Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Missoni Madness

If you are a fashion-loving human being who was alive and breathing air on Tuesday, you know what went down with Missoni for Target.


Just as I suspected, the launch was insane. But do not worry! I am now the proud owner of a large amount of the chevron-printed goods. Here’s how my experience went down…


On Monday night, my dear mother, who had promised to accompany me bright and early to wait on line the next day, bailed on me. Perhaps she was tired, perhaps she was remembering when I dragged her out of bed and forced her to drive me to a White Plains, New York Target at 8am for the Tucker for Target launch, where after weeks of worrying about it being sold out I was literally the only person in the store – whatever it was, she was NOT DOWN AT ALL.


I freaked out. I didn’t want to go alone! Luckily, my roommate came to the rescue and agreed to meet me in the valley at 7:30am. I decided to sleep at Rami’s, as he lives 5 minutes away from the Target we chose. (This was an impromptu sleepover – thank you to my sweet boyfriend for giving up his night of reading alone and being so patient with me!) By midnight on Tuesday, I was propped up in bed in Rami’s apartment holding my new iPad and his laptop and iPhone. Of course, there was nothing. I hit refresh a jillion times and when nothing came up, I went to sleep….


…only to wake up, naturally, at 3am. As soon as my eyes popped open I figured “Why not check just in case?” BEST IDEA I HAVE EVER HAD EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!


As far as I can tell, at 3am PST/6am EST, the Target team started loading the items onto the website. They were immediately available – I was clicking things, adding them to my cart, taking my sweet time! At about 3:30am, I was done – I checked out and paid for 13 items in my cart. As soon as I got my confirmation email, I realized I had forgotten to buy towels! I logged back on and bought four towels – two for me, two for my roommate – paid, and went back to bed. It was barely 4am.


Apparently, the website crashed right after! I still can’t believe how lucky I am. Part of me is still nervous my items won’t come in – I keep double checking my confirmation email to make myself feel better!


At 7am, my alarm went off and I got dressed and left to meet Rach at the store. She was already on line when I arrived at 7:40am– there were about 40 women in front of us.


Now for the madness. As soon as the doors open, these bitches turned into vicious savages. People started screaming, running, pushing – it was basically a riot. Security guards were screaming for order and no one listened. I darted through the crowd, bypassing women SHRIEKING in the clothing section, shouting for Rachel to follow me, and headed straight to the home goods.


They had a whole rack of stuff I had my eye on! I put a tray in my cart and one in Rachel’s, and reached for a container. As Rachel loaded glass mugs into her cart carefully, I bent down to start stacking salad plates. I always buy table settings for 8 people – I picked up 4 black plates and put them in my cart, and I placed 3 rainbow plates in my cart. I turned around for the final colored plate and an old woman GRABBED the entire stack – seriously, probably 20 plates! – and put the whole stack in her cart! I snarled a nasty word at her but couldn’t wait around – there was more stuff to get!


We ended up only getting a couple more things in store – I got a pair of pajama pants and helped Rach get a few hand towels – before we realized there was NOTHING LEFT IN THE STORE. We got in line to pay – it was 8:08. The entire store sold out in less than 10 minutes.


Terrifying anecdote #1: I had picked up a tote-bag as soon as I ran into the store, and as I was checking out, I realized I didn’t really want it. Half jokingly, I raised it in the air and shouted “Anyone want this?” A woman SCREAMED “I DO!” at the top of her lungs, lunged towards me, snatched it out of my hands and ran off.


Terrifying anecdote #2: As we were paying, Rach and I noticed some commotion towards the front of the store. A woman was hysterically crying and sobbing on the arm of a security guard as they walked towards us. As soon as she was in earshot, I heard her yell “That’s her!” and point towards a woman in line next to us. “That’s her! She’s the one who tripped me! YOU BROKE MY TOE! You bitch! I’ll kill you!” Rachel looked scared but I obviously had to chime in. “That woman took my stuff!” I shouted, pointing at the old lady unloading MY PLATES a couple rows down. “PIPE DOWN!” Rachel said to me. “YOU are not fighting with anyone here today!” I begrudgingly stopped pointing.


