Aldi wooden toys

I got an aldi wooden toy kitchen for dd1 when she turned 3. She's now 8. We've had 2 other children who have played with it and I often find all 3 kids playing with it. Over the years numerous kids have visited and played with it and it's still in good nick. It has a 4 burner hob, buttons that click and.a washing machine , fridge , freezer section and was proved at £90. It went to half price and I snapped it up.

There is hysteria on toktok over everything. Years ago it was the aldi nappies and now it is their wooden toys. Ours have been longlasting and in my view good quality for the price. We have a toys shop and musical instruments that are still going strong.

You clearly were too young for the Tagamochi, cabbage patch doll and numerous other toy crazes that are moaned about every so often

How do you define unnecessary consumerism?

The tik tok algorithm will feed you stuff that you engage with. Even if you don't comment you will be spending more time watching these clips and probably will read the comments. I get a lot of undercompsuption, buying christmas gifts for charity shop and frugal cooking clips. Don't think because you're seeing it on tiktok that it's the norm.

Definitely recommend keeping an eye out for a second hand IKEA kitchen. I gave ours away when the kids outgrew it and it looked as good as the day I bought it. There’s load of tutorials on TikTok and whatnot for upcycling them and they sell on Facebook marketplace in my area for £20-30. They’re far superior in quality to the cheap ones from Aldi and Asda and the like.

I hate this too - and oh the irony, people going nuts in Aldi buying "sustainable" wooden toys when most children are happy as Larry building a toy kitchen out of Tupperware, cardboard, sticks and leaves which is actually better for imaginative play.

But all you can do is amend your own behaviour and guide your children accordingly. We hand clothes and toys down, and also use others' hand-me-downs. We talk about things like Halloween way in advance and I explain that if we plan ahead we can always find/buy/borrow/make a costume rather than order single-use shite from Amazon. We organise clothes and costume swaps and so on. I think you can have a genuine influence in your own life and with those around you. Not enough to stop the avalanche of crap but at least something.

Just get off TikTok. I haven’t witnessed this behaviour in real life.

This is true but equally the weird scalping that seems to go on with almost everything is really grubby and horrible; that is definitely taking advantage.
the Aldi toys are decent quality (we have a couple new from previous years and a kitchen from Facebook going into its fourth year with us and still great). They’re also cheap which for many families is important.

the ‘hail’ culture is really awful too and I’m sure many of them will be unlabelled brand ambassadors.

I like the Aldi and Lidl wooden stuff, we’ve had quite a few bits over the years and it has longevity, it’s all still around and DS plays with almost all of it. Not aware of any hysteria though, just give social media a rest and you won’t see it! I hate waste, luckily there are a couple of specialist baby & children’s second-hand shops in my city so I get plenty of used stuff and donate plenty too.

YANBU.

Went to ours yesterday to see if I could understand the hype but as usual, hardly any toys there! I don't think they've been snapped up, ours just doesn't seem to stock everything. From what I've seen on TT though, nothing I've seen would I buy. It is age appropriate for my 2 year old, but none of it appeals to me. I kinda feel bad for the kids that are getting the whole lot. It's all more of the same!

Overconsumption of any material is bad. Aldi wooden toys are poor quality, we've had a few over the years and none were in much of a fit state to pass on to someone else (and generally toys are well looked after here). Something plastic or a well made wooden toy would probably be able to be enjoyed again and again rather than sent to landfill. Invariably the best option if possible is to buy second hand, followed by buying some okay quality and questioning whether you really need it, I suspect no child needs one of every item. It's also not sustainable when they create hype knowing there aren't enough products; fear of missing out and scarcity are all well known tactics for getting people to impulse buy aka spend more without applying a tonne of thought. I bet once the yay I got it dies down there'll be some regrets.

Symths toys?
https://www.smythstoys.com/uk/en-gb/toys/wooden-toys-and-puzzles/wooden-kitchens/kitchen-corner-wooden-play-kitchen/p/219079

I stand corrected! 😱 41 people have favourited it?!

Not sure how true this is but my mum was saying each Aldi only got two toy kitchens to sell.

Happy to be corrected but are people reselling the kitchens on Vinted? Seems like a nightmare to post!

Trust me I was not following all the hype at all.

It’s just Aldi is where we do our weekly food shop and money is tight. The cheapest toy kitchen I could find was on Asda for £60. All the second handed ones around us are asking for £30-£80, and it’s the faff of having to pick it up, squeeze it in the car and put it back together again. You just can’t beat the Aldi kitchen for £35 brand new.

I just had a look. Don't get it. Who are these things supposed to appeal to? A child's desire to play or their parent's desire to virtue signal about climate issues etc or to be seen as trendy?
And what's with all the wooden "food". Some of it looks tiny and screams choking hazard to me. Are these things bigger than they look. I swear I heard the sole of my foot saying ouch just looking at these little lumps of wood.

I truly don't get it. Oh dear. I think I must be very out of touch. I'll get me coat.

Exactly..I thought the only point of the Aldi stuff was it was cheap. It's literally pointless to pay over the odds. Just buy the originals.

Our DD is really interested in kitchen stuff at the moment and I have been looking at toy kitchen for weeks! The Aldi one is definitely the cheapest by far so I was really looking forward to getting one this week.

Naively I thought they’d still be there on Friday so I thought cool will pop in after work. Just empty shells! Tried another Aldi today and it’s even emptier. Screw those resellers!

Always has been, and always will be. There were displays of disgraceful behaviour over the cabbage patch dolls at the time.