Toys for out and about- what do you do in the supermarkets?

[ESC13]

Hi Everyone,

I am a full time student studying product design. After working with children for several years I realised I really want to design toys and games for young children.

My final year project is to design a game or toy for children to play with whilst sitting in a trolley so their mum/dad/carer can shop more easily. After doing research I found parents can struggle with completing a shop and keeping their children entertained.

I am really looking to find out what issues you face when shopping with young children, how you entertain them and what would you look for in a product for your trolley?

All comments and advice are welcome, thank you very much for your time and help :)

Well - my dd always hated food shopping until I got her to help me find the food.

How about a digital shopping game or similar so as you buy the product, the child finds the picture on their game (attached with a springy cord to trolley with child safe clip so can't be lost) and uses a detachable magic pen (also on a cord) to press the correct item or something.

So kind of like:

Click on picture of red pepper.....red pepper moves from the screen into digital basket. Also, if you need 4 carrots, they can click 4 times (perhaps this number bit would be better better for older preschoolers).

Then, they could select a plain drawing page and they can use their magic pen to draw anything they want - if they get bored doing the 'shopping' bit.

Or how about supermarket scanners attached to trollies that literally just beep the items (like they do at the counter) so the child thinks it's helping with the shopping, just the same as the person on the check out?

Just the fact they're beeping items will keep them amused for hours.

my DD is nearly 2 and up until now she has been a dream whilst out shopping. But now we have hit the tantrums etc and its horrendous.

I never ever take treats as i want her to learn that she gets something for being good not to keep her quiet. The only thing that keeps her distracted and bearable is getting her to spot items in the shop.

Can you see a pepper? what about a yellow one? over and over...

I wanted something like orchard games pop to the shops as it has cards with the items to put in your trolley but its a board game for home so no good really. I've seen supernanny use like a bingo card with pictures on to match when you find the item but I truly cant be arsed with a laminator!!!

doctorswife that's why I think a digital one would hold loads of info on loads more realistic products- a card game is limited to not many products.

Agree with hand-held scanner. Every time you put something in the trolley the child can scan the bar-code. You could have a incrementing total that goes up in 10s after every scan, a reset that beeps, a crazy noise if product not scanned correctly. Oh, I'd have killed for something like that...

i agree digital would be far better. My DD thinks everything costs "a hundred pounds please" so she'd probably like the concept of money too as she loves it when we have to pay the lady!

My only prob when playing games like spotting items is that it only works well in the fruit and veg/bread/cheese depts..once you hit rows and rows of tins my DD starts playing up as i cant say can you see pataks tikka masala?

A scanner would be good or at least a touch screen shopping list of sorts.