Wise Ideas

iLuv My iPhone

I've gone over to the dark side. 

That's what one of my friends calls it when someone chucks their old-school cell phone and moves into the world of smart phones.  However, my dark side is brightened by the fact that it's not inhabited by Crackberries, but rather by the imminently cooler iPhone.  And in iPhone-Land, it's not about the email, web browsing or the texting.  It's all about the apps.

First, let's talk demographics.  When the iPhone first came out a little less than two years ago - the people most likely to lust after it were men.  To be more specific, affluent men aged 18 to 34.  (This was pre-recession, remember....). In fact, many a man was literally frenzied over being the first of his kind to own an iPhone, as this 2007 Time Magazine article illustrates.  

Fast forward two years, and you'll find that women are increasingly drawn to the sleek design and intuitive platform that makes iPhone so fun to use.  Although no specific gender data is available, Internet traffic researcher Quantcast reports that as of last month -- nearly as many women as men visited buyiphone.apple.com, and that the vast majority of those interested in the iPhone have kids in the house, many of them teenagers.

With Apple reaching a saturation point for iPod and iTunes usage by teens according to Piper Jaffray's 17th semi-annual teen survey ("86 percent of students who own an MP3 player indicated that they own an iPod") - Apple is going to turn its laser vision on turning the iPhone into the next must-have device for the sullen set.  As AppleInsider reports, the cost of the iPhone's AT&T plan has prevented many parents from investing in an iPhone for their teenager.  But Apple is expected "to address this issue in the coming months, with a family of iPhone models including a high end model with current plan pricing and possibly a low-end model with fewer features and lower-cost monthly data plans."

Then it's "Catie bar the door!"  Once the kids get an iPhone -- you KNOW that mom is right behind. 

Which brings us to the app explosion (see "Apple's Apps Store Nears One Billion Served" in NYTimes), which you are seeing now in commercials and which are seemingly aimed primarily at men and boys ("Top Ten iPhone Apps" in Wired). 

However, when the average iPhone user starts looking more like me and my kids - you will start seeing the apps change as well.  Less iShoots and Tap Tap Revenges, and more useful things like nutrition guides, calorie counters, grocery price comparisons and weather forecasts.  In fact, according to MediaPost's Online News Daily, it may already be happening.  

Women, and specifically women who are moms with kids in the house, remain the most powerful consumer group on the planet.  As a new iPhone user and a member of this power elite -- I'm curious what Apple and all its App-lets will create to keep iHappy. 

It's DOCTOR Gamer to You!

Hey moms!  You know all that guilt you've been accumulating all summer long over letting your kids play waaaayyyy to many video games?  You can just throw it out the window.  Because it turns out that all the alien shooting and car chasing your video-addled children have been enjoying is the perfect training for their future career as ---- wait for it ---- a surgeon.  

"The single best predictor of [a surgeon's] skills is how much they had played video games in the past and how much they played now," Iowa State University psychologist Douglas Gentile, says in Wired Magazine's GameLife blog. 

As the Associated Press reports, "researchers who gathered in Boston for the American Psychological Association convention (this week) detailed a series of studies suggesting video games can be powerful learning tools — from increasing younger students' problem-solving potential to improving the suturing skills of laparoscopic surgeons."

By clicking through to that AP article, you can read extensive details about a variety of studies which have found that video games can improve scientific thinking as well as cognitive and perceptual skills, and increase spacial skills and hand dexterity.

The news is a welcome change for the video game industry - which is used to being blamed for everything from the obesity epidemic to campus shootings to the dumbing down of America.  However, being everyone's whipping boy hasn't affected sales. Information Week reports this week that although sales slowed in the U.S. last month (whose haven't?), "the industry as a whole is on track to achieve record-breaking revenue of more than $22 billion for the year, according to (industry analysts) The NPD Group."

But suffice to say that the APA has done more for the video game industry in the eyes of worried parents than any ad campaign ever could.  Can an "endorsed by the American Psychological Association" be far behind?  Game Stop and Best Buy better prepare their store clerks for a rush of Jewish mothers, who always wanted a doctor in the family.

So no more smirking at the kid glued to Super Mario World or Legend of Zelda.  Today's gamer may be the person holding the scalpel during your next knee surgery. 

