A brave yet curmudgeonly man visits The American Girl Store.
December 8th, 2007 by Erich ViethMy daughter has a doll called Kaya. I really don’t mind this doll at all, although many dolls aggravate me. Most dolls are unabashedly materialist. Kaya genuinely seemed to be an earnest survivor–a native American just trying to get by. American Girl did a great job with Kaya. She is hardworking (according to the books that describe her tales) as well as gorgeous. My oldest daughter (aged 9) admires Kaya for the right reasons. Meet Kaya.
Well . . . my daughter and I traveled to Chicago to have a special father-daughter vacation. My daughter asked to visit the Chicago American Girl Store. I quickly agreed. It was her vacation too, and I like to believe that I am an armchair anthropologist. Therefore, I’m always at work.
If you have trouble finding the store in Chicago, ask anyone walking down the Magnificent Mile and they’ll tell you. The American Girl store is a major Chicago institution.
I just assumed that I knew what kind of merchandise was in the store, but I was wrong. There is a lot more to American Girl than brave little Kaya. There are all kinds of dolls, including trendy, preppy, smug, materialist little dolls. And how dare I call what they sell “merchandise”!
Here’s a slogan prominently displayed throughout the store: Those dolls are “just like you.” Just like me? Oh, I suppose they weren’t really talking to me. But those dolls are supposedly just like all those little girl customers. You’ll recognize those girls by the way they drag their parents around the store and convince their parents to pull out their credit cards for those expensive accessories–even Kaya has lots of accessories, including a set of plastic food for $20.
“Just like you.” What does that really mean? It means that the professional staff of the store can match those dolls up with your daughter’s physical traits. It also means that you can buy matching clothes for your daughter and her doll(s). By the way, that staff does include more than a few young men. Men who aren’t afraid to play with (or at least sell) dolls. The staff can match you up with your doll-counterpart fairly easily, because they have dozens of potential matches:
If you have medium brown colored skin, they have a $100 doll for you. I asked one of the staff whether they match up the personality with each girl’s personality. She looked confused, then laughed and said “no.” Those dolls are a lot like you–except (and don’t tell this to any of the little girls) they are plastic and not alive. Don’t tell that to anyone at the store, because they spend their energy succdessfully convincing the girls otherwise. The store has a big theater where real people portray the dolls in elaborate productions. Each ticket to one of these productions is about $26.
Ooops. Did your doll have a bad hair day? If so, you’ll need to take her to the American Girl Salon, for a $20 hair styling:
If your doll loses her head (or arm), you can take her to the American Girl Hospital. They don’t make housecalls and they don’t have an ambulance that comes out to the scene of the accident. But they are great doctors, according to the young female clerk. I asked whether any of the patients have died at the hospital and she gave me a nervous laugh.
I asked her whether those “Restrooms” mentioned on the sign are for the dolls or for the girls. She told me that they are restrooms for girls, though those restrooms include special accommodations for the dolls in the restroom, some sort of doll lounge, so that the girls don’t need to take the dolls into the stalls. Speaking of lounging, it’s been a long day, so the dolls need to rest a bit.
And now it’s time to have a meal. How about one of those $20 per person meals at the American Doll Cafe?
Where does your doll sit? Right next to you, of course. American Doll provides special seats for the dolls, right at your table.
Don’t put your doll too close to that Banana Flambé, or it might be right back to the Doll Hospital for you best friend.
Do you have any other questions? If so, check with the American Girl Store Concierge.
If you have questions after-hours, call anyway. Maybe one of those little dolls will pick up the phone and talk to you.
December 8th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
The woman who created the American Girl product line used to live not far from where I do. The whole thing apparently began many years ago when she made a very nice hand-made doll as a gift for the daughter of a friend. Soon other friends were asking for similar dolls for their daughters and the idea began to take off. Production went from a garage shop to ever larger production facilities. Eventually…about a decade ago…the Mattel toy company bought out the business for hundreds of millions of dollars and gave the American Girl founder a VP job at Mattel. Soon thereafter there was a falling out between the parties and the founder — who apparently was quite a ruthless businessperson and a real jerk to work for — either left or was forced out.
The basic business model was to sell premium-quality, premium-priced dolls to little girls who had parents with lots of disposable income — especially parents who perhaps felt guilty for spending too much time at work and too little time with their daughters. The company apparently became very good at separating those parents from large chunks of money, though as I recall the profit motive — while always a driving force for the company founder — became even more intense after the Mattel acquisition.
