grocery stores

lauriebyronm

when you take your kid to the grocery store with you, do you get the free things they offer for your kid? at my shop rite at the bakery they give the kids a free cookie, and in the floral department they give the kids a free shop rite balloon. every time i go i make sure to get my kid both, for me it makes it a much more pleasant shopping experience.

kwitt22

Yes, I actually love grocery shopping with DD. We don't get free stuff but when there are samples I always get one for DD. Usually the bakery ladies see DD and think she is adorable and offer her a cookie. I like grocery shopping bc, she loves it and talks (babbles really) to me the whole time. I feel like its good one on one time for us, as silly as it sounds.

mrebecca

Your grocery stone sounds awesome.
We don't get free stuff, but if we did, I'd totally let her have it.
Free balloons rock.

myself1nme

We used to get cookies on occasion, but we've found out DS is allergic to eggs, so we can't do that anymore.  I don't think our stores give out balloons, but the girl at the deli counter gave DS a slice of cheese one day that went over really well. 

lauriebyronm

I Heart The 80s:

I take anything and everything that's offered. Keeps the troops happy and occupied. The best is Costco! The pretty eat full meals there. Samples galore!

haha its the same way at bjs! i love it there! its like a full course meal for my kid!

insertclevername

DH has a peanut allergy so I avoid offers for food samples.  However, if they offered a free balloon I would definitely take advantage of it.

jess60

mrebecca:

Your grocery stone sounds awesome.
We don't get free stuff, but if we did, I'd totally let her have it.
Free balloons rock.

Same here.  Sometimes they'll have free samples & I get those.

jess60

duplicate...ignore

RayRay007

I'm signing DD up for a kids club card at our grocery store. With it you can get a cookie at the bakery, a fruit snack in produce, a snack at the butcher (used to be a hot rod, don't know what they give out now)... and probably other things I don't know about. I won't let her get everything everytime we go. Now they have suckers at the till that I'll let her have once in a while, and occassionally they'll offer her a little toy at the till. As for samples, I'll let her have those at our usual grocery store or anywhere we go if they are appropriate for her.

kmawb

If they offer them and it's an appropriate snack for DD I'll let her have it.  I wish our grocery store offered balloons!  Everytime we walk into the grocery store DD is always pointing out the balloons.

I love going to Costco for the free snacks!

klondikebar

Nope. When the children were younger, I'd bring a snack if needed. I didn't want to add a potential struggle b/c I am not stopping at the counters everytime I run into the store. And I didn't do the cute car carts either. They aren't always available and I didn't need a meltdown over some damn special cart. I guess I'm just a mean mom:)

I do understand that children can learn that sometimes we get a cookie and a special cart, but I want to shop. I wasn't interested in teaching a life lesson at the grocery store.

Sonadora

Not every time on the balloon and cookie, as I really hate having the balloons in my house because she gets upset when they deflate. But the deli people always pass her a slice of whatever I am getting and she goes to town on that and I happily let her munch on the Costco samples as it keeps her occupied on what is always a longer shopping trip.

14kgirl

Hmm, none of the grocery stores I go to give treats to kids. 

When I was a kid, I loved going to the bank drive-through with my mom because they would always give me a sucker. 

 I honestly can't remember the last time I went to the bank. 

penguingrrl

I've never looked to see if my stores offer free stuff for kids. It never occurred to me stores did that. Trader Joe's usually has free samples of some sort, so if it's something they'll like we get those, but otherwise I've never looked into free stuff.

LoCarb

We get free cookies from the bakery.  It makes for a pleasant 10 min while they eat but then they are really messy.

AquaFlowers

I do, the kids will get mad if I don't.

Wufroggy79

penguingrrl:

I've never looked to see if my stores offer free stuff for kids. It never occurred to me stores did that. Trader Joe's usually has free samples of some sort, so if it's something they'll like we get those, but otherwise I've never looked into free stuff.

This.