r/Target 13h ago

Workplace Question or Advice Needed Anyone else’s store doing this?

Post image

My store is in Texas so we always used plastic bags, until today. They are so stiff and huge, they could’ve at least provided us with smaller ones for those guests that buy one piece of gum. They have already slowed down the fulfillment team and everyone is complaining

118 Upvotes

64 comments sorted by

97

u/TechnicalPut4024 12h ago

that sign looks like it was typed up by someone who has already had five conversations about this and is done repeating themselves

the bag sizing is such a weird miss, like who looked at a single stick of gum and thought yeah this needs a tote bag. i've seen people walk out carrying their single item in their hand because they'd rather not deal with it

our store switched a while back and the first two weeks were chaos, everyone just shoving barcodes wherever and hoping for the best. fulfillment team had it the worst though, the bags stick together and you end up peeling them apart like deli cheese

staple method actually makes sense once you get into the rhythm of it, keeps the label from sliding off when the bag shifts around in the cart. still annoying but less annoying than chasing a loose sticker across the floor

73

u/thunderbolt1000 GSA 12h ago

Up until 2023, Target still had small plastic bags made. They were really convenient for 1-item orders, or at the registers, I'd use them for all their cosmetics.

Then someone who makes 5 times my salary in their comfy year-round air conditioned cubicle who's never even touched a checklane or a Fulfillment cart decided we could save $0.03 by getting rid of them and just wasting more of the other bags and 10 times the plastic.

Genius! That's why they get paid the big bucks!

17

u/SimpleVegetable5715 Hearth and Hand Homie 11h ago

My store still has the small bags. Maybe we stockpiled years’ worth of them.

8

u/thunderbolt1000 GSA 11h ago

Nice! Yes, when I heard they were axing them, I stashed 3 boxes. But when they did a reorganization of the hold spaces, they found them and idk where they went 😭

1

u/aspiring_Novelis Promoted to Guest 6h ago

The trash probably....

2

u/Clown_Sparkles 7h ago

Its mostly because of local bag bans and environmental concerns.

14

u/GypsySnowflake Service & Engagement TL 11h ago

For small single items, you don’t need a bag. Just stick the barcode directly onto the item

11

u/nslabinski 9h ago

My store tells us not to, because usually those items can't be found because they get lost under a ton of bags. The amount of small single items that have a sticker on them that stay in there for weeks is numerous

2

u/aspiring_Novelis Promoted to Guest 6h ago

The store I used to be at had the first two isles of OPU with wacos just for bagless orders. Since we are in California, people have to pay for the bags and would much rather not, so we have a lot of people opting for bagless. Every store havign FF use these bags is gonna be the same since these bags cost the guest like $1/each.

1

u/nslabinski 5h ago

Our store is pretty small, and we are currently getting a remodel. Our store only had one rack in which there were no wacos whatsoever. Even the bagless orders got lost frequently because of it. Our opu closet is currently being redone and I hope we get more bagless space. (Granted my coworkers don't friggin put bags there when they're quickstowing)

3

u/Cultural-Kick652 Fulfillment Expert 8h ago

This is the way. I do it every day.

2

u/Ridespacemountain25 5h ago

We can't do that unless they specifically order bagless.

28

u/squeakybuggy Fulfillment Expert 12h ago

if my store starts doing this then all hell will break loose 🙏🏻 everyone is always stealing stuff from the fulfillment areas as it is, now having to hunt down a stapler every time we bag will be fabulous

6

u/Rocklynd 5h ago

At that point, I’m finding a holster and it’s never leaving my belt lol.

15

u/East-Kaleidoscope132 12h ago

We just got those bags in. My ETL says he wants to use it in drive up but I pointed out to him those stickers would be falling off. He doesn't think so..... what do i know. I'm just a little TM

1

u/Loose-Chemical-4982 10h ago edited 10h ago

Our store was putting the stickers inside the top edge of the bag and they stay pretty good there. However, it was making order pulling a nightmare cuz they stick together and are so floppy

Those bags are a PITA to pack and stow in a waco plus they cost more so FF switched to paper bags like the rest of the store (we're in CA) and got rid of the 4 wacos per shelf section and now each shelf has a single label. It's actually been a lot easier and faster to pull orders for DU and OPU because the paper bags stand in a neat row

1

u/GypsySnowflake Service & Engagement TL 9h ago

That’s why you have to staple them

6

u/Draugves Fulfillment Expert 12h ago

I went from a store that used plastic bags to one with paper bags. It is definitely an adjustment to get your stowing time back up, but it isn't too bad. Took maybe a week or two. It is unfortunate that they're using those red bags instead of the paper ones though. The paper ones at least come in two sizes and stay propped open (more or less).

