The American Girl store is a dangerous place

[ilikedonuts]

For my wallet.

And DD1 saw the cafe where you can eat with your doll and requested that we do that 'next time, Mommy.' She's 3. I thought I had more time before this AG craziness!

I guess it's a good thing we live 2.5 hours away.

[bronxgirl]

I took DD to lunch at the café over the summer. I told her we could go to the store to look around when we go into the city to see the holiday windows and she said "and we can have lunch there!" No, we can't.

[bunch]

I agree that as a store it's crazy, but as a destination it's fun. I took my bbbs little there for tea with our dolls and it was a fabulous time.

[ilikedonuts]

I stocked up on Isabelle ballet crap to go with the doll that I got from the today show deal. The doll that is her 4th birthday present.... Her birthday isn't until the end of October! They reel you in with the whole Girl of the Year.

At least i got her out of the store without any more Bitty Baby clothes. Then again that's probably bc we own almost every outfit bc everyone went crazy for her birthday.

This is exactly why we can't afford more kids

[redpenmama]

We just went to the new store in Orlando. So cute! DD has a generous uncle who bought her Kit, so it was an early Christmas surprise. We had lunch at the Bistro and it was so fun, and the food was good too.

[kangaroo11]

DH and I went into one in Chicago. I don't understand what the point is of these dolls or why they're so expensive.

[grosnl19]

Dd got one for her 2nd birthday from my BFF, I was hoping to put it off a bit longer. We live in Europe right now so nowhere near a store right now thank god.

She drew on the bitty baby's head with a pen within the first 24 hours of having it...this is why you wait BFF :-)

[Deleted]

How much is the lunch? I kinda want to go with my Molly...

[cjeanette]

Our store here in KC doesn't have a cafe thankfully. We spend enough there on getting her dolls hair done each visit.

We keep the trips to special occasions but i am embarrassed to admit what I spent there this Christmas trying to finsh collecting Caroline's items so she can move on and get another historical doll for her birthday in June.

[ilikedonuts]

Dec 20, 2014 21:07:25 GMT -5 @starry said:

just throw some numbers out there so I can prepare.

Spoken by someone who just drop $125 on two princess dresses from etsy.

Well the regular dolls are $120 (doll and book). Bitty Babies are like $80 (baby and book). One of the outfit sets I got for the regular doll yesterday was like $38.

A meal at the cafe is like $12 for an entree. Afternoon tea is $12/person I think.

You can even get your doll's hair styled while you shop that day

We can just have a MMM GTG at Easton in Columbus and all hit up the American Girl store and go broke together.

[ilikedonuts]

Dec 20, 2014 21:37:27 GMT -5 @starry said:

Dec 20, 2014 21:33:35 GMT -5 ilikedonuts said:

Well the regular dolls are $120 (doll and book). Bitty Babies are like $80 (baby and book). One of the outfit sets I got for the regular doll yesterday was like $38.

A meal at the cafe is like $12 for an entree. Afternoon tea is $12/person I think.

You can even get your doll's hair styled while you shop that day

We can just have a MMM GTG at Easton in Columbus and all hit up the American Girl store and go broke together.

fortunately due to this place I already have 2 American Girl dolls and a Bitty Baby with accessory set in storage lol. She is getting the Bitty Baby for Christmas.

So the rest doesn't sound totally unreasonable but I am sure like anything it adds up quickly.

I ended up getting the one bigger clothes set and then 2 extra clothing pieces for Isabell and then DD1 picked out a collar and leash for her AG dalmatian puppy. It was just shy of $80 and we had a $40 store credit from a duplicate gift we got. So technically DD1 is covered for her birthday in October and most of next Christmas.

Its when they really have an opinion about what they want that I think it will really start to add up. Some of those big pieces like Julie's car are hundreds of dollars!

[krystee]

We are watching Santa Clause 2, where the adults are all given the gifts they wanted as kids. H asked what my "gift that got away" was and I said an American Girl doll.

But now that Mattel has ruined Samantha and she has that horrible pink dress and that dumb new book instead of the older historical ones, my love for AG has gone down substantially.

[ilikedonuts]

Dec 20, 2014 21:05:41 GMT -5 cjeanette said:

Our store here in KC doesn't have a cafe thankfully. We spend enough there on getting her dolls hair done each visit.

We keep the trips to special occasions but i am embarrassed to admit what I spent there this Christmas trying to finsh collecting Caroline's items so she can move on and get another historical doll for her birthday in June.

I love the Caroline doll. She's my favorite of the current dolls. DD2 is named Caroline

[cjeanette]

Dec 20, 2014 21:58:07 GMT -5 ilikedonuts said:

Dec 20, 2014 21:05:41 GMT -5 cjeanette said:

Our store here in KC doesn't have a cafe thankfully. We spend enough there on getting her dolls hair done each visit.

We keep the trips to special occasions but i am embarrassed to admit what I spent there this Christmas trying to finsh collecting Caroline's items so she can move on and get another historical doll for her birthday in June.

I love the Caroline doll. She's my favorite of the current dolls. DD2 is named Caroline

E chose her since she has long blond hair like her. I think Kit will be her next one since she apparently only blonds like her.

