Let's Play Shop

Let's Play Shop turns your iPad into a real cash register kids can actually run.

One weekend, my daughter was playing pretend "coffee shop" with her friend, taking her order and making pretend drinks. I thought to myself, "You have an iPad. Why not use that as your cash register? Lots of places already do."

So I spun up a proof-of-concept, and she LOVED it, especially the part where you can ask people if they'd like to leave a tip or (act like you've been told "it's just gonna ask you a question" and have no idea what the question happens to be. Don't worry. (No real money is exchanged). However, when you close up shop, you can see how much "money" you made and what your most popular item was.

How many kinds of shops can you play? 26. That might sound like a lot, but you can configure to only see the ones you want. There are also a few extra shops for parents, like rocket surgeon and attorney

Twenty-six hand-crafted shops — coffee, burgers, tacos, pizza, boba, poutine, pancakes, ice cream, fried chicken, bakery, a fresh fruit stand, and more — each with its own menu, customers, palette, and vibe. Kids tap items onto a running ticket, customize modifiers, hit "Order Up!" like a real short-order cook, and then the customer taps to pay.

WHAT'S INSIDE

• 26 hand-crafted shops with real point-of-sale mechanics — order entry, modifiers, tips, receipts
• Tap-to-Pay OR Cash mode — great for practicing making change
• Smart tip presets — $1/$2/$3 for small tabs, 10/15/20% for larger ones, plus custom
• Multi-device tab mode — one iPad becomes the register; phones scan a QR to join as customer devices and add items to a running tab
• Live "Your Order Is Ready!" notifications when the kid taps Order Up
• Achievements — 50+ trophies and 15 earnable titles across every shop
• Two play modes — Pretend Customers (named personas walk up with their usual order) or Take Real Orders (a real person tells the kid what they want)
• Shift stats when the kid closes up shop

KID-SAFE BY DESIGN

No accounts. No ads. No trackers. No third-party SDKs. No in-app purchases. No external links inside the play area. All content is finite, curated, and reviewable. Parents can hide any shop in Settings and turn tipping off entirely if it doesn't fit their play style.

ZERO DATA COLLECTION

Everything you do stays on your device. Multi-device pairing uses Apple's Multipeer Connectivity — strictly peer-to-peer over your local network or Bluetooth, never touches an internet server. The app makes no network calls of its own. It does not phone home.

NATIVE iPAD & iPHONE

Built as a real SwiftUI app — not a web wrapper — so it feels fast, responsive, and platform-appropriate. Universal binary. The register works great on iPad; customer tabs work great on iPhone. iOS 17 and up.

Built by The InfoDump — a software studio in Molalla, Oregon. If you love it, hate it, or find a bug: hello@theinfodump.com.