Wii Fit For We Fat

Nintendo's marketing brilliance is inescapable once again this week, as it rolls out it's latest product, the Wii Fit. 

The campaign launching Wii Fit here in the U.S. is reportedly the largest in the company's history according to an industry analyst quoted here in Wired Magazine's Game/Life blog, who also says that Nintendo's strategy is "focused on Target and Best Buy, retailers notorious for attracting the 'couch potato' market."

"For an industry that's often been blamed for helping cause obesity and inactivity, Wii Fit is a chance to turn back the criticism by offering a game that targets health issues in a way that's fun," crows The SFChronicle, which also points out that the Wii Fit campaign is aimed directly at "that ever elusive segment: mothers."  (Earth to Chronicle....moms made the Wii...an old story which you can read right here on WiseIdeas as well as plenty of other blogs)

I'm not sure if the Chronicle is trying to blame moms for causing the obesity epidemic....or credit us with trying to break this country's fattening habits.  Regardless, the paper's effusive reaction to Wii Fit is mirrored by many of this country's BMI-challenged technology writers like the well-respected Larry Magid.

One such writer, blogger Chris Kohler at Wired, even wrote a Wii Fit diary for a week to show how the game changed his focus on fitness, at least for a week.  His final diary entry on day 7:  "Today, I turned on Wii Fit for a few minutes, but turned it off after a couple of yoga poses because I felt like running a few blocks instead. That's either a bad thing or a good thing."

In case you're a little confused about what exactly is it you do on Wii Fit, you can watch this two minute promotional trailer for the game on YouTube, or a number of other Wii Fit videos on 1up.com.

Although the latest CDC statistics show the country's obesity epidemic might be leveling off, figures still show this nation's health is threatened by its high obesity rate.  Thirty-four percent of Americans over the age of 20 qualify as obese according to the study.  And The Washington Post is currently running a multiple-part series on childhood obesity which is - in a word - scary, and well worth reading.  So anything that promotes Americans getting off their as.....er.....tail-ends is a good thing. 

However, I find myself conflicted about Nintendo's suggestion through its product name and marketing strategy, that playing their new electronic game can actually make you "Fit."  Because that is total hoo-ey. 

I'm not a scientist, doctor or fitness trainer.....but I'm fairly certain that playing Wii Fit will NOT solve anyone's obesity problem, or even help them lose more than 5 pounds, or make anyone even relatively "fit."

Fitness involves more than just burning a few hundred calories every now and again while standing up interacting with a plasma screen.  Fitness requires a whole body approach that takes actual strenuous exercise done on a regular basis and sometimes under the watchful eye or of a doctor or other expert...as well as lifestyle changes including but NOT limited to what, when and why you eat. 

An electronic game cannot do that.  And to even suggest that it can potentially makes the problem worse by appealing to the lazy, overweight, couch potato in all of us who just wish that getting in shape was just that easy.

I applaud Nintendo for expanding its gaming market to moms, seniors and anyone that doesn't include males ages 8 to 28.  I cheer them for expanding the horizons of electronic gaming beyond the successful Grand Theft Auto mix of sex, crime and violence. 

And I definitely stand up and hoot-and-holler them for not backing down when obesity experts in the UK demanded they drop the game's BMI categorizations, after the parents of a 10-year old girl complained that Wii Fit had calculated that their daughter was "fat."  According to London's Daily Mail, Nintendo apologized for potentially offending customers, but said it would not be including a warning to customers that their feelings might be hurt to hear the truth about their body mass.

If Nintendo recognizes that couch potatoes need to be told the truth about their body mass, then the gaming giant also needs to confess to the lazy gamer in all of us that Wii Fit won't make us fit....but should be considered just a click in the right direction.

Grand Theft Economy

I can't imagine that there are many Americans out there who don't already have plans for their economic stimulus checks, which the government started issuing this week.

The question is - how committed are they to those plans?

Regular readers of Wise Ideas know that months ago, I - like the majority of Americans - had planned to pay down debt with our money (read "And the Survey Says...").  But our 1926 house had other ideas and now we are spending our entire stimulus check (plus our tax refunds) on home electrical system repairs, wall patching and interior painting.

Unexpected expenses aside, gas and groceries will be gobbling up a sizable chunk of peoples checks, leaving many with a lot less "extra" cash to spend than they had anticipated. (Here's today's ugly economic stats released by the government)

However, that's not stopping a number of retailers from doing their best to convince you to spend your stimulus left-overs at their stores. 

