more than a fashion blog
Fresh Squeezed

An Open Letter to Target

by Christa

Dear Target,

You know I love you. However, I have a bone to pick with you.

One of my favorite things about you is your GO International collaborations with luxurious designers I can only dream of affording. You make them Target-affordable, and I appreciate that! So when it was announced that you were working with Italian fashion house Missoni and releasing the largest GO International collection yet on September 13th, I was nothing short of thrilled.


Photo from target.com

Then the actual launch date arrived. It became very clear that there was not enough product to go around. My sister got to our local Target by 9 am, and the collection was mostly sold out (also, many of your stores are not guaranteeing a restock…NOT cool). Your site was down by the time I got to work around the same time, due to the unanticipated amounts of web traffic to snatch up the collection. When it came back again, quite a bit of the collection was sold out. The worst part is that a lot of merchandise ended up on eBay within hours, with items selling for almost three times the price. At that cost, someone could buy REAL Missoni. And you should. Even Margherita Missoni says so.

(Side note, can we address the whole eBay thing? Isn’t there a way to monitor that? It feels almost illegal for people to buy carts and carts of cheap stuff just to sell it on eBay for so much money. I know it’s not, but it’s really unfair for those of us who just want to buy it to use every day, not make an insane profit on. Someone should look into that, both on Target’s end as well as eBay.)

Regardless, my sister and I were able to snatch up a few items here and there, a few of which were bought online. We thought things were all good: the site didn’t crash before we placed our orders, the order confirmation emails came in, and we were psyched. Then 3 emails, all in one day, stating that our orders were “delayed” came in, the last email bringing this message:

Um, automatically cancelled? Seriously? I’m sure many other Target customers received this email, and are wondering the same thing I am: will we EVER get our Missoni? According to The Recessionista, Target released a statement regarding online orders of Missoni merchandise, but it doesn’t address the unanticipated delay in shipment or anyway to compensate customers for this extreme inconvenience.

I can’t even begin to imagine how you couldn’t be prepared for this frenzy and craze. Ever since the collection was announced, the interwebs was abuzz about it. How could you not pay attention to that? I am extremely disappointed with how the whole thing was handled and I hope you make it right soon. Stop advertising and, if you have to, use that money to make more merchandise. Do what it takes to get those of us who ordered online don’t get our items. If you don’t, you will have a few angry customers.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Christa (a huge fan otherwise)

Share
  • Gimmemytargetorder

    SIGN THIS PETITION (f you want to): http://www.change.org/petitions/fulfill-my-confirmed-missoni-for-target-order

  • Bellanygurl88

    Its just clothes really. Cheap Target clothes that EVERYONE is going to have. No one has any idea what is going in corporate, who knows what really went on. Target rolled out a new system, that in hindsight probably couldnt handle the roll out, and in all honesty, they probably werent anticipating such a huge response. 

    • Christa Marzan

      Hi Bellanygurl88-

      Thank you for your comment. You are absolutely right in the fact that Target’s new website and e-commerce capabilities couldn’t handle the roll out of this new collection. It’s possible that Target wasn’t prepared for this, but I do find that a *little* hard to believe. Ever since this collection was announced, every blog and magazine was on top of it. The company even took out a multi-page ad in the September issue of Vogue, as well as advertised on the back cover (both VERY expensive), so I think they knew how anticipated this collection was. I think it was a little naive on Target’s planning to NOT expect this, if that’s the case.

      The same thing happened when Lanvin collaborated with H&M last year. The collection sold out in a day, wasn’t restocked, and a lot of it ended up on eBay, being sold by scalpers for way more than it was worth. As you can imagine, that is frustrating if you want something from the collection but don’t have the time to go to the store first thing and buy it before the scalpers do. Same this with this collaboration with Target.

      And regardless of what kind of clothing/items the collection has, and even though everyone is going to have it, Target let down a lot of consumers. I hope Target communicates with us and the status of our orders a little bit better moving forward.

      -Christa

  • Pingback: Jason Wu for Target: The Experience — fresh squeezed

  • http://rareseeds.com/ Garden Seed

    Great share. Thanks!!!