As soon as I got in my car and left Target, my phone buzzed with a picture message. It was a self portrait from Jacob – holding a Missoni for Target vase! I called immediately and learned that his mom had gone to Target for regular household items and stumbled upon the goods. Direct quote from Mrs. Laurie herself: “I went for orange juice and milk, and ended up spending $375!” My kind of woman.


While I was telling Jacob all about the near-riots, his younger sister Sophie arrived on the scene and decided she was going to head over to a different Memphis-area Target. Naturally, I begged her to search for me too! Cue a bizarre four-way phone call – I sat on the phone for nearly a half hour, telling Jacob what I wanted, while he relayed it to his mom, sitting next to him, who passed the message on to Sophie in the store. Confusing, yes, but the Memphis stores were nowhere near as crazy as the LA stores, and Sophie got a ton more things I wasn’t able to get my hands on here! I owe a HUGE thank you to the entire Samuels family for helping fuel my shopping addiction :) I also owe my dear pal Deborah a shout-out - after reading my Facebook lament about missing out on the robe, she added one to her cart for me! Thank you Deb for looking out for me too :)


So I bet you’re wondering after all that, what did I get? WELL! What do you think I am, some shopping amateur? I got nearly every single thing I wanted – the espresso cups, sweater boxes, a throw, stacking bowls, a ton of the stationery goods and folders, cosmetic bags, candles, vases, plates, trays, towels, platters, and more.


You might be reading this with your mouth open, thinking about what a nut case I am. Well, you’re right - kind of. I am a competitive person by nature, and throw in some shopping into the mix and there was no way I wasn’t going to be all over that. But more than that - I genuinely have always loved the Missoni line. When I heard the brand was teaming up with Target, I was ecstatic. I didn’t only do it for the chase - I did it because it was a chance for me to finally own some of the things that I’ve long admired and dreamed about.


So if it means I spent one day being a crazed lunatic running around desperately searching for stuff at my local Target, so be it! At the end of the day, I’m happy - and a lot poorer :)



9 comments:

  1. Basically sounds exactly like my experience yesterday in Dallas. Right down to the stupid bitch who stole an entire stack of MY PLATES!

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  2. This is by far my favorite Missoni Tale I have read. My Missoni experience was nearly the same (although my store wasn't as crowded). One crazy lady started throwing stacks of shoes in her cart (all SIZES!) then headed to luggage (got all of the luggage and asked for more to be brought out). When I left at 8:30 she as on cart #6!

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  3. OMG, so funny! I can't believe people were acting like this... It's not like they were giving it away! I'm sort-of sorry that I missed all the madness (just to witness the insanity), but I'm mostly sorry that I missed the opportunity to buy anything. I couldn't get online until today and there's nothing good left. I'm still debating if I should waste my time to check out my Target tonight. I'm in Chicago, so I doubt there will be anything left. :(

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  4. to say i am jealous does not even to begin to cover my emotions i am feeling at this moment! you are soooo lucky!!! this story was so funny it did make me feel better and next time i am contacting you for a better game plan when another line comes out that i am lusting after!!

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  5. genius. absolute genius. im truly in awe. im in nyc so getting to a store wasnt an option (still kicking myself for not going to brooklyn) and was actually on a "waiting list" to get onto the website. post some pictures of your loot!!!

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  6. This cheered me up considerably. I was at Target today (a day late and a dollar short) and of course N O T H I N G was left, not one single thing. The Target employees told war tales of people running in and just blindly grabbing everything they could get their hands on (to later ebay, no doubt), so I am so happy to hear about a REAL shopper who appreciates the line actually got some good things instead of the vultures. Enjoy!

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  7. Are you afjdlafkdjkalfdjadfkiuoaetnv-ing kidding me!!!! Well done, my friend! I am so impressed. This girl got nada! If you end up not liking anything, please email me! ;) xox

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  8. this is insane!! i think it beats out black friday!!! haha. My sister couldnt get her hands on much at our Target

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  9. you must post pictures :) i love it.

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