Hi, I live near a pretty large mall in Chicago and I'd like to open a drop in day care center during the hours of the larger retail stores (11a to 10p). So, parents can come by, drop the kid(s) for an hour or two and shop, eat lunch/dinner, run other nearby errands, etc. without the kids in tow. Maybe 10 or 12 bucks per hour? Does this sound like a viable idea?

I would have taken advantage of short-term daycare facilities for my kids when they were young, had they been available.

As a mother, I think it's viable; but your marketing will be key, I think.

There are lots of rules and regulations for daycares and whether you take the kids for the whole day or just for short periods of time, you'll probably have to follow them.

There have been lots of useful posts here in the past to people considering different aspects of daycare, you might want to search those in addition to the responses you'll get to this thread.

Good luck with it.

Tina Brooks, VP Marketing
Brooks Pepperfire Foods, Inc.
Makers of Peppermaster Hot Sauces
http://www.peppermaster.com

Eat more peppers!

I'm a guy and I would not take advantage of something like that. It would have to be tailored towards mothers. It takes me 10 to do my shopping at Walmart and it takes my wife over an hour to get the same 15 things at Walmart so she probably would consider it, if the cost wasn't high. I think pricing would be another important consideration, too. People are going to add the cost of the daycare to the expected cost of their purchases.
Market it to mothers and get a good price point.