I should be getting paid for this.
So i got this little Target coupon book in the mail yesterday. I guess the former resident of this apartment was on their mailing list for one reason or another, and i’m benefiting from that. It’s two dozen or so pages long, and each spread has three coupons on one side and a portrait on the other, like so:
I needed a bunch of stuff anyway, so i took it with me to Target today. I found a couple of things that i thought were blog-worthy.
I didn’t even need any pasta, per se–or have a coupon for it, for that matter–but this packaging grabbed me. I thought it was lovely, especially compared to all the other bread-and-butter pasta packages.
I checked out the ice cream ’cause i happened to have a coupon for it, and – lo and behold!:
Green tea Haagen Dazs?? Hell-o! I’ve been looking for green tea ice cream for years and all i could find was some dairy-free crap that tasted as bad as it sounds. But now A. i’ve found some, B. it’s freakin’ Haagen Dazs, and C. I saved a dollar on it, which makes it extra-sweet.
I bought a ton of stuff, and when i got home i flipped through the coupon book again to see if there were any coupons left that i might use, and suddenly the design made a whole lot of sense:
How clever!
And the final reason that i love Target is that soon, with the help of my dear friend Kelly who occasionally works at Target and therefore gets an employee discount, i shall acquire a new iPod touch for as much as $57 off the retail price. Hell. Yes.
Sunday, September 14th, 2008 9:01 pm • graphic design, shopping
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September 15th, 2008 at 8:35 am
That. Is. Awesome. Pretty much the whole thing, but especially the fact that Haagen Dazs makes green tea ice cream. I’m off to the store to go find some… yes… right now.
Thanks for again brightening my day with the unusual and extraordinary to be found in the mundane.
September 15th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
Thank you Jesus Cristo, the girl bought some food! I want green tea ice cream!!!!!!! No fair! The coupon book made me laugh.
September 16th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
I know this is going to make me the most evil person in the world, and even though I like Target, the company seems to be so infatuated with how awesome it thinks it is. I just want to say to the bigwigs at Target, “Do you realize that you’re still a big-box retail chain?” It’s in the same league as all the Wal-Marts and Pamidas and all that stuff. Yes, yes, they have somewhat higher quality goods, as far as off-brand stuff goes… but, in my opinion, for a price that overtakes the increase in actual value.
That said, I still gladly shop at Target, but won’t turn up my nose to a Wal-Mart, unless it’s the one in Rockford. Although I don’t like going pretty much anywhere around here other than a single grocery store, but that’s a whole other story.
Wow, this post was unnecessarily long.
September 17th, 2008 at 11:23 am
I absolutely hate Wal Mart, which makes it pretty much ridiculous that i like Target as much as i do.
All i’m sayin’ is i like their stuff, and i think their design is generally very nice as well–though a lot of the “market pantry” crap looks really uninspired. Good marketing, anyway.
September 17th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Target shoppers vs. Wal-mart shoppers
Although there each the same fruit, big box retail stores, your not comparing apples to oranges. You don’t see Target going into small towns and shutting down ma & pa stores. Plus I don’t think Target imports nearly as much as product from good ole China as Wally world.
Ok so I had a bad experience at Wal-mart in Kissime, FL. I waited in line forever then the clerk abruptly went to break and told me to find another checkout which lead to me popping a rather large bag of chips at the check out lane.
September 17th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
As the aforementioned Target employee, I know all sorts of useless things that I won’t bother to rant about, but I will say that Target actually is a really great company. If I have to get stuck in retail (which I HATE, and have for years), Target wins hands down. Target also has a whole different set of moral and ethical practices than WalMart, probably because it’s based of Minneapolis. Target =
September 17th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Dude, your comments cut me off again.
September 17th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
PS – Target has the BEST retail design EVER. I swear I drooled all over everything when I started. Even their internal stuff that nobody else sees… They wrote the book on successful branding execution.
September 17th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
Also, Steph, Market Pantry crap looks lame because it’s the cheap generic version of things – it’s supposed to. Archer Farms, the higher-end “generic”, is better executed. The MP stuff is still pretty damn good though – AND cheap.
Man, I miss having a Super Target. And I miss living around the corner from a Super Target. SIGH.
September 30th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Oh snap!