American Girl St. Louis June 30 - July 1, 2012

Bear with me....long, photo-heavy post ahead and pictures are not cooperating.


We took a spur-of-the-moment trip to St. Louis last weekend.  We were bored, it was hot, and my daughter had seen the new items available at American Girl and asked to go.  I suppose I should note here that my son had also seen the items and is totally in love with the Beetle and wanted to go too.


The store was a lot smaller than the others we've been to--New York, Chicago (old and new), and DC.  The St. Louis store gets a lot of natural light, has very friendly associates, and was relatively empty when we went on a Saturday afternoon.  Maybe the 104 degree temperatures had something to do with it?


What you see when you walk into the St. Louis store
We of course tried to find the VW Beetle first.  My son calls it a "groovy".  We found it, and it was really cool, but I did notice a few things:  
  1. The doors do not open.  Major disappointment.
  2. The convertible top was non-functioning.  It looked like an upholstered cushion stuck on the car.  It seems like they could have sewn in some folds to make it look more realistic.
  3. It had only been available a few days and already the windshield and hood of the car were very scratched from kids playing with the display model.  The windshield was already starting to look opaque rather than clear.
  4. $350!!  What!!
  5. The accessories were cute but they obviously scratched the plastic easily (too easily, in my opinion).
Here are some pictures of it:




The employees were doing a hard sell on the Beetle.  One employee told us that Chicago had sold 8 so far, but "in the 'Lou' no one spends that much money."  And I did notice that   most of the customers only had the tiny bag, not the big, doll-sized bag.  In the other locations we've been to, we'd often see girls and their moms carrying multiple big bags.  Not here.


Here's a few photos of the store-only items.  I believe the purple shirt and skirt are new.

You may notice my son playing with the Groovy in the background.


Here are a few more photos of things that caught my eye around the store.
 
She's sticking out of the tent window!
I think these are new?
Now a service dog.
















New outfits and current pet line-up.
They brought back Licorice and now Chocolate Chip
is only available as a service dog set with a higher price.
I wish you could buy just the service pieces since we already have
Chocolate Chip and don't need a second one.
Meatloaf is really cute, but be aware that he is basically
a hard molded plastic form with a thin layer of fur glued on.
He is really hard!

So cute!

Pretending to muck out the stall and putting it into the feed trough.  Boys!



I love the facial sticker.  So funny!
You can get a hearing aid for your doll now.








































My souvenir shirts and sunglasses.
























For the Bitty Baby fans, there are some fun things available right now.

Her outfit matches my blog!

I love these little blankies.

This blender set was really popular with all
the kids in the store.






















Sunday morning we were going to visit the St. Louis Arch.  As we were getting ready, my daughter told us she wanted to get a doll.  So we drove 1/2 hour to the Arch, did the tourist thing, and then drove 1/2 hour back to AG Place for her to choose a doll.


Which one should I choose?

Putting her in the bag.

Checking out the glasses.  She decided she wanted
the blue ones we had at home, so I chose a different
pair for my doll.

Finally stepping away from the Beetle to play some music.

The play food is so fun.

All done!

The heat and light were a bit much for him.
He did pick up a shopping paper for the Beetle. He
wasn't totally left out.  We stopped at Target for Legos.  :)

Back at home with new doll named Madison.
She also chose the pet earrings and we are going to
try an at-home piercing job.