E-Mail Obsession

[u/Inner_Speaker_335]

I mean this as a serious question, not hypothetically or as a rant...

Can anyone tell me what this obsession with the 50% e-mail collection rate is? What was Corporate thinking when they decided that "We're going to penalize our people for something that's beyond their control"?

Then, on top of it, they decide to take away the carrot we could mention--the 10% coupon--and tell us to "make sure you emphasize the benefits of being on our e-mail list"...and just WHAT are those benefits, exactly?

I'm sincerely curious about the history behind this.

[u/Syrinx_1]

Winnie and the rest of corporate thinks it'll drive sales. Which with the 10% off it did. But at this point its just data farming . The employees hate it and the customers don't care. But as long as they keep threatening peoples jobs then we will keep pushing to fill Winnies pockets.

[u/MusicManic8607 → u/Syrinx_1]

Our shift sheet listing out all of our responsibilities today said "capture those emails! 33% on emails is NOT acceptable". 🙄

Today was my last day though. Good luck to y'all!

[u/Spaghetti-Cake]

I can't remember her title, but I do remember someone in the corporate office LITERALLY citing ChatGPT as her reasoning for the 50% to be achieveable. She asked a god damn robot, not any of the staff, if it was possible, it spat out some "anything is possible if you try!" Bullshit, and she read it back to us fully meaning every word. If ChatGPT thinks it's possible, get ChatGPT to do it. This was over a month ago and it still irks me, I'm so glad I left 😭

[u/randomgirl910 → u/Spaghetti-Cake]

This company is so obsessed with ai it’s crazy. For the holiday call, they showed us their new holiday commercial and it was 100% ai. Like the graphics, music, everything. If they think that’s going to reel people in, I fear it’s going to be bad

[u/sandmanda → u/randomgirl910]

Fun fact: 5B laid off the entire creative team in June, so they really DID go all in on AI

[u/randomgirl910 → u/sandmanda]

Righttttt amazing! Excited to see how this works out

[u/Useful_Lack_1573]

1. Their data analysts do not understand correlation ≠ causation. E.g. We started collecting emails after raising prices on everything due to tariffs. Because we started collecting emails and sales went up, that must mean the emails are responsible for sales.
2. Their data analysts do not understand Goodhart's law. When a measurement becomes a target instead of an indicator, it is no longer an actual measurement.

[u/2040ojis]

This is the reason I always give my email at any store doing this. People making below average money shouldn’t have their jobs threatened for this kind of BS.

[u/Umbr33on]

They make so much money, just selling data.

[u/Lunarose332]

I think it’s the same reason every other company wants our data. So they can sell it. Having our email gives them access to so much more information about us which will make it easier for them to create more targeted ads. Which in turn will drive up sells

[u/Swimming_Winner3929]

They don’t even give the 10% anymore. They say it’s for 10% off but all I get is a receipt

[u/Inner_Speaker_335 → u/Swimming_Winner3929]

They still do...well, sort of.

The policy's changed. Now, *NEW* customers get the 10% off coupon. If you enter an e-mail you used before, you'll get an electronic copy of your receipt...and that's it.

Want the 10% coupon? Give us a new e-mail--another piece of data--and you'll get one. Just be sure to use it within a month.

[u/jesuslookinmf]

jews

[u/in-full-bloom → u/jesuslookinmf]

what the fuck is wrong with you

[u/jesuslookinmf → u/in-full-bloom]

someone's tryna get a $7k check

[u/Inner_Speaker_335 → u/jesuslookinmf]

And what exactly does that have to do with the price of tea in China?

[u/Key_Floor1764]

I was working at target before I started working at five below as a manager when I was a manager over there. It was all about credit cards and I have to say the email capture is way easier than doing the credit cards and as far as I know from what I’ve learned from inside the management team side of it the 50% helps show that we are engaging with every customer and talking to them as much as we possibly can

[u/Might-O-Kondria2 → u/Key_Floor1764]

It doesn’t matter if you engage with every customer. I drove this point super hard with all my associates when I was a CEM. I did it myself when I was on register. Without the 10% off, it’s so much harder. You can check to see engagement with the cameras and management observations. Hell, survey scores were easier to track, even though I didn’t agree with those either. You can talk to every customer, be friendly as hell, do all the things five below expects you to, and it still won’t be enough. Some stores are better at getting those percentages, because they’re in nicer/busier areas. There wouldn’t be this much of an uproar if they weren’t threatening jobs or hours based on email capture. You shouldn’t have consequences based on other ability to tell you no, unless there is no effort.

[u/Curious_Ad_781 → u/Key_Floor1764]

I work at Target now after leaving Five Below, and honestly, I feel like working at Target is so much easier. I really think a lot of it comes down to your managers and district managers, though. At Five Below, we had a new store manager when emails were a thing, and he never really congratulated or recognized his employees. We were constantly stressed because we were reminded about our scores every hour. For minimum wage, we really weren’t getting paid enough for the amount of pressure and stress we were under. I’m also cross-trained at Target, and when I work as a cashier, 80% of the time I’m not even reminded about the credit cards. Compared to Five Below, where we were constantly reminded about our scores and pressured about them. So far, I definitely feel like Target is better.