Page 148 - Purchasing Power Black Kids and American Consumer Culture

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