(Bloomberg) -- Target Corp. rolled out a Vineyard Vines collection on Saturday with perhaps inevitable results: buyers snapped up lower-priced versions of the upmarket brand, irritating some shoppers looking for a less predatory retail experience.
“So it begins, everything is already sold out online and posted to eBay,” Kayla Griffin, 30, a photographer in Washington who wanted to purchase products from the new line, said on Instagram.
“It would have been nice if you had actually learned from the Lilly Pulitzer collaboration fiasco and purchased enough stock for the initial release,” Griffin said.
The tie-in with Vineyard Vines is the latest for Minneapolis-based Target, which has collaborated in the past with a number of well-known, often high-end clothing and housewares brands.
“We’ve seen a considerable amount of excitement from guests sharing their purchases on social media and lining up at Target stores across the country,” said Target spokeswoman Amy Koch. “Across the board, we’re thrilled with the response to this collection, and there are still items available in our stores and on Target.com.”
More than 300 products from preppy Vineyard Vines, at prices ranging from $2 to $120, went up on Target’s website Saturday and are aimed at attracting younger buyers. Prices compare with $14 to $400 on the Vineyard Vines website, separate from the Target collaboration. Vineyard Vines also has about 70 retail stores.
In an Instagram reply Target said, “We strive to strike a balance between offering guests the products they want, while still keeping the collections special and limited in nature.”
The discount retailer has a history of selling Lilly Pulitzer and Jean Paul Gaultier clothes, Hunter rain boots and Michael Graves tea kettles, sometimes spurring shopping frenzies and rapid sell-outs.
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