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For parents to feel truly comfortable shopping for long periods of time, their children must be entertained. And ideally, the activity should free the parents to do what they want without worrying about whether their kids are having fun.
Hourly childcare has not caught on in shopping centers. Maybe it's because leasing agents don't see immediate dollars or understand the potential for higher overall center sales - at least not yet.
Sue Dunkley, president of Minneapolis-based New Horizon Kids Quest Inc., expects it won't be long before retail leasing agents and shopping center managers realize the benefits a childcare operation can bring to a center. Currently, there are two Kids Quest locations in retail settings: one that opened in 1991 at Eden Prairie Center in Eden Prairie, Minn., and another that opened in April 1998 at Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn.
"Kids Quest is a cross between a children's museum, a Discovery Zone and the finest childcare you can get," Dunkley says. The company has been in the childcare business since 1971 and operates 65 traditional...