Carnage @ Target’s LP Shopping Frenzy Was Epic, Unsettling

[teflepi]

Today Target stores across America learned a few things. One: Ladies love, crave, will hoard, discounted Lilly Pulitzer. Two: Crazy things happen when you line up droves of sleep-deprived women and dangle pink pineapples in front of their face. And by crazy, we're referring to the epic frenzy that was the launch of its collaboration with the preppy brand, from the "One Direction" concert-level lines and site-crashing to the frantic grabbing of anything with pom-pom. Here, a small taste of what one shopper described best in hashtag #whatamess.






Conclusion: Preppies be cray.

[teflepi]

www.racked.com/2015/4/19/8454351/Target-Lilly-Pulitzer-Shopping-Frenzy-Crucial-Update

[ttt]

I wish they would stop making this seem like it was women shopping for fashion instead of profiteers scooping up stuff to sell in eBay.

[redheadbaker]

Apr 19, 2015 19:44:05 GMT -5 ttt said:

I wish they would stop making this seem like it was women shopping for fashion instead of profiteers scooping up stuff to sell in eBay.

Someone is already selling LP Kids stuff in one of the kids brands resale FB groups I'm in, priced 2 to 3X retail, because "[her] time is worth something." Except no one actually asked her to pick stuff up for them.

[Deleted]

There was evidently still LP stuff at my Target at 1pm today. I don'r know what because I didn't want anything.

[ttt]

Apr 19, 2015 22:43:22 GMT -5 redheadbaker said:

Apr 19, 2015 19:44:05 GMT -5 ttt said:

I wish they would stop making this seem like it was women shopping for fashion instead of profiteers scooping up stuff to sell in eBay.

Someone is already selling LP Kids stuff in one of the kids brands resale FB groups I'm in, priced 2 to 3X retail, because "[her] time is worth something." Except no one actually asked her to pick stuff up for them.

People suck so much.

[cookiemdough]

I really don't understand.

[AJL]

I don't think all Target stores carried it, right? There was no evidence it was ever being at the location where I frequently shop. However, I don't get the designer collaborations. I haven't wanted any designer-for-Target product.

Is there Hermes for Target? Balenciaga? Celine? Carolina Herrera for Target? Nope. The rest don't interest me at all.

I don't get the Lilly love. I can find the same kind of prints at my local fabric shop and sew a shift dress for my daughter for <$15. I judge the hoarders and the frenzy-ers.

[MrsAxilla]

CNN covered this and showed a still photo of smiling women in line with piles of stuff (in Georgia - lol). DH said "WTF?!? They look insane. Like LEGIT insane!"

[epphd]

I sincerely don't get it. In general it's not my style, whether the original or -for Target. And even if it is someone's style - who needs THAT MUCH? It's like those hideous Vera Bradley bags/patterns. Right up there in "things I will never understand that sorority girls seem to give a shit about".

[gretchenindisguise]

Apr 19, 2015 23:06:01 GMT -5 AJL said:

I don't think all Target stores carried it, right? There was no evidence it was ever being at the location where I frequently shop. However, I don't get the designer collaborations. I haven't wanted any designer-for-Target product.

Is there Hermes for Target? Balenciaga? Celine? Carolina Herrera for Target? Nope. The rest don't interest me at all.

I don't get the Lilly love. I can find the same kind of prints at my local fabric shop and sew a shift dress for my daughter for <$15. I judge the hoarders and the frenzy-ers.

There was only the big sign as you walked in at mine when I showed up around 4:30 today. But it was there, they just removed the evidence of the slaughter fairly quickly apparently. I talked to the cashier and she said it was mayhem in the morning.

[summer]

Again, the obsession with More Stuff rears its head.

[sugarglider]

Apr 20, 2015 4:59:20 GMT -5 summer said:

Again, the obsession with More Stuff rears its head.

Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb nail.


(Do as Thoreau says, not as I do. )

[IIOY]

On the upside, watching all the meltdowns on FB gave me oodles of entertainment. Be sure to peruse the Target wall for some fun. Kudos to msmerymac and @epini...something (sorry, I never remember the spelling) for their rational thoughts and zero tears on FB.

[josieposy]

Apr 20, 2015 4:59:20 GMT -5 summer said:

Again, the obsession with More Stuff rears its head.

I'm here. I honestly don't understand why this ruined some people's day.

How many websites can handle that kind of simultaneous traffic? I can't think of many. Target is not going to bounce back overnight from losing its entire Canada operation and the recent restructuring going on at HQ. This is still fairly recent and the new CEO has not even been in place for one year yet.

