Lidl launches 'Fun Size Trolleys' for kids to make the family shopping experience more fun

Lidl is about to make the shopping experience a lot more adorable for kids with mini shopping trolleys!

Little ones love nothing more than ‘helping out’ with the weekly family shop, from counting out the required number of loose fruit and vegetables to loading smaller items onto the checkout conveyor belt.

And now low-cost supermarket Lidl has come up with another way to keep children engaged as they join parents on their bid to re-stock their fridges and cupboards.

It has announced that its new ‘Fun Size Trolleys’ for kids will roll out across more than 250 stores with large entrances/exits, as well as all new stores across the UK, after a successful trial in their Oakham and London, Tooting branches last year.

Each of the nominated stores will have a kids’ trolley bay with nine trolleys, each equipped with a lock and Fun Size flag and a Fun Size board will also be positioned at the end of dedicated trolley bay.

Commenting on the launch, Lidl UK’s Commercial Director, Ryan McDonnell, said: ‘We’re constantly looking for new ways to make shopping more fun and engaging for kids. We’re keen to help parents build their children’s understanding of what they eat, and we hope that our new Fun Size Trolleys will encourage kids to play a bigger part in the family shop.’

The trolleys are named after Lidl’s Oaklands Fun Size, a range of miniature fruit and vegetable with quirky names such as ‘Avodillo’s (baby avocados), Broccoli Trees and Unicorn carrots.

READ MORE: 5-a-day portion sizes: What counts as a portion of fruit and vegetables?

Introduced in 2016, the range was designed as a creative way for parents to encourage their children to get their five-a-day, and now boasts more than 14 products.

In 2017, Lidl was one of the founding signatories of the Food Foundation’s Peas Please initiative, aimed at helping everyone in the UK to eat an extra portion of veg daily.

On the initiative’s website the entry for Lidl includes the following summary of its pledge.

It reads: ‘We pledge to increase our range of fun sized veg to make it more appealing to children; to include one portion of veg (80g) in every ready meal or an equivalent serving suggestion on pack; to include two portions of veg in all our online recipes and to promote veg in store, online and on printed promotional materials.

‘We will also continue with our other commitments such as putting veg alongside fruit at the front of our new stores and promoting more than six types of vegetables per month through ‘pick of the week’.’