“I Mean…What?!?” – Abe Gurko

So, Target is under fire for making a generous contribution to a wanna-be, fag-bashing hater in Minnesota. That is, after all, the Mecca of style…downmarket style anyway. Target is such a contradiction of terms. Who is their “target” consumer? We see by walking into any store who is stocking up on child-labor made goodies. Whenever I enter the few stores that are a stones throw from Manhattan, I think, “Am I in Kansas? Where do these people come from?” However, Target is brilliant at all levels of marketing and public relations, well, except for the current fag-hating thing. Their visuals represent the highest level of fabulous, and their events are fantastic. I just attended the Target Spectacular in the Meatpacking District  where they blew the roof off The Standard New York. So there lies the dichotomy. You have fierce advertising, cool designer collaborations…then you go to the store…and once there, you are hard pressed to really find anything besides the picked through limited edition designer things. Yes, I want my Toledo Towel but I can live happily ever after without all the other ill-fitting, mass-market hullabaloo.

The newest Target confusion is this seemingly unnecessary partnership with Gilt. Can you come up with a less sexy partnership? Crap at off-price? Am I missing something here? When I see Gilt…which is hourly since I am on their email chain…I think, “Awww, how sad, Alberta Ferretti overproduced”, or “What, Marc by Marc Jacobs? Really? Oy!” Let’s face it…when something is featured on Gilt, it is the admission that your line did not retail out. When I read about the Target and Gilt confab, I thought, this is the saddest sale on Earth. Are you trying to tell me that the prices of Target schmattays are so high that you need buy it off-price through Gilt? Yikes. I would actually be embarrassed to admit I bought anything Target from Gilt. Target might be annoying for donating money to fag haters, but they are equally annoying for diminishing the value of designer brands by not only selling the cheaper “capsule collections” in their stores, but now, they are reduced to selling off-price on Gilt. Whatever. Anyone that supports Michelle Bachmann and this Emmer nut bag deserves what they get.