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Ben Popken
Shoppers graze through the toy aisles at a Target on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn.
More dads are buying the toys, The New York Times reported recently, as two-income homes and households where dads stay home are on the rise. As a new father, this piqued my interest. Supposedly marketers are changing up their toys to appeal to me more as a shopper. I went off to the toy store to see if this was true and what it looked like.
At 8 weeks old, my son's favorite toy is the brightest light in the room ($1.62 for a 4-pack at Home Depot), but I need to be up on the latest trends so that by the time he does start playing with actual toys, I'm ready. Like reading ahead a chapter for class, I headed to the toy aisle at Target.
Through my dudely eyes, I gazed upon the wares filling the toy aisles. I thought about the toys my kid might like, which is really what I would like him to like coupled with what my wife might let me let him like, as he has barely started to express any kind of preference in the world besides food, sleep and carry me.
I saw boxes of "Words with Friends" board games. That is, the Internet version of Scrabble (except they don't have to pay Mattel), come full circle. There was also a "Farmville" game. How could you translate the game where you hassle your friends through your status updates to help you grow your farm into a physical game? Well, that's because it's "Hungry Hungry Herd," which is exactly like the one with hippos, just splashed with a big "Farmville" logo.
Ben Popken
Zynga's Farmville "Hungry Hungry Herd" teaches kids about cause and effect, competition, and that original ideas are not a prerequisite for success.
I saw so many different kinds of LEGOs that were blatantly set up to play war. Ninjago LEGOs, LEGO Batman and Star Wars LEGOs. Which is totally awesome! But back in my day, you got the municipal gas station super pack/Nordic social paradise that you desperately tried to turn into a space fighter -- and you liked it!
Ben Popken
This reporter would have exploded with joy if he got this when he was 5.
There were two rows of TurboTax in the video game aisle, which seemed to me to be either an epic mishelving, or a genius example of complementary product placement. You can feel better about buying your kid "Call of Duty: Black Ops II" because you're also getting ready to file your small business expenses.
Ben Popken
It's just too bad that you can't claim the energy-efficient improvements you make on your virtual house in The Sims as tax deductions.
All the active toys are located the farthest away from the central escalators, I noticed. You'll have to burn a few extra calories if you want to get a baseball, soccer ball, Frisbee, or what I found to be my favorite toy there, a $14.99 "Table Tennis To Go" set by Franklin. Just stretch the retractable netting over the table, clip on and you're ready to play ping pong, no giant table that ends up being used as an abandonment ground for junk mail and failed craft projects required.
Ben Popken
Cost-to-fun ratio, this ping-pong net that attaches to any surface under six feet wide is the best deal in the store.
See, when we give a gift, what we're really doing is giving an idea. "These are my values and conception of what I think you value, expressed in physical form," is what we are saying. Which is why I'm so scared for that first selfish gift that I will give. That gift that is really more for me or the idea of who I wish my son to be. There's that crumpled look of when he'll say, "Oh great, just what I was hoping for," and we'll all die a tiny bit inside.
I didn't see any guys stuffing purple Easy Bake ovens, colored stacking doughnuts, and packs of Skylanders Giants into their carts along with steaks and frozen pizzas, but I did see men shopping in the toy aisles. I also saw women and couples. Maybe the fact that any men are shopping in the aisles at all is revolutionary. Maybe I also spied around a corner the ghost of myself, holding the hand of the boy my son will become, looking for something fun that I can give him in a few years. Naw, it was just some other tow-headed kid, looking longingly at a $179.99 rideable SRT Viper electric car.
Yeesh! No way are you getting that! Dad says no.
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I also found Zynga's blatant ripoff games to be amusing. You can pay stupid amounts of money for the Zynga edition or go with the classic and save some money. I also remember when there were only basic LEGO sets and your imagination rather than the exact number of blocks to create what is pictured.
Also, Turbo Tax was mixed in with PC games because many PC players use digital services like Steam to download games anymore so they just lump all PC software together
The child will go crazy over some large boxes that Target throws away! Just take a few home, cut some holes in the box for windows and doors and save $$$. Then go down at the bottom of the display and find blocks and a rocking horse. Those were the favorite toys my child played with when I they were young.
Get your car to the loading dock, pick up some boxes and $50 for the rocking horse and blocks and you are set.
Loser....footballs, cap guns, robots, baseball gloves/bats. army men, r/c anything that blinks or makes noise, those pushing popper things, BB guns...yes.
