Stores wooing moms by offering child care

By Kristen Wyatt
Associated Press

ATLANTA — Rita Sapp looked relieved as she dropped her 3-year-old son off at a play center in a Rich's department store.

William James, 8, uses a play station at Rich's Playaway in Atlanta with a little help from associate Jason Chandler, right. Rich's-Macy's has expanded the babysitting center to five stores in the city. Associated Press

"I can't shop normally with him, but he has a blast in there," his mother said.

The idea of baby-sitting services is catching on as traditional department stores cater to mothers, once among their most loyal customers but increasingly drawn to more convenient discounters such as Wal-Mart and Target.

Rich's-Macy's tested the Playaway baby-sitting center a year ago in an Atlanta suburb. Now they've been expanded to five stores in the Atlanta area, with more planned.

"Lives have changed for women," said Ellen Fruchtman, spokeswoman for Rich's-Macy's, part of Federated Department Stores Inc., the nation's largest department store chain. "We believe women still do really like to shop, but they want it to be easier."

Moms are hot targets for department stores, which have been losing market shares to discount retailers for more than a decade.

For the past few years, department stores tried to compete with retailers by lowering prices and adding conveniences such as shopping carts or central check-outs. Now some department stores are backing off that approach in favor of more services for adult women, their core shoppers.

Nordstrom stores provide a nursing lounge for mothers of small children, a quiet room off the women's restroom with clean changing tables, diaper vending machines and a sofa or two. Nordstrom also is expanding its play area in the children's clothing area, adding salt-water fish tanks and activities for children while their parents shop.

"To have activities going on in our kids area is something our customers are really looking for," said Nordstrom spokeswoman Kylie Allensworth.

Department stores also were motivated to target mothers after a failed attempt to compete with mall-based clothing stores that cater to teens.

"They all got excited about chasing that younger customer, and all they did was alienate the 40-year-olds who were their most loyal shoppers," said Marshal Cohen, a retailing analyst with consulting firm NPD Group. "Now they're taking a step back and asking, how can we reconnect with women? That's what you're seeing here."

Middle-age women also were being drawn away from department stores because they were hard to get into and out of quickly. Cohen said the average shopper spends one to two hours on a shopping trip, but moms usually spend less than an hour.

If a department store can get moms to stay longer — and employees at the Rich's-Macy's Playaways say parents almost always use the full two hours they're permitted to leave their children — then the service will be worth the effort.

Parents can't dump their kids and take off to other stores. They get a pager when they drop off their children, and it goes off if they leave the store or if the kids get fussy or need a bathroom break. Only children ages 3 to 8 are allowed.

A digital picture is taken of parent and child, and only that adult may pick up the child. Both get matching wristbands, as in a hospital nursery.

A market researcher who focuses on women's shopping, Carrie McCament, said she expects more department stores to target moms. McCament's marketing group, Frank About Women, found in a recent survey that women enjoy shopping trips less than they used to.

"I have to go to the grocery store tonight, and I'm dreading it, with two kids," McCament said. "If anybody can make it fun to shop when you've got kids, well, that would be such a hit with moms."

Rich's-Macy's is analyzing the purchases of moms who use Playaway to see if they spend more because they have two full hours to shop kid-free.