Wal-Mart just announced a program allowing customers to cash their rebate check for free at any Wal-Mart store - which would also includes special grocery discounts for anyone using this service.  As you can read here at CNNMoney, Wal-Mart, and its wholesale unit Sam's Club, are among many retailers offering special deals to help you spend your stimulus check.

Anyone who converts their stimulus check into a Sears or Kmart gift card will get an additional 10 percent of value on that gift card.  Home Depot is encouraging customers to spend their dough on energy-efficient products and services it is offering at special prices.  Grocery chains Kroger and SuperValu are offering rebate check deals. And undoubtedly we'll be hearing of many more "Stimulus Specials" in the coming days and weeks.

Charities and non-profits are also looking for a chunk of your check, according to this article in the SFChronicle.  For example, one Bay area school launched a fund raising campaign this week asking parents to give some or all of their rebate to the school to offset massive state budget cuts.  And "a grassroots movement called Rebates in Service of Everyone created a Web site www.rise08.org, providing tax rebate information and listing nonprofit organizations that need help," according to The Chron.   

Regardless, analysts are not expecting to see many plasma screen TVs flying out their doors in the coming weeks.  "Consumers are so feeling the pinch that ... they are really being forced to step away from luxury or discretionary purchases,'' Janet Hoffman of consulting firm Accenture tells The NYTimes.

However, there is ONE discretionary purchase of a non-fuel or food related item that is expected to sell like hot cakes this week:   "Grand Theft Auto IV" for XBox 360 and PS3, featuring "plenty of grown-up violence, profanity and prostitution," as AdAge describes it. 

At $60 per game, The Kansas City Star says "some believe that by year’s end, the Mature-rated “GTA IV” will gross nearly $800 million," providing credence to the theory that the gaming industry is recession-proof.  In fact - Forbes Magazine says GTA IV was projected to sell 9 million games yesterday alone, and Bloomberg guestimates first week profits will reach $360 million.

So while millions of Americans eagerly await their economic stimulus checks to pay bills and provide necessities for their families....wouldn't it be ironic if it was the single, young, male gamer crowd that rescued us from recession. 

You rock, dudes.  Go for it!

 

Cheat Codes for a Bad Economy

Although the economic downturn (recession, contraction....whatever you want to call it) has a lot of people skipping their daily lattes, putting off buying new electronics or other household items, and sticking with last year's spring and summer fashions --- there's apparently one thing Americans just won't do without in these hard times:  Call of Duty 4, Super Mario Galaxy and Guitar Hero III.

GameStop, the country's top videogame retailer, is reporting record sales and earnings of $7.1 billion during fiscal 2007 despite the slow economy.  That's a 33 percent increase over the prior year!  Or as The Dallas Morning News puts it, "GameStop Corp. seems to have found the economic equivalent of the cheat code."

In fact, things look so bright for the Texas-based game seller that it's planning on opening up to 600 new stores around the country this year (maybe they'll move in to some of those vacant Starbucks locations). "I would never take the position that as a company we're totally recession-proof," chairman and CEO Richard Fontaine told the Dallas Morning News. "But I would certainly bet on the video game business."

That would be about the only good bet to make on retailers.  Things are so bad that Reuters says Macy's has decided to no longer report monthly sales figures and will stop making public its quarterly earnings.  Investors are bracing for some dismal first quarter reports tomorrow from a number of other major U.S. retailers including Nordstrom, Wal-Mart, Gap and Kohl's. 

But not so, GameStop.  Assassins Creed, Rock Band, Halo 3 and all the other top selling video games are flying off store shelves at a record pace.  It seems the economic escapism Americans are choosing this time around is gaming.  In fact for the third consecutive year last year, sales of video games and all the hardware and accessories that go with them  went through the roof -- reaching record highs of  $18.8 billion according to consumer and retail researcher The NPD Group. 

And lest you think the industry's core demographic of 18 to 34 year olds is driving this market, The NPD Group says the greatest growth in the videogame sales biz comes from the over 35 crowd.  Playing catch up, are we?  Or should I say, "wii?" 

