Man buys 3 ACOTAR BrüMate cups at Target. Then a worker comes up to him and demands he return them: ‘I got a receipt’

A Target shopper managed to get his hands on one of the retailer's highly anticipated BrüMate collaborations. But after paying for three cups, he says a worker made him return them.

Patrick Myers (@patrickmyers25) explains that he'd been following the somewhat confusing rollout of the limited-edition BrüMate x “A Court of Thorns and Roses” (ACOTAR) collaboration, which features drinkware inspired by Sarah J. Maas' popular fantasy series. His video has more than 33,000 views.

“I got a slight problem,” he says. According to Myers, he had initially heard the cups were already available at Target. An employee allegedly told him when the products would arrive in-store. When he showed up, he says an employee told him to return two days later.

“Come back Sunday, we'll have it,” he recalls the employee saying.

He says he returned on Sunday, “right at 8 am.” Myers says he found an employee stocking merchandise, so he asked if he could just grab the cups right out of the shipping box.

“He said, ‘go for it,'” Myers explains. “I grabbed three.”

Myers held up his Target receipt, which totaled $119.40.

That's when his “slight problem” reared its head. The shopper explains that he'd already checked out and was already walking out of the store when another Target employee approached him and “demanded that [he] return them.”

“Target sold me the [BrüMate] cups! And then escorted me back to the desk to return them,” Myers writes in the caption of his video.

This raises the obvious question: If the cups weren't supposed to be sold yet, how did he manage to buy them?

When Were the ACOTAR BrüMate Cups Supposed to Come Out?

The limited-edition collection is a collaboration between drinkware brand BrüMate, Target, and “A Court of Thorns and Roses,” also known as ACOTAR. It includes two designs, Starfall and Cursebreaker, available as BrüMate's 40-oz Era Flip straw tumbler ($50.99) and 15-oz Müv travel mug ($35.99).

The confusion regarding availability may have come from the rollout itself. Target's own listings have given conflicting information regarding when shoppers can get the ACOTAR cups.

Target's product pages for the ACOTAR BrüMate products identified Oct. 4 as its “street date.” That date is also listed under the “specifications” of the individual drinkware.

However, Target announced on Oct. 2 that its larger assortment of ACOTAR merch would become available starting Oct. 11.

It's no surprise that the rollout confused shoppers. In fact, many Reddit users in r/acotar complained about the lack of clarity.

One user wrote, “I'm frustrated because they should have been more clear that it's only some stores and they can't say which ones.”

Another Reddit user said, “One Target told me they will be putting them out on the 7th?? Like totally random date and another told me not until the midnight release party on 10/26.”

Why Are People Scrambling for the BrüMate ACOTAR Cups?

For anyone not familiar with the BookTok-to-drinkware pipeline, the frenzy might require some context.

Sarah J. Maas' “A Court of Thorns and Roses” is a fantasy romance book series that has sold more than 13 million copies worldwide and has become a cultural phenomenon on TikTok, where fans have shared their takes, theories, and fan art across thousands of videos. 

Bloomsbury Publishing will release the sixth novel in the series, “A Court of Splintered Harmony,” on Oct. 27, 2026. The seventh book will release on Jan. 12, 2027.

Can Target Make You Return Something You Already Bought?

This is where things get a bit murky. The fact that Myers has a receipt for his purchase is important. It means Target processed his purchase through its checkout system.

Additionally, it isn't unreasonable for a shopper to assume that a product they purchased is theirs.

One commenter under Myers' video, for instance, suggested an alternative route to handle the situation: “This happened to me years ago,” they wrote. “As I was walking out someone said I need to return it. I kept walking.”

@patrickmyers25

Subplot News reached out to Myers via TikTok message, as well as BrüMate and Target via email.

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