Happy Dinosaur Goes to Market, Happy Dinosaur Pays His Electricity Bill

Why Happy Dinosaur's prices have increased and how you can use a student discount

Sep 14, 2022

I hope everyone’s first weeks of school have been going well. For team Happy Dinosaur, there have been some changes and updates since the summer that I wanted to share with you all. The biggest thing: Happy Dinosaur’s prices have increased by the following:

11 inch (the original) is now $30.00

16 inch (PLUSh Size) is now $60.00

I haven’t increased the prices in about two years and here’s why:

Since many of you who are purchasing Happy Dinosaurs are in college, I know the struggle of coming up with expendable income for things that we want or need. I want to keep Happy Dinosaurs affordable, but I’m also a business owner and some recent changes in my cost of goods have affected my margins with the current prices. You’ll see that there was a $5.00 increase in the 11 inch and a $10.00 increase in the 16 inch. The 16 inch has a greater increase due to its increased volume requiring more materials.

Happy Dinosaur is always committed to sustainability: the plush material that makes up the outside of the dinosaur is completely made from recycled plastics and the price per yard of that material has increased by 25%. This is a huge increase and while every scrap of material goes back into stuffing, I still have to make up volume with store-bought, recycled stuffing. My stuffing has increased by 10% per pound, also contributing to decreasing margins. I am currently looking into other, sustainable sources that are more affordable on my end, but for now, these are the elements that contribute to the price increase.

I am a student, and I understand that money can be tight—this semester I am not living on campus, but I am renting an apartment and have to pay for food and insurance and other bills. I know many of you are also experiencing the same thing. I remember being a child and wondering why college students only ever eat ramen and now that I pay for groceries I understand. But Happy Dinosaur is also a comfort object and I want my plushies to be accessible so I am offering a student discount for anyone in high school or university.

Unlike in previous student discounts that were only offered during finals week, this discount will be in affect during Fall and Spring Semesters. The exact dates are now through December 10th and January 10th-May 1st. As many of you know, there are always opportunities to win free dinosaurs, this summer I had a recycling challenge with the prize as a free Recyclesaur and I will be having some new challenges coming soon. There will be an additional Finals-Week discount at the end of this semester.

Here’s how to apply your student discount:

Student discounts are not applied automatically. On submission of your Happy Dinosaur request form, there are three new questions to fill out:

Indication of your current student status
State your High School or University, major, academic status
Upload a photo of your current student ID.

You do not have to send your student ID number unless you want to. IDs with student identification numbers covered will be accepted permitting the quality of the photo. The main thing I am looking for is your photo and the name of your school. Student Discounts will vary depending on the product volume of purchase from 10%-15%. Student Discounts during Finals Week will increase to 20%.

Happy Dinosaur on the steps to Werth

Thank you for reading, I am looking forward to your custom Dinosaurs this year. Stay tuned for my seasonal dinosaurs and scented dinosaurs!