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At Kuwait's The Avenues Mall, yesterday saw the grand opening of Baroue, a $30 million children's department store that makes F.A.O. Schwarz look like the toy shelf at your grandmother's house. Designed exclusively for newborns-to-14-year-olds (with everything from changing rooms to elevators scaled at child-size), Baroue sells toys, clothing and stationery selected to "enable kids to lead their unique lifestyle and equip them with quality products and activities to do so," says Baroue CEO Fahad A Al Mutawa. Uh..."lifestyle?"

In addition to moving product, Baroue features a coffee and juice bar, a photography studio, hair salon, nail salon, and "child-friendly cash counter," whatever that means, as well as the Sea Serpent, a play area "the size of four London buses."

"The discerning kid today knows exactly what he wants," says Al Mutawa, whose research into the subject led him to this shocking fact: "Parents...prefer an environment that is safe for their kids, practical, convenient and reassuring." To that end, once your child sets foot in the store, s/he's constantly tracked and monitored with RFID. God forbid your kid gets lost somewhere between the lattes and the manicures.

via tmc net