I walked into this store with my niece and my family ready to browse and see for myself what in the world all the hype is about. I think the further a long I went the more my mouth just dropped. I walked into the store impressed because what is first laid out for purchase are the books and I am all over books. So, looked good, I'm thinking ok they are promoting reading and I like that. Down the isle I start to see some outfits. Little ones and big ones. Doll ones and their owner ones. I'm not looking at prices yet. Towards the back of the first floor is a Beauty Salon. I think how lovely, the little girls can get their hair done, yup for the little ones alright, the dollies. I am assuming it is free. Bring in your $100.00 doll (of course this does not include clothes and accessories) and you can get her hair done. My brother-in-law so quickly pointed out the price board. $20.00 for a pony-tail or braids. I can do that for free. Genius, pure genius.
After visiting the Salon, I head up the escalator and I get off actually sighing. It is American Doll World. By the time you head up to the second floor you are suckered, roped into "the experience". So, exit off the elevator and I travel through FrontierLand, on wait that's Disneyland, but alas it is Frontier Land of dolls. Each with their name above their section of outfits and accessories deemed necessary for their time period. Cleverly, there is even the right type of mood music with crickets, and water sounds as you move along. Genius.To the very back of the store is this little cafe where you can enjoy a delicious venue of food with your doll and her very own chair. This is where the parents/grandparents are wondering what in the world they just spent $500.00 on and how it happened to them, but I see nothing but cameras flashing and people smiling. This is not the store you "see" a bad economy in for sure. So, I walk by that part and then I see "it". The Doll Hospital. Anything wrong with your doll and here she can spend a luxurious night in the hotel and come back relaxed and renewed. I think it is really a cover for her spa experience.
So, after this I moved to the bathroom. Nothing big, right? Except that I found this lovely, silver plated doll holder. Of course her bathroom experience should be germ free and so they have these hooks especially for her. I found it was perfect for my purse thank you!
So, out of the bathroom and towards the Photo Center, where one lady wanted one of these and one of these and a sheet of these, all at $25.00 a pop. Now, I must say that my dad actually had his "grand-girls" take a photo here for him. Thankfully my niece had her doll with her. Even my dad walked out duped, I mean with a lovely photo of our experience. Genius.So, the back of the store on this floor is all out fits and accessories. Bathtubs with bubbles, beds , dog beds, ponies, roller skates and than crutches for her broken legs, you name it they have it, each item in it's own box of tissue wrapped elegance. Genius.
The last thing out the store as I was fleeing...is the "Preemie" section for those ittie bittie babies. Maybe they are half price. Genius.
So, I walked out thinking a lot about this store. You, know I was so thankful my daughter was 18 and did not need to be "pressured" to want one of these dolls. I am so thankful for the money I saved lol. I am so thankful for my two sons who came after our one daughter. I just realized that this store is a world of covet and extreme expense. I imagined myself going through here and just wanting everything, not being content with one doll but wanting more and more and although being thankful at the time, I bet as soon as I would have left I would have been thinking about that next accessory or that next doll. What do we think this encourages in our daughter's hearts? I saw many a girl pleading, nagging, whining because they wanted more. Many a parent or grandparent saying, " I will get you this one thing but you have to not bug me, or you have to stop whining." It was very telling of what was being cultivated in those young ladies hearts.
I have stated that the are genius. Genius because they have identified our hearts as a self gratifying indulgent nation and they have capitalized on this truth. It works for their purpose, but does it benefit our young ladies hearts? Can we teach our young ladies to be content with a $25.00 doll with one outfit? A Baby Alive? Do they make those anymore?
So, I am not against taking a young girl to this store as a special gift. I see it more as a grandparent gift to your granddaughter, but I am saying be careful, because what we start "wanting" as a young age, becomes what we feel "we need" or fosters discontent in their and even our hearts. We truly are a spoiled nation. Money was being spent here as if there were no "tight" times for anyone. It was The American Girl Place...
Hebrews 13:5 "Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU,"
