Who is Target targeting?

There has been some buzz this year in the media and in the blogosphere about Target not carrying much in the way of plus size clothing for women.  I don't normally shop for clothes at Target, so this wasn't something I gave much attention or thought.

Until this week.

My son had a class at the local community college.  Since the class was a little over an hour and since there is a shopping center close by, I decided to engage in some retail therapy while waiting for him to text me.  I went into a few stores, one of which was Target.  

I was browsing through the "Intimates" section.  I came across some bras, made by Hanes, that looked very comfortable-something that's hard to come by when you are my size.  I checked the tag to see if they had a sizing chart and according to the Hanes chart, these bras were made in sizes up to 2X.  Perfect, since that was the size I was looking for.  Since Hanes sold the bra in that size, I expected to find at least one somewhere on the racks.

Wrong.

Hanes sold a few different styles of these types of bras, and each style came in a few colors.  Every time I looked through the rack, the sizes stopped at XL.  Now, it's possible that some smart gal came through and bought every single 2X bra that was stocked, but I highly doubt it.  Given all of the flack plus sized women have been giving Target about their lack of variety in plus sized women's clothing, I would suspect those sizes were never stocked in the first place.

One response I have heard through the media was that Target explained that more sizes were available online.  Which is fine, except I happened to be in the store at that particular moment.  Stores like Target that sell a variety of items, from groceries to books to clothing, usually rely on customers' impulse buys.  You go in for paper towels, and hey, while I'm here, I'll buy this purse.  In order to meet that kind of demand, you should anticipate that your customers will have different tastes and be different sizes.  I would have happily bought a few of those bras, an unexpected find, if they had my size.

I'm not trying to be an advocate or an activist.  Target has always had a woefully small "Women's" department, kinda smushed in with the Maternity clothes.  And the quality of the clothing is barely above Walmart's standards.  So I don't expect much when I go there and I rarely go clothes shopping in Target.  But if a brand makes a particular item in a larger size, then why wouldn't the store stock it? I guarantee that women would buy it-why wouldn't we, when it's that convenient?

I don't expect Target to change its marketing strategy.  Thankfully there are a decent amount of stores out there, both physically and online, that have plenty of variety for plus sized women of every fashion sense.  It's just too bad that a big box store like Target doesn't realize there's a whole demographic out there willing to give them money if the store would only accommodate them.

As for me, I will go online to look for my size in those bras.  Only I will go directly to Hanes.  Your loss, Target.