{"id":459,"date":"2016-08-22T09:00:47","date_gmt":"2016-08-22T13:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/?p=459"},"modified":"2016-08-22T09:00:47","modified_gmt":"2016-08-22T13:00:47","slug":"learning-express-toys-introduces-new-corporate-store-and-play-center-concept-in-bedford-ma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pos.learningexpress.net\/franchise\/learning-express-toys-introduces-new-corporate-store-and-play-center-concept-in-bedford-ma\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning Express Toys Introduces New Corporate Store and Play Center Concept in Bedford, MA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<strong>Bedford, MA<\/strong> Learning Express Inc., the nation\u2019s largest educational toy franchisor, opens a flagship Learning Express Toys location\u2014the first corporate-owned store since 1995\u2014in the redeveloped Bedford Marketplace (Whole Foods plaza) in September. Adjacent to the toy store, Learning Express, Inc. is introducing a new concept: Learning Express Play, a children\u2019s activity center and play museum for children ages 6 months through age 8.<\/p>\n<p>As online shopping becomes increasingly competitive, Learning Express differentiates itself by offering interactive experiences that can\u2019t be replicated online. The new Learning Express Play, born from this strategy, will host classes, birthday parties and open play.<\/p>\n<p>Learning Express Play includes a 1,000-square-foot children\u2019s gymnasium with a rock-climbing wall, an infant play area and Downtown Play, which features play areas inspired by New England townscapes and nationally-recognized children&#8217;s museums.<\/p>\n<p>A Snack Caf\u00e9 features coffee and natural, healthy food from Bedford\u2019s Prince Street Caf\u00e9 &amp; Bakery.<\/p>\n<p>Along with Learning Express Toys, the business occupies 7,500 square feet.<\/p>\n<p>As with its other 120 toy store locations nationwide, Learning Express Toys of Bedford sets itself apart from the \u201cbig-box\u201d stores with unique toys, gifts, and exclusive products for newborns through tweens. Learning Express Toys also provides in-store activities, visits from the most popular costumed characters, toy and game demonstrations, free gift wrapping, complimentary personalization of a variety of items, and a \u201cBirthday Box\u201d gift registry.<\/p>\n<p>Learning Express, Inc. is headquartered in Devens. Its founder, Sharon DiMinico of Groton, opened the first Learning Express store in Acton in 1987. Learning Express Play is the brainchild of her daughter, Lauren Derse, and son-in-law, Mike Derse, of Harvard, who have two young boys.<\/p>\n<p>The Grand Opening is scheduled for Sept. 23, 2016.\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bedford, MA Learning Express Inc., the nation\u2019s largest educational toy franchisor, opens a flagship Learning Express Toys location\u2014the first corporate-owned store since 1995\u2014in the redeveloped Bedford Marketplace (Whole Foods plaza) in September. Adjacent to the toy store, Learning Express, Inc. is introducing a new concept: Learning Express Play, a children\u2019s activity center and play museum&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2073,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","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":[4,6],"tags":[27,32],"class_list":["post-459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-franchise-news","category-learning-express-play","tag-grand-opening","tag-owner-spotlight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pos.learningexpress.net\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pos.learningexpress.net\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pos.learningexpress.net\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pos.learningexpress.net\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pos.learningexpress.net\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pos.learningexpress.net\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pos.learningexpress.net\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}