Unique Concepts Summer 2008

Zippy Rides Bring Family Fun to the Mall

By Claude Solnick
For author bio, please check out our Author's Page by clicking on their name.

Visitors to the Pembroke Lakes Mall in Pembroke Pines, FL, go on shopping safaris unlike those you're likely to see at most other malls. While others wend their way through the maze of the retail jungle, visitors there ride electric animals such as pandas, elephants, dogs, hippos and horses.

North Miami-based Animal Rides, which does business as Zippy Rides, (ZippyRides.com) has a stable of electric-powered creatures that riders steer in a circular corral called a Zippy Zoo or Zippy Corral. The idea is to have six to eight animals that children use to "zip" around a 350-square-foot space on rides lasting three to five minutes.

Animal Rides CEO Hillel Bronstein says the rides are enough to get kids begging to go to the mall and keep them entertained. "We've been told by parents that they're able to spend more time in malls and convince their children to go with them to malls because of the Zippy Rides," says Bronstein.

The firm was founded in October of 2007 and opened for the holidays in Aventura Mall in Miami and then in Pembroke Pines with plans to open more company owned and licensee locations. "We get at least one inquiry per day from people who would like to operate a location," Bronstein says. Start-up costs are around $10,000.

This electric zoo stands out amid a sea of often-similar stores as "a totally unique and new concept" in Bronstein's words. He noticed his grandchildren used to get bored at the mall when they visited south Florida. So he thought why not give retail-tainment a new spin with a ride that goes way beyond the traditional coin-operated static creature?

"I used to go with my son and his wife to the Aventura Mall here in south Florida and I realized how difficult it was for them to keep their children entertained while they shopped," Bronstein says. "Often their shopping trips were much shorter than they could have been had the children been more entertained."

He tested the rides with two grandchildren. "They loved riding around on the first animals that we tested and I knew right there that we had something that could be very successful," Bronstein says.

He adds that the Aventura leasing manager "couldn't wait to find us a location in the mall once she saw the concept." Animal Rides' initial test was successful. "The location was constantly busy," he says. "The children are given independence to operate the animal and they enjoy that opportunity."

Zippy Rides sells photos as souvenirs of these shopping safaris and plans to add more merchandise in the near future. "Mugs are one of the items that we will be offering shortly," Bronstein says. "We're working on a line of products that appeal to children."

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