Tell your wife that unless she wants him wearing pink tutus and playing with Barbies that she will let him "like" boy toys. As your son grows up, he will tell you what interests him...He will say..."I WANT THAT"....of course, he will want everything cool.
Sounds like your wife's a man hater....and she's got your "ahem" in her purse.
Really? What is this, the 1950's? "Oh look! Clueless dad has to go shopping while mom goes to work and earns the paycheck. What a fish out of water!"
I actually hoped it would be about how confusing the aisles can be. Recently, I went to Target to get a couple Lego Friends sets for my niece. Naturally, I went to the Lego aisle. They weren't there. I did not give up as I had checked online that afternoon and saw that they were in stock at this location. The Lego Friends were several aisles over in a girls' play set aisle.
Yeah, stores are encouraged by LEGO to segrate LEGO friends with Barbies and such to encourage girls to want to buy them as well.
Swing by the pharmacy and get the missus some Norplant...... Saves a whole lotta shopping time..... among other things....
Ben, I think you need to grow a set. "what my wife might let me let him like." Is it really THAT one sided in your house? That's just sorry. I can imagine one day your child asking you for something and you respond by saying your wife wouldn't allow it. No man card for you.
I clicked on this headline because it sounded too dumb to made into an article. I was wrong.
+1.
Dumbest Article ever.
What's so hard to figure out? Row after row of crap from China, just like the rest of the store.
People gets paid to write this drivel?!? Syria fires missels at their own citizens and this is news how?
OMG - they got me to click, it worked! Darn!!
JR12: while there are many "news" worthy issues in the world, part of journalism is the lighter human issue story line. In fact, there is more than this than hard core news of world issues. Look at the magazines and programs like Entertainment Tonight. Not much as far as world interest, but full of the things consumers eat up. This was a timely human interest story focusing on a new dad.
He'd be much better off going somewhere other than Target. Their Target is your pocketbook, as their prices are way too high.
Too high? Most of their products seem to be comparable to Walmart prices.
I don't know what kind of misconceptions you have about Target, but there's a reason it's been as successful as it has been: it's basically Wal-Mart, just colored with red and without the bad image Wal-Mart has associated with it. It's prices are almost exactly the same as Wal-Mart's for name brands, while the generic brands for Target tend to be of a higher quality and still cheaper than Wal-Mart's generic brands.
You went to the wrong place, buddy. Target completely missed the mark for toys this year.
Our SuperTargets have had tiny little Monster High sections for months, and they didn't expand for the holiday season. If you have a girl with a Monster High doll on your list - and, if there's anyone 6-9 years old on your list, you most likely do - you aren't finding it at Target this year. Head on over to Toys R Us - loads and loads of Monster High dolls on hand (or at least, a big devoted section - the supply is starting to dwindle the closer we get to Christmas). Or I've also heard Wal-Mart did a good job getting ahead of Monster High this year, and has an ample section.
If you have a boy ages 5-12 on your list, chances are they're asking for Skylander Giants this Christmas. That's another one that Target missed the boat on. They have an itty, bitty, teeny, tiny section in the stores by me, while TRU is carrying a full wall of them. Best Buy isn't doing so bad in their selection of 'em either.
Target also is sorely lacking in Lite Brix (they're carrying a cheap knock-off version called "Laser Pegs" instead), and barely have any Switch & Go Dinos either. For the first Christmas in pretty much ever, my toy-buying dollars went to Toys R Us this year, with Best Buy second. Target was where we got little stocking stuffers, but nothing major.
Nice! Good info.
Very good info thanks!
Target is usually better stocked.. Maybe their goods are wrapped up in that port strike?
@Ben Popken
You're a dude. You played with toys. You're not mentally dwarfed or otherwise retarted and you need help figuring out how to shop?
Slow news day eh?
I actually found the article to be rather amusing, and I think that was the point. I don't think Ben really couldn't find his way around the toy aisle, I think he was just having some fun and writing an article as an adult who hasn't been to the toy aisle in a while. Lighten up every one, tis the season.
In my family, when it's time to go to the store the kids know what's what in our household. Mom goes grocery shopping, I rarely, if ever, go to the toy aisle, Dad on the other hand, that's the only aisle in the store he's going to. Needless to say, the kids LOVE it when dad goes shopping with us.
My son is 12 and my daughter is 11. I miss buying them toys. I shop down the toy and and see all the toys my kids no longer play with it.
