My Love Affair with Target

I love Target and I think everyone knows it. I just feel so happy when I walk into a Target. They are so bright and clean and well-organized. They have Starbucks inside the stores (at least the good ones do). They have a great selection of everything I like and they have Target-only brands that I love. They send me tons of Target-only coupons "targeted" to my shopping needs.

But above all, I love little orange Target clearance stickers. Target doesn't mess around when it comes to clearancing merchandise. When they want something gone, the markdowns are generous, 30% to 50% to 75%. And sometimes that's all in a few days time.

Now, unfortunately, this one-pony town doesn't have a Target. I have to travel 30 miles to my nearest store, and in this day and age of $4/gallon gasoline, that means I don't get to go to Target as much as I would like (every day). But since I have to travel those 30 miles to get my weekly doctor's appointments anyway, I have been going more frequently.

I walked in a few weeks ago and found an amazing deal, a Boppy baby pillow at 75% off. Anyone who has had a baby or shopped for a baby in the last decade knows that Boppy pillows are the most frequently registered for specialty item at every major baby retailer and they never go on sale. But Target was practically giving them away, all because they are part of a Target-only collection that was being discontinued. I came home very pleased with my bargain find.

The next week I returned to Target to learn that the entire bedding collection that matches my Boppy was now 75% off. At first, I passed it up because the baby will be in a bassinet for a few months and won't have his own room until we move again, but then I remembered (duh!) that I have a son who does have a crib and his own room. So now Sean has a newly decorated room from the Dwell Studio Zoo Collection. He gets more use out of it anyway since as opposed to a newborn, he actually uses the blankets and pillows and appreciates the wall decor. Not pictured here is a matching nightlight we are using and a crib bumper we are not using, and I went out and bought matching blue fabric to make the tiebacks and a changing pad cover for our oddly-shaped changing pad so the whole room now matches. The bedding collection also included baby clothes at 75% off so the baby got some cute outfits that will match his big brother's room perfectly.

My bargain finds continued yesterday when I got Pampers Pull-Ups for Sean at 75% off and a Skip Hop diaper bag (a brand normally out of my price range) at 75% off. I love Target!