Check Out Melissa & Doug’s Fresh Mart Grocery Store Checkout

There are many imaginative pretend-play ideas that this free-standing fresh mart grocery store checkout from Melissa and Doug brings to mind.

Whether it's serving and getting payment from customers, stock-checking, shelf stacking, or taking in deliveries, this playset will keep kids occupied and having fun for hours as either the grocer or the shopper.

The grocery store arrives flat-packed (it's heavy), and you will need to assemble it into its L-shape, which should take between one and two hours depending on experience - but it only requires a screwdriver. It's easy.

You get what you see in the primary photograph - just the furniture item - so you'll need to buy separately any accessories you want, such as play food and money, fruit and veg, and any other things your kids may want to sell.

You can use some empty actual food packaging to create some initial stock for the young business owner to get started quickly, but long term, you'll find it best to get some plastic or wooden pretend food items to enhance their playtime.

There's still a lot of detail built into this well-thought-out design that makes it such a delightful toy. The conveyor belt moves groceries along manually by turning a crank; the scanner beeps when they scan purchases through; the grocer has a cash drawer to keep the money.

There is plenty of shelving on the customer side for pretend merchandise, a bagging area, and a card swipe machine.

Whether kids want to pretend they are a grocer or customer, this playset is a treat.

Here are some accessory ideas to go with your Fresh Mart Grocery Store.

Melissa & Doug's Pretend to Spend Play Wallet is a good start. All businesses need a cash float. And customers need money to spend.

The 45-piece pack includes 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 dollar toy bills, 19 play coins - pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters, and a toy wallet.

Ten different write-on cards, including driving license, bank and library cards, health and Gym memberships, bus pass and more, are suitable for customer ID. There are even some coupons.