Target, we need to talk...

For a long, long time now Target has been a weakness of mine. The mall (ugh) is not really a temptation. Online shopping is more of a necessity than a temptation, and catalogs mostly inspire me to "shop" my own closet. I used to be somewhat tempted by the Restoration Hardware and Pottery Barn catalogs, but I finally realized that, by simply reconfiguring or rearranging items we already own, we achieve a similar look... sort of.

At least it's close enough for us.

Target, though, it gets me, what with its items being mostly under $25. There have been countless times that I have left the store carrying 3-4 bags -- really small bags only partially full -- and being $150 lighter. It is insane to me how readily I will part with money there, when I am so careful elsewhere.

Dodging the Target shakedown has been easy enough in the past: simply do not walk into the store. It's not like I NEED to go to Target (except I do; everyone NEEDS to go to Target). But, I persevered. I avoided the bull's-eye.

And then they played unfairly.

They introduced the following items/concepts over the last 3-4 months.

First, they announced the "Liberty of London" for Target line. I don't really need to elaborate here, do I? We can all stipulate that we would all like to have at least ONE of EVERY Liberty of London product, right? Even the most ardent wearer of black/dark clothing falls prey to the cheery prints/patterns of Liberty of London.

For example, if we won a shopping spree at Target, I would be racing through the women's, children's and home goods section raking all of the Liberty of London items in while Skip would be jumping up and down and yelling, "ELECTRONICS!!! Go to the electronics department!"

Anyway. Moving on.

Second, they released a Target app for the iPhone. I downloaded it immediately. Why would I access this app? I don't know. I suppose that's like asking someone with a substance problem why s/he would go out on New Year's Eve. Why would I download the app? I don't have a good reason/explanation for you.

Third, they introduced the "Daily Deals". If you are unfamiliar (how could you be?), they post 3-4 items every day, reduced significantly -- sometimes by as much as 75% -- and the item ships free. The "Daily Deals" portion of the website is addictive, pure and simple. After a few hasty daily deal purchases, I stopped utilizing the main site completely.

Fourth, they made the "Daily Deals" page the top link of the Target app.

All of the above conspired against me. I could go on and on. Don't even get me started on the sales catalog that arrives in our Sunday paper each week. More than once I have wanted to race to the car in response to the "weekly wow" featured in their sales paper. Then, they have their convenient "one click" checkout that saves the customer the time of reviewing the final invoice and total. It's all very alluring.

A few people have asked me what it is within Target that poses such a temptation. It's everything. The entire store looks tempting to me. If you were to peak inside one of my shopping bags it would seem as if I had been blindfolded, released in the store, and grabbed items randomly from various departments. The entire store is a problem.

One day at the end of March our credit card statement arrived. I brought it in thinking, "Hmmm... that's odd... why would we receive a statement when we have a zero balance?" I opened the statement, expecting to see $25 or so in charges for random items. Possibly I charged gasoline when I was in a hurry and couldn't readily locate my ATM card? Oh, Skip probably charged something minor while he was traveling.... Whatever it was, it was sure to be something small.

As I was scanning the itemization of the (much, much, much more than $25) statement, I couldn't help but notice that most of the entries were from Target. Some of the purchases were (thankfully) gift items (we had a few birthdays, a wedding shower and pre-Easter shopping in March), but the rest represented lovely Target items that added up a few dollars at a time.

The bottom line is that I am breaking up with Target. The iPhone app? Deleted. Daily deals? A thing of the past. Liberty of London? I could fabricate a vow to not purchase any additional Liberty of London items; however, the inventory has been raided, and Target appears to be "sold out" of almost the entire line. Unless they restock (I think many items were limited editions), there should be no more temptation...

...Except that a lot of the Liberty raiders cleaned out the Target inventory and posted the items for sale on eBay...