Wow, those quotes are truly amazing. I don't think I could have kept my cool if I overheard those. Of course, I have three boys so I don't think I'll ever find myself in an American Girl store. But I'll boycott them on principle!

So sad. This is what was bound to happen when Pleasant Company was purchased by Mattel. I have such wonderful memories of the American Girl place, but I was fortunate enough to have a "real" doll. She was very special to me and I remember being impressed by their service when I sent my doll in for service years later.
But this is disgusting. Their store is catering to the girls who are spoiled and selfish, who have all of the dolls and parents who will spend thousands on buying them dolls that will mean nothing and collect dust.
Shame on Mattel for making anyone feel like they and their favorite doll are not worthy.

Those women treating that child that way sounds like they are bunch of cunts.

Heartbreaking. My niece has a "real doll" only because I hit it at the right time, I think she was $10 on slickdeals.

American Girl dolls are the biggest scam going. I actually like the wholesomeness of their products, and even the accompanying books with the dolls' backstories are pretty well done.

But those prices. C'MON, guys. My daughter's Bitty Baby doll quickly lost a leg (yes, we sent it back and it was fixed, but still - the trauma!); its face discolored dramatically after about 6 months (from cafe-au-lait tan to grayish brown, and no, this wasn't dirt that coulid be removed with any sort of cleaner).

Parents and grandparents: be very clear when you buy these products. A doll is simply a doll. You are buying a *concept* and a backstory and a bunch of crazy-overpriced accessories that most little girls don't really care about anyway.

Shame on the stylist for her elitism. And year-long sojourn in the the slums of a 3rd-world country for those snotty mothers in line.

American Girls dolls are shit. The people in my area do not buy their products!

Stick to what you know folks and that's Cabbage Patch Kids or Barbie.

God, the store clerk was a total bitch, but she was just carrying out store policy (in a very bad, untactful, unfriendly way). But those other moms in lines? A thousand times worse-- how can you say that stuff within earshot of a child, much less her mother, much less to her face.

"Thank you, Madam, for explaining to my daughter that her doll is fake. Clearly the real vs. fake dichotomy is a concept with which you are familiar, based upon your ring."

But I'm a New Yorker.

Sucks that the contextual advertising on this page is for a Samantha doll...

Dang, I just went to the link and read the whole letter (which is brilliantly written and even snarkier than the clip posted here), and it's even worse than I thought.

Heh, heh, LewisNYC, good one. That's the kind of comeback I don't think of unfortunately until I'm home in bed 8 hours later still steaming after such an incident.

That's absolutely absurd and infuriating.

"I'm sorry I can't do your dolls hair, because it doesn't have the right kind of fake hair."

I'm definately with Elizabeth's last line. I'd like to take these people with me to my former Peace Corp village in Cameroon. "Well, I guess boiling and filtering your rainwater isn't for everyone, you know."

@EvilTapioca: Best use of the uniquely descriptive term "cunt" I've seen all day.

Completely absurd... it looks as if another company has stepped up to fix the problem for Etta - http://www.dollsclothes-emilyrose.com left a comment on their blog saying they will ship any order she places for free (is the shipping free, or the order, I assume the former).

Regardless, my 6-month old daughter will never own an American Girl doll and I'll be sure to check out this Emily Rose business. Looks like one company's trash is another company's treasure.

@formergr: Yeah, I never would have thought of it on the spot either. Would have come out more like "well the jerk store called, and they're all out of you!"

Or I would have taught my daughter that today's episode was brought to us by the letter C and the day Tuesday.

Wow, what a scam. I pay $12 for a haircut, and I even get lollipop with it.

There's an AGP store here in Chicago - I made the mistake of going in there one day, it's like a cult only worse!

Am I the only one who sides with American Doll? Clearly they can't do the hair of any doll that walks in off the street? It's all about branding - the American Doll people are selling an experience surrounding their brand. They could've refused to do the hair in a more discreet fashion but I think the store relies on kids' guardians to understand the risk of bringing in a cheap Target doll to an American Doll store and expecting the same treatment.

If a kid is traumatized for having a Target doll in an AG store, I blame the parents for setting their daughter up for a big disappointment.

...Whoa. So messed up.

Sarcasm aside, this is an incredibly important lesson for that little girl. People can be cruel and superficial. Hopefully this experience will prevent her from acquiring those traits later in life.

I don't think anyone is really knocking the AG store's policy, but more the way in which that message was delivered.

Word about the AG store here in Chicago-- a friend of mine took her niece from out of town shopping downtown. She was secretely somewhat worried the girl would want to go in there (but of course would have taken her if she did). Instead the niece made lots of fun of the store and they developed a "red bag alert" to identify shoppers on Michigan Ave who were part of the cult.

