1992: Super Nintendo economics
When I was nine years old, I really wanted a Super Nintendo.
The long awaited, 16-bit follow-up to the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), the officially titled Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) was released in the U.S. in the second half of 1991. (I remember it coming out around Thanksgiving that year, but Wikipedia pins the nationwide release date as September 9, 1991.) It became the must-have item for every video-game-loving kid in America, including myself.
However, my parents told me that we could not afford a Super Nintendo. Not even the all-powerful Santa could deliver me one at Christmas. (If I had been smart enough then, I probably could have made the connection. Though my suspicions had been growing for some time, I did not learn the truth until my dad told me during my sister’s soccer practice at Wetherby Park sometime in September 1992.)
More than likely, my parents were not lying about being unable to afford an SNES. There were (and still are) way more important things to buy than a video game system. Plus, having fought tooth and nail to get an NES for Christmas in 1990, there was probably no chance they would buy me the newer, better version one year later. If I wanted a Super Nintendo, my parents said, I would need to earn the money and buy it myself.
That is exactly what I did in the first half of 1992.
How did I earn money to buy a Super Nintendo when I was nine years old? A weekly allowance for helping around the house. Though the details are fuzzy at this point, I assume I earned a couple bucks each week for helping to clean and do yard work. (I don’t think I was mowing lawns yet, but I did start doing that in the next couple years.) I probably also earned money for doing well in school, mostly on weekly spelling exercises and tests. (We received a list of 10 new words each Monday and were tested on them at the end of the week. Every morning during breakfast, my mom made me spell each word on the list aloud.)
Whatever money I earned (I don’t remember how much it was), I kept in a small piggy bank. Once or twice a month on Saturday morning, my parents took me to the bank, where I deposited everything into my savings account. My parents taught me how to fill out the deposit forms and keep track of the money in my account. (I also learned about the insane amount of time people spent standing in line at banks. The bank was always packed on Saturdays; all the teller windows would be open and each had a line that was 10-people deep. The most annoying thing was that the person immediately in front of you always took forever to be served, as if they were opening 10 checking accounts and applying for 10 credit cards. That still seems true today.)
I earmarked every single cent toward the purchase of an SNES. (Of course, what else would I have been buying when I was nine?) Slowly but surely over the course of months, the money in my account grew closer and closer to what I needed to buy a Super Nintendo at the local Walmart: $139. (Wikipedia pegs the initial price at $199, so the price dropped quite a bit after the release.)
Sometime in June or July, I had finally saved enough—and apparently more. When the fateful day came and my mom took me to the bank to withdraw the money, she told me to take out more than $139 to pay for added taxes. It was no doubt the first time I had heard about taxes. (I think her exact words were, “Because it sometimes costs more.” I obviously did not understand how taxes worked yet, but it blew my mind that the advertised price was not the exact amount I needed to pay.)
After a visit to the bank, lunch at the old Hardee’s on Lower Muscatine so my sister could burn off energy playing in the ball pit (I think we simply called it “the balls,” which is hilarious now), we headed to Wally World. (We put the envelope with my Super Nintendo money in the trunk of our Oldsmobile during lunch. It seems overly cautious now, but I suppose it was a lot of money—and important!) I don’t remember much about the purchase except for the cashier teasing me, and I don’t remember the ride home (which probably felt like an eternity) or the unboxing, but I am sure I was stoked and started playing Super Mario World immediately. (Thankfully, the game was included with the console, so I didn’t need to buy a $50–75 game as well.)
After years of use and countless hours of playing epic games such as Street Fighter II, NHL 96, and Sunset Riders, my Super Nintendo stopped working in 2003. But I still have it, along with the controllers and probably every game I ever bought. I also still have the resolute work ethic and shrewd financial sense that helped me earn and save money over 25 years ago. Whether my parents were really unable to afford a Super Nintendo or just wanted to teach me a lesson is something I will need to ask them about. Either way, my mission to buy an SNES taught me a lot, and instilled in me my sense of economics and work and reward.
