Mall scavenger hunt party on a budget?

[Minnie M6]

For DDs 10th Birthday, we are trying to think of something fun and different to do. I remember a long time ago someone on this board had a great list of items for a mall scavenger hunt. I'm thinking we will invite DDs 6 closest friends and divide them into teams....I just need fun ideas of things they can do/ buy with a limited amount of money. I'm thinking 2 teams; each team gets $15, they have to find some items that are free and some that have minimal costs, and they each have a camera to take fun pictures, like everyone has to try on a hat at Claire's and take pics. I'm just having trouble coming up with a list and clues/ directions. Also I think prizes (or at least some token items to take home) would be fun but I'm not sure how to go about that either.

Any ideas would be great....either about the scavenger hunt idea or other fun parties for tween girls.

 

[java]

just make sure to check with security first. I had a friend just get in trouble mid hunt by security for not clearing it with them first. He shut them all down.

 

[Michelle and crew]

And realize what kind of craziness that would exist in claires whe 6 squealing girls descend upon the store. Sorry I hated that when I worked retail. Noise, mess, no sales.

 

[clh2]

Sounds like fun! I have just a fun "camera-based" scavenger hunt story. ONe of our neighbor's son was moving to Florida. They had a scavenger hunt in the middle of winter. One of the "items" to photograph was a white leg. I offered up...MY DOG's leg. He is a white shepard/yellow lab mix. They also wanted a pic of a speedo, which my DD had one readily available...since she was taking swimming lessons throughout the winter.

 

[Katy Belle]

My ds went to a scavenger hunt at a mall several years ago, he was probably 10. The mom wrote clues, and they had to write down the answers. They didn't have to go in any of the stores. I wish I could remember some of them, but I can't. They were clever plays on words, etc

 

[taymaesmom]

My dd's friend did one just around town, they had the girls do things like get a straw from McDonalds, play ring a round the rosie with a stranger, stand on the school steps and recite the plege of allegience, the girls had a great time. They divided into 2 teams and video taped all the things they did then met back at the b-day girls house for dinner and to watch the videos which were hysterical! Most of the clues we simple instructions and only 2 required going into stores/restraunts. One was to visit an old teacher and the mom cleared it with the girls old teacher to stop by, the teacher loved it.

 

[luvmy3]

$15 isn't alot (Its plenty of $ just doesn't go very far I mean) so what about things like
something from a gumball machine
pair of funky socks
candy bar
chap stick/ lip gloss
piece of jewelry
(if you have a Target check their $ spot and pick an item they have there and put it on the list)
funky pencils

Sounds like fun!

 

[TaraPA]

Like someone else said, please check with the mall's office first, a lot of malls around here have banned the scavenger hunt type activities. If the mall allows it please check with the individual stores as well - I'm in retail management & we no longer allow them. They truly get out of hand fast, even with the best of intentions, and are extremely distracting to other guests trying to have a peaceful shopping experience.

I like the other ideas above about doing it another place - in a park or around town if you have access to a safe area where they can run around & not bother a lot of people. In those areas you might be able to do it totally for free too!

 

[MrsPete]

Another note on security:

We tried to do this with a scout group. We had small groups of girls with cameras, and we had an adult with each group.

We weren't there five minutes before security had spotted us and put a halt to this activity.

 

[LSchrow]

ditto what others have suggested - try to have it in your town, a park, etc....anywhere except a mall
when i worked in a large mall, we would get the groups of girls on our busy weekends, pushing thru the long lines to ask for bags - some just say i want or gimme, some would try to go behind the registers to grab some. (most places do not give bags out for both LP and cost reasons), running thru the store (we saw many a child bumped/knocked over), interrupting employees trying to help actual customers, etc. sometimes, there were a few parents there for "supervision", who would normally chat with one another, ignoring the chaos the group was creating.

btw, kids in groups do behave differently than kids alone, so it's not a commentary on their maturity.
retail stores are there to make money by selling merchandise, and are places of business. imho, it is no more appropiate to have an unauthorized party in stores than it is to have it in the local motor vehicle office, your dentists or accountant's office, etc

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

The galleria here in houston told my neighbor that they had to stop when they did this for their daughter's party--no cameras in the stores or something.

 

[bhoffman]

We did a scavenger hunt for my daughters b-day and it was GREAT! I assigned points for various things and they chose what to try to get the points for and what ever team had the most points wins. I had an adult with each group, no cameras so don't know about that. The rules stated that if any member of your team ran your team had to stand still for 5 minutes (which of course cost them points). It went GREAT (I only invited very calm, well mannered girls). Also lost points if they did not say please and thank you to store clerks. This is where the adult came in. I ordered a cake from Mrs. Fields in the mall for the dessert and had them all eat lunch in the food court. Gave the winners $10 in Claires cards and $5 for the other team as their favors. The girls all had a blast!

