Target

Target sure has gotten a lot of press for being 'design for the masses' lately. And it's difficult for me to change my childhood perception of the place (which is based in my hometown...actually is based in the SUBURBS of my hometown). At that time, it was just a big cheap place where my mom bought us jams (remember those?) and mediocre stationary products for school ( I always preferred the now defunct St. Paul Book and Stationary) in the mid '80's. It had a McGlynn bakery that had overly sweet cakes and cookies with red frosting that tasted like chemicals. When the edgy stylish ad campaigns started a few years back, I was wondering what target was trying to acheive. I haven't been to the new ikea-ized target yet, so it's really not my place to make any criticism. But I do feel the old fuddy duddy who refuses to think that a place like target can change to being a kitsch fashion house. Next time I'm shopping in the suburbs at big box retail(which will be too soon if it ever happens) I'll have to check it out. In the meantime, Muji is far superior, and if I had to go to big box, I'd just go to Ikea. Ikea and Target are really similar in my mind, with the latter simply giving european sounding names to things with diacritic marks.