Wegmans Ends Wkids Babysitting Service

Wegmans Food Markets is closing all of its Wkids locations, which offered free in-store babysitting for children ages 3 to 9 while the parents shopped.

The Rochester, N.Y.-based grocer told The Buffalo News that the service was not used as much as it once was, so they plan to reinvent the space.

"Wegmans really wants to be the most fun place to shop for families with kids," Michele Mehaffy, the chain's consumer affairs manager in Buffalo, N.Y., told the newspaper. “Certainly, we’re finding space in our current store footprint to bring more services that are now in greater demand.”

Wegmans said that it plans to host "Family Experience" programs such as in-store yoga, cookie classes, story times, and painting or movie nights.

The number of Wkids locations has declined recently, having gone from 27 at the service's peak to just two last year.

Family-owned Wegmans operates 99 with stores in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland and Massachusetts. The company is No. 16 on Progressive Grocer’s 2019 Super 50 list of the top grocers in the United States.