Wednesday, April 29, 2015

#LillyForTarget - My Recap of the Craziness

If you haven't checked social media or if you don't follow southern soroity girls on twitter, you might not be aware that Lilly Pulitzer came out with a line for Target. There was so much hype and excitement about the collaboration. I was most excited about being able to find dresses for Patsy and myself that matched! Let's be real here. Who doesn't want to wear matching clothes with their daughter? I kind of forgot the exact date that the stuff was going on sale but by the time I checked, everything was over. I got to my local store by 3pm, and only phone cases and were emery boards left. The website apparently sold out in the middle of the night. I was disappointed I didn't get the chance to find our matching outfits!

I talked to my favorite veteran shopper, my mother-in-law, about it and she said she would stop and look at a local Target while visiting her friend in Indiana. She called me later and had struck the mother load of kids clothes! There were tons of items available in Patsy's size. I had her pick up 2 dresses, 2 shirts and a pair of shorts. The next day when I picked up my daughter after work, she gave me the items and I was hooked. I was almost possessed by some other force to go check out other local Target stores  to see what treasures I could find. That night I drove to a few that were about 20 minutes from my house. There, I found more items, this time in housewares. I didn't even know what I was looking for, I just needed more items! I came home, took an obligatory Instagram photo of my purchases and continued on with the rest of my week.
Scoping out some deals with my favorite shopper
First round of purchases. Some of these items were returned.

But I still couldn't stop. I scoured eBay all week, looking for the dress that I wanted that matched Patsy's. I read an article that said that there were no limits set on item purchases so that consumers could purchase a bit from each section (clothes, beauty, accessories, housewares) without having to worry. They didn't expect people to clear shelves, clear racks and resell the items online.
This photo has been circulated all over the internet. HOW IS THIS ALLOWED?

Let's be honest here. An ebay alert came on my phone on Saturday morning, that an auction I was following was ending soon. I looked and it was the dress I was so desperately dying to purchase! The one that matched Patsy's! In my morning haze, it seemed reasonably priced, comparatively and I bid with 10 seconds left. I won the auction. Later that day when I went to pay for my item, I immediately regretted my decision. What did I just spend on that dress, knowing  what it originally cost?

Oh eBay. The LillyforTarget items are all selling on ebay for a markup of 10-200% of what they are selling for in the store. THAT IS INSANE! (No joke, a $38 dress is selling for $125 dollars.) On twitter, people overheard Target employees bragging about how much money they made from what they bought and resold on eBay. Now that just isn't right.
THIS DRESS WAS ORIGINALLY PURCHASED FOR $38!
This is NOT how much I paid for the same dress

Over the weekend, I visited several additional Target stores (including my own trip to Indiana) and I found a lot of cute things. I bought items for Mothers Day, bachelorette party gifts, and a little something for myself. On Monday, the famous dress that I had been lusting for all week had finally arrived. It included a thank you note from the seller saying "thank you for your purchase!" For some reason, this made me really mad. I had a million things I wanted to respond with; none of them were nice. Instead, I threw the thank you note away and tried on the dress. I was overcome with excitement to wear a matching dress with Patsy! We tried on our matching clothes and walked around the house and twirled together.

After the excitement wore off and after wearing the dress for 5 minutes, I found some flaws. I didn't like the length (it was too short to wear to work) and it was a very stiff and thin material (not very comfortable). It seemed like a dress that would be worth $38, not the price I paid. What did I just do? What do I do to rectify the situation? Try to return it to Target without a receipt? Try to resell it online for what I paid for it? Just keep it and learn from my mistake for next time? Decisions, decisions.

Target has come out and explicitly said that the items were only available for a limited time.

However, I saw some employees opening up a few small boxes of brand new Lilly Pulitzer items that hadn't previously been on shelves. That bright pink sticker cannot be missed! Some folks have recommended talking to the people in customer service. I tried that and got a mouth full of attitude so maybe it depends on the day and the employee?? As the window to return things from this line is just 14 days. From the initiation of the sale, that date is approaching so there will probably be more and more returns to stores this upcoming week for people that were unable to sell their items on eBay. If you're interested, I would check your local store. You never know what you might find! I know I'll be checking this week and weekend!
My brand new $15 summer tote! Perfect for weekend trips to Michigan!
The collection is split throughout the store into 3 main parts.
1) Clothing near the front. Usually womens and kids clothes are lumped together although sometimes you can find the kids stuff actually in the kids section.
2) Seasonal in the back corner. This is usually where you will find the larger items such as the hammock, umbrella, footstools, and sometimes housewards
3) Beauty on an endcap. This is where you'll find the nail polish, emery boards and occasionally the beauty bags.
If you see all three types of items up front, that is all that's left.

Good luck and happy shopping!

Oh, and if you happen to see the Lilly Pulitzer Laundry Basket at your local Target store, can you let me know? I'm trying to buy it for my mother-in-law for Mother's Day. She is impossible to shop for!

10 comments:

  1. No picture of you and Patsy in matching dresses????


    I bet you could work with a local seamstress and have her make some matching dresses for you and Patsy I think my sis-in-law had her wedding dress made here: https://plus.google.com/100679749166737013151/about?gl=us&hl=en. She's pretty frugal so I'm guessing it isn't expensive.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I know! We need to take one before I figure out what to do with the dress!


    Thanks for the tip! That probably isn't a bad idea!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm glad I hate shopping. Ha! This sounds like a mess. I don't even know what half of it means! :) Although I also would love to see a pic of the matching dresses!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Haha too funny! I can't believe I forgot to take a pic of our dresses! I will have to try and remember to do that tonight!

    ReplyDelete
  5. There is something to be said to getting what you wanted (even if it was for a high price) now, rather than wasting your time stalking eBay for another week or two hoping for another dress to go up for auction again.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I couldn't believe all that LP stuff! I didn't even know what was going on!!! I am so much of an online shopper to avoid things like this. That summer tote is SUPER cute though!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Good point Pete. I'm going to take a pic of us in the dresses and evaluate. I gotta think if it is really worth it to keep it.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I think their website sold out at like 3am. And now that people have received their online purchases, there is like a new flood of ebay postings. So crazy!


    Thanks! I was really excited about that find. For $15 you can't beat it!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Ahhhh! I wish I would've seen this post last week. In Hawaii, they apparently don't care about the LP stuff because they had a TON of it. I was like, "that's cute", but I just moved on from it.

    I still want to see a pic of you guys in the matching dresses!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Darn Jill!! Oh well! We haven't taken a photo yet in our matching dresses, but I hope to do so this weekend!!! :)

    ReplyDelete