{"id":2060,"date":"2016-10-03T13:00:25","date_gmt":"2016-10-03T17:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/what-shop-local-means-to-us\/"},"modified":"2016-10-03T13:00:25","modified_gmt":"2016-10-03T17:00:25","slug":"what-shop-local-means-to-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pos.learningexpress.net\/franchise\/what-shop-local-means-to-us\/","title":{"rendered":"What \u201cShop Local\u201d Means to Us"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tDEVENS, Massachusetts – Small Business Saturday<\/a> is coming up on Nov. 26. For our franchisees, it\u2019s an opportunity to celebrate that each Learning Express Toys store is a locally-owned and operated small business. Even though we have a nationwide footprint, our customers know that supporting their local Learning Express Toys means they\u2019re supporting local families and keeping locally-owned businesses in their neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

Learning Express Toys proudly claims the title \u201cYour Neighborhood Toy Store\u201d because we are built on community connections. The first Learning Express was founded to help fund an elementary school, and partnering with local schools and organizations remains a vital part of our identity today as each franchisee strives to be a good community member.<\/p>\n

Our stores help Girl Scouts get their badges. We host autism-friendly play days. We donate gift baskets to parent-teacher organizations. We work with libraries. We walk in parades among other local businesses and groups. We belong to our Chambers of Commerce. Our customers know this, and it sets Learning Express apart.<\/p>\n

\u201cShopping Local\u201d means we know our customers, and our customers trust us. We have helped them find the perfect gift for birthday after birthday. We\u2019ve helped them create Birthday Box registries, write letters to Santa, and we\u2019ve painted their adorable faces at our events. We\u2019ve carried loads of wrapped gifts to their cars and even dropped them off on our way home. We have built loyalty by building relationships, and that\u2019s something you don\u2019t get at big-box stores or on Amazon.<\/p>\n

The Learning Express Home Office supports franchisees in becoming a \u201cShop Local\u201d destination by:<\/p>\n

-Providing Grab-n-Go Events with all the marketing materials and instructions needed to host themed events for your community<\/p>\n

-Creating and distributing press releases about events and partnerships<\/p>\n

-Identifying potential local partnership opportunities with libraries, mothers\u2019 groups, schools and other local businesses<\/p>\n

-Sharing local partnership success stories from fellow Learning Express owners<\/p>\n

-Developing services like the Birthday Box program to deepen relationships with our customers<\/p>\n

-Creating national charity partnerships and connecting stores with their local chapters<\/p>\n

We would love to talk with you about how Learning Express Toys owners become valued members of their local business communities.<\/p>\n

To learn more about becoming a local business owner, please <\/strong>visit our franchise page<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Above: Learning Express Toys of Roseville, CA celebrates the #ShopSmall movement in 2015.\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DEVENS, Massachusetts – Small Business Saturday is coming up on Nov. 26. For our franchisees, it\u2019s an opportunity to celebrate that each Learning Express Toys store is a locally-owned and operated small business. Even though we have a nationwide footprint, our customers know that supporting their local Learning Express Toys means they\u2019re supporting local families…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-franchising"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pos.learningexpress.net\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pos.learningexpress.net\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pos.learningexpress.net\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pos.learningexpress.net\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pos.learningexpress.net\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pos.learningexpress.net\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pos.learningexpress.net\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pos.learningexpress.net\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pos.learningexpress.net\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pos.learningexpress.net\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}