American Girl Place Mocks 6 Year-Old For Having A Doll From Target

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

http://consumerist.com/consumer/amer...air-246666.php

American Girl Place Mocks 6 Year-Old For Having A Doll From Target, Refuses To Style The Doll's Hair

This story is just heartbreaking. We feel really, really bad for this little girl. Etta saved all her money and purchased a pretty doll from Target named Gracie. When she was invited by her friend to bring her doll to American Girl Place for a "doll hairstyle" she was thrilled...until the stylist chided her for not having a "real" doll and refused her business.

From Etta's Mom's Blog:

"Come spend a day you'll never forget!" the website promised. And boy did you deliver.

Frommers Guide to New York says "don't forget to bring [your] favorite doll so it can get a makeover at the store's own doll salon." I know it's craaaaazy that a Target fake (that cost only $29.99 of Etta's real saved money!) would be her favorite doll but it was.

At least it used to be.

Back when she thought it was real.
...
"This isn't a real doll!" the stylist exclaimed. (Thank your stylist!--we never would have had the heart to explain it that way!). And to prove that a fake doll isn't worth the plastic she's molded out of, she refused to do the doll's hair.

I'm not sure exactly what's in it for your company, because you still stood to make $20 off of my daughter for doing the fake doll's hair. I have two thoughts on that. Either her $20 wasn't worth the same as someone else's $20 (in which case I've learned something new too!) OR it was worth the $20 to you to be able to be the one to break the news to, I mean, to *enlighten* my little girl. You do promise to teach little girls, don't you?

And she cried and cried and cried, and your stylist held her ground. That was a good lesson for her too. That feelings don't have a place in "the heart of Manhattan's prestigious shopping neighborhood" (another quote from your website).

This makes us feel terrible. Really terrible. We had a fake Cabbage Patch Kid when we were small. Our parents weren't about to wait in line and punch other people just to buy a doll, so we made due. We loved that fake doll, and can't imagine how terrible we'd have felt being publicly humiliated in front of "Real Cabbage Patch Kid" owners:

And did you realize how loyal to you all the other mommies in line were? You'd have been proud of them.

One chided Etta for not knowing she couldn't bring a fake doll to the store. Tsk tsk. She's in first grade now and can read by herself (taught herself, in fact). She probably should have done the research. There's another great lesson for her. (Thanks mom in line!)

One mom muttered to another that Etta probably couldn't afford a real one. Great hunch! She's six!

One mom just smiled and said "Well, American Girl Dolls aren't for everyone, you know." A sentence cleverly crafted to make Etta feel like someone cared about her but also to be aware that she really didn't belong there in your fancy store with the other, richer, better girls. How compassionate!

Mean! —MEGHANN MARCO

http://oneofthosehorriblemoms.blogsp.../fake-out.html

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I mentioned a couple of times in the comments at The Consumerist, but I'll say it here. I don't even mind so much AGP's policy, it's going after a child that I have a beef with.

Man, if I had a daughter, there's no way in I could spend any of my/her money in this place.

[2Blonde]

http://consumerist.com/consumer/amer...air-246666.php

American Girl Place Mocks 6 Year-Old For Having A Doll From Target, Refuses To Style The Doll's Hair

This story is just heartbreaking. We feel really, really bad for this little girl. Etta saved all her money and purchased a pretty doll from Target named Gracie. When she was invited by her friend to bring her doll to American Girl Place for a "doll hairstyle" she was thrilled...until the stylist chided her for not having a "real" doll and refused her business.


http://oneofthosehorriblemoms.blogsp.../fake-out.html

-----------------

I mentioned a couple of times in the comments at The Consumerist, but I'll say it here. I don't even mind so much AGP's policy, it's going after a child that I have a beef with.

Man, if I had a daughter, there's no way in I could spend any of my/her money in this place.

Well I do have a daughter, and she went through the AGD phase. But only because MeMa bought her three or four of them. Complete with outfits and accessories. The only thing I ever bought from them were some books from local book stores that told the stories of each of the girls and I once bought a bed for one of them. It was around $80-100 for a freaking doll bed. After that, all her doll clothes and furniture came from Target. She was perfectly fine with that. She thought the Target clothes were less geeky anyway. Thank god she finally out grew all that. Now it's all packed away until the next generation is ready for "Bride of Chucky" and her gang to rear their ugly heads again.

