Mall scavenger hunt party on a budget?

[allison443]

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?

My dd's birthday is also in early October, one year she had a sleepover and the next day I took the girls pumpkin picking. It was a day they were off from school for some reason, so it wasn't crowded like a weekend would be. They went on a hayride too, and everyone picked a pumpkin as their favor.

How about a corn maze? Those are a lot of fun too!

 

[TaraPA]

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.

Great point The Zue! If you've never worked in retail you'd have no idea how important numbers are. I remember one scavenger hunt we had. It was 25 twelve year olds on a Saturday afternoon. Not only did my Prodco Count Conversion Rate have an inaccurate reading from the girls going in & out, in & out, in & out, my ADS (average dollar per sale) dropped tremendously that day due to that event. Each girl had to purchase one 99-cent item - so on a busy weekend day when my ADS had to be over $35 to meet my minumum sales goals, it was only $17 due to the 25 sales at 99 cents each. As you said - that affects our bonus and I had to write up an action plan of why it was so low that day.

 

[TheZue]

For $15/kid you could probably almost do a movie theatre party. Our does them and they are pretty fun.

 

[Cloudwatcher]

Do you have people available to help? The reason I ask is that I have done a people hunt in a mall before that requires no money and no camera. You can have 5-10 people go to the mall during the time period that you are having the hunt. These people can be dress normally or dress different then they normally would be. Give the girls a list of the people that they need to find, first set to find everyone wins. We did this as a youth group when I was younger. We had people dresses as hippies, cowboy/girl, in suits, in scrubs and the best one was our pastor and his wife who were in their 30's at the time dressed (with full make-up) as an old couple. I think I walked by them over 6 times before finally I knew it had to be them and got up the courage to ask them to sign my paper.

 

[Minnie M6]

For $15/kid you could probably almost do a movie theatre party. Our does them and they are pretty fun.

I thought about this, but I'm not sure any new kids movies are coming out in October....I Googled it and didn't see anything.

I'm considering a beading party at a local jewelry store or taking them all to Hibachi for lunch (lunch menu is way more budget friendly than dinner) then to Maggie Moo's for cake/ ice cream.

 

[Michelle and crew]

Beading sounds like great fun!

 

[SeansMom]

This may sound crazy, but when I was a kid we did scavenger hunts for free, in *gasp* the great outdoors. Any wonderful park will work and there are tons of things they can look for including things to gather, photograph, or questions to ask. In fact, last year when we were camping we had a group of kids come to our campsite asking for something odd (can't remember what, but of course DH had it!) as they were doing a scavenger hunt (we belong to a membership only campground and it seems to be about as safe as DL!). Anyway, just another option for other interested parents or if Minnie M6 gets shut down by security.

About that age (9 or 10?) I did a BD party for my boys where everyone decorated their own cupcakes. That was also a big hit and much cheaper than a store bought/decorated cake. The kids LOVED it as we adults did no monitoring of how much icing/toppings they used. I bought bulk tiny candies and two jars of sprinkles and baked two kinds of cupcakes at home. Very fun.

 

[Magic Mom]

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?

That sounds fun, a hayride and then back home to make caramel apples and maybe do manicures

 

[MrsPete]

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.

Which I find odd because I use my camera phone ALL THE TIME at the mall. If I find a shirt that I think one of my kids'll like, I snap a picture of it and text it to them, asking, "Would you like this?"

 

[Michelle and crew]

Which I find odd because I use my camera phone ALL THE TIME at the mall. If I find a shirt that I think one of my kids'll like, I snap a picture of it and text it to them, asking, "Would you like this?"

Policy, lol. I was doing the same, sending a pic to my mom for consult!

 

[*BTMRR*]

Great point The Zue! If you've never worked in retail you'd have no idea how important numbers are. I remember one scavenger hunt we had. It was 25 twelve year olds on a Saturday afternoon. Not only did my Prodco Count Conversion Rate have an inaccurate reading from the girls going in & out, in & out, in & out, my ADS (average dollar per sale) dropped tremendously that day due to that event. Each girl had to purchase one 99-cent item - so on a busy weekend day when my ADS had to be over $35 to meet my minumum sales goals, it was only $17 due to the 25 sales at 99 cents each. As you said - that affects our bonus and I had to write up an action plan of why it was so low that day.

Wow, I never ever knew that! Now I feel bad about all the "just looking" I do when bargain hunting at the mall. For example I go in Gymboree probably 5 times for every one time I make a purchase!

And I didn't know that taking pictures was frowned upon.

The things I learn on the DIS!

 

[TaraPA]

Wow, I never ever knew that! Now I feel bad about all the "just looking" I do when bargain hunting at the mall. For example I go in Gymboree probably 5 times for every one time I make a purchase!

And I didn't know that taking pictures was frowned upon.

The things I learn on the DIS!

Don't worry, "browsers" are figured in to the conversion rate! It's 25 people in & out repeatedly that can really throw it off!

 

[allison443]

Which I find odd because I use my camera phone ALL THE TIME at the mall. If I find a shirt that I think one of my kids'll like, I snap a picture of it and text it to them, asking, "Would you like this?"

My girls and I do this a lot too! Plus isn't most merchandise online now anyway, free for anyone's perusal?? (well, most chain-type mall stores, anyway)

 

[TheZue]

Wow, I never ever knew that! Now I feel bad about all the "just looking" I do when bargain hunting at the mall. For example I go in Gymboree probably 5 times for every one time I make a purchase!

And I didn't know that taking pictures was frowned upon.

The things I learn on the DIS!

Ya they don't expect every person to buy, but our goals are usually 40-50%. But ya people walking in and out just mess it right up. Also standing in the door also messes it up, you can even hear it clicking in some stores...my husband will actually tell the teens "in or out guys" like they are cats when they are standing under the counter hahahaha.

 

[Anne34]

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.

This happened to us too. We didn't even go into the stores -- the girls were to take pictures of outside signs/windows, etc..... It was an outside mall and was totally dead that night. Maybe that's why we stood out. We had two moms with 4 girls in each group & we didn't act crazy.