I have no idea what the founder did after leaving Mattel, or even if she still owns the huge lake-front house she lived in before moving to Mattel.
December 8th, 2007 at 10:34 pm
Doll cuisine and doll medicine… as I recall, these used to be things little girls did for themselves. Are even kids outsourcing these days?
December 8th, 2007 at 11:58 pm
Vicki: Nice point, which reminds me that the parents have completely taken over organizing and refereeing their children’s sports activities too. I used to spend many dozens of hours each summer playing sports with friends. How often does that happen in any self-respecting suburbs these days?
December 9th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
Erich: As the father of a girl (she’s 17 now) I am familiar with the American Girl line of products. Being only of modest means, I couldn’t buy ALL the accessories that my little emotional manipulator desired but I remember her begging me for the doll and then the accompanying books and outfits at the time. I also recall at what a young age she was captured by this materialistic fervor. I think she was only 7 or 8 a the time.,..maybe younger.
I find it hard to believe that the media and society were able to program her to be so materialistic at such a young age. I don’t think they had enough time, or that she was paying enough attention yet for them to create such a strong demand in a 7 year old. Rather it seems that there might be an innate urge to aquire things that American Girl and more famously that icon of shallow materialism, Barbie, have merely learned to exploit.
December 10th, 2007 at 8:53 am
By the way, Erich: How did you get permission to take pictures in the store? I tried to videotape in a Toys R Us recently and was nearly tackled to the ground by the manager.
December 10th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
Just say “No!” It’s a radical proposition but, you can visit the American Doll Stoe, have fun and not drop the GDP of Zimbabwe. My daughter went up to Chicago with my wife, and two other mothers and daughters and they had a blast at the American Doll Store, visited the Shedd Aquarium, Museum of Natural History and the Art Institute of Chicago.
Upon arrival home, I de-briefed my daughter, sent her to work for two weeks shoveling cow dung in a nearby rice paddy and breathed a sigh of relief upon her return when she went back to school wearing her amband protesting the conflict in Iraq.
December 10th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
Mike: Whether I would be allowed to take the photos in the store certainly occurred to me prior to going. Erika Price had raised this same issue regarding two posts I wrote about the magazines and books sold by Wal-Mart (see here and here).
Here’s how I approached it. I was a legitimate customer (I actually bought some accessories for my daughter’s Kaya doll during the visit when I took the photos). [note to Tim Hogan: they were relatively inexpensive accessories] [Note to my daughter who now reads fairly well: they were significant purchases]. Because I was in the store to actually shop, I had the right to be where I was. I didn’t see any prohibition regarding taking photos–no signs told me to not take a photo. American Girl is also somewhat of a tourist hot spot, and I’m sure I’m not the first person to snap a few pics. I am pretty unobtrusive–I’ve got it down to a quick procedure that starts with having a small camera hanging–ready to go–around my neck. I avoid taking the images of any customers. I’m sure it’s easier and less threatening to use a still camera than that video camera you must be using.
If confronted, I would be polite and explain what I was doing, and cease if they asked me to cease–after all, I’m in the store as an “invitee” (legally speaking), and my status as a permissive user can be withdrawn at the discretion of the store, as long as it’s not for a Constitutionally protected reason (e.g., race, religion). If I got desperate, I could even take out my ID Card showing that I’m an ordained minister with the Universal Life Church! That would give me some immunity, right? On the practical side of the issue, why wouldn’t they want me looking around and memorializing all of that exotic merchandise? I might tell others about the things I saw. I might thus be an unwitting advertiser.
I had a bit more luck than you did in Toys R Us.
I think that the bottom line is that a store might not care in a practical sense, as long as amateur anthropologists like you and I are inobtrusive and we avoid intruding on the rights of other customers. Otherwise, to the extent that a business disallows customers to take photos of the things they are selling, I do wonder– What do they have to hide?
Speaking of which, I was stranded in Las Vegas from September 11-13, 2001 (I had been visiting the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and was trying to fly home from LV on 9/11/01). I would not advise walking around any casino with a camera. I merely snapped one photo of a band that was playing near an entrance to the massive MGM Grand, when a 6′ 5″ security guard appeared suddenly and rudely scolding me to put the camera away immediately. Back then, I remember thinking too bad our airports didn’t have this kind of aggressive security guard working on 9/11.
