Just kidding. Kind of. Sort of. Maybe not... So I set my alarm for 1am Pacific time (for the
Lilly Pulitzer for Target launch) and THIS (see pic) is what I get I bet. Plus, it's not only me... a faithful reader (and good friend) just texted me to report the SAME issues. She reports the following:
"Trying to buy online...it's been 30 minutes, and the site is now allowing me to buy the items in my cart. Giving up now and going to bed." Plus, I just checked the "TargetStyle" Facebook page and others are facing similar problems.
Update: I was finally able to get to the Lilly goods online, but everything I wanted is already SOLD OUT in most sizes. As predicted, this is "Missoni Madness" all over again, right down to Target's massive web outages. I just cannot believe that a retailer of Target's size cannot get it together and hire competent web designers. HEY TARGET: I live and work in Silicon Valley. If you want to hire REAL web experts, call me and I'll hook you up!
37 comments:
From what I hear on other social media, there was a secret link via where some shoppers were able to order at about midnight eastern. I tried until 1:30E to order and then gave up as it wasn't live yet. By the time I woke up everything was gone. I think this one is going to be worse than Missoni. Maybe we can catch some instore returns:(
It was worse than Missoni at my store today! I got there at 8:10 and everything was gone (well, not gone--pilled into everyone else's carts) So sad. I just would have been happy with ONE thing! Grrrrr Oh well, I am hoping to score some returns and maybe it will show up at my local Goodwill (Lots of Missoni items did so there is hope!)
This really amazes me, that people are so greedy..they grab it all so they can sell it on e-bay. The last collection I got crazy over was the Liberty of London stuff, and I got plenty of it. Maybe because they didn't have a lot of clothing. The Lily stuff that I want is in home wares, so maybe they will still have some plates left when I go there. They are sold out online, just like everything else. I'm not going to run all over town,but I think I would like some of those cute little bobby pins! Maybe they didn't get swept away by the greedies.
I went to my local Target store this morning. Not a big line, maybe 30 people in all. I was disappointed in the small selection, most of what I had wanted was not there. I bought a shift dress which seems to be of excellent quality. I also bought two beach towels that had a great print, but once I got them home and rolled them out they seem cheap and thin for the price. I bought Martha Stewart towels several years ago at K-Mart and they were thick and of good quality, so this really suprised.
Went to my local store at 8:10 a.m. ALL GONE! This, after I could not purchase anything online. Why do they allow people to buy 5 of everything? There was a woman who racked up $900 buying multiples of everything - all I could think of was EBAY reseller. UGH!
I'm in the Boston area. I was 25th in line waiting oustide the store. When I was about 10 feet into the store, I saw a woman take her arm sweep everything off the rack and toss it into her cart!!! There was only maybe 6 items left on the other side of the rack when I got there! There were at least 3 people who followed this woman's lead and tossed it ALL into their carts! I'm saddened by the greed of these people. The reason why these designers collaborate with Target is to make their designs available to people who can't drop $200 on a dress on their designs. So sad, all I wanted was one dress which I would have worn to death. Also, this particlar Target didn't enforce the limit of 4 or 5 per item. Shame on Target and the greedy shoppers! I hope someone can post a success story here, so my faith that there are good people will be restored.
I waited up to try and get the giraffe bottle opener and the swizzle sticks. I couldn't get either, so I headed to the store. I was tenth in line and made it back to the home section to get the bottle opener! I didn't see any of the swizzle sticks :(
I'm so disappointed that everything I wanted is sold out. It is worse than Missoni in my opinion. oh well
I live in Minnesota - home of Target. I didn't go to my local store. I woke up at 3 am (CST) and tried to get on the website using my iPhone. I wasn't able to get on their website but then when I tried the mobile app, I could get on the website. I searched "Lily"and was able to put a few things in my cart. But then I couldn't check out. I kept trying and trying and finally got it to check out but by then there was only 1 item in my cart. I was able to purchase a Plus Size Sea Urchin Halter Top. I am plus sized but it wasn't not my first choice, but i think I will like it. I was happy to get one thing. But what I really wanted was a scarf. I had one in my cart but poof, it disappeared while I was trying to check out.
Well, I did go to Target to pick up a prescription. As soon as I walked into the store I saw a Lily rounder with 1 swimsuit on it. On my way to the pharmacy I saw each section of "empty" where Lily had been. The employees were already taking signage down and putting regular brands back out. Same story told to me by the employees..total chaos... women running, pushing, grabbing whatever they could get. Another shopper who was returning a dress she had bought at 8 a.m. told me one customer grabbed all 6 boxes of the plates I was looking for.
