NanoMania

Before we moved to Switzerland, Dennis and I did some poking around on the English forums in Switzerland, and Dennis was getting the feeds from the Google office in Switzerland.  There were a disturbing number of adults on each, earnestly discussing their sticker collections.

Migros, the giant of supermarkets here in Switzerland, is constantly running free-with-purchase promotions, and last one they had, OceanMania, was a long-running sticker collection game with hundreds of stickers to collect and trade.  I assume (or, rather, hope) that parents were helping their children complete collections: they would post spread-sheet lists on these forums of the dozens of stickers they had to available to trade and the dozens more they still required.

Wow.

Well, the supermarket just started their next promotion, NanoMania. There are ads everywhere, but I ignored them until Ella came home from school today, hands behind her back, rocking on her heels.

“Um, Mom, all the kids at school have these little toys, they’re really funny, and so I asked the teacher what they were, and she asked the kids, and they’re called Nanos you can get one free from the store whenever you spend $20 at Migros. Soooo....Can we go grocery shopping?”

Well, no, we couldn’t, because Joey and I did a really large shopping trip just this morning.  But I looked online, and it appeared like you could buy a set of 64 of the little toys for $10. Birthday gift. Done.

So the kids and I went to the grocery store and I bought what I thought was a set of the little toys, and as I was checking out I managed to ask if I could have the other little Nanos that would have come with my morning shopping, had I known they existed. (And I can’t tell you how proud of myself I am for managing to convey that!) She was happy to help and threw in a few extra for the little cuties.

Well, it turns out what I bought was just an empty tin, a little foam nest for all of the Nanos that could be, along with tin slide to roll them down. (Nanos are little weighted pills, about half the size of my finger, that wobble as they roll. Whee!) So the kids carefully sized up, sorted, and race tested their little collection that the checker had given them. (Except for Joey. He irreverently threw his around and buried it in the dirt.)

But the big kids: they plotted.

It’s amazing how quickly kids can go from not knowing a toy exists to n-e-e-e-e-e-ding that toy. (Amazing, but not surprising.  I was a kid once. I remember.  By the way, thanks again, mom and dad, for all the little Mr. Men books and figurines you bought me I love you!) Ella and Alex pow-wowed, trying to figure out how, spilling their coins into a pile, trying to figure out how much they had and how they could earn more, lots more, to buy chocolate eggs at, specifically, Migros. Then they could get eggs and Nanos! It’s genius! But their money-making schemes had to have quick yields: the promotion only lasts five weeks! (Act now!)

Ella’s learning multiplication in school, so I gave her a fun little problem. If you have to spend $20 to get one Nano, how much, exactly, would you have to spend to collect all 64? Although, this being Switzerland, I suppose it’s not outside the realm of possibilities for a family of five to spend $1280 on groceries (or chocolate eggs) in a month.  But hopefully not this particular family.

So I believe I managed to resign the children to not Collecting Them All. And from now on I guess I’ll keep half an eye on Migros and their wily marketing schemes.

We cleared our heads of covetousness at a new playground this afternoon.

 

I’m constantly awed by the wonderful structures the city builds for its children. Wonderful.

We had a little chocolate break mid-morning.
I love Joey's expression: "Dude.  Why aren't you eating?"