Target deals designer duds

Target is really going upscale, offering big name brands for less on its Web site. And these aren't home-grown house brands either, but established designers.

A recent visit to Target.com reveals high-end merchandise like Lucky Brand jeans for $59.99 marked down from $110, or a Calvin Klein wallet for just $25.

Root around on the site and you'll also find Target's own take on the collective buying trend. A daily deal each day gives shoppers just 24 hours to take advantage of a single, heavily discounted item. Kind of like Groupon or Buy With Me.

According to the fine print, all of these items can be returned to any Target store. Even though I've never seen a pair of Lucky jeans at Target and I've spent a lot of time in there digging through racks. If enough people take advantage of the policy it could wreck havoc on the inventory system, but the odds of that happening are fairly slim. Or so must management think or they wouldn't have implemented the program.

It's been said there are few original ideas in retail and Target proves the point. Copying Groupon or Overstock.com aren't bad ideas. Quite the contrary. They just aren't terribly original ones from a retailer that has long prided itself on being a trendsetter.