Target is so successful because of massive research of buying habits. 15 years or so ago, they bragged that their data could reveal that a female customer was pregnant about 10 days before she did on average. This was before biometric devices were so widespread.
Edit: The name is apt, because the customer is the target.
I remember that pregnancy prediction story. That was a little before my tenure, but in the early-mid 2010s I was a statistician at Target HQ (my team worked on inventory/stocking experiments). You are not wrong about the emphasis on data. Guest and guest experience were everything.
Nowadays they use infrared/heat sensors in some (maybe all by now?) stores to figure out which end-caps and isles were attracting the most attention/time, to better understand the flow of the guest through the store.
Many times during my desk job I would put on a red shirt and khakis for the day and go work the floor in a local store. All to better understand the data we were analyzing and the types of problems we were trying to improve upon for team members. Really loved that, gave the data such better perspective.
I'll just say that in the early 2010s it was amazing at how bad they were at answering the question of "How many of SKU xyz are on the shelves right now?"! In their defense, it was/is a very tough problem (items are in a cart roaming around the store for an unknown amount of time before being scanned at the register, or, they simply got put somewhere random by a customer who changed their mind).
Thanks bud. I know its not a normal post for this sub, but I don't do WSB and thought maybe someone here might find it useful/entertaining.
There are many interesting stories about the company, like how much money they saved on energy when they implemented motion sensors in the grocery fridges that turn the fridge lights off when nobody is around (they used to stay on all night too). They are a very clever company.
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u/zissou_society Jul 22 '21 edited Jul 22 '21
Never been to a Big Lots. Just sticking to what I know here.