Every Tuesday morning, Brandon and I go out for our weekly grocery shopping trip. Yesterday, I wanted to stop by Target first to check out the hyped up Missoni for Target collection that was scheduled to hit stores that day. I envisioned us gliding up the escalator (for some reason you enter our Maryland Target via an escalator), stopping by Starbucks for my tall Pumpkin Spice Latte, and casually browsing through the hundreds of items I'd been so looking forward to seeing from this designer collaboration collection. But, as soon as we got to the top of the escalator, I spotted the Missoni women's clothing section, totally turned upside down! It was only 10 AM, but everything was gone... well, almost everything. People were literally fighting over what was left.
We walked around the store to check out some other stuff, and when we circled back by women's clothing, I was able to snag a few shirts and took them to the fitting room to try them on. The fitting room was filled with lurking vultures, fighting over every item that people returned to the rack. A couple women had their carts overflowing. (Thousands of dollars of merchandise!) I guess I'm pretty naive, because I kept wondering why they'd buy that much stuff that wasn't even in their size. It took a while before the word "eBay" came to my mind. If this situation sounds familiar, you might remember Lanvin for H&M last year. My husband managed to find me a dress while I was trying on the shirts. (Isn't he the greatest?) So I chose the dress and my favorite one of the shirts and got out of there. I literally was afraid someone would steal the items right out of my hands!
Basically, what a gross, disillusioning display of greed, and a creepy way to ruin something that was supposed to simply be a fun celebration of fashion made accessible to Target customers. I had absolutely no intention of buying more than I did, but I really was looking forward to just seeing the collection in person! Apparently, the scene I experienced at our local Target repeated itself all across the country. The disappointing launch garnered national attention. The mass retail store was lambasted by disappointed customers on their Facebook page.
Stuff like this really gets me thinking. Has the depressing state of our national economy caused people to stoop to new lows? Has consumerism taken the average person, once uninterested in fashion, to an obsession with logos and novelty? As I type this, there are currently over 25,000 *edit, 35,000* Missoni for Target items listed on eBay, many items being purchased for higher prices than Missoni Collection at Bergdorf's. Honestly, I wish people would boycott Missoni for Target items on eBay.
On the upside, I love my new dress and shirt, and look forward to wearing them once all this craziness dies down! I promise I'll post pictures when I wear them in the next few weeks! :)
*UPDATE: Pictures of me wearing my Missoni for Target finds!