Claw Machine Hustle

Dear Dr. Per Cap: 

My child can’t resist the claw machine at the grocery store.  How can I teach her those things are a total rip off?  Especially since they cost a dollar and accepting credit cards makes it harder for parents to say no.

Signed, 

Frustrated Mom

Dear Frustrated Mom,

Claw machines make Captain Hook, Wolverine, and Freddy Kruger look cuddlier than the teddy bears they use to entice young minds!  No joke – arcades know just how to influence consumers, small and large.

Games of chance appeal to us on an emotional level.  The gamble of winning a cool prize from a vending machine or carnival game can be very hard to resist.  And a child might struggle to understand the statistical improbability that makes them profitable.  Far more money is spent trying to scoop up a deceptively placed stuffed animal, topple a pyramid of lead milk jugs, or shoot a basketball through a misshapen hoop than the actual prizes are even worth.

I’ll say teaching your child why these games are a rip off might be a tall order.  Instead, let me offer a few other ideas to keep the claw machine from lacerating your credit card.

• Don’t take your child to the supermarket. I realize this might not always be feasible but understand how supermarkets are strategically designed to get kids to spend their parents’ money. Toys displayed a few feet off the ground so little eyes can’t resist, bubble gum and PEZ dispensers beckoning at the checkouts, and your dreaded claw and other vending apparatuses stationed near the exits.  Good luck escaping those capitalist crunch berries.

• Check out YouTube for video tutorials on how to game the games.  This might still end up costing more money than you’d like but the internet is loaded with videos and blogs that explain tricks and tips, like the famed double-tap, for how to beat or at least improve your odds against claw machines.
• Then set a limit for how much your child can spend on the claw machine, like $2 the next time you’re at the store, and stick to it.

• And here’s one more from my 10-year-old daughter.  Tell your kids they can buy a better quality stuffie online or just leave it to Santa.  Who knows they might just end up with a fun new Squishmallow!