Gearhead Mom

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

RE-POST: GHM Fave: Little Tikes Shopping Cart

Posted by Missy W. @ 7:59 AM

Here’s a re-post about one of our best purchases to date. Two years later and this is still a toy we play with constantly. It doesn’t cause as many fights as it used to, but it is has been a favorite all the same. Sy drags it up and down the stairs for various games throughout the week.

We’ve had the Little Tikes Shopping Cart for about a year now and it still causes massive fights when there is more than one two year old in the room. I see this as a successful purchase. The little red cart has room for a lovie in the seat basket and lots of groceries in the main compartment. Sy and her pals love to pretend to go shopping, or just roam the house with the cart and stock pile whatever they can find. After play group is here, I often find the cart shoved in the corner of my dining room overflowing with myriad random toys, placemats and other unimportant items like my car keys.

The cart has been known to cause massive strife during playtime. I often think I should have an army of them waiting on the deck for play group to avoid the chaos and chorus of “MY TURN” that erupts as soon as someone under three feet tall grabs hold of the thing. But then I roll my eyes, roll up my mothering sleeves and explain for the 412th time that sharing is, in fact, a good thing.

This cart is by no means a showcase of modern toy design, rather it’s a cheerful, bulky mass of colorful plastic. But its sturdy constitution serves its purpose. It allows Sy to shop, roll with her lovies or take it for a spin around the block without toppling over. It also cleans up really well so when she and her pals are pitching it all of two feet off the back deck into the dirt, it is no worse for wear. We’ve clocked miles worth of afternoon walks with this bad boy and the only thing to show for it are some slightly scratched up wheels. I hose it down from time to time and that’s about as far as my maintenance plan goes.

I also appreciate that there are no sharp edges. Andie’s son Max tends to ram the thing full blast into my shins as he takes hairpin turns around my living room. It hurts like all get out and I often have matching bruises on my legs, but it’s yet to cause a laceration. I have also become immune to being run over by its wheels. I only serve as a speed bump in the living room of their life. We parents take a licking but keep on ticking.

You have to assemble the cart yourself. It’s pretty straightforward with not too many parts. However, my husband almost lost it putting the wheels on. Once you get the wheels on the rod, you have to put this little red end cap on to keep the wheels in place. I think the red caps popped off about fourteen times per wheel. It caused him much consternation and me much snickering. It was late at night, at least I was up being supportive? As I look at the picture of the shopping cart, I see that we neglected to put the cute sticker on the front. I am sure it was tossed in the trash in a fit of pique along with the directions after the wheel incident. I also see from the photo that the bottom is meant to be a secondary shelf. We have never used it that way (and none of the kids have thought to put stuff there) but I wonder if it would fall off during one of those famous hairpin turns.

Snapshot
• The cart is sturdy, jaunty and capable of causing toddler wars.
• The wheels almost caused the assembler a conniption fit, but those babies are never going to fall off.
• Endless made up games center around this staple in the toy closet.
• It has a pretty big footprint (16x12x23), so make sure you have room for it!
• Made in the USA.

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