I'm sorry to hear you had similar frustrating web issues, readers. And even more sorry to hear that some of you walked away with nothing after visiting the store. Social media (particularly Twitter) is having a field day, posting pictures of empty racks and greedy shoppers taking EVERYTHING in sight :-(
Barbara: from what I understand from Target's FB page, they will not be re-stocking this collab, and that is why they are taking down all the Lilly signage. This happened at one of my local stores, too, and my friend texted me about it this morning. Which makes you wonder: where are the returns going to be placed? Mixed in with all the regular Target merchandise??
From everything I've read today, my Target (Deerfield Beach, FL) was the exception and was imposing limits. You could only buy one size of anything. They had Target staff standing next to the racks and enforced this limit. That said, the racks were completely cleared out by 8:04am. But, it was a controlled chaos. Afterwards a line formed at the fitting rooms and people were trading items. I even had a woman walk up to me and offer to give me two children's items that she found out were too big for her niece. All in all people were very nice to each other. I just hope my online order gets fulfilled. I show an order # in my order history on Target.com, but I never got a confirmation email. Time will tell I guess. I did get 4 cute items in the store though, so I'll be happy with that if the online order didn't get processed. I feel badly for people who for one reason or another couldn't get anything. I will be returning any unwanted items to the store. I would never sell on eBay.
The manager at my store told me that there wasn't any more clothing inventory, but that they were expecting more home goods to "trickle in" in shipments during the week.
Hi everyone. I headed to 6 Richmond stores in area and only came out with an xxl maxi dress. It is really cute but I will be returning it. It's too large. All the home items I wanted (large plate and mugs) were sold out. One store was enforcing 2 items another 4 items. By the time I went to others there was nothing but empty racks. I will watch as things return within the next few weeks.
Don't worry there will be another shipment.
The buyers phase these out in stages, same thing happened with Liberty. Keep checking back.
I was pretty upset with the website crash too! What a debacle. Had to do my shopping in-store after trying things on. I got the strapless maxi dress and was pretty happy with it. Also love the little clutch purse for $24.00 http://www.therecessionista.com/2015/04/the-recessionista-reviews-lilly-for-target.html
What a World: Target has publicly stated that there will be no more shipments coming in. You can read it here on USA Today -
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/04/19/target-web-site-crash-lilly-pulitzer/26029889/
I was at my LI, NY Target at 11 this morning. Saw no evidence of any women's clothing. It must have been snapped up already. There was a small rack of girls dresses very picked through but with some items still there. The home stuff was in the patio section. There were only three towels left and they didn't seem high enough quality to warrant the $25 price tag. I passed. All of the remaining housewares were the white ceramic items. There were several of the green and white poufs there and 3 hammocks. I loved the Liberty of London collaboration and still have many items from that. Although there was also excitement about that collab too, it seemed like it was a lot easier to find something in the store. I just wanted one or two items with a Lilly print. Very disappointed. Hoping for some buyers remorse and returns.
Did you return the dress yet ?
No Jennifer I have not.
My main disappointment was how little actually came to the stores. Two racks of women's clothes only, no swim, no shoes, no clutches, no hats. I honestly don't even know what the home goods section looked liked as there were only 7 pieces left by the time I got back there. My first thought though in reaching the women's clothes was "Is this it?" I did however get 3 pieces after waiting for the put backs. But my 2yr old daughter scored with 7 pieces.
I also live in Minnesota, home to Target. I stayed up til the wee hours and endured the insanity last night. Utter madness. Orders that seemed to go nowhere, with spinning circles whizzing around. I managed to order some of the pillows that I wanted, during a brief window of functioning on Target's website. I wasn't able to order anything else though. This morning, I chose an out-of-the-way small Target that's not my usual store. My usual store is near two local colleges and I knew it would be insane. Anyway, at the out-of-the-way store, arriving around 7:50, no one was in line and there were about 4-5 cars in the lot. I was first in line, of a group of about 5 women. We chatted and a Target employee came out to tell us the aisle numbers where we'd find certain merchandise. When the doors opened, it was peaceful - no running or crazed shopping. When I ran into these other ladies in the store, we congratulated each other - we generally all had our eyes on different items, which helped our camaraderie, no doubt. There was a trade-off - for this level of relative sanity, this store had less inventory (none of the beauty items, for instance, and not all of the scarves and only a fraction of clothing). Still, it was civil, even fun. I then circled back to my usual store and it looked like a pack of wolves had ravaged the Lilly displays. There wasn't much left, but I did pick up one item that wasn't stocked at the smaller Target, plus two lipsticks. In line behind a woman with lots of merchandise, she confirmed that it had indeed been insane inside and outside that store -- a long line, running in the store, grabbing of random items, bartering, etc. Target, why do you do this? You can't just mess with your customers this way -- get your website to function! Despite the three hours of sleep, at least I was fortunate in-store and got some of the items that I wanted. But it's terrible that so many people were disappointed and sleep-deprived, both online and in stores. Target needs to do better than this.
