Minneapolis - St. Paul Business News

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kirby96
Union Depot
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Re: Downtown Minneapolis Office Market

Postby kirby96 » March 10th, 2015, 9:06 am

^I hear you, but from the stories dripping out of Target over the years, and rising to a torrent now in the past couple weeks, it sure sounds like there was some serious organizational disfunction there. Hiring just to increase headcount under management, incredible amounts of time wasted on items not directly adding value, etc., etc. Basically things that validate that open letter an employee wrote a year or two ago which at the time seemed like a sour grapes rant to me. The size of the actions taken alone seem to indicate there's was a bloated and somewhat weird environment at Target.

If that's the case, what do you do? Lowering salaries to cut costs doesn't solve the basic issue. You've got people you simply don't need. You sort of have to re-boot.

Tyler
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Re: Downtown Minneapolis Office Market

Postby Tyler » March 10th, 2015, 9:11 am

Ive never heard a single low level corporate employee talk about their company running like a well oiled machine. It's always whining on the same topics -- incompetent managers, time wasted on silly bullshit, worthless co-workers, etc.
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min-chi-cbus
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Re: Downtown Minneapolis Office Market

Postby min-chi-cbus » March 10th, 2015, 9:18 am

^I hear you, but from the stories dripping out of Target over the years, and rising to a torrent now in the past couple weeks, it sure sounds like there was some serious organizational disfunction there. Hiring just to increase headcount under management, incredible amounts of time wasted on items not directly adding value, etc., etc. Basically things that validate that open letter an employee wrote a year or two ago which at the time seemed like a sour grapes rant to me. The size of the actions taken alone seem to indicate there's was a bloated and somewhat weird environment at Target.

If that's the case, what do you do? Lowering salaries to cut costs doesn't solve the basic issue. You've got people you simply don't need. You sort of have to re-boot.
I just assumed that the people who worked there were hired for a reason. I've never heard of hirings just to increase a manager's reporting headcount. I've always wondered how those redundancies were measured in the first place. Does the CEO know how every single person contributes to the company? I've worked at companies who didn't give me nearly enough to do, but over the years I've learned how to create my own work instead of going to my managers requesting jobs to do. There's always something you can do to provide a meaningful contribution.

kirby96
Union Depot
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Re: Downtown Minneapolis Office Market

Postby kirby96 » March 10th, 2015, 9:24 am

I just assumed that the people who worked there were hired for a reason. I've never heard of hirings just to increase a manager's reporting headcount. I've always wondered how those redundancies were measured in the first place. Does the CEO know how every single person contributes to the company?
There have been reports that mid-level managers at Target had their pay indexed to the size of the team they managed, thus incentivizing headcount growth. That's just heresay, of course, but if you start asking around, you hear more and more stuff lke that. I personally know one clothing designer who said there were 5 VP level people managing what operated as a single design team. Of course, when travel to Hawaii or LA was required, 5 VPs were critically required to attend. She fully expects 2 or 3 or them to get the axe. While I myself never worked for Target, I did interview there once, and the process was, well, weird.

twincitizen
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Re: Downtown Minneapolis Office Market

Postby twincitizen » March 10th, 2015, 9:49 am

Sounds like black Tuesday at Target today... From what Jim Hammerand is tweeting.

He just said 1,700 workers are being cut today according to an email sent to employees

This is just sad: https://twitter.com/MaggieLaMaack/statu ... 9398080512
Challenge for those in the know, see if you can pry this information out of the media:

How many of the 1700 layoffs are in Minneapolis? How many in Brooklyn Park?

mattaudio
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Re: Minneapolis - St. Paul Business News

Postby mattaudio » March 10th, 2015, 11:10 am

So. About Target. I realize Target is, on the whole, very positive for MN. But this sort of brings into the light that one of our primary corporate exports has been sprawl. Are we really proud of that?

It's quite sad to see how fast Target's image problem developed. Their heyday may have been in the 90s, and in the 00s they were still known for chic, but now they are just seen as a headache. I feel dirty and annoyed and tired going to Target, and I'm sure I'm not unique in that.

