By Maria Halkias, The Dallas Morning News
Nov. 3–Girl power will be on display this weekend at the Dallas Galleria.
About 6,000 shoppers from throughout the Southwest are expected to show up for the grand opening of the American Girl Boutique and Bistro.
This is more than a toy store. Girls not only can buy high-end, historically accurate dolls with names like Felicity, Molly and Kaya for $87, but they also can buy a doll that looks like them for the same price.
The store is stocked with doll furniture and accessories, historical paperback novels that tell the dolls’ stories, and matching outfits for the dolls’ owners, starting at about $20.
Girls can get their dolls’ hair and nails done in the salon and host a tea party in the bistro.
Some Dallas-area girls who previewed the pink-themed store — only the fifth in the U.S. — this week called it magical.
“I think it’s so fancy,” said Anna Roberts, 7, surrounded by friends who were among the first to experience a two-hour birthday party. “And write that I want Nicki.”
Leaving the party, excited guests jumped up and down to show a reporter the crafts they made and to have their wish lists included in an article they were certain their parents would read.
“They felt like royalty,” said hosting mom Becky Connet of Mansfield, whose daughter Kylie was the birthday girl and got to sit in the oversized pink chair.
“The store has a lot of energy to it. And we like the books because they’re more educational,” Mrs. Connet said.
American Girl has a publishing arm that has sold more than 117 million books, and its magazine has a circulation of 650,000 — more than many grown-up periodicals.
It’s all about pink
In the second-level bistro, with a nice view of North Dallas’ high-rises, a three-course meal is $14.50, and a banana split that feeds four to six costs $21.
Entrees include heart-shaped grilled cheese sandwiches and pink ravioli. Birthday cakes are decorated with pink polka dots. Pink is everywhere, including the lemonade.
The store has fun and thoughtful features, including holders for dolls in the bathroom stalls and small flickering lights in the pavement in the grand entrance.
“I thought it was just going to be another store at the mall,” said Megan Scott, 6, who talked her mother into buying twin Bitty dolls ($87 for the pair) that she’ll be sharing with her big sister Brittany, 8.
Even girls past the target 7- to 12-year-old age group say they’re up for a visit down memory lane.
Thirteen-year-old Emily Lyons of Richardson said she and her friends, who used to play together with their American Girl dolls, have been talking about going to the store for old time’s sake.
“We want to take them to get their hair done,” Emily said. “When I heard they opened the first store in Chicago, I wanted to go bad.
“We all had them and played together. It’s a special thing we did together for a long time, and it was fun.”
‘A perfect fit’ for Galleria
The first American Girl store opened in Chicago in 1998. A second flagship is on Fifth Avenue in New York, and the third opened in April at the Grove in Los Angeles. Those stores include a theater and are larger than the Boutique and Bistros in Dallas and Atlanta.
Although it’s smaller than a department store, an American Girl store generates similar sales, from $30 million to more than $100 million, depending on the store.
Galleria general manager Peggy Weaver said the Dallas mall started courting the store in 2004, “before we even had any idea whether they were interested in expanding.”
“We just thought it was a perfect fit for us, since we have the ice rink and the hotel and they’re such an experiential store,” Ms. Weaver said. “Ice skating and sleepovers at the Westin just go together with the magic of this store.”
Wade Opland, American Girl’s vice president of retail, said there are no plans for another store, except for the relocation of the Chicago flagship, which is moving a few blocks next year into a larger space in the Water Tower Place.
In time for Christmas
American Girl, a top seller in the much-sought-after “tween” market, is hoping it can boost sales by opening new stores without diluting the exclusivity of the brand.
It may just work — the Dallas store’s bistro is nearly booked through the end of the year for weekend birthday parties.
Owned by Mattel Inc. since 1998, American Girl saw sales soar from just under $300 million in 1999 to $440 million last year. More than 13 million dolls have been sold since the company was founded by an educator in 1986.
But sales are soft this year, despite a new store that opened in Atlanta in August and its first new historical doll in five years — Julie, who lived in San Francisco in 1974.
Like most toy retailers, Christmas is American Girl’s biggest season, and the rest of the year can pull it out of a slump.
“We’re hopeful about the holiday season now with five stores open and the new character doll,” Mr. Opland said.
Ironically, like most toys sold in the U.S., American Girl dolls and toys are made in China.
But while Mattel has experienced some of the biggest recalls for unsafe lead content in toys made in China, American Girl has escaped that scene.
“We know that girls love us, and moms trust us,” Mr. Opland said. “Safety is our No. 1 promise.”
AMERICAN GIRL ENSEMBLE
$87 –Julie Albright, historical doll from the 1970s, with a period outfit and Meet Julie book
$20 –Julie’s hat, necklace and shoulder bag
$39.95 –Julie’s set of six paperback books
$24 –Julie’s casual outfit with boots
$185 –Julie’s Bedroom Collection, a 24-piece set that includes bed and pajamas
$355.95 –Total
20 years later: Handed down to daughter
XBOX 360 AND PERIPHERALS
$349 –Xbox 360 Pro console (including two bundled games)
$49 –Second wireless controller
$99 –Wi-Fi adapter for connecting wirelessly to the Internet
$50 –One-year subscription to Xbox Live Gold online service
$59 –Halo 3 game
$606 –Total
20 years later: Obsolete
SOURCE: Dallas Morning News research
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