Page 147 - Purchasing Power Black Kids and American Consumer Culture

132 . Anthropologist on Shopping Sprees

Table 5.4. Tanika's Purchases

Item Price Store
1 pair sneakers $11.00 Payless Shoes
1 pair glasses $ 3.99 Claire's Accessories
1 t-shirt $ 5.99 Foxmoor Clothes
1 vest $ 7.99 Foxmoor Clothes

parents generated by running a family and working. Both her parents
worked, and they owned their two-family home. This was the first time
she had bought sneakers for herself, and easing the burden on her
mother's demanding array of responsibilities seemed to be a big part of
this decision—in addition, of course, to getting herself some shoes that
fit properly and that had not previously belonged to her older brother.
So, now is this something you'd normally do—spend money on buying
yourself—have you ever bought yourself sneakers before?
No. I just did it for the first time because I knew I needed sneakers and I
wanted them real bad. Because I'm tired of wearing my brother's sneakers
and they're ugly.
Is there a reason you haven't gotten new sneakers*
Because she [Tanika's mother] ain't got the time because she works. And
she gets off at 4:30 and she goes in at 8:00 and she's tired. Then she takes
her nap and then she gets up and cooks—then eats and goes back to sleep.
So—that's why she don't have time. ... On Saturday she'll do it because
she don't have to work.
Tanika occasionally earned pocket money by going to work with her
mother and helping her out as she cleaned offices in a downtown build-
ing. Buying the sneakers was, in part, another way of giving her mother
some additional help. Tanika's excitement over the shoes really blos-
somed when she imagined her mother's reaction to the realization that
she would not have to take her free time on a Saturday to go downtown
shopping. Using purchases to make caretakers happy, and imagining
their pleased reactions, was something that many children found deeply
satisfying rather than a chore. In this way they often connected them-
selves to family and kin even through purchases that were for themselves,
rather than being gifts.