It all started the other day when my son and I were watching QUBO, which is this cartoon station that we pick up with the antenna. As I am watching the commercials, an AS SEEN ON TV ad comes on which seems weird, because I am watching tv. Where else would I see it? This product that a bunch of good-looking people are promoting, for what seemed like 20 minutes, was called the Snackeez.
I am intrigued by inventions. Ever since Navin R Johnson introduced me to Pizza in a Cup, I have enjoyed seeing new ideas, both good and bad introduced to our eager, WalMart crazed society.
The Snackeez is a large cup with a smaller cup at the top which houses your snack. There is a lid and a straw penetrating the smaller cup which allows the user to both sip the drink below and eat the snack on top.
Big deal, right?
So here is where they got me. For the most part, the snacks in the Snackeez were fruit like grapes or strawberries or M & M's, but then out of nowhere, one of the shots of the people enjoying their Snackeez showed french fries in it. I just laughed out loud. I couldn't believe that they would have hot french fries in the same container as their cold drink. How stupid do they think we are?!
But it was a strange sort of ironic bonding moment with my son. I looked it up and saw that Target has it. And online they were saying 2 for $10.
As my kids and I were shopping the other day at Target for my wife's birthday, we started looking for the Snackeez. It became this unattainable quest as we went from portable drink section to portable drink section. Target must have 10 different portable cup sections throughout their store. And this is a small Target.
All the while I was thinking that I should be shopping for my wife, but she did insist that I take the kids and they were getting burnt out looking through shiny toms and trying on lip gloss.
But alas, no Snackeez at Target.
We checked with someone and after I described the Snackeez to her, she said that they had them at the dollar store. And they have a strap. You would not believe the excitement that my kids had at the prospect of having a carrying strap on a Snackeez cup. They said nothing about the strap on the commercial...
We headed over to Dollar Tree. We did an initial pass through to see what we could find. But nothing was jumping out at us. I bit the bullet and asked the worker kid there if they had a type of Snackeez cup which had both a snack section and a cup. He said that they did have that, but the snack section attached at the bottom instead of the top. When we found them, they did not have straps and they were indeed dollar store items...
However... the kids loved them anyway. They loved these knock-offs as if they were real Snackeez. They even decided to give it its own unique name. Snackee.
That was a few days ago. Since then, they have gotten a lot of use. The Snackee has been left in the car. I kept seeing them drinking water out of their own. The Snackee had become a staple in our house.
And I hadn't really given it much thought since then...
But there we were walking along the front of WalMart this evening heading to electronics, when suddenly my son blurts out:
"SNACKEEZ!!!!"
He ran over to the gigantic Snackeez display. AS SEEN ON TV. There they were. All of them. No one had bought any it seemed. $10 apiece. Both my kids, who were with me earlier, were ecstatic. The colors they wanted and everything. After all that, how could I say no?
Don't get me wrong! I am happy too. I essentially started it all. I just... You know how there are certain days when you are more excited to throw money away than others?
Anyway, I love how perceptive my kids are. As we were walking, the display's back was just solid white and that is all we could see. The kids had to turn back after we passed it to see that. Their quest had never really ended.
And now we are the proud owners of two Snackeez cups. Looking forward to trying the hot french fries out with a cold root beer.
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