Ahh, the tradition of serving beverages that impair motor function in incredibly fragile vessels. I kind of love it. Then again, I enjoy incongruity in most of its forms.

In short, yes, it is as simple as a trip to Target, or it can be. I generally don't encourage patronage of that store or any other retail giant whose corporate ethics are only marginally better than those of Wal-Mart, but I have yet to find a remotely comparable value in stemware. A set of four quite elegant martini glasses or Bordeaux glasses (both by Riedel) can be had for $40. These are of the Riedel Vivant series, which is their lower tier, and if you've ever weighed the quite grave Riedel Vinum series (what with their advertised 24% lead crystal, whatever that means) in your hands whilst skulking about some Williams-Sonoma or the like, the difference in material is quite palpable -- as is the difference in price, generally $25-30 per stem.

While the Riedel Vivants are less weighty, they are by no means insubstantial, and they're also made of crystal, albeit a "lead-free Tyrol crystal," which attribute is listed here as though it were a good thing. That's marketing for you, I guess. My knowledge of the ins and outs of crystal quality and valuation ended a few counties back though, I must confess. Most importantly, while the bells of the glasses are marginally smaller, they are the same basic shape as the far more expensive model, and carefully tailored bell shape is the main reason I prefer these glasses (or spiegelau, or ravenscroft, etc.) to the rest of the pack.

Cost Plus/World Market also offers some serviceable wine glasses for less than $10 a stem, although, if memory serves, these glasses have fairly thick lips, which may dismay you if you've become accustomed to the paper thin lips of Riedels.

The Vivant series martini glasses are quite nice as well, and again, of superior value. I have been serving all of my cocktails (up) in them for the past few years, and I have found them be elegant, aesthetically pleasing, and equal to the task of housing most cocktails, however stiff.

As I see it, your other best alternatives would be a set of old-school martini glasses, the far tinier ones which were intended for the much smaller martinis of the mid-twentieth century, in which case you really can have three or five of them and still walk out of the room under your own power, a la Kingsley Amis, Winston Churchill, and so many others. Or you could go with the coupe, as so many prohibition era re-enacters are presently doing. I know I've already shared my tepid feelings toward that glass here, but I'm certainly on the outs with the in-crowd on this point. And it can't be denied that you could almost definitely find a nifty old-school set of coupes in any old thrift store you decided to wander into, if such were your pleasure.