"I actually have a friend that is doing PR for target for this collection and we were talking about how much would be left over cause I felt some of this stuff would not sell, but she told me that some of the designers – Oscar de la Renta, Prabal Gurung and Carolina Herrera didn’t want their stuff going on deep discount on the sales racks and Neiman Marcus didn’t want to have this stuff on their sales racks for long, so the agreement was that the stuff that is unsold would be compacted and destroyed after Jan 5th."
In the past, Target has donated unused merchadise to Goodwill stores. It did cross my mind that this collab might be different - seeing that there were so many designers involved - and that any leftovers might end up getting marked down at Last Call (Neiman Marcus' clearance outlet) stores instead. IMHO, that would be a much better option then letting the merchandise go to waste.
So what can be done about this? I'm not sure, but I just posted the question of whether this "destruction plan" is true on TargetStyle's Facebook page, and will see whether they respond or not. I have a hard time believing Target would actually trash all the leftover merchandise, since they pride themselves on being ecologically and green-minded.
15 comments:
Hi Target Addict! Shopping Celle (?) and I totally mused about this possibility whilst commenting on another one of your posts. I do sense that something is up here. As someone who shops at Target and whose mother has shopped at Neimans (yeah, I remember those occasional moments at the Stanford Shopping Center) - I can bridge the philosophical gulf a tad. I can totally see that Neimans and the designers would not want to "cheapen" their respective images by allowing the merchandise to go down more than 30% or at all. Frankly, the Target full prices for this stuff are some of the lower prices you'll ever find at Last Call (which, by the way, is featuring the Target collab items.) For instance, MARC by Marc Jacobs is STILL expensive and it's what's called a "diffusion" line. This is all somewhat Marie Antoinette "Let them eat cake" - the way Moschino Cheap & Chic ain't cheap and Design Within Reach ain't in my reach. Target compromised too much on price points for their customer, while (understandably) the designers did not want to sacrifice quality of materials, construction, and control.
Music: yes, I remember your comment musing whether the line could just "disappear" after Jan 5th, but I figured they'd find some sort of "aftermarket" for it vs. destroying the darn stuff! It just seems so wasteful, IMO.
BTW: so far, Target officials have not responded to my question posted on their FB page. But others have commented on my post, and here are two of the more interesting responses:
Seems Target Style doesn't want to answer this, since there have been several posts about it, & they have responded to questions in between these posts.
I asked the same question on Target's main page and got the run around, that they are expecting everything to sell which did not answer my question.
Ooh, this is all so sketchy, really. There's something in that contract that makes this collaboration particularly unusual. Actually, if they come out and say they're going to send everything to Botswana (which would be better than destruction) I think it would sell more because people can be nudged over the fence by exclusivity.
By the way, I thought the Skaist Taylor vest was oddly fun in a Lady Gaga way (well, it fit me) until I realized their upscale line is heavy in REAL fur. Now, I'm not some vehement protester. I do wear leather shoes. But fur really does make me sad, and this line has had some controversy due to that. So people should be aware of this in case it goes against their personal beliefs. (Truth be told, I'd never heard of them until this Target collab.)
wow I never even thought about them destroying the merchandise.....that seems against their normal policies like you said about donations to goodwill.
Skaist Taylor are the duo behind juicy couture
I ordered online and my receipt says that returns on the NM collaboration item must be made by Jan 5. Wonder if this is why, because they don't want it hanging around on a sale rack?
I figured the short return window is to dissuade ebay scalpers from buying everything up, putting it up for auction, and then being able to return it three months later if it doesn't sell.
Maybe they will at least recycle the fabric, I hope. I imagine there will be a lot of leftovers. I've been to 2 stores in Atlanta, and that stuff just isn't moving. There's also WAY too much of the same stuff. The purple dress on your post is highly overstocked...I wouldn't buy it mainly because there are just too many of them out there.
UPDATE: Unfortunately, readers, Target never gave me a "real" answer via their FB page. On Thursday, they posted this:
"we are looking into this and will respond once we have more information. Thank you."
Then yesterday, they followed up with this:
"we appreciate you sharing your comments. We don't have any further details regarding this - we don't share mark down dates for any of our merchandise. We have passed on your concerns to our team. Thanks!"
I responded with another comment clarifying that I wasn't asking what the markdown schedule was - that wasn't my concern. My concern was the rumors about destroying the unused merchandise, and THAT question they never addressed.
I finally got to the see the merchandise in my store, they had a display at the front of the store and all of the items were located near the front in the teen/women's department. Overall I was more disappointed with the items in person the quality seemed lacking for the price. The marc jacobs pouches and the leather studded gloves really did not feel like leather. It didn't seem to be moving at all. People were looking a little but no one was buying
I had a Target employee tell me yesterday that SOME of the items from the collab would never go on sale and that they would be "going back" somewhere. She probably wasn't supposed to do that.
Wish I knew which items were the ones that would never go on sale.
For me, few of the items in this colab are useful for other than rare or special occassions. For those that can be used routinely (or often enough to justify the purchase), there are nicer designs and items to be had elsewhere at comparable price points.
There are so many things that Target did wrong in this collection and some things they could have done to sell the items better:
1) One of the comments I saw was right: there is no rhyme or reason to some of the items: a skateboard from Derek Lam (really?) an ugly lunchbox (from tory burch?)some weird cookie cutters from band of outsiders?
2) the materials look cheap- they just slap on label prints on items that could have been easily by mossimo or any target brands. the oscar dela renta bag was hideous..the lace was like a patchwork drawn by a kid or stenciled on there..
3) skaist taylor? they did say they are founders of juicy couture..who cares...the jacket and the ear muff thing could have sold if they slapped on juicy couture on there instead of skaist taylor--these are target shoppers we are talking about not neiman marcus shoppers necessarily-they would have recognized juicy couture more than skaist taylor
4) the dresses look like they are collections from capsule collections from the past--it seems actual designers didnt even bother to see what designs they put out..and seriously a lot of childrens dresses this time around ...mmm....a marchesa children's dress.. i would have loved to see a marchesa adult dress..
5) the Altuzzara tray was the only one I could see worth the money really
6) the Marc Jacobs clutch could have been nice for the right price--but the wording for marc jacobs is so faint you could almost tell the designer might have been trying to hide his name from it lol
7) The ones who should be designing dresses and shoes for this collection are designing novelty items -- i mean what about a DVF dress instead of a yoga mat? a brian atwood shoes instead of sunglasses?
8) prices. enough said. if its say 15 or 20 dollars cheaper i would have been sold.
I was in an Oklahoma Goodwill this past weekend and several items from the collection were available. I picked up a DVF jewelry box for $7.
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