Worshipping at the Temple of American Girl

I never did get a chance to blog about my visit to the American Girl Place in Chicago, but since I officially disapprove of these expensive dolls, I thought I'd better not rhapsodize about how cute everything was. Instead -- and since today is Wordless Wednesday anyway -- I'll let the pictures do the talking.


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When I visited in July, the outside display and front of the store was devoted to the newest American Girl doll, Rebecca Rubin.


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The first floor has the Girl of the Year, Historical Line of Dolls, Bitty Baby and Bitty Twins. The Historical section has life-sized displays of furniture and objects that might have been used by girls during the time period.


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They have lots of beautiful displays, all designed to make little girls beg their parents to open their wallets.


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The second floor has all the Just Like Me Dolls, along with all the American Girl of Today outfits and accessories, and all the Dress Like Your Doll merchandise. These Just Like Me dolls remind me of the Children of the Corn, all staring forward like that, although I'm sure the little girls squealing over the display won't think they look lifeless and soul-sucking whatsoever. The doll in the very center is one that The Pea got for her seventh birthday. That model has since been discontinued, so I'm glad she was able to choose the doll that looks the most like her while they were still making it.


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The second floor also has the Doll Hair Salon and Tea Room. In most cases, I pay less for my own haircuts than you would to style your doll's hair over here.


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Last, but not least, for the second floor is the Craft section, which has what I think is one of the best bargains in the whole American Girl Place. For $10 you can customize a shirt for your doll -- you pick the color and style of shirt, you pick a shirt design, and they will heat-transfer the design onto the shirt. They even packed it for me in a little doll-sized American Girl Place shopping bag, which The Pea loves since her dolls can do their own dolly shopping with the shopping bag.


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I wish I could have taken The Pea and her brothers to see the store, but I had to be content with snapping all these photos, including one of me in the store so that I could show The Pea that I actually went there.

Yup, I'm not a fan of American Girl dolls. That's my line, and I'm sticking to it. Oh, who am I kidding, I hate the fact that they're little cash-suckers but if I ever won a million bucks I'd probably get The Pea the Kit doll, Kit's Treehouse and a horse to go with it.

Click here to see the entire photo set on Flickr.

7 comments:

CanCan (Mom Most Traveled) said...

Oh I would love to go there! I'm really not a squealy person but I got a Molly doll when I was 10 and I would totally be a kid again at AG!

Carrie Ella said...

I love Chicago! I used to drive in once every couple months and spend all day shopping at Marshall Fields when I lived in Michigan. It's gorgeous during the Christmas season with the huge Christmas Tree smack in the middle of the Walnut Room.

I haven't been in quite a few years, not since the American Girl store came to town. I imagine I'd spend all day there shopping if I could. My daughters looooove their dolls!

Sukhmandir Kaur said...

I enjoyed getting the catalogs and used to pour through them. Not sure my daughter ever did though LOL

Gattina said...

What an interesting store, I would have loved to look at all the dolls. But I notice that the American Girl dolls are looking like the German, French or Belgian dolls, lol !

Susan Cook said...

My daughter loves American Girls. She has 3 now and wants more for Christmas. They are somewhat expensive but they are quality made and that's all she wants and gets for Christmas or her birthday so I think it's worth it.

She would totally love to go to one of those AG Stores. We may go to the one in Massachusetts soon.

Cool pictures! Thanks for sharing.

Unknown said...

Oh, I gave my mother one of those dolls! I've always wanted to go there and see how they make them!
Nice pics!
By the way, Thanks for stopping by my blog and looking at my "Electric" PhotoHunt picture!
Christina Wigren (Anna)
P.S.
To Gattina:
The whole idea behind the American doll is D I V E R S I T Y! There are dolls to match who you are, that is, what your ethnic/racial background is, and be proud of it; be proud to be an American and to be proud of the particular kind of American you are.
I gave my mother their SWEDISH-doll, of course! What else!?
Best wishes
Christina Wigren (Anna)

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