TEN year olds always loved playing shop. Parents and siblings are cajoled into being customers as the young entrepreneurs sell the contents of mum's cupboard for plastic coins.

These days, however, children prefer to be the buyers. And it is not a game.

A survey out today says that almost eight out of ten children between the age of ten and 12 love shopping.

There is an obvious benefit to this trend. In our consumer age youngsters who wise up to the High Street hard-sell will be learning a useful lifelong lesson.

Enjoying a trip to the shops is not harmful. The danger comes when children prefer mooching about the mall to the many simple, free pleasures of childhood.

Updated: 11:19 Friday, November 26, 2004