The Shops at Target: nothing to write home about

Yesterday I arrived at my local Target bright and early to check out the offerngs from The Shops collection... and honestly, I was completely underwhelmed.  Let's start with The Webster: while the selection was impressive - with several racks packed with women's clothing, in a variety of sizes - I felt the quality was lacking.  Some items were fabricated in cotton - like the sheath dress and the gauzy-peasant top (which was the one item I bought) - but many were made of scratchy polyester (reminicent of the Jason Wu collection).  I also noticed some shoddy workmanship, like uneven stitching and poor fabrication on the color-block cardigans (and a quick check of all the colors on the rack showed this to be a widespread issue - not just an isolated one).

A quick perusal of the accessories aisle showed very few of the colorful tote bags and hats... and although the ones I saw were cute, they weren't any cuter than some of the Merona or Mossimo-brand ones.  And the jewelry - which was behind the glass case, so I couldn't inspect up-close - looked pretty but again, nothing to write home about. Oh, and no shoes to be found.  I circled the shoe dept. twice, with no luck.  Perhaps it was so early that my Target didn't have them out on display yet?

Privet House had several endcaps throughout the store: in home furnishings, stationery, and kitchenware.  Again, while their offerings were nice, they seemed a little pricey for the $$, especially when compared to the equally lovely offereings from Target Home and Smith & Hawken.  I was tempted by this adorable rope pouf - and almost put it in my basket - but again, couldn't justfy the price (almost $80) for an impulse buy.

The Cos Bar seemed to be limited to one lonely endcap (shown here) which wasn't fully stocked.  While the wrapped soaps were pretty, I passed on these, because you can get even prettier (and larger) wrapped Italian soaps at discount retailers like TJ Maxx and Marshall's.

And honestly, I could care less about the other two "shops": I don't own a dog, and I need candy like  I need a hole in the head, so I passed on Polka Dog Bakery and The Candy Store.  Some of you have already commented that these offerings were overpriced as well, so it sounds like I'm not missing out on anything.