I would have loved to take some photos of the customers at the casinos, but didn’t want to invade their privacy and the security guy clearly gave me the message. What fascinated me was that so many people were willing to do frivolous things at a casino on the same day when the so many Americans died in a horrible tragedy and it SEEMED that civilization as we knew it was ending (based on the news reports). But there they were, gambling, drinking, laughing. The casinos were not completely full on the evening of 9/11/01, but they seemed to be at least half full, a fact that was verified by some employees to whom I spoke. What kind of person goes to a casino to have fun on the evening of 9/11/01, I wondered.
December 12th, 2007 at 9:16 am
I think my pro gear is too intimidating. (See my DI pic.) I need to get a small consumer videocam so that I look like any other tourist or overzealous dad videotaping everything he sees.
I don’t mean YOU, Erich!
December 12th, 2007 at 9:39 am
Mike: I haven’t shot any video in any store (yet). I would think that the process of holding a video camera up to your face for minutes at a time would really make you conspicuous, especially if you are using pro gear. My method was to just pull out a small digital camera for a quick shot here and there. It was over almost before it began. But then again, I don’t have any cool video to show for my efforts.
Thanks for the disclaimer, Mike. But I’m afraid that I might sometimes qualify as both a tourist (a very touristy tourist) and an overzealous dad. I did NOT drop a big wad of money at the American Girl store, however . . .
December 12th, 2007 at 11:39 am
In order to get more natural interviews and candid footage I have perfected a way of surreptitiously shooting video using the side viewscreen in such a way that my subject never knows if the camera is on or not. I never lift it to my face. I would still need something less conspicuous than my GL2 to shoot in Toys R Us but I’m sure I could pull it off without too much fanfare if I had a smaller camcorder. If I don’t get arrested I’ll let you know how it works out!
By the way, I started my videography business as a way of justifying my own overzealousness! Now I’m a “documentary filmmaker” and not just old annoying Uncle Mike who videotapes everything.
December 12th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
Mike: Why not just go all out and call yourself “Vice-President of Documentary Film-making”?
December 12th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
Erich: I should! Michael Jackson did it! HE was the first person to call himself The King of Pop, and the media picked it up. Then Howard Stern called himself The King of All Media and again they picked it up!
So…who’s the “President”? Michael Moore??
December 12th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
I only said VP because that’s the title that banks hand out so often. Since it’s your company, you can be the Emperor, if that’s what you think will fly. If you call yourself VP, though, people will think that your company has at least two employees.
July 16th, 2008 at 7:04 am
american girl dolls are great friends for your daughters. I have some(im 10) and they are super fun! at the doll place in Chicago the dolls are treated like the girls because they are what the store sells and off of all of these fun services for the dolls and girls, the company makes money to keep the girls happy. For girls AG stores are fun places you can go to have fun wit your doll. So what if their plastic, would your daughter be mad if she read this article you wrote? YAH! BAD DAD! you are limiting your daughters creativeness !BAD! !BAD! !BAD! !DAD!
July 26th, 2008 at 3:20 am
Yikes! My daughter is only 22 months old, but I cringe thinking about the days ahead when advertising and consumerism may affect her more. The problem with the American Girls stuff is that it is SO DARN CUTE and friggin’ expensive! I think the hair salon and the doll hospital are such cute ideas. But it seems so wrong to charge so much money! My own home is set up like a mini children’s museum, with lots of opportunities for pretend play. Lately, I have been thinking about setting up a one-of-a-kind doll hospital (pretend, no actual repairs) and beauty salon, and county office where kids can apply for birth certificates. It would be more of a punk rock beauty salon, and more of a free clinic than a hospital, etc. I would only be open a few days a week and ask for a $1 donation. Or not.
October 18th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
No offence to parents as being a child myself ……im 14….But I had an american girl doll….and i do realize dolls are expensive….But…You have to realize they are very good….the perfect things are made with it ….plus the hair Can have HIGLIGHTS come on….your child wants to be just like a plastic doll….Let your kids live a little i mean my hair is pink i also think american girl dolls should be aloud to have makeup…..i think it would be a cute idea…..:P i mean u may think im retartedd cause im a Kid….But comone…..people are people and kids are kids let them live