Fidget Spinner update
18On Halloween night 2019, I gave away 120 spinners in 30 minutes. We were making sure the “One kid - One Spinner” rule was followed. They are still seen as a treat down here in Louisiana (Mardi Gras country, so people here are used to getting trinkets thrown at them)
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You sure get a lot of trick or treaters… as I am sure the stream of kids didn’t stop after 30 min.
The year I gave them out (Arkansas) a kid ran into the street screaming “this house has fidget spinners”. I then had a stream of kids. They had been skipping me as I was living in an 8 unit townhouse complex that was the furthest from the street. They were the flashing kind (I had checked all the batteries, switched components around so only gave out ones with all 3 lights working. You could see them flashing up and down the street. Kids loved them. I only had 2 choose candy over fidget spinners.
@Kidsandliz We had a constant stream for an hour and a half. I could have given out 250 spinners if I had them.
I order these fidget spinners and send the entire order to unsuspecting friends and enemies.
This year we did slap bracelets. Gave out about 200 of them. Still have a shitload of candy left, the traffic was low this year because it was cold and we started out rationing it because we usually run out.
I thought fidget spinners were done but after trick or treaters we had a friend of a friend’s kid come over and he talked me out of the light up fidget spinner that was on the computer desk. Of course, I think he tried to talk me out of everything he touched in the house, he was a little odd.
I had spinners left over from last year (it was cold and rainy and I got like 6 kids plus three that a friend brought over because they were in the neighborhood at a local church’s thing). This year, it was cold and I ended up with about 15 kids. Most of the kids seemed happy to get them. A few were really excited and picked out specific ones. I think part of the excitement is that I’m kinda deep in my neighborhood and the novelty of getting candy has worn off by the time the kids get to me. So they’re excited about something different. But if the weather doesn’t improve and the trick-or-treaters pick up, I’ll be giving out fidget spinners for Halloween until I retire.
@gt0163c You never know they may continue to love it!
I ordered a gross of small bottles of bubbles three years ago, as I do a mix of toys and candy (teal pumpkin project) and EVERY year the kids come looking to see if I am still handing out bubbles. You can hear them coming up to the house saying hey this is the BUBBLES house!!!
@gt0163c @tinamarie1974 BUBBLES
@2many2no @gt0163c well her shins and tickle zone is SPOT ON. Not sure about the rest of it!
@gt0163c @tinamarie1974 Questionable Content is an interesting web comic, and actually Bubbles, in spite of her formidable appearance, is a really smart sweetheart.
@2many2no @gt0163c @tinamarie1974 Also, she doesn’t wear the combat armor any more.
I ordered one set of painted spinners, handed out about 25 I think, one per kid. Nobody was excited but I said take a spinner and you can grab a handful of candy out of the bowl. They took them, and in fact we didn’t find any left on the lawn under the snow.
I was away, but set out a bowl of 80. Most kids took 1. Some hooligans took a handful or two, but nobody emptied the entire bowl. The spinners lasted 54 minutes, while the candy lasted an hour and 8 minutes. There was only 2 groups that came after both bowls were empty, which I was okay with.
This was round two from the four containers ordered the previous year. I don’t get the most trick-or-treaters, but I did fairly well and the kids were happy to receive them. I noticed no difference this year. In fact, it was a small group of “adults” who sorta complained that a couple doods did this last year. I explained to them that it was me. They didn’t believe me inexplicably. I kind of felt they were pissed because we gave out the same thing and I am thinking, why do you look like 4 nineteen year olds wearing their nerd jammies from Think Geek and complain about getting free stuff? Either way, I am down to 1 very randomly mixed jar.
@goldnectar How to adult (trick or treat):
Reaction to glow sticks (with candy) this year was pretty meh compared to spinners of years passed. Only one girl seemed excited enough to ask for a specific color.
Last year I gave out a plain and a might light spinner to forty kids, then a plain one with candy to eleven, then just candy.
This year I gave two painted spinners to eighty kids, then candy to the rest. There were a lot of very happy responses.
We are saving them for our friend’s kid’s birthday when he turns 10 in January. He’s getting the whole box.
We do pre-portioned goodie bags. This year was one full size candy bar, a small bag of Skittles, two Tootsie midgies, 1 sucker, two pieces of gum, and a fidget spinner.
A big benefit of this approach is it allows me to know an accurate count of how many trick-or-treaters we have and I can gauge the trend from year-to-year. (this year we gave out all 100 bags and had to go to the “backup” of loose candy for about 12 kids)
The downside is that I don’t know if the fidget spinners were a hit or not, because most kids probably didn’t even realize that got it until they were going thru their loot at the end of the night.
@DrWorm My parents used to do that. But they would shut down and turn off the lights when they were down to a few bags so didn’t have backup candy.
Well, except if we were home from trick or treating, then our bags were occasionally looted for ‘backup’
“Its sharing” they said.
Try convincing an 8 year old of that…
@DrWorm @duodec You say sharing, I say betrayal.