Wednesday, January 19, 2011

No bueno.

Last week I was driving home with my son in the backseat. Lately on car rides he has immersed himself with reading these cow comic books he got in a couple of kid's meals from our favorite, Chick-Fil-A. (Now, I must mention that we don't eat there all that often, but since I also get a kid's meal when I eat there, we always seem to have an abundance of the "prizes".)

Anyway, my boy loves these comic books with superhero cows. Go figure. In fact, he kept his little fingers as a bookmark in a page until we got home, and he showed me the t-shirt he wanted to order.

{It is also important to note that I have one of the least greedy five-year-olds on the planet. He rarely asks for anything, and when he does ask for something, it is almost always in a polite way, not with a typical whiny voice. Just one more thing I love about my kid.}

I looked at the page and sure enough, there was a cute t-shirt with all of the cow superheroes on it for $8.95. Realizing this would be a great opportunity to teach him about spending, I asked him if he would like to use some of his money to buy it. He saves money in his piggybank and has quite a bit saved up, but he has yet to spend any of it, even a little bit, other than taking out money each week for offering at church.


(Sorry about the world's tiniest picture of the t-shirt)

He thought long and hard and decided that yes, he wanted to order a shirt.

Awesome!, I thought. A great opportunity to teach him about spending. So we came inside, got on my laptop, found the t-shirt online, and I filled out the billing and shipping information, only to be hit with this whopper...

$7.75 shipping.

For a t-shirt that costs $8.95.

Are you kidding me?!

We all know that a little kid's t-shirt is not going to cost more than a couple bucks to send in the mail.

So the lesson was lost. I had to try and explain to my five-year-old that it was not a good investment if he was going to have to spend almost as much money to have the t-shirt sent to us in the mail. I guess I could've chalked up the money for the shipping myself, but I guess it's the principle of the matter. I didn't want him thinking it was a good idea to spend almost double the amount for something to include shipping that obviously was a rip-off.

I am always a fan of Chick-Fil-A. (You hear that, Chick-Fil-A executives??)

But not today.

No bueno.

4 comments:

Matt and Randi McComber said...

Being that you started off this post about a fast food restaurant and had the word "bueno" in the title, my salivary glands instinctively began to emit juices in hopes of devouring a bean burrito in the next few minutes. Alas, not only was I disappointed you never rounded that corner in the post, I am perhaps even more disappointed that I cannot enjoy said bean burrito on a whim. No, there are no Taco Bueno's up my way. Chick-fil-A's there are. And a fan of the chicken sandwich with the crucial pickle I always will be. Who cares if they're out to rip off our children. Show me a fast food restaurant that isn't! (besides Taco Bueno, of course.)

Sincerely,
Rednec

Happily Ever After said...

I love Chick-fil-A too. But I am very disappointed to hear about the rip-off shipping prices!! Shame on Chick-fil-A!!! Yeah for their chicken, but boo on them for breaking Henry's heart over a t-shirt.
I totally agree with you for teaching him about wise spending. It's never too early to learn these things.

Unknown said...

That's ridiculous!

I am bad about getting ripped off on shipping, not having paid attention when I clicked "submit."

Shannan Martin said...

Oh, what a bummer! Calvin just spent his ONLY $3 ($2 of which from Ms. Tooth Fairy) on a little Lego set from the grocery store check-out. These kids kill me! :)