But after seeing this in Target going to a single customer, pool selling in the 808 must be a thing.

Yes, the in-store Starbucks is once again brewing albeit with a stanchion-ed maze. There were even these new post-COVID19 cups.

Might have to visit Costco sooner rather than later. And on a related note, how can Target not have any coffee creamer? Not one single bottle of any size or flavor in the refrigerated section. Even the workers confirmed this Rona shortage.

And don’t think you can outsmart the system by going to self check-out. The POS systems are programmed to halt your checkout until the on-duty clerk checks and approves your lychee purchase. Simply put, don’t hoard the lychee.

If you’re thinking of picking one up in store, I would call the location first and double check inventory. Although online inventory may say in-stock, the stores may not actually have the HomePod available to sell. Units could be processing through the shipping channel.

After looking through the line, yeah, I’m not won over. Maybe it’s just a Hawaii-thing, but I can’t picture the locals outfitted in these pieces.

That’s too bad since Target was ready to handle the (potential) sales by installing even more self checkout counters.

Amazingly, the traditional checkout counters manned by employees still have long queues. I guess business must be good?

If this is like other collaborations in Target’s past, the store will be stormed and inventory wiped out essentially that day.

Yes, that is a self checkout station. One of several in fact that’s being installed where the previous express registers were. If you’ve shopped at Target Kailua, you know of the line imbalance. There’s usually one or two open regular cashiers and one express cashier. But most of the buyers have a handful of items, so that express line is packed and not so express. The buyers with carts overwhelm the regular cashiers. Needless to say, buying stuff is a time consuming hassle.

These self check out stands have got to help. I’ll report back in a week or two…

Maybe she was amped up from that Starbucks coffee.

So if you ever need to upgrade your cable modem to take advantage of Oceanic’s newer faster speeds, you can’t just go to Target, hoping they’ll sell you the $120 Motorola SB6183 cable modem at the $90 Amazon price. Just won’t happen. Even with a 10% electronics coupon, Amazon is still cheaper.

Next I went to Longs. They recently got the same Kodak photo kiosk system I saw at Target. There was an attached scanner, so I started going through the steps. What a piece of junk that Kodak photo kiosk is. Maybe it’s the hardware, maybe it’s the software, or just that touch screen, but the kiosk would just bug out. At best you could touch the Start Over button and start again. At worst, the kiosk would get stuck in a loop – warming up scanner, capturing image, warming up scanner, capturing image, over and over. When finally one photo scanned successfully, I tried to rotate it. Is it just me or is timing the click on the okay button when the image is rotated correctly much too difficult?

Eventually the system just wouldn’t accept any more and was just hung. So I went to a different Longs. This location had the older Fuji system that was easy enough to operate. The cost of two prints is $0.41 or something like that, but then the clerk says he can’t print school photos due to copyright issues. He had gotten into trouble for doing this once already. I had no release consent form on me since the picture was taken at the beginning of the school year. Maybe I could call the photographer and ask for a release over the phone. Who took the photo? No clue.

Next I went to a neighborhood print shop. Sure, they could resize and print the image…after 24 hours. They needed time to scan and resize the image manually then print it out. 24 hours? Heck, I would have taken a printout made using PowerPoint.

So who could accomplish this seemingly daunting task? Walgreens. The store had two staff members working the photo services desk. A third Walgreens employee helped me with their kiosk system. Seems like the days of 3×5 photos is no more. A 20-minute print time was like 20 seconds, and I had to pay $0.78 for two prints. Woe is me. Thanks Walgreens!

However, at the Kailua location, there’s actually a few Lillys still available, but I’m guessing this must be the dregs of the collection.

Actually, the set of colored drinking glasses is okay but not at $30.

But scouring around,I did manage to find two Lilly Pulitzer products proving the release did indeed happen.

But by now, I’m sure there’s no trace of the Lilly + Target line.

So thankfully, I missed it all. Heck, I didn’t even know about it but just happened to be at Target when the Lilly Pultizer collaboration released. Fashionistas had known about this day, lining up outside retail stores early in the morning or swarming Target.com. By the time, I was at the Target in Kailua, this is what remained of the Lilly clothing line.

Actually, when I first walked by the rack, it was completely barren. But seems like a few items made it back to the rack. In the back of the store, there was another section for home items, mostly towels at this point. Sorry no pictures, and sorry to the fans who missed out on the Target + Lilly line that supposedly is not being restocked.

Not sure if it was related, but the in-store Target guest wifi network wasn’t behaving as well. Once you connected to that network, Internet traffic was super slow and yes, Target.com and its app just would keep throwing errors. Taking a look at the hashtag of #LillyforTarget, you can still get a glimpse of the nationwide craziness and the unhappiness of empty handed shoppers. In the store, I felt compelled to move some of these pastel colored goza mats into the Lilly Pulitzer section just to see what would happen.

Looking at the Lilly line on-line, personally, I’m not sold. Oh, I’m definitely sold on the hype of the product line, loving and hating brands that can create enormous buzz (looking at Apple and Nike). For my tastes, I described the Target + Lilly line as “Easter Hawaiian,” meaning Hawaiian style prints in Easter pastel colors, but some items are eye catching.

But really who am I trying to kid? While I may not be a fan of the Lilly designs I saw, if there was a collaboration between Lilly Pulitzer and Nike, I’d definitely be open minded and would consider rocking the “Nike + Lilly.”

The Target location in Kailua had their soft opening today with the grand opening scheduled for Sunday, March 8. Open to the general public for the first time, the people of Hawaii didn’t disappoint. There was an expected line to get in as many thought today was the official grand opening.

The shopping carts were quickly snapped up as the people kept on coming.

I didn’t grab a cart but instead, opted to zip around unencumbered, and you know what? From what I saw, this Target looks like any other Target you’ve been to. Check out the familiar bath section.

Here’s the electronics section.

The groceries.

Although I love the layout of the milk containers. Reminds me of the Matrix movie for some reason.

The toy section was happening as serious Hot Wheels collectors picked through the virginal batch of cars. I found the latest Lego Minifigures series along with the newest line of Lego Elves.

Some of the sale items advertised in last Sunday’s ad were wiped out already on the first day of shopping.

Sadly, no new flavors of Mountain Dew Kickstart were available like at the other locations. Just the usual ones.

The Target dog wasn’t on-hand today but his replica was. But I didn’t take a selfie.

The Starbucks inside wasn’t as crowded as I expected, and there is another location just down the block.

All shopping carts were accounted for, and you had to hunt for one.

The plentiful parking disappeared as well. The connecting lane joining Safeway was still blocked off. All I can say is that Boots and Kimo’s is gonna be nuts with this Target (and its parking) open across the street.

Be sure to watch the local news tonight for in-depth coverage. Every channel was there. Anyways, here are more of my rushed pics. I didn’t want to stay too long as more and more people entered the building. Although I must say that since this location is so huge, even with all the shoppers, the store didn’t actually feel cramped or crowded. It was a comfortable shopping experience despite the craziness.

The newest Target in Kailua is set to open this week, and here are a few more pictures before the opening.