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      Since 2017, parent-child restaurants have suddenly become a fashionable choice for mothers. In 2018, celebrities' partnership openings and the exposure of the show further boosted its popularity. There are currently more than 100 parent-child restaurants in Shanghai, of which 30 or 40 are more famous. But this wave did not last long. Since the first half of 2019, news of parent-child restaurants closing down due to poor business has frequently been reported. With such a fast fading craze, we can't help but ask: Is a parent-child restaurant a good business?

     According to a report by QuestMobile, a data analysis company, the number of children aged 0 to 6 in China has reached 100 million in 2018, and the size of the consumer market for this age group was close to 160 million yuan in 2018, and is expected to exceed 210 million yuan in 2023. In 2016, the full opening of the second child was also helpful, and the parent-child restaurant was born under such a huge market background.

     The founder of MoneyJump Parent-child Restaurant, Zi Dog, started her own business according to her own needs. She found that if you go to an ordinary restaurant to eat, children are easy to cry and disturb other guests, and because they must always pay attention to their children and take care of their children. Such demand, the time to eat by myself has been greatly compressed. Therefore, Zidog founded MoneyJump in Taipei in 2016. Since he is optimistic about the children's consumer market in Shanghai, he opened his second store in Hongqiao Nanfeng City, where parent-child businesses gather in October 2018.

     The decoration of this kind of parent-child restaurant is usually more delicate and bright, the play area and dining area each occupy about half of the area, and the nursing room will be intimately set up for mothers. Twinkle’s play area contains a total of more than a dozen modules. The composition of each store is different. Generally, there are areas such as dressing, play house, slide, sand pool, building blocks, ocean ball pool, and interactive screen. The meals are mainly Western-style simple meals, while taking into account the children's eating habits, rice and porridge will be provided.

      In terms of design, parent-child restaurants have enough consideration for the safety of children and parents' concerns. Parents sitting in the dining area can look up to confirm the child's figure, and wrap a soft bag at the corner of the facility to prevent the child from accidentally hitting it. In MoneyJump, monitoring screens are hung on the upper and lower floors, scrolling the screens of each play area. At the same time, the waiter is watching as much as possible.

     All these facilities are for mothers to let their children play, get a short break, and chat with friends. At the same time, the parent-child restaurant is also the place where mothers work when they are busy. “We mainly want to meet the needs of parents. The decoration of the restaurant is also designed according to the aesthetics of adults.” Li Li said.

     IKEA, the mother and child blogger of Xiaohongshu, went to the parent-child restaurant for the convenience of consumption. As a mother of two children, she would usually arrange to go to the parent-child restaurant with other mothers in the morning on weekends. The mothers sat in the dining area and chatted, while the children played around with the waiter. After eating at noon, the child happened to be tired from playing, so he can take the child home to sleep. Parent-child restaurants have become a good place for families to spend time together.

    Compared with the parent-child paradise, the parent-child restaurant is much smaller and can better meet the needs of mothers for relaxation. Many parent-child parks on the market cannot relax parents. They emphasize the interaction between parents and children. The area often reaches several thousand square meters. There are large-scale amusement facilities in which parents must follow their children to climb up and down.

    The little girl in a pink bathrobe leaned on the pink sofa, enjoying the foot massage service provided by the service staff. This is not over yet, the little girl will continue to enjoy cucumber face treatment, hand care and manicure, and finally drink grape juice and have a toast with another delicate girl beside her. Parents are busy taking pictures and checking in.

The children are enjoying SPA services.

     In addition, parent-child restaurants will also launch various types of activities. Twinkle often develops parent-child courses to improve children's hands-on skills, such as baking and handmade ice cream, and it has also launched handmade courses specifically for mothers, making parent-child restaurants a space for parents. And MoneyJump will customize private events for customers, such as children's birthday parties and graduation ceremonies. Compared with ordinary restaurants, parent-child restaurants do not require much renovation. Simply decorate the venue and match the amusement facilities to create a happy atmosphere.

     In MoneyJump, the most eye-catching is the re-engraved European-style carousel. This carousel is made and installed by a Taiwanese master. When night falls and the lights are on, it creates a very dreamy scene. Some customers once used it as a background for marriage proposals. Like most parent-child restaurants, MoneyJump hopes that by lowering the threshold of consumption, parents can bring their children to visit frequently and treat this as a daily meal. For example, there is no limit on the number of parents and the sale of cost-effective child packages .

The carousel installed by MoneyJump in the restaurant.

     Brand cooperation is regarded by MoneyJump as an important way to increase income. In the recent campaign to promote Marvel's fresh-keeping bag in cooperation with SC Johnson’s Secret Bag, check-in points were set to guide children to complete game tasks, including painting, dressing, Make clay snow treasures, decorate biscuits, and win prizes. The brand hopes to launch activities that are popular with children and enhance the effect of publicity to parents.