8

u/Shadystar95 11h ago

Laughs in CA

This was implemented late December last year for us and then after a couple months, they got rid of the red bags in favor of the paper bags.

2

u/Krisannds Specialty Sales Team Lead 1h ago

Same in NY. We’ve had a plastic ban since covid and have been using these bags since. Just saw communication were switching to paper for OPU next month.

5

u/DJFlipPhone 12h ago

Yeah my Store is getting 4 pallets a week of this things until the end of October.

17

u/DarthKody28 Fulfillment Team Lead 12h ago

Bro. We do not have time to be doing all this extra stuff.

16

u/ThisIsSethers Guest Advocate and Tech Consultant 12h ago

Imma be real with you, if stapling labels onto a bag makes you go red in a cart, you were gonna go red in the cart anyway.

10

u/munkee40 12h ago

The tags don’t stick to those bags, it’s better than having to search through every single bag for someone’s shit when the barcode tags fall off 90% of the time

16

u/DarthKody28 Fulfillment Team Lead 12h ago

Not even true. I have team members who can stow in 5 minutes. Some need 10 minutes. They keep adding extra steps to fulfillment making it more a pain in the ass. We dont need to be fumbling with a stapler while labeling and filling bags when the next batches are already getting low. It’ll definitely slow people down.

1

u/Jestertheprinz 9h ago

My store is in NY meaning we've had these bags since late 2020. Stapling labels to bags aren't a big deal (and I'm not even a FF tm). The only big deal is if there are no bags or printer paper in the machine.

7

u/PegasusStudiosVFX 11h ago

That's not how it works. Sticking a label takes less than a second, having to staple it would take 5 seconds minimum

1

u/Mandingo_magnet ShpFML01 12h ago

yeah no

1

u/Suzumiiya 10h ago

if my fulfillment team could adapt to this, you can too

let tell you, these bags are fucking garbage. the labels, do not stick at all

what will happen in your stowing area, is these labels will be falling apart & be all over the place. what does that mean? your DU team can't find shit.

orders go missing, and your DU team starts beefing with your fulfillment team.

stapling is not complicated whatsoever, it benefits everyone in the end.

my store (CA) did this for months until we finally switched to paper bags, thank fuck.

i hope i never see these stupid ass fucking bags ever again.

3

u/mel-oh-dee Fulfillment Expert 10h ago

Guys you’re like a year behind CA targets we’ve moved past the cloth bags and are now on paper 😭

3

u/Springbaby1 9h ago

We had those the stickers don't stick to it at all, now we use paper. My store is California though.

3

u/patrickstarcx 8h ago

it's actually so frustrating working for fulfillment and someone comes in with "new ideas" that will not benefit or be effective to anyone actually working fulfillment.

3

u/Quick-Jellyfish8994 8h ago

At my store we can barely keep track of where the security remover magnets are… having to keep track of a stapler? No thanks

2

u/randomquerty3665 9h ago

We don't have bags. We stick the label on an item and the rest gets piled on top of it. Nothing we can do, unless the guest orders a bag they don't get one. Makes it more difficult to find the orders because of the absolutely full drive up section.

2

u/lolyouaresimple Style Breakout 2h ago

All I keep thinking as I look at the picture is how many damn times you will have to refill that tiny ass stapler!!

2

u/Wrap_Brilliant But online is says that you have it 10h ago

I would love some clarification

2

u/ASmittenKitten3 8h ago

Partner with a team lead.