If the masses want to stick it to the resell folks, they won't buy from them. Let these assholes sit on a house full of this stuff. One of two things will happen: (1) they'll sell it for a much lower price than they wanted and make it not worth getting up at 2:00 for flower pillows, or (2) they play a game of chicken with Target's return date and end up bringing it back to the stores last minute.

[rugbywife]

Did they just remake back whatever they lost coming to, and failing, in Canada.

It you make things 'limited edition' and get enough fashion bloggers talking about it, anything can be worth standing in lines of hundreds of people for...right?

I saw some pics of stuff that looked nice but nothing worth lining up or staying up all night on a crashed website for. But then again, I think the only thing I have ever stood in line for was the rerelease of the Star Wars movies.

Signed, still bitter you left me.

[eddy]

If that was a regular target collection I would have totally bought a couple things for the summer. I think it looked fun. I like bright colors and bold patterns can be fun once in awhile.

But I was certainly not going to make an effort for it. There is very little in life that is worth my effort lol.

[msmerymac]

Apr 19, 2015 23:06:01 GMT -5 AJL said:

I don't think all Target stores carried it, right? There was no evidence it was ever being at the location where I frequently shop. However, I don't get the designer collaborations. I haven't wanted any designer-for-Target product.

Is there Hermes for Target? Balenciaga? Celine? Carolina Herrera for Target? Nope. The rest don't interest me at all.

I don't get the Lilly love. I can find the same kind of prints at my local fabric shop and sew a shift dress for my daughter for <$15. I judge the hoarders and the frenzy-ers.

So, some shitty, snobby people, when hearing about the Lilly Pulitzer collaboration were really upset that Target would be selling $40 dresses, and in plus sizes no less. Because if you can't afford Lilly, you shouldn't wear it! And now there will be fat, poor people wearing the dresses! The horror!

Some people in line were rolling their eyes at those ridiculous people, and my response was genuinely something like, "It's not like Hermes is suddenly selling legit Birkin bags for $80 at Target." Lol. I wish. A $200 Lilly Pulitzer dress, which you can maybe get at a big sale for around $100, is not suddenly worthless because Target sold something kinda similar for $40. I'm guessing those sorority girls are a bit insecure. 

[cattledogkisses]

Lilly is NMS (and my style veers towards preppy, but I still don't care for Lilly), which is probably why I don't get this at all.

[eponinepontmercy]

Apr 20, 2015 5:47:06 GMT -5 IIOY said:

On the upside, watching all the meltdowns on FB gave me oodles of entertainment. Be sure to peruse the Target wall for some fun. Kudos to msmerymac and @epini...something (sorry, I never remember the spelling) for their rational thoughts and zero tears on FB.

I kept wanting to defend myself for going, like I was part of the problem and a sign of society's downfall.  

The more I think about it, the more pissed I am at Target for making women look petty and ridiculous.  They knew EXACTLY how this was going to go down.  Their website has never worked, and they did nothing to improve it for this launch.  My Target had 4 smallish racks of women's clothes, and a line with more people than they had items.  I wish the employees had been able to tell us that the stock was THAT limited.  I wouldn't have bothered.  I felt so sorry for the people working there who had to deal with the nonsense, and tell people that there wasn't anymore stuff in the back.

When I left, there was a crowd around the empty rack, waiting for people to put stuff back after trying it on.

I have been told that the LP warehouse sale in June is epic, and I might go to that. 

[ChillyMcFreeze]

I got there about 11 hours too late. I didn't have any expecatation that there would be anything left, but I wanted to check. The clerk said everything was gone in 15 minutes of opening. I complimented her on turning the store back over in a day, because there was absolutely no sign that any Lilly had ever been there.

I would have loved to have a few things, but I'm also feeling some kind of way about them playing their customers like this. They knew full well that a tiny number of shoppers would snatch up everything and resell it, and they seem to care not a wit. They got their money. Whatever, it's their business practice.

[KateAggie]

Apr 20, 2015 8:02:32 GMT -5 ChillyMcFreeze said:

I would have loved to have a few things, but I'm also feeling some kind of way about them playing their customers like this. They knew full well that a tiny number of shoppers would snatch up everything and resell it, and they seem to care not a wit. They got their money. Whatever, it's their business practice.

