I was remembering way back when I was in first grade and we had a "store" day where everyone got to sell things to each other. I loved it SO much! I wasn't sure it could be as fun with just our family, but I presented the idea to the kids and they got excited about it. They spend a couple days preparing things to sell—things they made themselves and things they just wanted to get rid of. I was really impressed with how much work they put in! Then I also went to the dollar store and bought some things I thought the kids might like, and distributed those among the kids also, so that everyone would be able to sell at least something someone else wanted!
We used bunny money for the buying and selling, of course. It was good because I gave some out at the beginning so everyone would have some, but many of the kids already had a lot from other good things they'd done around the house, so they had more purchasing power.
Goldie had her own store, "Bendigo Antiques."
(Bendigo himself was not for sale)
She made peanut butter cupcakes to sell (with free samples to lure people over), but her very best thing was the adorable tiny crocheted elephant she made (on the right of the picture above). We were all wild to buy him. We would have paid four times the amount she charged. The only reason I didn't buy him myself is because Daisy sneakily beat me to it. 😡
Ted's Goods and Services
Daisy and Clementine did their store together. They had some really cute miniature items, and Daisy had made scotcheroos (they sold out quickly) and fortune-tellers in all sizes, plus many coveted items from her stash of random stuff.
My friend's daughter Harriet was staying with us for a few days, so she joined our store. She made some really cute personalized calligraphy name cards, and a few other things. Ziggy did his store with Harriet too. He made coloring pages and peanut butter graham crackers and an assortment of other things.
Junie's rainbow jello was vastly popular. I thought it was a bit expensive, so I bided my time until the end when I assumed she'd reduce her prices. Instead, when there was one jello bowl left, she raised her prices due to decreased supply! And someone else bought it even at that price, so I didn't get any. Hmmph. Cutthroat.
Gus carefully made the signs for his shop the day before, and advertised donuts, hot cocoa, and strawberry lemonade for sale! This was the first I'd heard of it, but he was so cute, and so diligent in his preparations, that I felt I had to go get a donut and some strawberry lemonade for him to actually sell!
Then I saw that he'd made the things out of paper.🥹 So he sold both!
He also made stickers on my sticker maker to sell
The tiny things (they made the rounds being bought and sold among the kids) were surprisingly detailed and cute. They were called "Mini Brands" and I don't know if they are supposed to go with dolls or what? They are in little "mystery packs" at Walmart. We couldn't believe how realistic they were!
You can open the boxes and the little foods are packaged inside just like real ones
Like this—the little individual cheese wedges! Wrapped in actual foil! With actual (fake) cheese inside!
The buying and selling took all morning (after quite a long set-up period where everyone arranged their goods and priced them, etc.). There was some bartering, some haggling, some price gouging, some clearance sales. At the end most people dropped their prices in an "everything must go" mentality, and everything did go!
Teddy's careful inventory sheet
Daisy, still gloating over her tiny Bendigo
It was such a fun day and a fun activity! We would definitely do it again!
