Check One Off the Goal List! I'm in Target!!

You guys. It is finally time. I've been keeping this quiet for almost a year and now I'm excited to announce that my single mason jar wall planters are now in Chicago area Target stores! Target! It was a goal of mine to be in Target this year, but I originally thought it would be my art that would be in the stores, not my mason jar wall planter. But hey, something of mine is in Target, so I'm marking it off my goals list. :)

It all started with Scoutmob, an online store promoting independent makers and their products, asking me if I would like to sell my mason jar items on their website.  I did some research on the company and liked that they supported the handmade movement and artisans. They had curated a great collection of handmade products and thought it would be a good fit for my products. We have been in in business together since August 2013 and it's been a good relationship. Then, late last summer, one of their curators contacted me and told me about their Target partnership. Target wanted to create a handmade section in their stores in 5 major cities (Chicago, New York, Portland, Atlanta and San Francisco) and looked to Scoutmob to partner with. After Target reviewed the products/artisans on Scoutmob's website, they selected a grouping of potential items to offer in their stores and my mason jar wall planters were selected. You can imagine how excited I was! Holy cow, Target! Of course, at this time they were just gathering a selection of products and then would narrow them down to their final list, so I hadn't made the cut yet, but at least I was in the running. Of course a thousand questions began going through my mind. What if I can't make the quantity they need? What if I don't have enough reclaimed wood?  What if their turn-around time is faster than I can handle? I sent the requested samples to Scoutmob for their meetings with Target and, obviously, they selected my single jar wall planter, with plans to put the single and the triple jar planters online. Yes! Now panic ensues...

Thankfully Target has been requesting manageable quantities in batches and we've been able to keep up just fine so far. I say "we" because my husband has been helping a ton. Once I package up a shipment, I send it to Scoutmob where they assemble the jar onto the reclaimed wood and place it in the packaging they created to display it in. They also add a tag that has my picture on it, the Tickled Pink name, and my location. Once they're shelf ready, they ship them on to Target.

Now that all the products are on display in the stores and will be online this week, I'm not quite sure what to expect. I really have no idea how busy I will be with reorders and online orders. If it flops, heck, I'm still grateful for the experience and can now say I've had my products in Target. That, alone, I think is pretty cool.

Unfortunately, I live about 3-4 hours away from Chicago and am not sure I'll be able to see the display in person. I may have to make a road trip, but we're so busy with my youngest and baseball right now. So, if you're in the Chicago area and step into a Target store, I would SO appreciate some pictures. They'll be on an endcap. :)