A Better Bag of Groceries

Cart Confessions: Scrabble Cheez-Its

Friday, March 12, 2010 at 06:45 AM

Happy Friday!  I like to keep the posts light for TGIF, so today a fun “Cart Confession” seemed to be in order. 

These Scrabble Junior Cheez-Its are the hot new item in our house these days.  How did they end up in my cart?  Well, they actually did not end up in my cart.  I did see them on the shelf at Stop & Shop, but I resisted them.  My mother, however, could not resist these cute Cheez-Its with letters printed on each one.  So she purchased them and brought them over to our house.  You see, her one and only Grandson is a First Grade Big Time Reader and she will do anything to promote that!

I have to admit, I too am sooooo proud of him.

My son is addicted to books.

And newspapers.  Here, he is dressed as one of his heroes, Abe Lincoln.

He also loves word puzzles, word searches, and word games.  He’s actually a lot like his Mom!  I hear myself saying, “Put the book down and go play!” and I have to laugh.

Now, most Moms will tell you that we are usually bombarded by silly characters when it comes to marketing to children in the grocery stores.  SpongeBob is on everything from crackers to soup to macaroni & cheese.  When the Monsters vs. Aliens DVD was released, B.O.B, Dr. Cockroach Ph. D., and Ginormica graced packages and signage in every aisle.  I went grocery shopping sans kids that week.  Character marketing is everywhere and it’s blatant.  For most moms, it’s easy to shrug off these products as gimmicky attempts to get your kids to whine ask for stuff. 

But the idea of using the popular board game Scrabble to promote a product to kids is new – well, at least it is to me.  The people at the Sunshine Biscuit company, who make Cheez-Its are smart.  They know that moms (and Grandmas) will eagerly choose a snack that might help promote reading and/or spelling.

Are Scrabble Cheez-Its a “sin” to be confessed?  They score a 15 out of 100 on the NuVal scale.  Since the median score (half are above it, half are below it) for crackers is a 14, that is actually better than your “average” cracker.  Still, as you may remember from my Cracker GiveAway, there are other kid-friendly crackers out there that score better:

• Wheat Thins: 24
• Triscuits: 32
• Pepperidge Farm Goldfish: 24

But you can’t make words out of those crackers!

I’m not going to lose any sleep over Scrabble Cheez-Its – at least not for now.  As I mentioned, they are the Most Requested Snack in our house these days and hey, you look like Smart Mom when you send them in to school for snack.  There’s even a little game board on the back of the box so that you can play.  Next week, I will be throwing them into my cart.  Thanks for the suggestion, Grandma!

Posted by: Melissa 10 comments

Posted in: Cart Confessions, Cheez-Its, Crackers

Tags: Scrabble Cheez-Its