Every time I go to Target, I end up with a least one new piece of clothing. Like this jersey dress. Cute, right?

It seems every time I go in there now for a necessity, I come home with new clothes.

How can I resist? Right there at the entrance is the women’s section with trendy pieces lining the isle, enticing me to step in and browse. Sure enough, one piece always jumps into my basket. Why question the impulse buy when it’s so cheap?

Smarty corporate merchandisers. We are so predictable. :)

Yesterday in the WSJ, there was an article about retailers, Target was the example, getting upset about acting as a “showroom” for customers to experience a product before they buy it for considerably less online. Target actually wrote a letter to its vendors pleading for them to help level the playing field with price reductions or exclusive offerings for their stores.

As a consumer I just don’t feel bad for them. They’ve dominated our shopping and wallets for too long, and it feels empowering to have options and use them. Now, I usually go with brick and mortar over online, but the majority of shoppers apparently don’t. (Check out the Red Laser and Amazon PriceCheck apps to comparison shop.)

Online retailers try to entice you with the “other people bought” items, but I’m willing to bet those don’t jump into the shopping cart as often as they do in a real store.

I certainly don’t have numbers to back this up, but it seems like the ball is finally in our court! The question is then are we smart enough to consider our budget and hit it straight passed their tactics, not always ending up with the jersey dress.

I’m working on that :)