In the past, very few retailers empathized with the public financial situation. The goal of any corporately funded monopoly is to acquire as much as possible. In the business of retail, those acquisitions would be other people’s money. Whether they have it or not. Don’t believe me? Look at the state of the nation’s credit crisis. Not just Bob and Sue’s credit. The NATION. A whole country. All 305,571,248 of us. We are in debt up past our eyeballs and can’t understand why the common man bought into sub prime lending.

With the exception of HellWal-Mart, very few places looked out for the betterment of little people and their little pockets. Today’s economic situation forces everyone to look at the train wreck, no matter how gory, how vile. You are going to look at those severed limbs and gutted, rotting flesh whether you want to or not.

And Target understands.

I love me some Tar-jay. (Sure, that was super ghetto of me to break down my affection in such vernacular, but I just called it Tar-jay and you couldn’t pretend you didn’t know what I was talking about. That’s right. You know you want to drink the Kool-Aid. Don’t be shy.) And as much as I love Tar-jay, I love their new marketing scheme even more. Play up to being poor! Can’t afford to go out? Buy our salmon! It’s on sale! Can’t afford that hair cut? Buy some shears from us. Better than Super Cuts. Just got kicked out of your house? Buy a tent! It moves WITH YOU! Can’t afford gas? We have bikes! Lots of ‘em!

And really? All this is doing is making America take a long hard look at itself and go “Hey! You! Yeah, you. You know all that money you were spending on things you didn’t need? You know all that time you were spending in front of a computer online shopping, neglecting your family? That excess you spent on things you wanted but not things you needed? Remember that rainy day your mother used to tell you about saving for? Hi. Nice to meet you. I’m tsunami.”

You may have no choice in living on a budget the way things are (and will be), but Tar-jay understands. And they’re here for you.

Nevermind that I saw other things I wanted in those ads - a table, a lamp, a chair, a television…