[Jekka]

The American Girl dolls my sister and I had were always more for our mom than for us - I always liked the books more than the actual dolls. Because of their cost - which my mom justifies with "They're classic!" - they tend to get disturbingly exclusive at times. That said, there is absolutely no excuse for what that "stylist" (and I use that term loosely - she's working on ing dolls and probably flunked out of beauty school) said to that child. In one fell swoop, that poor excuse for humanity not only insulted a child, because that's not bad enough (let's hope the kid's not getting jaded already, save that for middle school), but those with a work ethic. Even Neiman Marcus won't kick you out when they know you can't afford to shop there, you can still test makeup at the counters - why the should the American Girl company be so special as to exclude girls who saved up for their own dolls as opposed to those whose families s out the crazy amounts of money for "higher end" dolls?

Nevermind that we should be praising a six year old who has enough discipline to save her money that long for something she really wants.

[Good 'N Plenty]

My kids think Barbie is the All American Girl Doll.

[ObiwanGinobili]

The American Girl dolls my sister and I had were always more for our mom than for us - I always liked the books more than the actual dolls. Because of their cost - which my mom justifies with "They're classic!" - they tend to get disturbingly exclusive at times. That said, there is absolutely no excuse for what that "stylist" (and I use that term loosely - she's working on ing dolls and probably flunked out of beauty school) said to that child. In one fell swoop, that poor excuse for humanity not only insulted a child, because that's not bad enough (let's hope the kid's not getting jaded already, save that for middle school), but those with a work ethic. Even Neiman Marcus won't kick you out when they know you can't afford to shop there, you can still test makeup at the counters - why the should the American Girl company be so special as to exclude girls who saved up for their own dolls as opposed to those whose families s out the crazy amounts of money for "higher end" dolls?

Nevermind that we should be praising a six year old who has enough discipline to save her money that long for something she really wants.

Amen.

[BigZak]

that's pretty ed up.

what a .

[Shelly]

Not only that...I was appalled at what the other parents waiting in line said to her.

[angel_luv]

People are so mean- and for what? That's a terrible story.

[Extra Stout]

The Manhattan elite suck.

[THE ONE AND ONLY]

What a !
Professional doll hair stylists? Where does she get off? I didnt know such a thing existed. Didnt they have ethics courses at doll hair beauty school?

[SpursWoman]

That's awful.

[mikejones99]

jesus christ, the mom is insane for allowing daughter to waste $20 on a doll hair style in the first place. Anyone in the line should have to go to mandatory therapy. Wasting cash on dolls is one thing, but then taking dolls to a stylist puts you way over the edge. Abortion people.

[boutons_]

The naive girls have an excuse, herd-think and predatory, malicious marketing.

But the mothers of -world, what's their excuse?

[miss paxton]

jesus christ, the mom is insane for allowing daughter to waste $20 on a doll hair style in the first place. Anyone in the line should have to go to mandatory therapy. Wasting cash on dolls is one thing, but then taking dolls to a stylist puts you way over the edge.

That's what I was thinking reading this. The entire concept is absurd. No, the woman at the "salon" shouldn't have been rude to the child, but I have my problems with the child's mother too. Perhaps she should have checked on the store's policy, since she knew her daughter's doll was a knockoff. I looked at the "American Girl" website--never having heard of them, I guess they weren't around when I was a kid in the 1970s or else my parents weren't spending that kind of money on dolls--and while it doesn't specifically say they will only work on "their" dolls, that's definitely an assumption I would have made, since that is, after all, what they're selling.

And now I think I've spent all the time I want to on a Saturday evening thinking about people wanting to take a doll for a $20 hairdo.

[Fillmoe]

Didnt they have ethics courses at doll hair beauty school?

[AlamoSpursFan]

I have an 8 year old girl and I've never heard of this doll, but if I had all of the money back that I've given to Breyers over the past few years for plastic freaking horses, I'd be a rich man. And I can probably quote you any scene you want from any damn Barbie movie you can name.

(And what sucks is she has two REAL horses outside, but she'd rather play with the PLASTIC ones!)

[Cry Havoc]

I have an 8 year old girl and I've never heard of this doll, but if I had all of the money back that I've given to Breyers over the past few years for plastic freaking horses, I'd be a rich man. And I can probably quote you any scene you want from any damn Barbie movie you can name.

(And what sucks is she has two REAL horses outside, but she'd rather play with the PLASTIC ones!)

I am soooo jealous.

I miss my old horses.

And I agree... $20 is more than I spend on a haircut. People have far, far too much money these days. How is a doll "better" if it gets a makeover?

Bizarre.