Local stores deal with holiday return rush

ALBANY — After the holiday season, shopping carts filled with items soon to be returned line a few aisles in Albany stores such as Wal-Mart and Target. In the local Target, employees and team leaders say they have planned ways to keep the return rush flowing smoothly.

Charles Felton, executive leader for the sales floor, said the local Target sees “a lot” of returns after Christmas.

Senior Team Leader Shi Singleton added that the returns could depend on the type of gift someone received, and that the store prepared by employing more seasonal help.

“If it’s clothes, a sweater or something like that, and they don’t fit, well, they’re going to bring it back,” Singleton said. “We make sure that we’re staffed and prepared for the returns today. Usually, we’ll have one person open up here at the service desk; we had two open at the service desk. We have two opening and two closing.”

Singleton credited organization on the front end of business as another way Target prepared for the return cycle.

“Just making sure that everyone’s in the right place at the right time, knows their roles and things like that,” she said. “We’re always calling for our team members to come pick up those returns so they can put them back out to the sales floor.”

Along those lines, Felton agreed with Singleton and said ensuring the employees keep to their schedules is one of the main factors that allows Target to keep up with post-holiday demands.

“(Target has a) backup so when people have to go to lunches and breaks, we’re never running with just one person,” the sales executive said. “We always have two (people). The main thing we do to ensure that we’re good is to keep it rolling so nobody’s standing around, waiting for a long time, getting agitated. We try to get (customers) in and out as quick as possible.”

Felton said there’s no specialized training for the return rush since it’s the same processes employees are used to but amplified due to the holidays. To help current workers, Felton said the store brought on somewhere between 40-50 seasonal hires for the time between Black Friday and the new year.

“That’s pretty much the average for each Target store,” Felton said. “I know the one I was trained in before I came here, in Alabama, we hired 63 (people). It gets that crazy. … There’s nothing quite like that day of Black Friday, but everything’s pretty much ramped up for that time being. We do a lot of sales, and that’s the reason for bringing on all the additional team members. (Post-holiday returns are) pretty close to (Black Friday), but not as bad.”

Long lines of shoppers looking to return unwanted or ill-fitting gifts — as well as bargain-hunters looking for post-holiday mark-downs — came out in large numbers Wednesday in what has become something of a new holiday tradition. Those gift returners and shoppers looking for discounts are expected to maintain their quests through the end of the year.