 

[tinkerbelletreasure]

I would also suggest doing it somewhere away from the mall.
My office just had one during a staff retreat a few weeks ago. A lot o fth ebig point items were pictures...one was a picture with a cop haveing donuts...so several groups took a box a donuts to the local police station to get a pic. One was apicutre of the group outside a mcdonalds...another was a picture of the group on a stage. if you had other parent driver to take the kids around, you could come with all kinds of things and let the kids choose where to take their pictures.

 

[Ava]

The galleria here in houston told my neighbor that they had to stop when they did this for their daughter's party--no cameras in the stores or something.

Most stores frown upon anyone photographing their merchandise or displays because they don't want employees from competing retailers to do it. 10-year-old girls are obviously not employees of a competing retailer, but they have to have a blanket rule for everyone.

If you live in an area with a walk-able neighborhood you could do things like, find a house with blue shutters, a house with a cat in the window, etc. The girls could walk the neighborhood & the first team to find everything on the list wins a prize. Or if you have an outside shopping center, you could do something similar with items to find that don't require going into stores, or at least don't require bothering the employees (a PP mentioned getting a straw from McD's, things like that).

 

[cats mom]

I specifically chose an outdoor mall, scheduled DD's party on a Thursday night, tried to come up with tasks that would be as unobtrusive as possible, and stressed the be respectful message - big time.

I did a combination of photos to take, things to bring back, and questions to answer. Of course many were specific to our mall, but here are a couple of ideas from each category to get you started:

photos
A picture of a naked mannequin
One or more team members with a surf board
All team members posing near a water feature, silly faces are a must

Things to bring back
A mall directory and dining guide
A Pinkberry napkin
A perfume or cologne sample card from Hollister

Questions
How much for a ticket to ride the ferris wheel
How many water spouts in a particular fountain
Which store window has a display with oars in the window

I made drawstring backpacks for the girls to carry and collect stuff in while on the scavenger hunt. Those were their main favor, but they were each given a little money to purchase some small goodies with as well.

The girls had a great time, it was an easy party to put together, and DD loved it.

I agree with the other posters that you would be wise to check the rules at your mall first though. I don't think the reports above of mall scavenger hunts being shut down by security are isolated incidents by any means.

Good Luck with the planning and with the party!

 

[TheZue]

Please don't do that at a mall. You probably aren't aware but all of those stores have counters that measure how many people come in vs how many sales are made. It's call the conversion ratio. Sending kids into all the stores will seriously mess with that and if it's below target it costs people their bonuses and gets head offices mad at them. Beyond that I'm sure you are thinking about doing this on a Saturday, which is an extremely busy day of the week for malls. The staff are going to be very busy and won't have time to deal with kids digging through the merchandise to take a picture then leave.

 

[Karenj2]

Like someone else said, please check with the mall's office first, a lot of malls around here have banned the scavenger hunt type activities.

Another note on security:

We tried to do this with a scout group. We had small groups of girls with cameras, and we had an adult with each group.

We weren't there five minutes before security had spotted us and put a halt to this activity.

Most stores frown upon anyone photographing their merchandise or displays because they don't want employees from competing retailers to do it. 10-year-old girls are obviously not employees of a competing retailer, but they have to have a blanket rule for everyone.

I live in the Philly area, too - and part of the reason they frown on the cameras is because in the 80's or 90's, a woman stalked someone that worked in the mall, took pictures of their movements, then went on a killing rampage. Our youth group tried to do a scavenger hunt a few years afterwards, and got stopped.

 

[Pumbaa_]

Definately banned at my local mall!

 

[allison443]

We did a mall scavenger hunt years ago with my dd's girl scout troop. I think it was around 7th grade...so they were around 12/13 years old. We hadn't heard of it around here and never thought about it being banned, etc. We did it on a Tuesday night (our regular meeting night) and split into two groups, an adult was with each group. The girls didn't use cameras for anything.

They had a sheet of paper with questions like, find out how many security booths are in the mall, what is the smallest/largest size bra sold at Victoria's Secret, how many places in the food court sell french fries, find the price of the most expensive handbag for sale at Nordstrom's, buy a pound of candy at the store that sold bulk candy. They also had money to buy something for a donation we were making for a community service project. Each group had $15 to spend on items for a tween girl (to be donated). They liked seeing how much they could get for their money.

I will say both groups spoke with the security guards to get the answer to the security question. They even explained it was for a scavenger hunt, lol. The guards were very friendly and helpful and didn't object to the scavenger hunt. It was actually a lot of fun for the girls.

However, it we had thought or heard that it might be objected to, we wouldn't have done it. I wouldn't have taken that chance.

 

[Minnie M6]

Thanks for everyone's input....if there is even a slight chance that we may get shut down, I better rethink the party idea, because I am NOT good at winging it! Maybe an outdoor scavenger hunt, or maybe something completely different. It's in early October so we could do something fall related like a hay ride or something. Back to the drawing board! Any other fun party ideas for this age?