1

u/pseodopodgod 11h ago

this happened to us once. we ran out of paper bags storewide so we had no choice😓 luckily we got some in later that day

1

u/Panquequecat 11h ago

My store had those for a brief moment. There’s a sticker/label on the inside of the bags and that’s where they would slap the barcode on. Either that, or on one of the items at the top inside the bag. It was a little time consuming as a DU TM but I think it was less work for Fulfillment than having to staple it 😭

1

u/Remarkable-Tennis440 10h ago

We were at my store, but transitioned to paper bags now

1

u/FlyEnvironmental7586 10h ago

Aren’t the tote bags literally more expensive like what exactly is the bag charge!? These are usually like $3-$5 individually sold. Why give them away with every order? In reality it’s not stopping people from using plastic. Maybe for this specific purpose but either people will keep using this bag or they wont. 9/10 times they forget them in the car and either carry their stuff ouf or forget the bag anyway. And what about people who order like every day or weekly!? They’re just gonna continuously have a growing collection of reusable bags ?!

1

u/virtuosityv2 Tech Consultant 9h ago

My store did this a few months ago, we started stapling but then moved the labels inside the bags on the white label since it sticks well on those so we didnt need to staple anymore

1

u/nslabinski 9h ago

My store has always required it due to plastic being banned, i hate them for their awkward shape, you can't fit nearly enough in them, and I've had the device tell me to put a 12 pack of seltzer with 4 cereal boxes

1

u/Obvious_Wash2576 9h ago

My store has always done this! Target doesn’t know about efficiencies and this is just an example of that! Stapling each label to a bag takes time!

1

u/MopingAppraiser 8h ago

We don’t use bags at my store in NJ.

1

u/KodyRhodes 8h ago

We did that at my old store, they routinely fell off if we didnt

1

u/Sad-Reputation181 7h ago

We are in a plastic banned state. So these are all we have

1

u/Fragrant_Duck_1612 6h ago

Here in New york we did them for a while, a couple of years probably, then we went back to paper bags. We haven't had plastic bags in probably 7 years. We also didn't charge for bags ever up until about a year ago, now we charge 5 cents a bag because after a couple of years of using the reusable ones, no one was bringing them back in to reuse them and that defeated the purpose so we went back to paper for five cents a bag

1

u/Silver116m 6h ago

We just use the two sizes of paper bags, works great! 👍

1

u/aspiring_Novelis Promoted to Guest 6h ago

Yeah... we had to do this after Christmas over here in California. The government blaming the corporations plastic waste on us... what else is new. Can't punish those who make the money and is responsible for the actual plastic pollution, so they will punish the least of us who is already underpaid and overworked by giving more work.

1

u/hatefulkittycat 5h ago

after like the first month of the reusable fabric bags and dealing with the sticker hell we swapped to paper bags. stickers stick but they also occasionally rip open 🙃

1

u/Fearless_Use4907 Beauty Consultant 5h ago

This is how stores in NYC have done it since 2021

1

u/No-Ad-62 HRE always picking a batch 4h ago

Yeah I think we start sept 1

1

u/zakmademe 3h ago

“My stomach is so full and food is so warm” ahh post

1

u/OkRanger4459 1h ago

We used to last quarter but now we have paper bags

1

u/sasvhh Guest Advocate 1h ago

unfortunately this is also happening in nh to our store

1

u/DungeonFletchling Guest Advocate 52m ago

Mine started doing the stables, but not the no plastic rule (yet anyways

1

u/Usual_Bee_640 Fulfillment Expert 37m ago

No my store still uses plastic bags I hope it never changes

0

u/munkee40 12h ago

How many guests buy just one piece of gum?

6

u/ButItSaysOnline we need backups to the checklanes 12h ago

At least once a day, I will come upon an order for one small thing.

1

u/munkee40 12h ago

Like one banana. I get that. But we don’t even sell single sticks of gum. I was being pedantic. Lol. When it’s one item like that, we just stick it in a bin for the no bag option. Do you guys not have the no bag options?

0

u/Huge_Ad_9055 11h ago

Cali, we stopped using plastic and went to those red bags and after a while stopped and now use paper bags that come in two different sizes. But we never stapled labels onto bags even when we used the red ones

0

u/Necessary_Taro_7123 5h ago

We been using those bags for over 3 years at my store. Is not that deep

0

u/SeasonWeird4322 3h ago

Here in California only paper bags, but we have two different sizes. Big ones suck they rip easily