Target!

The new Target stores opened here in Anchorage and also in Wasilla today.

That sounds very matter-of-fact, but words can not convey the frenzy this fact has occasioned. Seriously. Target made the news when they decided to come up here, and every step of the process since has been in the news. Progress on the buildings, when and where and how many people they were hiring, what sort of things they were going to stock... All the subjects of feverish speculation and breathless reportage in the Anchorage Daily News.

Now don't get me wrong, I like Target myself - they have decently designed stuff at reasonable prices. What's not to like? But seriously, people are going crazy up here. Here's an example. The stores were supposed to open Saturday, and people were already planning their expeditions and writing lists and so on. Then came the surprise! They had a VIP opening last night and really opened today! This morning! Emails and text messages and phone calls were zinging around the office when I came in today. My whole department (which, to be fair, is 4 women) got talking about it, and we got so excited my boss called for a group bonding activity, and we all went over there to check it out. No kidding. We left for about 2 hours in the middle of the day to go to the new store. My boss drove. ( We all clocked out, though.) Now I love Target even more!

P.S. And we were not alone! There was a 1/2 mile long line to park and the store itself was completely mobbed. It would not surprise me to find that this was Target's biggest opening ever. When we left, a newscrew from the local TV station was trying to find someone to interview, but people just kept refusing, saying they had called in sick or skipped out of work to come!