A day after a shopping frenzy over Target's Lilly Pulitzer line, jilted shoppers who failed to snag anything had a lot of questions for the Minneapolis-based retailer.
And they weren't shy about asking them.
Why isn't Target restocking the stores? Why are people still seeing TV commercials promoting the collection if the stuff is already mostly sold out? Why didn't Target stop people from buying cartfuls of items and then reselling them on eBay at higher prices?
And why, oh why, didn't Target order more stuff to begin with?
"Why make such a big promotion about it and then put it in dribs and drabs in the store?" asked Roberta Marcus, 74, who waited more than an hour outside a store in Florida only to come out empty-handed. "It was unconscionable for them to do that."
It might be easy to see the complaints that have flooded social media and assume the limited-time collection of 250 items in the Lilly Pulitzer for Target line was a disaster for Target. But most retail experts say it was just the opposite.
"This was a grand slam home run for Target," said Marshal Cohen, an analyst with the NPD Group. "Yes, they could have bought more, but what if they did? The fact that you can't get it makes it that much more coveted. … And it makes consumers say, 'I'm not going to miss this next time.' "
The fact that it mostly sold out and customers are bemoaning the fact they didn't get any of it is great, he said. And so, too, is the fact that the frenzy nearly crashed Target's website when the collection appeared Sunday morning.