The Barbie Store is to my seven year old daughter as anything Lego is to my ten year old son. Emily is a girlie girl. She likes pink and pretending and Barbie is very pink and very pretend. For Emily’s birthday, I planned a trip to the flagship Barbie Store on Huaihai Rd. She had the time of her sweet seven year long life. I was pleasantly surprised.

I did not grow up playing with Barbies. I am American and I grew up in a very liberal household and while I did play with dolls, I have no memory of owning any Barbie dolls. I know many moms and dads have strong opinions about Barbie. How she is somehow tied to girls’ body image issues. I personally think that I, as Emily’s mother, have a much bigger role to play in helping shape my daughter’s self-image than a plastic toy with big boobs and a tiny waist. It's a toy.

The Barbie store is six floors of Barbie-ness. There is a café a restaurant and floors devoted to toys, doll-clothes and doll-clothes fashion design, as well as grownup Barbie wear. From the looks of the customer base I saw, and from what I’ve heard from a couple Chinese friends, the twenty-something women in Shanghai love Barbie. I was disappointed, but not surprised to see that much talked about Shanghai Barbie is not Chinese. Shanghai Barbie is white. The saleswoman I spoke to explained that it’s a US company, which I think was her way of explaining why Shanghai Barbie was not Chinese. That didn’t make sense to me. I’d expect the marketing heads at Mattel to recognize that when launching a flagship store in Shanghai, China, perhaps launching a Chinese doll would be appropriate. I did see one ethnic doll in traditional Chinese dress in a display case of other ethnic dolls from around the world, but those were on display and not for sale. Hmmn.

Regardless of my impressions on the missed marketing opportunity to reach out to the majority of customers in Shanghai, I thought that the store was fun, the service we experienced was excellent and my daughter had a fabulous Barbie filled dream day. She came home with a pink Barbie Store passport (which we purchased but which entitled her to RMB 50 off her purchase on her birthday plus other discounts when visiting the store in the future), she bought a new Barbie and a male doll (are all male Barbie dolls “Ken” dolls?). The male doll was chosen by Emily so she could to act out dates, weddings and that type of stuff. As of this writing, the male doll has not gotten a lot of play.

I must also mention that the boyfriends, brothers, husbands and fathers being dragged through the store looked less than pleased. Perhaps a game room for the men to escape to should be added to one of the many floors of girlie fun. The cafe was the escape venue for the boys in my party. They ate ice cream while Emily and I shopped.