Opinion
No. 02 C 8435
September 9, 2003
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER
Plaintiff alleges that defendant placed a flyer in the Sunday issue of the Chicago Tribune offering products at Chicagoland Marshall Field's stores, including an All-Clad grill pan during an August 4-10, 2002, sales period; that he sought to buy such a pan; but that he was unable to do so because they were all sold out. That experience has led to a number of claims on behalf of a class.
But what class? Plaintiff seeks a class, and class discovery, which includes all persons unable to purchase an advertised product of defendant during the sales period because the product was not in stock. That presumably means every sales promotion by every Target and Marshall Field store nationally for an indeterminate period. Defendant seeks to confine the scope of the case and to redefine the proposed class, so as to limit it to persons unable to purchase the $130 All-Clad grill pan advertised in the flyer for $39.99 during the sales period.
The issue here is not whether or not a class should be certified. That comes later. Rather, it is to provide some boundaries on a possible class. The conduct which plaintiff complains of is the failure to have enough All-Clad grill pans in stock to meet the demand arising from the August 2002 sales promotion by Marshall Field stores in this area. We think it unwarranted to use that conduct as the basis for asking some Target store in Wyoming about an in-store promotion in the year 2000. We think, however, at least for now and until we know more about how records are kept, that it is feasible and appropriate to keep the scope at that enunciated on February 7, 2003. The conduct relates to a particular pan, but it also relates to a particular flyer.
We do so while recognizing that the primary relief sought here is monetary. Plaintiff's reliance upon Rule 23(b)(2) class concepts is, we believe, misplaced.