I can't say I know too much about American Girl, but perhaps they have a sort of "DRM" (Doll Rights Management) that strictly prevents anything other then genuine AG dolls from using their products.

@mlehet: It is a cult! I had no experience with American Girl Dolls at all until my roommate brought me into the AGP in Manhattan. The whole thing was freaky- overpriced dolls with overpriced outfits with matching clothes for the brainwashed children bought by their brainwashed parents.

@TheCFC: I can't side with American Doll - not if they preach girl empowerment and then turn around and make a child feel like crap. I get that they can, and should, have a policy of only working on AG dolls. I don't expect to bring a ring I bought at Kay's to Cartier and expect them to fix it. But I also don't expect them to publicly humiliate me. And if her parents didn't actually buy into the American Doll hoopla, instead letting her use her own saved money to buy her doll from Target, why should they be expected to understand the rules when their daughter received an invitation from a friend to bring her doll?

I'm gonna be pissed off for the rest of the day. There's no way I'm setting foot in one of those stores.

WHAT?? There's a doll salon??? With doll stylists???!?

Wow.. thats crule.

@TheCFC:

Am I the only one who sides with American Doll?

YES!

American Girl dolls are the biggest ripoff this side of Cabbage Patch Kids. It feeds a unsafe need for greed in a child and I for one will refuse to let my child even near one, if they even still exist by the time we are ready to have kids.

Meghann Marco is the only real doll in NYC.

Wow. I had to read through the headline of the article a few times just to understand what was going on here. And all I have to say is: that's jut disgraceful. That's the textbook definition of "heartless" right there.

How about we have a "worst doll company" contest? Head-to-head we'll place American Doll and Bratz. Which is worse?

@TheCFC: Policies are understandable, but good customer service (and common decency) should have prevailed here.

My grandmother loved telling this story: in the 1940s or whatever, she went out to dinner with someone who we would today call a kleptomaniac. She systematically stole all of this very good restaurant's silver, putting it in a napkin throughout the meal.

As she got up to leave, the napkin with the silver slipped out of her purse, causing a loud commotion at the front door, silverware going everywhere.

The manager approached, helped her to her feet, picked up all the silverware, put it back into the napkin nice and neat, handed it to the lady with a smile and said "we look forward to seeing you next time."

The attitudes of the women in that store are disgusting, but not surprising coming from mommies that would spent that kind of money on their children. What a gaggle of cunts.

another reason I don't want daughters.

@joopiter: I always thought American Girl Dolls was about girl empowerment too. That what my friends have always pointed to as why they're a better gift for little girls than Barbie or Bratz, anyway.

Nowhere on the American Girl Doll website do they say that the salon is only for American Girl-brand dolls.
http://www.americangirlplace.com/agp_ny_dontmiss_salon.php...
Perhaps they (wrongly) assume that a child's favorite doll will always be one of theirs and therefore don't think it's worthwhile to mention their discriminatory policy toward non-American Girl dolls.

When these dolls became popular (sometime in the late 80's, IIRC) my (admittedly rich and spoiled) friends got them. I was smitten for about 30 seconds before being told the cost. Even at a fairly tender age (I was 9, I think) I knew that was way too much money and thought they were all nuts. They had the fancy trunks with all the fancy clothes and they got the catalog in the mail and I never saw past the giant red RIP-OFF sign in my head.
I walk by the AGP in Chicago pretty regularly, and on the one hand I see very happy girls with their very happy moms spending a very happy day together, but on the other hand I can't help but feel like a lot of less fortunate little girls would love the experience and get excluded because they can't afford the right kind of doll. Booooo!
(BTW, rumor has it that the AGP in Chicago is moving into the ginormous, 6-story Lord & Taylor space at Water Tower. Eep.)

It's not infrequently that a story breaks my heart. Usually it involves some sort of horrible lonely death. Hence being the softie I am I read the consumerist to avoid real news.

This just seesm really horrible to me. No child should made to be feel that their favoriate anything isn't good enough. Just imagining the soul crushing feeling that that little girl must have felt just support a corporate policy is awful. It's so heartless I can't understand it.

I understand that there are mean people, I understand that little girls can be mean even at doll parties but adults ganging up on a child for the sole purpose of feeling superior or enforcing policy?

Reading this story and the crappy customer service makes me so upset, I can't even finish my bowl of Fruity Dyno-Bites!

But seriously, have your policies and enforce them, but don't break a six year-old's spirit.

The little girl is six years-old. Six! You shouldn't be that mean to a 26 year-old, much less a six year-old.

Argh!

Cute as Etta's doll is, it's clearly a knock-off of the AG dolls, and one that appears to be more cheaply made, to boot.

