Lilly Pulitzer for Target Experience

Let’s talk Lilly.

If you didn’t know, the Lilly Pulitzer line launched a limited-time engagement sale at Target stores yesterday. This was highly publicized on TV and online and even Sex and the City’s Mr. Big got involved in a Gatsby-meets-Florida pool party commercial that could make just about anybody thirsty for pink lemonade. The problem, though, is that there wasn’t enough floral to go around.

In the weeks leading up to the launch, bloggers were reporting that the online site would go live between 12 and 2 a.m. on April 19^th and Target stores would open at their regular Sunday time of 8 a.m. The brand put out a “look book” on the Target website and select beauty sites had photos of the 250-piece collection online for anyone to view. Many women—myself included—had already mapped out their must-haves from the collection.

Then the bad news began to roll in.

Each Target store would only get one shipment of the collection and when it was exhausted, it was gone forever. In addition, not every Target store would get the same volume, so your local Target might not have been your best option. Then there was the sizing issue; no size charts were released online to answer the popular question, “Will these sizes reflect Lilly or Target sizing?” Lilly generally only carried up to size 16 and a slender 16 at that. I expect that many curvy ladies stayed home because nobody mentioned that Target would carry up to a Target size 18 in store. Bummer.

Before I get into my experience, let me just say that my time at Target was better than most shoppers’ yesterday. I am thankful to say that I am part of the minority who left the store happy on Sunday, but the system was definitely flawed and I can certainly empathize for the thousands of women out there who left empty-handed. After so much buildup, to leave the store without so much as a phone case would have made my blood boil. For all of you out there who had this problem, we can always pray that Lilly does this again next year and increases the quantity online and in-store. Based on the immediate negative reaction from shoppers, The Lilly website is offering a “mystery gift” to anybody who buys something today or tomorrow. I think it is safe to say that more Lilly isn’t completely out of the question for the future.

My experience with the Lilly for Target Sale

On Saturday night I returned home from the Phi Sigma Sigma formal at 12:05 a.m. I immediately changed into online shopping sweatpants and hit the Target website. The Lilly site hadn’t launched, so I browsed youtube until around 1:15 a.m. Still no website, so I went to sleep with my MasterCard on my bedside table. While I was in REM cycle, one million screaming Lilly fans crashed the Target website and prolonged the web launch—which was scheduled for 3 a.m. I later found out—until almost 6 a.m. When my internal clocked rolled me over at 6:30, the entire website was sold out. Not even a head scarf remained, and I knew right then I had to get up and go to Target.

I pulled into the Cedar Crest Target at 7:17 and a line of only 12-15 people had formed. I took my spot in line, waited for 8:00 and befriended every monogram-toting girl there. Rick, the poor soul who had to open the doors for us, made everyone promise to walk, not run, to the display. The doors opened and in true hunger games fashion, everyone took off sprinting. I’m talking women (and men) ages 40 and up full-on running to the display. I am not cleared to run until May, so I only walked briskly. Okay, maybe I ran the last few yards, but don’t tell my Physical Therapist.

If I had to describe this experience succinctly, I would say that it was madness. Pure madness.

As I remember, and it IS fuzzy, there were only three racks of clothing. By the time I got to racks, the first rack—which housed most of the dresses—was completely swallowed up by mother-daughter duos grabbing every size and color. I moved onto the second rack and saw the beloved pineapple sandals I had been coveting on the look book for weeks. I promised myself I would walk out with at least the sandals. There were only one pair of 9s at that point and they were going to belong to ME.

As a former employee of Target and avid Target shopper, I immediately noticed the blue and fuchsia hanger tags which mean size 18, XL or XXL. I’m immediately elated that I can go absolutely bananas and buy everything in my size. Unfortunately, by the time I squat down to get the sandals and stand up, most of the rack is clear. I grab as many blue and fuchsia hangers as I can see and by the time I could even move over to the first rack, everything is gone. There were styles that I knew existed from the website that I never even saw in the store. It was as if the Target staff had never put out the racks at all. Not even a bracelet remained on the display. Tumbleweeds were going by.

The crowd had now moved over to the dressing room line, which extended back to home goods, and everyone was buzzing over their finds. Everyone except for the people who had walked in around 8:03, that is. Those people were definitely confused and upset. The people who had rushed to the Lilly home goods first were coming back up to check out with their nineteen chair cushions, deck umbrellas and plate sets. By the time I even meandered by, all that remained was a box of pineapple wine glass charms.

I went and hid in the toilet paper aisle to call my mom. “What are you doing up so early?” I told her about my experience and she laughed at me. “Whose child are you?” She always asks me this when I go into a frenzy about something like this. After a half hour, I made my way back to the front of the store to try on my finds. Everything fit, which is unusual but certainly welcome, and I decided to walk back over to the racks to see what had been replaced. What I found wasn’t clothes but a dozen women perched like vultures waiting intently for the fitting room attendant to return with discarded items. I befriended a girl who had come late and gave her one of my dresses. She was thankful, and went to the fitting room to try on. I saw her buy it later, which made me happy.

After about 20 more minutes, the frenzy had cleared and I was ready to officially check out. A few gift cards and what was left of my tax return later, I left Target feeling successful and ready for coffee. Within an hour, the internet exploded with horror stories from other Targets nationwide and women who were outraged that the Target website wasn’t better stocked. All I can say is that I’m glad all the Muhlenberg College kids stayed in bed so I could get those pineapple sandals.