I also tried ordering online and then through the mobile app. I had the Upstream shift dress, pineapple sandals and flask. Then when I tried to pay, it went berserk. Each time there was "improvement" one item was deleted from my cart. By the end of it all, I had only the sandals. I went back to see if I could get a dress, and nope out of stock, out of luck. Today I didn't bother going into Target until almost closing time. I figured nothing would be left anyway, so why bother. I was right, maybe a few coverups and some toddler clothing. On my way to the checkout, I did see some beauty items so I picked up the lip glosses. I can tell you that the Fuchsia Orchestra and Orange Tempo are nice and bold, perfect for summer. Everything I wanted is on Poshmark and on eBay. I won't pay those prices.
A few days ago I scored a nice vintage shift dress from ThreadFlip for less than 50 bucks shipped. Today I decided to peruse through ThredUp and Poshmark for authentic Lilly stuff. Luckily I found more cute dresses for way less than what people are trying to charge for this diffusion line. I'm happy. Here's the thing, people are calling out these vultures and it's getting right down nasty. I understand their frustration, but don't really see the point.
It's the it thing right now. Give a few months and you'll see the same sellers trying to get rid of this stuff because many people aren't going to buy at these outrageous prices. Just go look on eBay, sellers can't get rid of the Altuzarra stuff fast enough. Maybe that'll have to be my new strategy. Sit, wait until the frenzy dies down, and then buy.
Target knew what they were doing. Having issues with their site was total BS. Although I was frustrated by this, I am not a bit surprised. $$$$ I was charged for the sandals, and now the waiting game.
Queen Elizabeth: I agree with you that this was a calculated move on Target's part, and the WSJ stated as much in an article they published yesterday. I would reprint their quotes except they've now taken the article offline and you need to "subscribe" to get to all of it. But they basically said that Target has spent millions in the past year on data analytics, so they knew what a frenzy this line would cause. And, they wanted an instant selllout as that would make it more "exclusive". What bothers me is that they don't seem to care that a large portion of the inventory is ending up on eBay.
And regarding your eBay strategy: "waiting out the vultures" may work, but the point is that people want this stuff NOW. By the time you wait for the price inflation to die down, the Lilly line will be out of season.
I shop at the Navy Exchange and this same thing happens every time Coach or Michael Kors bags go on sale. There are women that go in and fill carts with 25 handbags to sell on eBay. This leaves nothing for those of us that honestly just want one bag. The worst part is that resale of goods from a NEX is illegal (and just plain wrong). I'm so used to this behavior that I didn't even try to score any Lilly. Best of luck to those of you still trying! :)
Readers, a question for you: did your receipt have the Lilly return deadline (14 days from purchase) printed clearly on there? Because a friend of mine said hers did not - that it was just a regular receipt. I'm just curious as to whether this was a glitch at that particular store - ?
Ugh - here's my saga - I sensed this was going to be a cluster because it has the cute appeal of the Liberty collab with the name recognition of Missoni – maybe even more. I was primarily interested in the line because of its retro feel (as opposed to the country club/sorority notoriety, which is not my vibe. It actually reminds me of, say, a baby shower in San Jose, CA in 1975 – so I find it more nostalgic than anything else.
I really wanted just one dress. I started in Norwalk. Everyone was congenial outside. We walked in. Guess what? Only a smattering of clothes compared to the look book. No swimwear. No shift dresses. No jewelry. Maybe some things were online only? Maybe Norwalk isn’t “cool” enough? I got pants, grabbed a jumper (because I could – but it’s probably going back because I look like a weird, big baby), plates, glasses, napkins, a towel. Pretty much saw all the bags/totes (Lord knows I don’t need another bag), beauty section, housewares, one or two small outdoor items. Not a lot of stock, though – four of each item at the most. Went to another Norwalk store, and the clothing racks were already picked over. Again, no dresses. I hit up South Gate next – saw my first beach chairs, hammock, etc., there. Clothing section again hit hard. I finally saw ONE shift dress. No trace of the flamingo shift dress I coveted. The outdoor items were cute, including the pillows, but I don’t have the energy to battle the SoCal sun and dust for their white pom-pom’d survival. I went to Compton next. They actually had some pink and blue shift dresses, but that store had been picked over as well. I saw a patio umbrella – just one. There was definitely a craze at that store too. A woman there told me people had taken pillows out of her cart. Ridiculous. All of the stores had initially had the kids’ stuff too. The Hawthorne store told me they never saw the shift dresses. Several stores told me of people taking entire racks of items. I was glad my first store was so calm comparatively.