Was the stylist right to refuse to do the doll's hair? You betcha. She had no way of knowing how well the doll's hair was made, colored or rooted. She could easily have ruined the doll, and she was right to refuse to take that chance.

Was the stylist rude about it? Who knows. The story is second hand, at best. Did she say "This isn't a real doll" or "This isn't a real American Girl doll"? The first is rude -- and nonsense. Of course the Target doll is a real doll. The second is blunt, but absolutely true.

The kid should never had taken her knock-off to the AG store. Etta's mom should have thanked the friend's mom, told Etta she could go but without her doll, and -- if they had it to spare -- given her $10 to buy a hair clip or brush for her doll.

I'm taking my four and a half year old to the city for a week to visit friends and hit some of my old stomping grounds--minus the late-night ones, of course. Anyway, I'd thought that she might get a kick out of wandering through the AG store. This has now officially changed my mind. Heartless bitches, the mothers especially.

In fact, I see no reason to even go near "the heart of Manhattan's prestigious shopping neighborhood." In fact, typing that phrase makes me say things like, "I miss the pre-Giuliani New York."

wow - that just broke my heart.

Just totally uncalled for meanness there.

I'm just pondering a world where there are people who will pay more to have a doll's hair styled than I pay to have my own hair styled.

Yeah, a) the site doesn't say anything about only their own brand dolls being allowed; b) even if it did, the appropriate action would have been for the store clerk to discreetly inform the parent out of earshot of the child; and c) the other parents should have kept their mouths shut in any event.

Man, what happened to the simplicity of being a kid?

Hey stop saying Real Doll in there! Those things are creepy x1000.

@Danilo Campos: I think you summed it up well

@Falconfire:

It feeds a unsafe need for greed in a child and I for one will refuse to let my child even near one, if they even still exist by the time we are ready to have kids.

That depends on the way it comes into the child's possession. Just handing one of these dolls to appease their quailing teaches them a sense of entitlement. Using it as a lesson on setting goals, deciding what you really want, and taking care of things you have is probably worth more than the doll could ever cost.

They may have good reason to not want to style another doll's hair. Not brand cachet, but liability, liability and liability. They don't know what the hair is made of. They don't want to be responsible if something happens.

As with just about every post on Consumerist, though, the employee could have handled it better.

And the elitist parents quoted are flat-out disturbing. I think that's the attitude FalconFire is referring to.

I worked in a bookstore in high school and we had monthly American Girl parties on Sundays after the store closed. Dozens of girls showed up, with and without dolls, and we had tea parties and painted faces and talked about how being a girl was cool, and then their parents bought tons of stuff.

I remember that literature from Pleasant Company, had a section in the "American Girl Club" guide for when girls came without Real American Girl Dolls, and it said something to the effect of, "not ever child is lucky enough to have an American Girl Doll, but that does not mean that she cannot be an American Girl herself." It's so sad to see Pleasant Company's values in the gutter next to my own faith in humanity.

I can see why AG would not allow a non-AG doll in the salon; just imagine what would happen if the doll's hair started coming out, or her scalp ripped. Doll hair can vary wildly in quality, so I can completely understand why AG would want to avoid liability.

However, there is NO excuse for what the stylist said, or the other moms. A better way to handle it would be to try and find some kind way to let the girl down. "I'm sorry, sweetie, but we're only allowed to work on American Girl dolls" might have worked. It would still suck, but at least you wouldn't destroy the poor kid's fantasy.

Also, shame on AG for not clearly noting their policy on the webpage. The whole debacle could have been avoided had they done so.

Oh come on guys! Clearly you are all missing the underlying story of the truly repressed character in this tale. I mean really, when you make your living doing hairstyles for dolls, how often do you really ever get the chance to be elitist?

@TheCFC: But it isn't free. I actually agree with you, but what harm would it have done to take the $20 and just do it?

@TheCFC:

Yes, you are. :)

The issue isn't branding, the issue is crushing a 6 year-old's feelings. They could have been FAR more tactful in handling the situation. God forbid something like that ever happen in my presence to my kid.

I am heartless bastard and this story almost makes me cry.

Wow. I just can't believe anyone could be so mean to a child, and in a store for children. Oh wait, its in NYC, so yes I can. And the moms in line? Ugh. I bet they are the same moms who buy their daughters $96k Jaguars for their 16th birthdays. Souless, blackhearted bitches.

(Also, I hear you Kerry; I was about 9 too when I got an American Girl catalog. I loved looking through the catalog and running to my mom to say "Look! They want $10 for this tiny pair of shoes!" or something to that effect. I was happy with my garage sale barbies.)