Play Shop - Ideas Please!

[Florasmummy]

I've ordered fruits and veg baskets with our Tescos vouchers this year and would like to have a prentend shop in the play room. I already have a toy till, shopping basket and money but need the actual shop! Can anyone recommend one that they've bought or tell me how they've made one please? Something quite solid would be preferable. Thanks for your ideas!

[hectors house]

At toddlers they have a home made painted wooden play house that doubles as a shop - it has just 2 small sides and a front with a door and window in and it folds flat for storage as has just got catches on top corners to secure it, if you were worried that kids would climb through window or tip it over you could secure it to the wall with small pieces of light weight chain and some D clips.

Hope you can picture it - looks like a rectangle with one long side missing, about the height of a 4 year old and doesn't have a roof.

[singingcactus]

If the above post won't work for you maybe you could just use a simple bookshelf for the stock (or one of those toy shelves with the slanted boxes) with a childs table as the counter, that way when the toy shop is not being used it can be used easily as something else. This way also prevents the toy limiting the children's imagination, like some shop bought items can do.

[sarran]

Dont know if any good but they have got pop up shops in the tesco sale, they look really good, complete with little post box

[zippy]

You could also look on a website called primary treasure chest loads of printable resources for shops, look in role play area

[lisa1968]

We just use the childrens table with a chair behind for the shopkeeper,and a till and some carrier bags. The fruit and veg is put in cardboard boxes on the floor and we use a little shelving unit for boxes etc. We have a couple of baskets and a phone and pen and paper on the table.The mindees love it!

[Florasmummy]

Thanks for all of your ideas, I wish I had more of an imagination for things like this!

[miffy]

We use an old wooden coffee table - sometimes with a cloth put over it and different wicker baskets (all picked up cheaply from charity shops or jumble sales) to put things in. The children make price tags and shop signs and I laminate them so they last a bit longer. If you're stuck for ideas ask the children, they're usually much more creative than I am!

Miffy xx

[Maza]

We also just use a little table and put the 'products' in boxes/baskets/plastic trays from vegetables around the table. I just don't have the room for a big permanent structure.

[Ali56]

We just use the childrens table with a chair behind for the shopkeeper,and a till and some carrier bags. The fruit and veg is put in cardboard boxes on the floor and we use a little shelving unit for boxes etc. We have a couple of baskets and a phone and pen and paper on the table.The mindees love it!

Us too! I've no room to store another large toy! In our house half the fun is setting up the 'shop'. Little table, till, chairs, boxes baskets......will it have an adjoining coffee shop today?or maybe on a campsite?-cue all the dining chairs and blankets getting dragged into the lounge, or will it be a 'pick your own' farm shop? if so all fruit and veg is laid out in the 'field' (hallway!) kids use the weighing scales and everything!
I sometimes think that having a 'toy' or a 'scene' for everything stunts the imagination a bit as there is a standard 'set up' to follow. (not saying all the time before anyone shoots me down in flames!!)