    Hongqiao Nanfeng City, where MoneyJump is located, said it is more willing to introduce parent-child business. Lin Yale of the Asset Management Department of Hongqiao Nanfeng City told YiMagazine that the parent-child format has a very important role in attracting consumers, because for this type of format, consumers often have a purpose, such as participating in interest training or parent-child Restaurant activities. For shopping malls, parent-child restaurants can significantly increase their turnover due to the huge flow of family customers. "Many well-known apparel retail brands have stores in major shopping malls, so why do consumers come to Hongqiao Nanfeng City?" she said.

    On the other hand, it is also very important for parent-child restaurant brands to occupy shopping malls with geographical advantages such as Hongqiao Nanfeng City. Hongqiao Nanfeng City is located on Zunyi Road in Changning, surrounded by large residential areas. Many families of Japanese and Korean expatriates also live nearby. It positions itself as a landmark of parent-child family leisure, regularly holding parent-child activities, and has parent-child businesses such as children's retail, children's interest training, children's entertainment, and family photography. This part of the business accounts for between 15% and 18%, which is higher than The average level of the mall. For parent-child restaurants, most consumers are attracted by residents 5 to 10 kilometers around, and there is often only one parent-child restaurant in a business district.

But in the final analysis, is a parent-child restaurant a restaurant or a parent-child paradise? This question challenged its existence and revealed the sustainability of the business.

      Compared with ordinary restaurants, parent-child restaurants need to spend more operating costs. Since the biggest feature of parent-child restaurants is the attached amusement facilities, they have to pay more attention, energy and money in design and operation. To this end, MoneyJump made a lot of detailed arrangements. For example, because they are worried that the wooden slide will have a greater impact on children, they are removed, and a professional company is asked to redesign and make them; there are three sessions every day, and 30 minutes are dedicated to cleaning the site and Pack the toys; on weekends, we will ensure that there are waiters at every point.

      "The profit point of the restaurant may be turning over the stage, but parent-child restaurants need to pay attention to hygiene and cannot always turn over. Therefore, the profit point of this business needs to be considered." Zidog told YiMagazine, China Business News.

     it also needs to bear the high rent and labor costs of the catering industry itself. For example, the store is opened in a shopping mall that is positioned as a high-end fashion, which means that it has to pay higher rents, but the target groups of the two do not overlap very well; the mobility of waiters in the restaurant is very high, and the training is also relatively high. difficult.

     In an increasingly competitive market, parent-child restaurants are also facing many difficulties, such as homogenization. Parent-child restaurants on the market are similar, including catering and various recreational aictivities, and their appeal to parents has gradually weakened. Secondly, less passenger traffic on weekdays is also an urgent problem for parent-child restaurants.

     IKEA said that now she takes her children to parent-child restaurants a lot less, because the children grow up and are no longer so interested in the facilities inside. In fact, the audience of parent-child restaurants is relatively narrow. Most of the children they love are around three years old. Older children begin to yearn for other more interesting projects, such as racing, ice skating and water parks.

    "Sometimes children's experiential brands are very popular when they first come out, but in the later period consumers are also easy to get tired, so they need to constantly adjust the space arrangement in the store." Lin Yale said. This also makes parent-child restaurants need to continuously invest money to update their facilities.

    "Mothers are very picky. If they don't feel good about it, they may not go to this parent-child restaurant next time." IKEA believes that the purchase channels are very diverse and convenient now, and the products sold by parent-child restaurants have no price advantage. In addition, “the punch-card-style consumption concept has been embedded in the consumption outlook of mothers. If you check in a different project, you may not go to the second time.” IKEA told YiMagazine, China Business News. It is difficult for them to have loyalty to the brand. Compared with the preferential annual cards, they are more inclined to buy packages on the group buying website every time.

    In this regard, professionals in a certain industry believe that a parent-child restaurant is essentially just a restaurant. She is pessimistic about the future of parent-child restaurants: “Parent-child restaurants are not the first choice for many real estate developers. Its business model is difficult to establish and may gradually be eliminated by the market.”

      IKEA also held the same view after trying many parent-child restaurants in person. She found that the types and tastes of most parent-child restaurants were unsatisfactory, so she would choose to take the children to the parent-child restaurant and find another restaurant to eat.

The dishes in parent-child restaurants are usually unsatisfactory.

     But at present, the business of parent-child restaurants is only cooling down in first-tier cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. One of the reasons is that parents here are more discerning and have more parent-child projects to choose from. But in the markets of second and third-tier cities, this type of business is still close to blank. Therefore, parent-child restaurants still have room for market expansion. For example, the way is to expand to these cities and occupy the market. Even the current directly-operated stores are difficult to achieve profitability.

     MoneyJump has no expansion plans for the time being. Zidog is also the founder of Xinghe Medical Beauty. Medical Beauty Headquarters supports the operation and procurement of parent-child restaurants, greatly reducing the burden on the team. "Our focus is still on medical beauty. We will give away beauty treatment coupons or facial masks in parent-child restaurants to achieve business extension and diversion." Zidog believes that these mothers are expected to become beauty customers.

     The business of parent-child restaurants is cooling down, but parent-child projects have always been favored by the market. How to continue to please urban parents who are easily bored may not only consider parent-child restaurants, but also the challenges faced by all parent-child projects.