THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 28, 1996 TAG: 9607270345
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEPHANIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: 63 lines
Target Stores' new discount outlet, a brick colossus off Greenbrier Parkway, was dark when hundreds of employees and their families filed inside.
Then, music blared and strobe lights bounced off the walls. Target's red-shirted employees clapped and hooted as the store manager jumped onto the podium.
``Welcome to Target,'' he shouted during Tuesday night's pre-opening celebration. ``My name is Dan Eggers, and I'm the store team leader at Chesapeake.''
As Olympic theme music played, Eggers introduced his employees. He called them his friends, his teammates, his team players. He said they were the ``world-class team members'' who helped build Target's new Greenbrier store.
The celebration and accolades are part of Target's plan to win over discount shoppers and run over competitors. It's called total quality management, or TQM for short. The management technique is the latest corporate rage, relished by many, tolerated by some and scary to others.
As Target holds grand openings at its first Hampton Roads stores today - one in Chesapeake and the other in Hampton - it believes TQM will help give it an edge in the regional market.
``To a specific store's success and also to the entire company, TQM is critical,'' Eggers said.
The goals of total quality management include focusing on the customer and having employees work as a team. The philosophy stresses the importance of workers to a company's success.
That's why, in Target-speak, workers are called team players. Bosses are team leaders. And more importantly, shoppers are guests.
Target says that, under TQM, it asks its employees to make decisions that traditionally have been made by managers.
For example, if an item is scratched, a fabric is torn - an employee can lower the price at the checkout lane. If a product is priced incorrectly, a cashier can fix the mistake. To create a new display, a worker doesn't need to ask permission.
``I think one of the most important issues is empowerment,'' Eggers said. ``It does not take a manager to make a decision in the store.''
Customers, in turn, benefit because they have fewer hassles. They don't have to wait for a manager, and they don't have to twiddle their thumbs in stalled check-out lanes.
The discount retailer, a division of Minneapolis-based Dayton Hudson Corp., began using total quality management about five years ago, retraining everyone from cashiers to top executives.
Target isn't the only the retailer involved in TQM. Others include Taco Bell, Harris Teeter and Wal-Mart. In fact, almost every retailer has some form of TQM, said Saul Yaari, a retail analyst with Piper Jaffray in Minneapolis.
What makes the difference is how retailers apply TQM strategies, Yaari said. They can't just give lip service. They have to actually do it, he said.
``Most retailers, if they want to survive, have to implement some form of total quality management,'' he said. ``I'm not saying everybody does it well. Target does it very well.''
What do employees think of it all?
``Certainly nothing is perfect,'' Target spokeswoman Carolyn Brookter said. ``I don't want to sound `rah-rah,' either, but this is our culture. It is enthusiastic. It is a place where you're valued.''
KEYWORDS: TARGET DEPARTMENT STORE TQM TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT by CNB