IllogicalJake
Target Field
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Re: Minneapolis - St. Paul Business News

Postby IllogicalJake » March 10th, 2015, 11:14 am

It's quite sad to see how fast Target's image problem developed. Their heyday may have been in the 90s, and in the 00s they were still known for chic, but now they are just seen as a headache. I feel dirty and annoyed and tired going to Target, and I'm sure I'm not unique in that.
Can you elaborate on what you mean more? I understand the fraud problems, terrible CEO, and over-expansion issues. But nothing about going to the store itself or what's inside has changed that I've noticed. How have they grown dirty and annoying and tiring in the past few years alone?
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mattaudio
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Re: Minneapolis - St. Paul Business News

Postby mattaudio » March 10th, 2015, 11:20 am

I didn't say the stores are dirty or tired - they're not, for the most part. I'm saying I feel those things if I shop at a Target (and I rarely do). Dirty - for the sprawl I'm supporting. Annoying and tired - for having to navigate traffic, a block-deep parking lot, and throngs of humanity that crowd it. I just loathe shopping at Target. Or Walmart, where I never go. Or Costco, where I stock up a few times a year. I don't feel the same way shopping online or at local shops or at the co-op or whatever.

David Greene
IDS Center
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Re: Minneapolis - St. Paul Business News

Postby David Greene » March 10th, 2015, 11:22 am

I didn't say the stores are dirty or tired - they're not, for the most part. I'm saying I feel those things if I shop at a Target (and I rarely do). Dirty - for the sprawl I'm supporting. Annoying and tired - for having to navigate traffic, a block-deep parking lot, and throngs of humanity that crowd it.
Shopping at the downtown Target alleviates that a bit though obviously it's still car-centered. I'd feel even better shopping at an Uptown City Target.

mattaudio
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Re: Minneapolis - St. Paul Business News

Postby mattaudio » March 10th, 2015, 11:23 am

That said, they must be doing well considering how crushed the SuperTarget on 66th and Cedar is every afternoon and weekend.
"Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded."

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FISHMANPET
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Re: Minneapolis - St. Paul Business News

Postby FISHMANPET » March 10th, 2015, 11:43 am

I've come to accept the big box as a fact of modern life, in some form of another. So either I'm at the Lake St Target which is fine to get to, or I'm at 66th & Cedar in which case my soul is already sucked.

Although Target Express in Dinkytown is a refreshing change of pace.

When I went to a City Target in Chicago it just seemed to me like a regular target except in an old building. In fact it seemed a little more chaotic to me than a purpose built store, and not really in a good way.

billhelm
Nicollet Mall
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Re: Minneapolis - St. Paul Business News

Postby billhelm » March 10th, 2015, 11:57 am

I didn't say the stores are dirty or tired - they're not, for the most part. I'm saying I feel those things if I shop at a Target (and I rarely do). Dirty - for the sprawl I'm supporting. Annoying and tired - for having to navigate traffic, a block-deep parking lot, and throngs of humanity that crowd it. I just loathe shopping at Target. Or Walmart, where I never go. Or Costco, where I stock up a few times a year. I don't feel the same way shopping online or at local shops or at the co-op or whatever.
Interesting, I use Amazon a lot, but I feel a little dirty about their well documented poor labor practices at distribution centers and the amount of fuel consumption it takes for the UPS truck to deliver a small box of crap I ordered using Prime and didn't consolidate, because hey, Prime. Also their increasing power across a multitude of markets which I don't think is good in the long run. You can feel dirty about a lot of different retail interactions besides the big box strip mall. It's just less transparent when it comes to your doorstep in a brown box with a smile on it.

nordeast homer
US Bank Plaza
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Re: Minneapolis - St. Paul Business News

Postby nordeast homer » March 10th, 2015, 12:36 pm

When I went to a City Target in Chicago it just seemed to me like a regular target except in an old building. In fact it seemed a little more chaotic to me than a purpose built store, and not really in a good way.
That one almost had the feel of a temporary store to me.

xandrex
Wells Fargo Center
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Re: Downtown Minneapolis Office Market

Postby xandrex » March 10th, 2015, 1:28 pm

Challenge for those in the know, see if you can pry this information out of the media:

How many of the 1700 layoffs are in Minneapolis? How many in Brooklyn Park?
I can't say for certain, but I'm going to guess that a pretty substantial chunk of these cuts are downtown. With Cornell's promise of increasing efficiency partially through technology investment and the BP campus being heavily IT oriented (if I'm remembering correctly), I think a lot of BP will be spared (although maybe they'll bring some back to downtown with space opening up?).

