Target was called out on the mat by consumer Susan Clemens Wednesday, when she spotted that the plus size version of a particular dress offered on the retailer’s website changed the color name from “Dark Heather Gray” to “Manatee Gray” for the bigger sizes. Target quickly took action, removing the “manatee” name from it’s site, and issuing an apology to Clemens and the public, according a report on Z6Mag.com on Friday, April 5.
Online shopper Susan Clemens tweeted a picture of a plus sized dress labeled Manatee Gray. Then she pointed out that the exact same dress in regular sizes was labeled as Dark Heather Gray.
“What the. Plus sized women get ‘Manatee Grey’ while standard sizes are ‘Dark Heather Grey.’ @Target #notbuyingit”, Clemens tweeted along with an attached picture from Target’s website as proof.
Target must have gotten quick wind of the rapid Twitter response Clemens received from her tweet, because the manatee gray, or grey as Clemens called it, was swiftly removed and the major retailer apologized.
“We apologize for this unintentional oversight and never intend to offend our guests. We’ve heard you, and we’re working to fix it ASAP”, Target tweeted back to Clemens. Both gray and grey are acceptable spellings of the same color’s name, by the way.
Target spokeswoman Jessica Deede issued an official apology that she basically calls an unintentional oversight to Today.com. She says that many of their products carry the manatee gray label, according to The L.A Times.
Apparently there’s two separate teams of buyers, one for standard sizes and another for the plus sizes. The two teams apparently didn’t coordinate their color names for this particular dress, called a Women’s Kimono Maxi Dress.
As you may or may not know, manatees are often referred to as “sea cows”. Found in this country mostly in the waters off Florida, they can measure 10-12 feet in length and weigh from 1,500 to 1,800 pounds.
They are found in other parts of the world also, and yes they're gray in color.
Susan Clemens didn’t expect a direct apology from the huge retail chain, saying, “@Target handled it really well. I’m still a big fan”.
Still more cynical people had to wonder if it truly was an oversight. Figure first the manatee color label had to gain approval from the manufacturer.
Then the marketing dept. and buyers have to give the okay, and then to have the eyes of the merchandisers, sales staff and Web team on the manatee name and nobody thought it was a bad idea?
What do you think, slip-up or slam?
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