Eager fashionistas lined up at the Midtown Target Saturday morning for the launch of the chain's latest bargain priced collection from designer Jason Wu. Unfortunately, they were all beat to the punch as a single couple bought out the store's entire stock of the collection with apparent plans to resell it for marked-up prices. The clothes may have been pretty, but things got ugly and police even had to get involved. Update: Target has now responded to the incident.
Wu's career has been on the rise lately thanks to regular costumer Michelle Obama. She wore one of his gowns on inauguration night back in 2009 and again when she was featured on the cover of Vogue. The designer collection was hotly anticipated by Target shoppers.
However, Miami Wu-fans were blindsided by a couple of vultures. Electric Blogarella recaps the scene:
These people, who the mob of angry shoppers dubbed "The Vultures Who Ruined Jason Wu for Target," came in and took everything. And by everything, I mean everything except what the few of us were able to grab before he did. It all happened so quickly, none of us knew where everything went. We just saw a wannabe mastermind duo with two carts and everything from the collection in it. And that's when things got ugly. A woman, who had been waiting in line as long as the rest of us, said she wasn't going to tolerate that and took something out of the vultures' carts. The male vulture showed her. Her husband threatened him. The police got involved. And then the insults started to fly. The rest of us who were shopping for ourselves with no plans to resell got mad. How was it fair that this guy was taking everything and then telling people around him they could "buy it off him outside?" The angry mob called over the management and asked them to intervene. And they did. They took him aside and told him it wasn't allowed. But a call to corporate Target told them they were not allowed to enforce such a limit on items. And then we were back to square one.And, oh yes, there is video:
The couple then reportedly exited the store with both a police and Target security escort.
Lower prices lines by high-end designers for stores like Target and H&M have become quite popular. Unfortunately, the limited stock means people often swoop in and buy the pieces only to offer them on eBay where they can sell for many times the original price point. H&M, which has offered collections by Versace and Karl Lagerfeld, has limits in place to prevent this practice. Apparently, Target does not.
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