Based on their excellent output so far, we’d be shocked if Swedish apps firm Toca Boca released a stinker. Thankfully, newie Toca Store doesn’t buck the trend. Released late last week, it’s a marvellous digital playtoy for iPhone and iPad.

Its theme follows on neatly from the professional setting of previous apps Toca Doctor and Toca Hair Salon: this time round, your child gets to run their own virtual store, choosing the stock and pricing it up.

However, its structure is also similar to another Toca app, Toca Tea Party, in the way it’s designed to be played by two or more children together.

Here’s how it works: one child plays shopkeeper, and the other plays customer - they can, of course, take turns. The shopkeeper chooses five products to sell from a selection on offer, and then the customer taps on the screen to buy one at a time. The shopkeeper chooses a price, then the customer moves coins from a purse into the till.

It’s marvellously simple: our four year-old grasped it within a couple of goes, and it didn’t take much longer for our two year-old to get the hang of it either - it was lovely to watch our older boy teaching his brother to use it too.

That interaction is what we like best about Toca Store - even ahead of its characterful graphics and slick controls. It’s designed to get kids interacting in the real world, rather than just staring into a screen.

Meanwhile, the educational elements - counting for example - are worn lightly. We also like the way items and characters from previous Toca Boca apps pop up as things to sell in the store. At £1.49 (a Universal app that runs across iPhone, iPod touch and iPad) it’s a steal.