[Deleted]

Dec 19, 2014 20:49:39 GMT -5 chilerellanos said:

We don't have one anywhere near us. I think Denver is our closest one and that's a 7 hour drive.

That's probably a good thing.

I may be misremembering where you are but is Kansas Coty closer?

[spankswife]

When does this start? DD is 4.5 and not interested at all

I want one!!

[whitemerlot]

My dd is 2 1/2 and got Bitty Baby for her 2nd birthday. She loves it more than any other doll.

[Marmee]

Dec 20, 2014 22:11:51 GMT -5 cjeanette said:

Dec 20, 2014 21:58:07 GMT -5 ilikedonuts said:

I love the Caroline doll. She's my favorite of the current dolls. DD2 is named Caroline

E chose her since she has long blond hair like her. I think Kit will be her next one since she apparently only blonds like her.

My Dd2 is named Caroline & has Caroline. She's got Laney too (another blond). Caroline's hair is so long it's hard to maintain...lol. Sage (DD3s doll) also has that super long hair which is a pain. DD3 is also getting her dream doll Kaya for Christmas...It's nice having a kid without the blond obsession of the other 2 but then again she herself is my only brunette. .

[Marmee]

Dec 21, 2014 4:06:27 GMT -5 spankswife said:

When does this start? DD is 4.5 and not interested at all

I want one!!

Depends on the kid. My oldest got a Girl of the Year just after 4yr old & she's never been super into them. She's never wanted another one, just pets & furniture. Lol. My DD2, 3, 4 all liked the Bitty Babies starting at 1.5-2yrs. DD2 & 3 love playing with their big AG dolls (mostly together) & each have a GOTY & Historical Doll (well DD3 is getting her 2nd this Christmas). They liked the big dolls better than the Bitty by about age 4.

[spankswife]

When DD was little she got a baby doll that can go swimming or in the bath with her, so we totally missed the bitty baby boat.

My mom got her the GOTY the year she was born, but she's still not interested. I show it to her every now again but nothing. I'm hoping maybe next year, or if we go to the store and she sees it. (We went when she was 3, but not interest then either).

[kangaroo11]

Dec 21, 2014 8:16:43 GMT -5 swizz said:

Dec 20, 2014 1:59:58 GMT -5 kangaroo11 said:

DH and I went into one in Chicago. I don't understand what the point is of these dolls or why they're so expensive.

C is getting my refurbed BItty baby for Christmas. My parents bought her for me in like 1991 and I sent her in to get a new body through the doll hospital and AG paid for the whole thing and sent back a practically brand new doll.

I think any toy that lasts that long and a company with excellent customer service is worth spending a little more on.

I never had one of these dolls, so I can't do this. I guess I just don't know if she even likes dolls yet, so spending a lot doesn't appeal to me right now.

[sunshineandpinot]

The recommended age is age 8 for the 18" doll.
My 6 year old has always been super into babies but we haven't gotten into AGD yet. Talking with friends who have older daughters, it seems their girls really got into them ~age 7.
I see no need to push dd into it any earlier. I have no doubt she'll get into them on her own very soon. And I want it to be special and something she'll remember.

[cosmos]

I'm so happy my daughter doesn't know what this is yet. She's perfectly happy with her $10 Disney princess barbies

[ilikedonuts]

Dec 21, 2014 16:58:51 GMT -5 bailarina said:

Dec 20, 2014 1:59:58 GMT -5 kangaroo11 said:

DH and I went into one in Chicago. I don't understand what the point is of these dolls or why they're so expensive.

I spent an appalling amount of money there this year but I'm kind of lukewarm on the quality. I have had clothes with holes and defects, etc. and I don't think the dolls or their outfits hold up any better than (and maybe even worse than) the Corolle dolls that we bought for 30-40% less money. I think it is great for swizz that she had a positive experience with their customer service; I'm sure they have earned her as a customer for life, but my experiences with customer service have been just so-so. They have great marketing and my girls got very into the brand once a store opened up near us, they love having lunch with their dolls, matching their dolls, etc. But I personally don't think the quality is really as high as the price.

I don't think the quality is what it was in the late 80s/early 90s, but for comparing the stuff we have compared to some cheap Target outfits we have its better. Is it 2-3 times as much better quality? Probably not!

I do think the concept behind the historical dolls is awesome and the fact that a lot of the current moms now grew up with AG is something they are totally capitalizing on. The re-release of Samantha for example of that.

[carolinagirl831]

I still have my Samantha doll I got in 1988. She is in great condition and I have all the accessories. My mom saved all our toys and nothing looks as nice as the AG stuff. And I played with it quite a bit

[Shreddingbetty]

DD got à Bitty baby last xmas from grandparents when she was 3.5. She loves it but she also loves her Corolle doll that was about half the price and a cheap target doll. Grandma wanted to buy her regular AG doll for Xmas this year and I discouraged it because she is having so much fun with all her babies. I asked for accessories (clothes mostly) but the present she got is very suspicious for à AG doll. If she did get her one that's ok with me since I didn't have to pay for it but I just don't think DD would be into her that much yet. We will see