They just like video games. I spent hundreds of dollars and a closet full of board games and lego's that never got touched.
My daughter will play with me once in a while, but my son will not. You can't disturb him on the x-box with his internet friends. He walks around with his headphone on all day.
The x-box is a major interruption in daily life. Especially, if we have to go somewhere and he needs to shut it off. I remember yelling at him on Thanksgiving Day. Doesn't the other mother celebrate Thanksgiving? Does she really let her son play the x-box all hours of the day and night?
There is no control over the video games. The addiction of video games exceeds the really enjoyable and creative toys. It also interferes with social skills.
Dream up and play with your toys before your child doesn't want it anymore.
I'm sorry annette, but this x-box problem sounds like YOUR problem.
My kids don't let video games run their life because I limit them from it.
"The x-box is a major interruption in daily life" you say. Why don't you shelf the thing?
You are complaining about video games. Hello!??? Aren't you the parent? You are the one who controls what goes on in your house, are you not?
To outsiders and other parents, it sounds like you are just complaining that you have no control over your kids.
I`m with Adam. In our house we play video games together. Not watch my son or daughter play. No TV in the car or video games. We talk, sing and or sometimes fight but at least we do these things together.
Why do you let the child just spend on day being a dick on xbox live then? Most normal gamers wonder were a kid's parents are when they are on all day calling every person who can beat them in the game every curse word in the book they know. You're the parent. You can unplug the console or simply turn it off and keep the controllers
Yea. Annettee has allowed her children to tune her out. Bad. Essentially she is saying she lets the kids make their decisions at age 11 and 12. Where's parental guidance?
Annette, I know these words below yours sound harsh, but I hope that they empower you. As all above have stated, YOU are the parent. If you let your kids control you now, you will never have their respect. I hope that you can come to a satisfactory position on the gaming. Sometimes you have to revoke privileges and as a parent that is your right. Remember, gaming is a privilege, not a requirement for their happiness. They might get mad at you, but they will still love you.
Of course, right on cue, the "super parent" pops in with condascending, sage advice.
I'm 30 years old with a baby boy due in a month. I grew up with Atari, NES, SNES, Genesis, N64, PS, and N64 before moving out of my parents home.
My days as a kid/teen involved coming home, eating dinner, doing homework or chores, and my mom would let me play videogames as long as I want until bed time.
Today, I hold an MBA, own my own home, married, have a child on the way, and make approximately $90K a year.
Lets stop with the tired stereotyping political correctness ok? Videogames don't make a kid grow up a loser any more than reading, riding a bike, or playing soccer would.
As long as my kid does his homewokr and does well in school and has friends, he can do whatever the heck his interests are that make him happy. I won't dictate what his hobbies will be.
Also: I love my parents for letting me have all these wonderful memories. I can sit here and list a hundred games that defined my childhood and made my childhood and teen years so memorable. If I had uptight parents like you I wouldn't have half of these great memories.
I am NO SUPER PARENT, but it doesn't take a lot to know that if something becomes problematic, you remove it from the situation.
I am 33 with four kids. I am not a super parent, but I deal with a LOT of complaining and when you get to my situation or actually experience kids and their behaviors, discipline when it is asked for is common sense. I'm not talking about physical discipline, but if my kids video games became an 'interruption in daily life', then 'daily life' would have a whole hell of a lot less of video games in it.
I'm like you SICKTIRED. I played video games my whole life and I let my kids play them too, but if the games(or anything else) become daily problems, they go into the closet. It's not hard. That's all I'm saying.
I see. Sorry If I misunderstood. I'm just in the camp that views videogames no differentlty than riding a bike or playing soccer or reading a book. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages but in the end, they are all frivolous hobbies. You will live with or without them, but people (more specifically insecure parents) tend to follow the herd and demonize videgaming for some reason. And to me that's a shame, as its really so much fun and magical for both kids and adults.
Let kids enjoy their childhoods. They will have adult responsibilities whether they want to or not at some point in their life.
Apologies again for misunderstanding.
Well said both of you (Adam and Sick)
I am the Mother of a "gamer" I also let him play after school work and chores. At ages 11 and 12 it was all he wanted to do it took me putting in my closet and him going with out for awhile.. Now he is turning 14 and he p[lays maybe an hour or so a day.. He is finding other interests and hobbies ( girls and hanging out at the bowling alley...)
It does sound tho as if Annette has an issue with the xbox in her home. It sounds like it needs to live in her closet for awhile.
