it.
Thank you for sharing that Mani. The world needs to hear more stories like yours, and don't worry about the length. Believe me, I felt you every step of the way.
I can see from all the positive responses that people are ready to talk about these things and address them at a deeper level. The retail world is hell right now, and many middle managers who had the right stuff, guys who were tough and smart and responsible and sincerely cared about their trades, got thrown under the bus by the corporate guys and their goons. That's not how it's going to end; the world will learn about this.
I've long thought the retail industry was ripe for an Upton Sinclair moment, an expose of its hideous and inhuman practices. Now I am sure of it. Write, speak out, and tell your friends. It matters.
Thank you Goose. I did not edit my post very well I will admit but you raised my blood pressure with a great post. Yes, you got green galore because you spoke from the heart and with experienced reason. You spoke the way you did because you have been there and I read it with your own eyes. I can't pass that over. You were honest and ZHers saw it, realized it and reacted upon that fact.
You are very kind to say that the world needs to speak of more stories like mine because you would be correct. I would offer that your story is yet to be told if you wish to tell it. I would like to offer you the opportunity to write a bit more. Many might want to hear more of your story. You have not said your peice yet as I can tell. We have some great ZH bloggers on boating accident news...even a Canadian one or two and a Russian.
I appreciate the Upton Sinclair comment as he is well regarded but I am more of an Albert J. Nock persona from a few years hence. I should have never read Nock because everything suddenly became entirely too predictable. I can't unsee.
manipuflation@boatingaccidentnews.com
who's to say this isn't a reset or a new "re model" that is about to happen? Hell, this looks like a Publix down south dumping inventory before they open a new one. Maybe they are moving the Target down the street. not sure since the article doesn't say. pics...don't tell a thousand words here as I have seen the "empty shelf syndrome" during plenty of store resets and just before grand openings of another store. but wtf do i know...I worked retail too... nearly 2 decades. With that being said, I bet 10 bucks of dented, warm PBR you are right. down votes welcome.
I've seen that.
It's the governmentizing of a business.
Can I start a blog too and take pictures day after Christmas, post them in May for clickbait. Christ in USA just wait til day after EBT and Walmart looks like this.
If you have ever been to a Target Canada (or its ancestor, the HBC-owned Zellers) you would know that these are everyday pictures and, except for some weekends, the place is deserted.
For years I have seen a thining of the shelves and racks at my closest Target.
What they have yet to grasp:
You cannot sell it if you ain't got it.
Fortunately, there's Amazon, where I have yet to have the problem of not getting what I want when I want it.
Still looking for those headshaking photos...
well done ZH: -=*this thread is also wothless with pitchers*=-
Maybe they just had a big sale.
Baaaahahahahah.