Target is resting in my nerves  

OH boy
The last thing the market needs is Target getting involved. Target is a smart retailer though and the only way it could increase the product depth in HOME is to get the repros in there. Have you seen designs from non-reproduction furniture manufacturers? Horrid.
That Barcelona Loveseat is from the WORST WORST WORST reproduction company out there called Wholesale Interiors. You can see the snaps in the back and it chips like a mofo.
But I love Method! Target rules in every other category IMO.

knock offs
there are way too many poor quality copies out there now, it annoys me like hell!

A theory
I love Targets advertising. I adore it. Its lush, and beautiful and poppy and makes me happy. It is full of happy beautiful people and kaleidoscopic rolls of toilet paper, bounding puppies and whimsical pop music, cascading raindrops of M&M's, parades of glossy appliances, and more happy beautiful people having parties around MCM furniture.
Then you get to the store. And you realize: It's JUST toilet paper.
Thats my theory about how Target works. Its all just gorgeous facade - when get inside its all dirty and smelly just like its slightly bigger brother WalMart. Walmart, though, has enough integrity not to clad itself in a sniny attractive skin.
(Did i really just use integrity and walmart in the same sentence? Oy!)

A British Perspective
I don't ever see Target's advertising, but like to visit whenever I'm in the States- I love the place
(I have 3 sisters dotted around the LA area )
It is much better, and cheaper than it's UK equivalents for good basics, like towels and kitcheware..
..anything I can shove in a suitcase!
I wish we had Home Depot here too!!
You try getting what you need from B&Q !

Hehehe...
My brother works for one of the local Targets. He's on of the execs there. Target is a good place for buying toilet paper, papertowels, household cleaners, and the like, but not for furniture. They actually used to have better quality furniture, IMHO. When I was in college, my roommate and I had a couple furniture pieces from Target. It was what we could afford. They weren't beautiful or anything, but they got the job done and lasted...didn't fall apart or anything. I think Target's furniture has really gone downhill. Now it looks extremely cheaply-made and doesn't look like it would even last for one year let alone five. And their stuff is just fugly now. My brother may work there, but not even he owns any furniture from there. He's got better taste then that.

cloudburst is correct they...
cloudburst is correct they use t o have some really cool stuff but it has gone down hill real bad
maybe due to the illness of Michael Graves, that they have not become as productive in the cool dept, several of his clocks are listed in the world design book but the stuff that the staff people have come with in the last several years is really bad!! nothing but coffee
brown cheap wood that is painted and crappy fabrics, come on target get on the stick and start coming up with some cool stuff,
One thing i can say t hey are designing the exterior of there stores much better than they use to. nice materials but do not know to thank the developers or the Target design architects.
sidebar
K-mart and wal mart make me throw up from the minute you drive up to the stores, and see the dirty baby diapers in the parking lot,
i guess they tell those people that it is o.k. to dispose of the babys dirty diaper in the parking lot.
a free service provided by k mart and wall mart

I shop at Target for paper goods
light bulbs and other household junk - there's one close by - but anyone stupid enough to buy any furniture from them deserves what they get.
I'm not a K-Mart shopper and i have never been inside of a Wal*Mart...and judging from the way they run their business, I never will.
Oh yea, Target sells some nifty washable slippers.

K-Mart scares me. And since...
K-Mart scares me. And since K-Mart and Sears merged, Sears has really gone down-hill. I never bought clothes from Sears anyway because they were always tacky and pretty cheap-looking, but now they are K-Mart quality clothes which is as low as you can go. I actually don't think I've ever bought anything from Sears. The only reason I go into the store is that the mall expanded and to get from one side of the mall to the other, you have to pass through Sears.
I don't shop in Wal-Mart anymore. I used to occassionally when I lived in western Kentucky because that's all we had...no Targets or anything, but we had two billion Wal-Marts. Now that I live in Lexington and have a bit more of a selection, I usually opt for Target or Meijer.

I actually thought
When K-Mart (who was almost out of business), bought Sears (from their real estate holding windfall), I think both K-Mart and Sears actually have improved.
Sears still is the place to go for quality tools, but since they've put Lands End (another company they bought) into most of their stores, I have seen an improvement in overall quality.

The Land's End section might...
The Land's End section might be decent but the rest of the clothes there are crap. And I don't buy anything like TVs etc from Sears. They often seem over-priced to me on TVs and appliances.