But I felt it odd that so many clothing items featured prominently in the campaign never even physically entered the stores – as opposed to having been poached by eBay vultures. So I took a detour through Culver City MONDAY MORNING - and, believe it or not, FULL SIZE RUNS in the flamingo, bright pink, and navy shift dresses. They got them in late. So that’s my “Pulitzer Prize” in my lifetime. Um, the only other Lilly items left in that particular store? Patio umbrella BASES. Yeah, no umbrellas, just four or five bases. Nice…
Music: I like your shopping strategy. Next time (if it's a collab I'm really interested in) I might try to shop in person at a Target store "off the beaten path" (and not in the metro Bay Area).
My receipts (from two stores in MN) have the usual 90-day period printed on them. Yes, this is yet another snafu.
One postscript, of a positive note, when I tried to place online orders in the early hours of Sunday morning, using the mobile app, it seemed like the orders weren't going through. For most of my attempts, I received no confirmation email. Just a swirling circle on the screen, looking like the order was permanently stuck in cyberspace. Well, unbeknownst to me, nearly all of the orders DID go through, which I learned today and yesterday, when I got a "your shipment is coming" email. Of course, I didn't know that when I entered a brick and mortar store on Sunday morning, so I will have duplicate items now. I predict this may have happened to many others. So take heart - I think there's reason for hope in the coming days and weeks for those stalking the returns.
Oh, upon learning of my crazy duplicate online orders, I tried to phone Target to cancel them, but no luck. "That's not possible," I was told. Oh, okay, so send me the merchandise that I already purchased in a store, so I have to schlep it to the store to return it, where it will be clearanced, when Target could have canceled the order and sold the merchandise to someone else online, at full price, who would have been thrilled. Makes no sense.
Hi Marilyn! Would one of your duplicates by any chance be the strapless maxi in nosie poise? I've been searching for that to no avail. Let me know, I'd love to take it off your hands! :)
- Jen
I too have the 90 day return policy on the receipt. I have the maxi noise posie dress in xxl that is too large that I plan to return. If anyone wants to buy it at cost plus shipping let me know.
Jen, I'm sorry, but the strapless maxi isn't one of my duplicates. I wish it were!
Back to the subject of Target's in-store Lilly receipts - on the back, it says: "Most unopened litems in new condition returned within 90 days will receive a refund or exchange. Some items have a modified return policy that is less than 90 days and will print a 'return by' date under the item on the receipt."
There are no "return by" dates under any of my in-store Lilly purchases.
Marilyn
Marilyn, the dates are usually at the top of the receipt. What items do you have in duplicate? I was looking for the dresses and cover-up that were online as well as the mugs and bowls in the home section.
FYI - all my receipts in SoCal have a June return date at the top, just like a regular 90-day Target receipt.
And, yes, Target Addict - I do a lot of my shopping in "regular" neighborhood Targets in general, and I like it. I drive around a lot for my job (in my old Ford Focus); so I'm familiar with different areas of L.A. Plus I can get to some spots off the 105 here more easily than the "Westside" stores at times. I have found it to be an easier shopping experience just in general (again, no kids skateboarding in the aisles). I find a good clearance selection too. Of course, some things never make it into these stores - so I'll have to hit up the more popular stores. But I have found Targets to be VERY consistent overall, no matter what street you're on, and I really appreciate that.
Thanks for replying Marilyn! :)
If anyone does have an extra strapless maxi in small or medium, I'd love to buy it off of you! I'll be having an extra nosie poise tank and espadrilles (I ordered multiple sizes and will only be keeping one. Either s or m in the tank and 8 or 8.5 in the nosie posie espadrilles).
-Jen :)
I live inland about an hour away from both SD and LA. The stores around me sold out within an hour. I have been going back to see if there are any returns. I did find the Nosey Posey weekender, some barware (sadly, no flask though :( ), cosmetic bags, lip glosses, nail polish and files and some clothes. I feel like there will be plenty of jumpsuits in the near future. The material felt awful and unless you're 6 feet tall, it isn't going to work. I've pretty much given up on finding a dress, so I went over to Kohl's and picked up items from the Milly collection instead.
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