IRVINE – If your children like to spend time at Trader Joe’s but you don’t want them strolling around a busy grocery store on their own, head over to Pretend City Children’s Museum.
Pretend City, where small children can play different roles in a kids-sized city, partnered with Trader Joe’s to open a replica of the popular grocery store on Monday..
The new exhibit, Trader Joe’s Learning and Play Grocery Store, features product props, cash registers with signature bells and fresh produce and food demo areas. Kids can pretend to shop at the kids-sized store and work as a cashier.
Donnie Martin, a regional vice president at Trader Joe’s, said the Monrovia-based company made sure the exhibit replicated the feel of the real stores, from crew member Hawaiian shirts and wall art to shopping carts and shelf signs.
“I think the details that we put into this are amazing to make it look like a true Trader Joe’s,” he said.
Tiffany Dambroso of Newport Beach and her 3-year-old daughter, Viviana, were among the dozens of families who attended the exhibit’s grand opening event Monday.
Viviana stuffed her shopping basket with items until they almost spilled out.
“It was a big deal when we heard that Trader Joe’s was opening a kids store,” Tiffany Dambroso said. The family shops at the store at least once a week, she said.
All Viviana talked about over the weekend was visiting the exhibit, her mother said. The girl is such a fan that she even asked Santa Claus for a shopping cart, her mother said.
Fellow visitor River Meier, 9, said he liked playing at the exhibit more than going to a real store.
“I love how you can take a cart and put whatever you want in it,” the Aliso Viejo resident said.
His mother, Maria Meier, said she likes to bring her son to Pretend City because it makes him and other children feel grown up and independent.
When Pretend City opened seven years ago, the grocery store exhibit was sponsored by Ralphs. The exhibit featured some Ralphs products, though the interior looked like a generic grocery store.
Pretend City reached out to Trader Joe’s four months ago to spruce up the exhibit, museum spokeswoman Hayley Burns said. The grocery store is the only exhibit designed like a specific business, she said.
Pretend City, run by a nonprofit organization, includes 17 regular exhibits and activities, such as a library, cafe, dentist and police and fire stations.
For more information, visit pretendcity.org or call 949-428-3900
