SPGFAN Gift Guides: Your Ultimate Guide to Pretend Groceries and Play Food Toys for YOUR Child’s Play Room!

This Page is a Work in Progress!

More Ideas Updated Regularly!

If you have a Grocery Store, Farmers Market, Kitchen Set, Ice Cream Cart, Bakery Stand, Lemonade Stand, Shopping Cart, or other SUPER COOL Play Sets for YOUR child’s play area, chances are you need to stock your shelves with some Pretend Groceries and Play Food Toys!

Sounds simple, right?

Ha! There are TONS of Pretend Groceries and Play Food Toys on the market today!

You’ve got the highest quality wooden varieties, to realistic plastics and foams, to cardboard boxes, to the cheaper, less realistic, but less expensive plastics…

If you are creative, you can even make your own grocery store items!

Or, perhaps you can reuse some of YOUR family’s food packaging in fun and unique ways for the kids to enjoy!

Lots of options exist, that’s for sure!

And, we’re going to do our best to categorize a few handfuls of choices so you can make the best decisions for YOUR budding entrepreneurs, Mini-Farmers, Petite Bakers, or Little Shoppers!

SPGFAN Favorites!


Wooden Food Sets!


Melissa & Doug 9 Piece Fridge Food Wooden Play Food Set

Amazon Price Starting at $15.49


Melissa & Doug 9 Piece Pantry Food Wooden Play Food Set

Amazon Price Starting at $16.99


Realistic Plastic Food Sets!


Learning Resources Fresh Picked Fruit & Veggie Tote

Amazon Price Starting at $16.98


Learning Resources Garden Fresh Salad 38 Piece Veggie Set

Amazon Price Starting at $17.69


Learning Resources Farmer’s Market Color Sorting Fruits and Vegetables 25 Piece Set

Amazon Price Starting at $29.99


Melissa & Doug Tip & Sip Toy Juice Bottles

Amazon Price Starting at $12.78


Economy Plastic Food Sets!

We’ve combed through the Plastic Food Sets to give you the most economical options for stocking your Kitchens, Markets, Shops, and Stores, while still ensuring that you are getting safe, good quality toys with decent reviews!

Here are a few of our recommendations in the most affordable price ranges!


Liberty Imports Life Sized Bag of Vegetables Play Food

Amazon Price Starting at $8.95


Cardboard Food Sets!

Cardboard Food Sets are a less expensive alternative to stocking shelves with products that feel more like “real” packaging you’d find in an actual kitchen. The downside, though, is that they might not last very long; and are less likely to stand up to rougher playing conditions, or stay in tact for younger children.

If you’d like Cardboard Food Sets, you could definitely try making your own!

I especially enjoy seeing some of the creativity put into filling cans and boxes with cute little trinkets to resemble the food products themselves.

Green fuzz balls for peas, shoe laces for noodles, dyed dried pasta; or even small buttons, toys, erasers, or other size-appropriate doo-dads for added texture, imagination, and sensory stimulation!

But, with all that being said, if you’d like to purchase some Cardboard Food Sets, here are some of the niftier choices with higher ratings and feedback!


Melissa & Doug Let’s Play House! Grocery Cans (10 Cardboard “Cans” with Pop-Off Lids)

Amazon Price Starting at $8.49


Melissa & Doug Let’s Play House! Grocery Basket with Play Food

Amazon Price Starting at $16.99


Melissa & Doug Let’s Play House! Grocery Shelf Boxes 11 Piece Set

Amazon Price Starting at $9.49


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