A lot of the cuts I've seen today are pretty much everywhere else: business analysts have been decimated (although they have a lot of them), art/design, lots of vice presidents and middle-management. It's bad stuff and most of that is taking place downtown.

Worse still - word has it that there might be a second huge round of layoffs tomorrow.

Silophant
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Re: Minneapolis - St. Paul Business News (TARGET talk here)

Postby Silophant » March 10th, 2015, 1:56 pm

Well, the photo on the Strib website shows at least two of the layoffs were from BP.

If Target is stuck with pretty much all of their space for the long term, so they're resigned to having a bunch of empty space anyway, I'd think they'd want to move people back downtown. Teleconferencing is cool, but not really a good substitute for face to face meetings. IMOo.
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acs
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Re: Minneapolis - St. Paul Business News (TARGET talk here)

Postby acs » March 10th, 2015, 2:04 pm

Isn't the only property they actually own downtown 1000 Nicollet Mall and the building across from it? They only lease at Retek and the Multifoods towers while owning in SLP and Brooklyn Park too. According to the last Bizjournal article they have long-term leases at Retek but they do have an option to sublease a quarter of their space in Multifoods, so that's where I would expect them to cut if anywhere.

twincitizen
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Re: Minneapolis - St. Paul Business News (TARGET talk here)

Postby twincitizen » March 10th, 2015, 2:22 pm

That's correct. I was going to say the same. If they're looking to shed office space in the short term (<5 years while they re-organize and eventually regrow), logic would follow that they would take advantage of the option to sublease out space at 33 South 6th. They own 1000-1050 Nicollet Mall and have no early termination on their long-term lease at Retek (900-950 Nicollet). Unfortunately Minneapolis is going to bear the brunt of this, though clearly some BP employees lost their jobs today too.

mnmike
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Re: Minneapolis - St. Paul Business News (TARGET talk here)

Postby mnmike » March 10th, 2015, 2:27 pm

Soo, I thought they were doing this over 2 years? with already 1700 cut and 1400 open positions cut...how many will it be in the end? Half the employees? This is very bad...they seem to be moving towards more regional operations...probably in places where "it's cheaper"....this is very doomsday of me, but how long until they announce they are moving the HQ? "We plan on keeping a strong corporate presence in MN". Have heard that before.

mattaudio
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Re: Minneapolis - St. Paul Business News (TARGET talk here)

Postby mattaudio » March 10th, 2015, 2:29 pm

Every Fortune 500 firm I've worked for in Mpls has office-side operations in regions around the country, yet the MSP presence is still one of if not the largest presence (even if the firm isn't based here). Why? We have a dynamic city full of smart people. I'm not worried. This isn't doomsday.

mnmike
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Re: Minneapolis - St. Paul Business News (TARGET talk here)

Postby mnmike » March 10th, 2015, 2:39 pm

Every Fortune 500 firm I've worked for in Mpls has office-side operations in regions around the country, yet the MSP presence is still one of if not the largest presence (even if the firm isn't based here). Why? We have a dynamic city full of smart people. I'm not worried. This isn't doomsday.
I wish I shared your optimism :) Of course companies all have regional offices...my point is, sounds like Target is moving much more toward this model...and you should be worried if they downsize their Minneapolis HQ to a glorified regional office! Not saying that is what will happen...but it honestly seems possible. We will see what happens in the coming days and months. Nothing we can do about this...but I certainly am not taking an "i'm not worried, Minneapolis is good" stance at the moment. I do hope you are correct though!


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