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Child revels in her dollar-store Christmas

Dollar-store shopping is perfect for child’s budget.

MARCIA ARMSTRONG •   Marcia Armstrong's archive •   E-mail Marcia Armstrong

Date published: 12/23/2003

By MARCIA ARMSTRONG

MY 7-YEAR-OLD daughter is standing in front of a mountain of stuffed animals, trying to pick out a Christmas present for her 11-year-old sister.

Black dogs, gray dogs. Brown bears, white bears.

She holds up a chocolate-brown dog and turns it around, contemplating. Will her sister love this dog or just like it? Will she even want it? Is the black dog better? What about the white bear?

There are so many factors that go into picking out gifts but, in this store, price is not one of them. This is a dollar store, where you can buy everything from decorator plates to laundry baskets, coloring books to bubble bath, for just $1. And $1 is a perfect price point for a 7-year-old’s budget.

Not that shopping here was her idea. Oh, no. I’m the one who brought it up.

“But I’ll never find anything there,” she wailed.

The alternative, however, was to shop at pricier retail stores for the nine people on her list. I envisioned her handing a cashier purses at $35 apiece and $8-a-pop socks, and neither of us had enough money in our wallets to pay for stuff like that.

No, a dollar store, the pinnacle of affordability, was the best way to scale back such expectations.

“If you shop at a department store on your budget, you’ll be able to purchase only two gifts,” I told her. “At a dollar store, you can buy something for everyone on your list.”

So here we are in front of all these animals. Now, all my daughter needs to do is decide.

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Date published: 12/23/2003