Business Notes Entertainment

When parents want to go shopping and no baby sitter can be found, a happy jaunt to the store can turn into a disaster. The child starts to cry, and Mom and Dad begin to shout. Joseph Adelman believes he has a solution. A former executive with United Artists and Paramount, Adelman recently opened Kidpix Theaters, a cinema that offers continuous 95-minute programs of cartoons and children's films between 11:30 a.m. and 9 p.m. in the Galleria at South Bay in Redondo Beach, Calif. Shopping-center-bound parents drop off their youngsters (ages five to ten) at Adelman's Kidpix flicks. Each child is identified by < a numbered claim check signed by a parent. Mom and Dad are given a beeper in case they need to be reached while in stores, and a stub matching their child's number, which they must present in order to fetch the child. Price: $3.

A typical Kidpix program might include a Bugs Bunny cartoon, a Three Stooges short and a film like Ninja the Wonderboy. Adelman, who hopes to franchise Kidpix into a 400-theater chain, has encountered only one problem: parents get so wrapped up in shopping that they forget about Junior. Adelman is considering putting a two-hour time limit on the video baby sitter.