I disagree on video games being held in the same camp as riding a bike, playing soccer or reading a book. And I am certainly not an insecure parent. Sports provide physical exercise, fresh air, extra vitamin D from the sun, a chance to develop your social skills, an opportunity to learn from others (like coaches, other teammates). Quality books develop your mind and vocabulary. Kids who read a lot, develop that skill and that makes it easier from them later in life. While video games are fun, I don't believe that they give you the physical exercise or teach you the social skills that you need later on in life. If all you do is play video games and don't play team sports, bike, swim, or even read, then I think you are really missing out on a lot of the true beauty of life. My children play video games, but video games are a treat at our house. We have them try a variety of sports, encourage lots of reading, coloring, Legos, craft activities and we try to do a family walk/bike at least 5 days a week. When we pull out the video games, we like to do the Just Dance game which gets us moving and laughing, or the Mario-type games. We end up having to limit the Mario games to 30 minutes because if we play much longer than that, I notice an adverse effect in the kids and their behavior. They become argumentative instead of trying to work together.
I think all pediatricians would recommend outdoor or reading activities over video games. It's not to say that one couldn't grow up playing video games all the time and still turn out fine, but that's a risk that I'm not willing to take.
You act like if they play for more than 30 minutes, your children's brains will melt. There are games out there just as expansive (and sometimes with subtitles have as much reading) as a fantastic novel. You had books that were turned into television, another non-interactive way to absorb the story. Then video games came out and you could now interact with and influence the direction of the story all while problem solving and more depending on the game. Also there is the social aspect online but most people just turn that into a screaming match on some games, but on others (My experience on Mass Effect 3 MP) you will talk to the teammates to coordinate efforts against the enemies. So you are socializing and strategizing.
I agree every child needs some time for real play, but don't villianize gaming as something that can only adversely effect a child if they are allowed to spend "too much" time on it.
Ooo, Momof4, might you be a home schooler? Your comments are so familiar to me, because I would have said the same thing 15 years ago when my children were at home. Independent thinking, what a concept.
Ben, take this advice to heart: Instead of letting Target or whoever dictate what your children should be interested in playing with, let the children play and then supplement their play with toys that fit what they are doing. You are more likely to find the child's giftings earlier this way. This worked for us. Our children received bug-collecting kits, science kits, sand toys and digging implements, water guns, dress-up clothes, play kitchens and "food", tricycles, basketballs, footballs, bats, balls, and later on a few educational video games. And books, books, books on every subject imaginable!!
Raising my kids this way I'm glad I was pretty much able to ignore altogether the "pink and purple/black and blue" aisles in the stores, and I didn't feel like such a dang sucker. The kids did fairly well too. I have one who is a physician, one a web developer, one a nutritionist, and one a nanny.
I wish you well in your fatherhood, Ben!
I feel a certain level of disgust at most all items that are marketed to kids in our modern world. EVERYTHING is promoting some licensed character. Not much is neutral.
All of these darned toys are big boxes of little plastic parts that are soon scattered like so much dust. And, with baby toys, the toy cannot just emit a buzz, bell, or squeak anymore. It has to offer something "brain building" or "educational", or musical.
My little one year old grandson loves to push buttons, so I bought him a toy remote with all kinds of buttons. Unfortunately, with each push of a button brings some inane little robotic singing ditty, instead of a quick response beep or buzz.
I am having a hard time trying to find any toys that I feel good about for our nine year and our one year old grandsons. Fortunately, the nine year old likes things other than boxed toys. And, the little one is too little to "want" too much.
Buying such simple items as pajamas and shirts for them is almost more problematic than buying toys. Most things are highly themed with licensed characters and are very sloppy in style, and they are very ugly and cheaply made.
I find an overall lack of quality in almost everything that is marketed for kids. Increasingly, the bricks and mortar stores are offering less and less of anything that I wish to own or to buy for anyone else. There are still a few online sources for some things. Even online, though, I find very few clothing items for boys that I like. Sloppy seems to be the norm.
The main idea behind Kwanza is to make a gift yourself for the person receiving. In this way you can do whatever you want within the limitations of your imagination and can be made a sturdily as you want it. It also helps to bring the focus away from what money can buy and bring more focus to the time and energy and effort that you put into something for someone you love. Just a thought.
@Ben: get on board with energy saving light bulbs. They also have them at HD. Or, you could pick them up at Target after you navigate the toy department. But if you really want a shopping challenge, go to Toys-R-Us.