What that really means is that the entire family is now hunkering down at home with the games of their choice.  Which in turn means they are saving money by NOT using $3.69 a gallon gas to drive to the mall and spend more money.  Which will result in further drops in retail sales, consumer confidence and ultimately, in the Gross Domestic Product.

And all this leads up to the classic economic definition of recession, which is what results when the GDP drops for two consecutive quarters.

And that's no game for any of us.  Unless you happen to be an investor in GameStop.

      

Game Boys AND Girls

My kids and I were browsing around Game Stop in the mall the other day, when I said something unmemorable to another parent of a small child in the store.  I know for a fact that he heard and saw me, but he completely and utterly ignored me.

My 10-year old son, who had seen and heard the whole non-exchange, said "No offense Mom, but you just don't fit in here.  The only people in places like this who are chatty and polite are the workers, and they have to be."

One look around the store confirmed his observation.  My daughter and I were the only ones in the crowded store that didn't fit in any of three stereotypical gamer categories:  teenage, male, or sullen.

That's one reason why I find it so hard to believe recent research from the Entertainment Software Association which finds that 38 percent of gamers are now women, and 31 percent of them are over the age of 18.  According to the ESA statistics, that's a larger percentage than that of male gamers under the age of 17...who traditionally are believed to make up the majority of the gamer population.

Is seeing not believing?  Are we really all so wrong in our perceptions of gamers?

The statistical surprises don't stop there.  Also included in the ESA's "Top 10 Industry Facts" is the revelation that the average age of the typical gamer is 33...with the average age of the most frequent game buyer a ripe old 38.  Aging baby boomers are also changing the gamer stereotype...with nearly a quarter of all Americans over the age of 50 now playing computer or video games.

The profile of the average gamer has been in flux for a few years now, as the first generation of gamers ages, and as an increasing number of games are designed to attract more than just sullen, teen boys. 

As I discovered in a blog called "The Female Perspective of Computer Science," one of the main reasons the gender stereotypes of gamers is being blown out of the water is that girls these days are equally exposed to technology, which was not the case 10 years ago.   But even though my daughter can play her GameBoy as well as any boy her age...she (unfortunately) has no interest in playing her brother's old games like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Harry Potter.  She's more interested in Petz Vetz and Hello Kitty.  Mario GoKart, however, is universally loved by both genders. 

Another key fact to keep in mind here is that even if we're not playing them - many moms/women have "the power of the purse" when it comes to games and other technology sales. 

But if the face of the average gamer is so different now than what we thought it was....why is it that my daughter and I were so out of place at the neighborhood Game Stop?  Do girls or women buy their games online just to stay out of testosterone-charged stores like Game Stop?

Mark my words, the first gamer store to appeal specifically to girls and women will be an overnight sensation.  The mood in the girl gamer store will be festive instead of dark.  The blur of red, black and camo-colored packaging will give way to bright splashes of purples, oranges and neon greens.  Sheryl Crow and K-T Tunstill will be playing in the background instead of old heavy metal (which you can't tell from new heavy metal).  The sample display games will be vivacious instead of violent.  And everyone shopping in there will be chatty and nice, just like I tried to be in Game Stop.

And it'll smell a whole lot better, too.

Toy Talk

I got a nice email from Toys R Us Chairman and CEO Gerald L. Storch this week, assuring me that the mega toy retailer has made some "decisive and proactive changes...to our already rigorous quality assurance standards."

And although he called me "Valued Guest," instead of using my name, Mr. Storch seems genuinely concerned that I feel good again about buying toys from his company.  Starting March 1st, Mr. Storch says products shipped to Toys R Us must comply with a set of strict new standards that include tougher testing, and more stringent lead screening.

Curiously, what Mr. Storch didn't tell me in that email is that this Friday - before the new Toys R Us standards go into effect - the Toy Industry Association, in conjunction with the American National Standards Institute, will be releasing tough new proposed standards to regulate toy makers.

According to this Dow Jones news service article you can read on CNNMoney.com, the industry is proposing stronger new standards in three main areas:  1) the design analysis process, 2) factory quality, and 3) testing.  The quality rules, for instance, apply to all factories in China, the U.S. and Europe which sell toys in the U.S., and a ratings system will be instituted.

Before you applaud the industry for trying to regulate itself - you must know that these tougher standards being proposed are voluntary.

Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives, you'll recall, passed new toy safety legislation in December - during the height of the Christmas toy shopping season.  But since then, the toy recall story has fallen off the front pages.  And not surprisingly, the Senate has failed to act on the issue.  If Congress is unable to pass any toy safety legislation (don't hold your breath, voters) - the Consumer Products Safety Commission says it plans to make new, tougher toy standards mandatory through existing statues.  Again, don't hold your breath.

Last fall in the midst of all the toy recalls - and all the breathless media coverage of the toy recalls - one might have thought that the bottom was going to fall out of the toy industry.  But it turns out when push came to shove at Christmastime, parents forked out the dough for toys. 

According to new data from NPD Group, a market research firm, sales of toys in the U.S. only fell 2 percent last year, to $22.1 billion.  That, despite the toy recalls, the weakening economy, and stiff competition from Barbie and GI Joe's toughest competitors, iPod and his other friends in the electronics aisle. 

Two toy companies which did particularly well last year included Marvel, whose fourth quarter profits more than doubled due in part to high demand for Spiderman licensed toys.....and Hasbro, whose profits grew thanks to Transformers. 

So Mr. Storch - can I call you Gerry? - as a "valued guest," I'm glad to see you're on top of the toy safety issue.  It's obviously an issue that needs to be addressed by corporations, since Congress continues to fiddle and government cedes its oversight role.  And I'm glad to see that business isn't as bad as everybody said it was going to be in the wake of all those nasty recalls last year.

If there's one thing I've learned about your business, Gerry, is that it's not all fun and games in Toyland.  Despite all you've been through, at least you seem to have survived with your reputation intact.  Look at it this way - be glad you're not an oil company executive. 

Wii-Gate

Despite the wintry weather nationwide, the crowded stores, the wall-to-wall holiday music and the long lines of over-tired kids waiting for the clearly exhausted Santa....this holiday season seemed to be missing something.  That is, until this week. 

We finally have a good Christmas conspiracy theory to argue about as we consume our hot (or ice cold) toddies!  And since this conspiracy hasn't been labeled anything clever yet by the bored-out-of-its-skulls media, let's call it Wii-Gate.

Is Nintendo really unable to keep up with consumer demands for the Wii?  Or is the Wii shortage a marketing tactic to increase anticipation and create pent-up demand?   Or is Nintendo, the third most profitable company in Japan, really so short-sighted as to have underestimated the popularity of its own product?

It all started back in October, when Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime told The New York Post that U.S. consumers should expect shortages come Christmastime because his company couldn't keep up with demand.  And although Fils-Aime claims Nintendo was making Wiis as fast at it could...he gave no solid specifics regarding "the shortage."

You'll recall there were Wii shortages last Christmas, too, lasting all the way through spring of this year....which did not seem to harm sales overall.  In August, for the first time, the Wii overtook XBox and PS3 as the top selling game console.

Conspiracy theories and accusations of an artificial shortage have been bubbling in the blogosphere for months.  "It's not like Nintendo doesn't have the time, cash or know-how to ramp up production," writes engadget.com's Paul Miller.  "It sounds more like Nintendo is enjoying its "can't keep 'em on the shelves" status a bit too much to seriously make an attempt at meeting demand."

EETimes Online at first gives Nintendo the benefit of the doubt, saying there are a number of internal electronic component problems that could be behind the shortages.  But "of course, it could all just be marketing," EETimes adds.

But is a marketing tactic worth a $1.3 billion dollar loss?  That's what James Lin, an analyst at MDB Capital, which monitors retail activity, told the U.K.'s Times Online. Lin says if there were no problem keeping Wiis on store shelves, Nintendo could be selling twice the 1.8 million Wii consoles that it's manufacturing each month.

So if the shortage isn't real --- the potential financial loss is.

"I get personal calls from people wanting to know why we don't just manufacture more. If it were that easy, we would," Fils-Aime said during a conference call Friday, in which it was announced that, in partnership with game mega-retailer GameStop, Nintendo will be issuing rain checks for Wii thirsty customers, holding consoles for them when the new shipments arrive in late January.

So, all you frantic parents, where do you stand on Wii-Gate?  Click below on "Comments" and sound off....because the people behind the counters at Target, Best Buy, and GameStop are tired of hearing it. 

Tweens and the Power of Giving

I know people in-the-know who already know what "the next big thing" is.

