Page 148 - Purchasing Power Black Kids and American Consumer Culture
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Anthropologist on Shopping Sprees  .  133

       Ricky
       At Toys-R-Us, Ricky carefully  amassed  an impressive array  of items: a
       container of bubblegum, four bags of marbles, a set of eight markers, a set
       of eight colored pencils, a three-foot styrofoam glider plane, and  a repair
       kit  for  bicycle inner tubes (see table  5.5).  Unlike many children, Ricky
       did not buy anything that he really planned to share or use with others. A
       tremendously intelligent and energetic kid with a wicked sense of humor
       and an insanely goofy laugh, Ricky had been held back in school and was
       a few years older than his classmates.  His major  interest was art,  and he
       continually drew astonishingly accomplished renditions of the Tasmanian
       Devil and other popular cartoon  figures. His family life was crowded  and
       in some ways precarious: earlier in the year he had stolen the proceeds of
       a  classroom  art  show  ($18) to  help buy food  for his family,  and  he was
       repaying his teacher with  a small sum once  a week.  He  lived in a  three-
       bedroom  apartment  with  his mother,  her boyfriend,  and  three younger
       siblings. His mother was expecting  another  child, and their finances were
       barely adequate to keep the family housed, fed, and clothed.
          Ricky's  first  and  highest priority  purchase was an  inner tube  repair
       kit. For boys in the neighborhood,  bikes were a primary avenue to  free-
       dom,  and  they ranged  far  and  wide through  the neighborhood  and be-
       yond. His tire had a flat, and he wanted to be mobile again. At $2.49 the
       tube repair  kit  left  Ricky with  plenty of money. He  checked the  price of
       an inner tube just to  compare.  "That tube would  have cost me $6.99,"
       he said.  "It  cost  a whole  lot more  and  I would  only have one of them!"
       Instead,  he pointed out,  he paid  less and  could  repair his inner tube sev-
       eral times with the one kit.




       Table  5.5.  Ricky's Purchases

       Item                           Price                Store
       1 tube repair kit              $2.49                Toys-R-Us
       8 color changing markers       $1.99                Toys-R-Us
       8 colored pencils              $1.99                Toys-R-Us
       styrofoam glider plane         $3.99                Toys-R-Us
       4 bags of marbles              $1.79 ea             Toys-R-Us
       1 marble                       $  .99               Toys-R-Us
       bubblegum                      $  .99              Toys-R-Us
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