What are they supposed to do?  Part of the collaboration with the designers is limited stock.  They have no control over what people do with the merchandise after purchase.

look, having worked for Target for years, I can say they do plenty of shady shit (a la all the Walmart complaints).  But I don't really see what they can do differently here.

[ttt]

Apr 20, 2015 8:13:01 GMT -5 KateAggie said:

Apr 20, 2015 8:02:32 GMT -5 ChillyMcFreeze said:

I would have loved to have a few things, but I'm also feeling some kind of way about them playing their customers like this. They knew full well that a tiny number of shoppers would snatch up everything and resell it, and they seem to care not a wit. They got their money. Whatever, it's their business practice.

What are they supposed to do?  Part of the collaboration with the designers is limited stock.  They have no control over what people do with the merchandise after purchase.

look, having worked for Target for years, I can say they do plenty of shady shit (a la all the Walmart complaints).  But I don't really see what they can do differently here.

They could at least limit the number of items per customer. There's no reason that with extremely limited stock, they should be letting people buy an entire cartful of the stuff. 

[KateAggie]

Apr 20, 2015 8:13:51 GMT -5 ttt said:

Apr 20, 2015 8:13:01 GMT -5 KateAggie said:

What are they supposed to do?  Part of the collaboration with the designers is limited stock.  They have no control over what people do with the merchandise after purchase.

look, having worked for Target for years, I can say they do plenty of shady shit (a la all the Walmart complaints).  But I don't really see what they can do differently here.

They could at least limit the number of items per customer. There's no reason that with extremely limited stock, they should be letting people buy an entire cartful of the stuff. 

But this is t like stocking up on 12 packs of coke.  From my understanding, people are buying numerous items, but not necessarily the same item.  

[josieposy]

What do you limit? Purchases of all LP items? Just clothes? What's reasonable? 5 items? 10 items?

Everybody is going to have a different take on this so I am just curious. Not judging.

[ChillyMcFreeze]

Apr 20, 2015 8:13:01 GMT -5 KateAggie said:

Apr 20, 2015 8:02:32 GMT -5 ChillyMcFreeze said:

I would have loved to have a few things, but I'm also feeling some kind of way about them playing their customers like this. They knew full well that a tiny number of shoppers would snatch up everything and resell it, and they seem to care not a wit. They got their money. Whatever, it's their business practice.

What are they supposed to do?  Part of the collaboration with the designers is limited stock.  They have no control over what people do with the merchandise after purchase.

look, having worked for Target for years, I can say they do plenty of shady shit (a la all the Walmart complaints).  But I don't really see what they can do differently here.

Simply limit the number of items per customer. Say "sorry, you can only have 5 of the exact same scarf." They will sell the whole inventory regardless, while expanding the number of customers who get a piece of the pie. So next time they roll out a special collaboration, they won't have thousands of people who got burned this time sitting at home because it's not worth the effort. 

[saz]

Why not make more? It isn't like they were surprised it was popular. Lilly fans are nuts and have broken websites before. The whole scarcity strategy really irritates me.

[saz]

Apr 20, 2015 8:19:02 GMT -5 ChillyMcFreeze said:

Apr 20, 2015 8:13:01 GMT -5 KateAggie said:

What are they supposed to do?  Part of the collaboration with the designers is limited stock.  They have no control over what people do with the merchandise after purchase.

look, having worked for Target for years, I can say they do plenty of shady shit (a la all the Walmart complaints).  But I don't really see what they can do differently here.

Simply limit the number of items per customer. Say "sorry, you can only have 5 of the exact same scarf." They will sell the whole inventory regardless, while expanding the number of customers who get a piece of the pie. So next time they roll out a special collaboration, they won't have thousands of people who got burned this time sitting at home because it's not worth the effort. 

But at least at my store, limiting to 5 exact same items per customer wouldn't have helped. They had such tiny supply that less than 5 customers could have scooped up all of it even with the restrictions.

[KateAggie]

Apr 20, 2015 8:19:22 GMT -5 saz said:

Why not make more? It isn't like they were surprised it was popular. Lilly fans are nuts and have broken websites before. The whole scarcity strategy really irritates me.

Again, part of the collaboration is limited stock.  This is a one time deal.

[Queen Mamadala]

Apr 20, 2015 6:47:10 GMT -5 @soudesafinado said:

I had to go look at the collection to see if it was worth all this and I did see a couple of things I thought were cute but I still do not understand all the hype.

I did see a few cute items, mostly for my girls, but not stand in line for hours, cute. It looked worse than Black Friday, and I only did that once, but stood in line for one hour... at Target.