I would like to think that I'm your alpha consumer. Since I'm in marketing, you'd think I'd learn to be more immune to advertising and slick direct marketing messages, but I'm not. Show me an enticing glossy magazine ad or send me an email coupon to my favorite store, and I'm sold. I guess you can call me a sucker!
So when the buzz was building for the Jason Wu + Target campaign, of course I paid attention. Navy day dresses and versatile floral printed frocks? Definitely right up my alley. But what really drew me in was the cat motif in this collection. I live with two black cats with a lot of personality, and showing my black cat pride by accessorizing accordingly is always a fun bonus.
The Atlanta Edgewood store at 7:55am this morning.
As a dutiful sucker of a shopper, I:
- Marked the date on my calendar as soon as I got wind of the collection.
- Scoped out the 2 pieces I would aim for.
- Waited up till 3am EST (that's midnight on the West Coast) to buy online to avoid the crowd. Discovered they were both "in-store only."
- And so dragged my butt out of bed at 7am in order to get to the local Target store when doors opened. I stood in line with a group of very excited and polite ladies, and we chatted about which pieces we were looking forward to finding. Neither the dress or the scarf I wanted were even on the racks.
- Shifted gears and restrategized: which suburban store within 30 minutes would likely have the most available? I drove to the store by the Atlanta airport. The first thing I saw after walking in? Two women with carts filled to the brim with the remaining merchandise, clearly to be scalped on eBay.
I hate to put on a pair of ranty pants, but this morning was a pretty big disappointment. I don't know where the breakdown in planning or allocation was, but after training me as a consumer to come to the store to buy this stuff, Target didn't deliver on actually having the goods available.
All disappointment aside, all of the other pieces that were left (blowing in the wind) were worth a look. I was only referring to my wishlist and being strict with myself, but I felt the pieces I saw and touched look just as good as the ads portrayed.
All disappointment aside, all of the other pieces that were left (blowing in the wind) were worth a look. I was only referring to my wishlist and being strict with myself, but I felt the pieces I saw and touched look just as good as the ads portrayed.
- While to me, the navy poplin dress (ahem, which was nowhere to be seen) was the standout piece of the selection, the cream and yellow bike wheel print dress with the pearl collar detail was beautiful in person.
- The navy floral print pieces were vibrant and felt fresh and looked expensive for polyester.
- The solid separates looked well tailored and the colors were saturated.
- The trench coat looked like a million bucks!
- The colorblocky graphic plaid was a huge win. Well-executed details (pleats! darts! contrast sleeve caps!) looked perfect in person.
Did anyone brave the crowds this morning? Let's talk about it. :)
Goodness! I live in a pretty small town so there wasn't a line outside my Target. I got there at 8, walked in and grabbed a couple of things in my size but like you, didn't see the beloved navy poplin dress. And it's the only thing I really wanted! Kind of bummed but hopefully I'll get a lot of use out of what I picked up!
ReplyDeletelittle llama blog
I guess I was just on a mission! Everyone else was better than I expected, but I couldn't choke down my disappointment, I guess.
DeleteThese dumbass collabs make me so angry. The level of insanity that surrounds these events is preposterous. I'm now refusing to take part in any of these, regardless of how much I want/love the designs.
ReplyDeleteThis is why I took my hat out of the ring for Missoni, and haven't really been following any of the buzz since Anna Sui or so. Oh well. Now you can get invited to NYC super special blogger pop-ups and mail me stuff :)
DeleteI went! They had the navy poplin dress at my store, & I was actually able to buy it online last night. It just sold out really fast. I'm so sorry you weren't able to find it. :( The whole thing is pretty ridiculous & crazy, but I seriously had a blast. I've never done anything like this before, & it was fun meeting people in line & chatting. I was actually the first in line. Haha! I figure if I'm gonna do something crazy, I may as well go all out. Keep checking the website & stores for the dress. People will be making returns. Maybe you'll get lucky!
ReplyDeleteI went to the Target in my area that is known for being the least busy. I got there 30 min after it opened and the XS stuff was gone for all but two items. The navy blue poplin dress only had sizes 14 and 16 left. I would have loved to see the trench, but I don't think they had it at all.
ReplyDeleteI really wanted the Navy Poplin Dress too, but they only had size 14 and 16 as well. Was able to score the Navy Trench in XS though, so not too bad! Any ideas on how to get the Navy Poplin Dress other than ebay?
ReplyDeleteI had my fingers crossed that they would restock online! Or really, biding my time on eBay until demand dies down.
DeleteI was there (at Edgewood)! So disappointing. I couldn't find the airport store on the list, or else I would have gone there first! Ugh, Ebayers!
ReplyDeleteThe Camp Creek store didn't get the navy dress either! Yeah... eBayers. Yucky yuck.
DeleteWow, I didn't even know about this! That's a cute dress, shame you couldn't find it! :(
ReplyDeleteI had a good amount of luck at my local Target in Austin. I really wanted to get my hands on the yellow and blue pinwheel dress, but I didn't get online when I could have (last night at midnight) and none of the 3 stores I went to had it. It seemed to me Austin just got the pastels. I did not see any of the mustard pieces, very little red and very little navy, but LOTS of pink and blue. Over all I was happy, but I am still on the hunt for a dress, so hopefully I'll find luck later in the month with returns.
ReplyDeleteI wrote up my experience here: http://valliantstyle.blogspot.com/2012/02/jason-wu-adventures.html
Sooo truth be told, I didn't believe the Target employees who were stocking the displays and went Monday AM and Tuesday AM before work. Yesterday I hit paydirt and I think they either located the other boxes or got a few boxes late. So maybe check again if there is something on your list?
DeleteDid you just go to the Edgewood Target? I feel like there's a lot of savvy shoppers who go there, so I sometimes have better luck at North Lake or the one at North Druids. That being said, I doubt they had navy blue dress anywhere in ATL. Argh.
ReplyDeleteI heard that a store in Alpharetta got it! What?!
DeleteI only went to Edgewood because (now instead of the Buckhead/Lenox store) supposedly they receive both the most and the greatest selection of stock for things like this. Surprisingly I recognized many of the shoppers from my years in retail! Oh well.
one of the philly stores i went to had 3 cat scarves (well, 2 now, since i bought one). lots of accessories at that store, but very little clothing (1 dress and a handful of blouses). i didn't bother going to any other stores. i went today (monday), so things were picked over.
ReplyDeleteIt's so random how things were allocated! And I don't know if it sold out because of a sick proportion of resellers or if demand was that high. Isn't that so much harder for Target from a business standpoint to estimate for production? Sheesh. Anyway, yeah, it wasn't fun anymore when I realized that I was going to have to claw my way through a crowd to get "consolation" prizes of things I didn't even want.
Delete