These are the same people who told me about YouTube months before the mainstream media was even aware that it had been rendered passe....and a good year-and-a-half before its $1.65 billion acquisition by Google.

These are also the same people who were so far ahead of the curve that they had already grown tired of their Club Penguin accounts by the time Disney recognized its value and snatched it up for a mere $700 million.

The people in-the-know that I know are the kids who go to the same K through 8 school that my kids attend.  And they're probably in your kids schools, too.

I'm not talking about web savvy teenagers, although there are plenty of those.  I'm talking about 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th graders who have become the ultimate viral messengers...passing along word of largely unknown sites that within months, burst out of Internet obscurity to become the next big multi-gazillion dollar thing.

Where these pint-sized trend setters are getting their original information is anyone's guess. I've not been able to track this due to the fleeting attention spans and memories of the messengers.  But I can tell you that once a site passes the "cool" test by these 7 to 11 year olds...it spreads like wildfire.

The hot site now sweeping our school is FreeRice.com, the only place (for now) where you can build your vocabulary and feed the world's hungry. Here's how it works.  Visitors to the site play a simple word definition game, and every time they click on a right answer, FreeRice donates 20 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program (WFP).  The words increasingly grow in difficulty with every right answer.

As users play the game, an onscreen bowl fills up with rice and keeps count of grains "earned" for the WFP.  "It's really caught fire," Brenda Barton, a WFP spokeswoman tells The Christian Science Monitor.  "More people visit our site from the link on Freerice.com than any other referral." 

FreeRice.com was started less than two months ago by a man named John Breen, who runs another website called Poverty.com.  Breen says he created FreeRice as both an adjunct to his Poverty site, as well as a way to help his son study for his SATs, a story you can hear more about by listening to this NPR Morning Edition report which ran yesterday.

But very few (if any) kids I know listen to NPR or read the CSMonitor.  Instead, they rely primarily on each other to find and spread the word about the hippest, hottest things to fill their free time.

One third grader I know has played FreeRice so often that she's reached a vocabulary level way beyond her years....AND earned Lord knows how many bags of rice by now. It seems FreeRice has hit on the secret to success:  take something every parent hates - kids spending too much time on the computer - and add not only an educational element, but a philanthropic one as well.

Marketing to tweens is nothing new, as you can read here in this 2005 BusinessWeek article. The piece rightly points out that the economic power of a tween is dependent entirely on their parents.  But the $221 billion dollar youth market, as estimated by 360Youth.com, is proof that a persistant tween can be very persuasive.   

But it's a welcome change of pace that what tweens are talking about now is feeding the world's hungry, rather than acquiring something for themselves.  And that's one tween trend I can really get behind.

In Praise of the Office Party

Over the next week or so, millions of Americans will be attending their annual office holiday parties.  Some will do so begrudgingly - knowing it's a necessary evil in order to score brownie points with the boss.  Others consider it the perfect opportunity to meet that intriguing gal or guy in the next cubicle.  And then there are the chosen few who show up (or not), after humiliating themselves at last year's fete.

Because the annual office holiday party provides such rich material for writers, many of whom were last year's humiliated guest, there's no shortage of office party advice, do's and don'ts, stories and commentaries online and in the mainstream media...one of my favorites being this clever essay on NPR's Morning Edition.  In fact in these digital days, you can re-live all your holiday office party shenanigans all over again, or spread the embarrassment around, via YouTube.

However, those hideous YouTube videos are closest some of us will get to a holiday office party this season because we work at home - either as stay-at-home moms, independent contractors, small business owners, or a combination of the three.  And I must tell you, there are a whole bunch of us who would give our right arm to spruce up a bit, and go out to eat, drink and be merry at someone else's expense. 

Because my husband and I both work from home, the only event I'm attending that might qualify as a holiday office party is two hours from now, when my son's 4th grade class has its classroom celebration.  I'm bringing gingerbread Christmas trees and drinks.  Unfortunately, those drinks are Capri Suns, NOT Cosmopolitans.

I'm sure if I actually went to a grown-up holiday office party...I'd be so excited to get out of the house that I'd be wearing a lampshade on my head without the aid of any spiked holiday cheer.  So maybe it's just as well that I stick to Capri Suns.

Besides, I hear those 4th graders can really tie one on.