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 19th
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.
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