Taylor Swift Thrills Target Audience: Exclusive Book Sale on Black Friday a Complete Success

With Taylor Swift's new Eras Tour book, available exclusively at Target stores for Black Friday, Target achieved a remarkable coup. Long queues formed outside the stores early in the morning. On social networks, especially on X (formerly Twitter), images of empty shelves circulated, indicating how coveted the artist's new work was. In recent years, Black Friday has developed into a significant shopping day, with customers willing to wait outside for hours before the stores open at 6 a.m. This time, Target joined in with a clever move: Together with Taylor Swift, the company wanted to boost sales and attract customers into its own stores rather than allowing them to drift to competitors. At a Target in New Jersey, around 20 people braved the freezing temperatures from 5 a.m. to grab the singer’s exclusive merchandise. Particularly parents of teenagers and young adults had the book, priced at $39.99, on their shopping list. Additionally, for the first time, the vinyl album and CD version of "The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology" were offered at Target. Amy Webb, 28 years old, also joined the waiting crowd to grab the coveted book. She explained that she normally didn’t buy anything during the holidays but didn’t want to miss the opportunity before the shelves were cleared. On X, users like Jennifer Angerl shared their excitement about the early start and successful hunt. Michael Jones-Alarcon happily reported on his secured purchases. As early as May, Target was able to significantly boost its entertainment categories with Swift's "Tortured Poets" album, which was released two weeks before the quarter-end. Due to the shorter holiday shopping season, starting on Saturday, Target is now also offering the Eras Tour book and music releases online to further stimulate purchasing power. For buyers like Adrian Antuna, an employee at a Marriott hotel, the reason was clear: Don’t risk the item being sold out online.