A pretend kitchen. Complete with sink, burners, oven, and even a wee little washing machine on the side.
And here's the deal, I find all of these toys for girls a bit off-putting. I mean, when you walk down the BOY toy aisle there are things geared toward 1) saving the world from imminent destruction 2) weapons for maiming Bad Guys 3) and things for constructing other things.
The girl toy aisle, on the other hand, contains 1) things relating to childcare 2) things relating to cooking 3) things relating to cleaning. I'm serious! I wish I was making this up, but just today I spied a miniature PINK IRONING BOARD. And an oven. A PINK oven. And oh my GOSH with the baby dolls. And baby diapers. And baby strollers. And baby beds.
What is this 1955? Am I buying toys for Betty Draper over here?
And yet, my baby girl is SO into baby dolls. And baby doll accessories. I suppose these things are, I don't know, genetic?
And, it turns out, Paige is also really entranced by pretend food and pretend tea sets and pretend dishes.
So? We bought the kid a kitchen. Whattayagonnado?
We bought the pretend kitchen at full price. A whopping $119 - more, honestly, than we were really comfortable spending ON A TWO YEAR OLD. Sheesh. But we rationalized the purchase by saying that the wee little kitchen was the same color scheme as my actual kitchen, and ooooh wouldn't it be so cuuuute in there? Her cooking and me cooking in our matching kitchens. Adorable.
Or revolting, if you're Gloria Steinem.
Anyway. Yesterday, the Target flier advertised our little kitchen for a mere $89. That's a $30 price reduction, folks. Taking the overall price from Outrageous to just Ridiculous.
So I marched my hiney up to the Target return desk, receipt in hand, and requested a price adjustment. The gal behind the counter pushed some buttons, scanned some unknown things, then flatly told me "no". The price adjustment period is 14 days, and today makes day 16. Too bad for me, right?
Wrong.
I drove home, lugged that damn tiny kitchen out from its hidey hole, loaded it in my car and drove it back to Target whereby I returned it. Then I asked to buy it right back.
The gal at the return desk wouldn't do it. She said it would have to first be "restocked". She was on to me.
Instead, I walked to the back of the store, found an identical kitchen, lugged it to the cashier and bought it for the
I bragged to Dave about my Target Switcheroo and he scoffed. "Why did you bring ours from home? Why didn't you just buy the kitchen at $89, then walk it over to the return desk and return it using your original $119 receipt?".
Well sheesh, now I feel a stupid.
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That so totally would have been the conversation at our house. Totally.
ReplyDeleteIf it makes you feel any better, I've tried Dave's little trick before and it doesn't work. The customer service lady would've told you that your receipt didn't match the item purchased - same item but different code. They would've been on to you and your shenanigans :)
ReplyDeleteSanta bought Anna the pink Pottery Barn knock off retro kitchen at Toys R' Us only to discover that the actual Pottery Barn version was going for the same price last week. Awesome.
Smaaaaaart. :) Btw, when Julia turned 2, her grandpa gave her the then-Target play kitchen too. It is not as nice as the current one. They keep getting better. But anyway it has been a huge hit all these years. It is the mainstay of our playroom and many, many kids (ours + friends) have played with it over the years. Every child needs a play kitchen!
ReplyDeleteOh your husband is smart! I wouldn't have thought of that either! Also, I am SURE William will have a blast with that kitchen too - my boys play with ours just as much as the girls. (Also, I REALLY want that one. And now that I know it's on sale... can I justify getting rid of the big plastic Little Tikes one? Hmmm...)
ReplyDelete