People ask me all the time how I got into the toy business so I thought I\u2019d write an abbreviated version of my journey. It\u2019s probably a familiar story for many business owners, but here goes\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nStart<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
My\ndad was an entrepreneur. I vividly remember his stories at the dinner table about\nthe many projects he was working on or his latest invention\u2026 the \u201cslotter\u201d that\nputs the slot and threads in screws; a zip code reading machine for the post office,\nor an auto gyro he was building for the army. He started his own design and\nmanufacturing company when I was 2 years old, so over the years, there were\nmany, many stories. My mother was a homemaker and a true partner. In the early\nyears, she raised the family while my dad worked 18 hrs. a day. My two sisters\nand I were taught very early on that if you worked hard, you could do almost\nanything. My parents always encouraged us to \u201cdream big\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After\ncollege, I moved to Washington DC and worked for the National Geographic\nSociety. After two years, my husband took a job with a Boston law firm and I\nfell in love with Massachusetts. I tried to get a job in publishing but so was\nevery other graduate in the Boston area. So I went to an employment office and\ninterviewed for the highest paying job they had in their files \u2013 a sales and\nbookkeeping position for the Beacon Tile and Marble Company. Pretty good for an\nEnglish Lit major with zero background in finance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\nlearned the business from the ground up, worked with designers and their\ncustomers, and ultimately helped estimate small jobs. Three years later, with\nmuch encouragement from my boss and mentor, I opened my own tile and marble shop\nin Acton, MA\u2026.Upstairs Downstairs Tile and Bath Shoppe. I\u2019ll always remember our grand opening \u2013 it\nwas the day President Nixon resigned, August 9, 1974. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Running\na construction business in the early 70\u2019s, in a mostly male-dominated business,\nwasn\u2019t easy for a young woman in her twenties. I\u2019ll skip those details, but the\nlessons learned over the next 10 years were invaluable\u2026and the business grew. I\nwill always remember unloading 40lb. boxes of tile and 50lb. bags of grout off\nthe tail end of a 16-wheeler! Ugh!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under\nthe same roof, I created a small kitchen and bath retail shop, which was my\nfirst introduction to retail! I was hooked! I loved going to shows, buying,\nmerchandising, marketing and selling accessory items for the baths and kitchens\nwe were remodeling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In\n1980, one of my customers was a local real estate developer and I learned\nlater, also a neighbor. Skipping over the marital details, I married Lou\nDiMinico in 1981. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Plan<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Two\nkids and 4 years later, I sold my tile business and decided to open a toy store.\nI vividly remembered the emotions I felt buying my first child\u2019s nursery items.\nShamefully, I never looked at a price tag, but turned to my sister at the\nregister and said that one day I would be in a business that revolved around kids.\nThat was in 1983.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With\ntwo kids in tow, I must have visited at least 50-75 toy stores from southern\nMaine to Connecticut over the next 3 years. I kept a journal of the brands I\nliked, great merchandising statements, fixture designs, store layouts,\nflooring, lighting, signage and customer service techniques. These notes\nultimately became part of the 1st<\/sup> store operations manual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Knowing\nthat children learn through play, the retail plan that emerged was based on the\npremise that toys had to be fun, yet help develop curious minds, strong bodies\nand important social skills. I wanted my store to provide a fun and friendly environment\nwith a knowledgeable sales staff, out from behind the counter, providing expert\nadvice to parents. I felt free gift-wrapping, free personalization, civic\nfundraising, in-store events, and a loyalty program, would set Learning Express\napart from the big box retailers with their endless aisles of everything pink\nand black aisles of villainous-looking action figures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Launch<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
In\n1987, I was president of the board of The Groton Community School, a private\npreschool that my children attended in my hometown of Groton, Massachusetts. I\nset out to raise revenues without raising tuition and offered the school the\nopportunity to open the first Learning Express\u2026 a specialty toy store concept I\nhad been working on since 1984 \u2013 a year after my second child was born. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So I opened\nthe first Learning Express in Acton, Massachusetts, with sales supporting the\nGroton Community School, providing the ROI they needed to provide health\ninsurance for their teachers and much needed playground equipment and\ncurriculum supplies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Six\nmonth later, I opened my own store in Needham, MA. During those first six months,\nI read an article in Inc. Magazine on franchising and thought it was a great\nway to expand. We began franchising in 1990 \u2013 and continued to open across the\nU.S. Today we have over 100 stores in 27 states. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
In\nthe early years, my husband, Lou, helped me with real-state & leasing but he\nhas since retired. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our daughter Lauren has been helping me open stores since she was twelve years old. After working at General Electric and Nike, for 4 years, she and her husband Mike asked to join the company in 2012. I always wanted her to work at Learning Express but did not want to pressure her. When I asked Lauren why she wanted to join the company, she said she had never seen anyone happier at work than me. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our\nson Michael started in the business in the 5th<\/sup> grade, helping me write\na buying program for what was then a HOT product – \u201cPOGS\u201d! He lives in Orlando,\nFL and is working in the solar industry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Learning\nExpress has always been a family affair. Our storeowners refer to their brother\nand sister storeowners as family. The people I work with every day are like\nfamily. No numbered employees here! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nchallenges today are very different than they were 30+ years ago. There was no\nInternet, no Amazon, no social media or electronic marketing. No Facebook,\nInstagram, Twitter or You Tube. To keep up, we grew our company from 9 people twenty\nyears ago to over 30 people today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019ve witnessed\nthe demise of Child World, LearningSmith, Zany Brainy, Kay Bee Toys, FAO Schwarz\nand now Toys R Us \u2013 all very sad. Have there been opportunities for independent\ntoy stores like Learning Express from all these closures? Yes and No. YES\nbecause more market share opens up and NO because the disruption in sales when\na store is liquidating affects our sales, too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\nsaid, we have existed alongside all of the aforementioned stores for years. We\nhave ALWAYS had the philosophy that if you carry the toys that kids want, have\na team of people whose job it is to make the customer happy with their purchase\nand offer a WOW shopping experience, sales will follow. We have always believed\nin hands-on, experiential shopping. It has worked for us for over 30 years!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Future<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Now I\nthink in terms of what will happen in the next 30 years with my daughter in\nmind. I\u2019m a big believer in the \u201cpersonal\u201d 1-on-1 experience when shopping. I\ndon\u2019t think it matters if you\u2019re a Baby Boomer, Gen X, Millennial or a Gen Z. People like\nconnections – especially when shopping for their family. The locally-owned and\noperated store provides that connection. When I was a kid in West Hartford, CT,\nmy sister and I would go to a store called the Toy Chest and would check out the\ntoys we wanted for our birthday or Christmas. \nMo Schlein, the owner, would say to my mother: \u201cDorothy, Sharon wants\nthis art kit, a marble run and a pogo stick; Sandy wants a Madame Alexander\ndoll to add to her collection, a monopoly game and a badminton set. That is the\ntype of connection I\u2019m talking about. He knew our family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\ntotally understand the convenience of shopping on line. I do it all the time,\nmainly because I live an hour west of Boston and the nearest shopping center is\nmore than 30 minutes away. I would prefer to shop locally, however, because I\nlike to examine my purchases for friends and family. I also like\nwell-merchandised stores where gifts are arranged by theme and I can look at\neverything at once. It also pleases me that a percentage of the revenue from my\nlocal store goes back to my town or my state \u2013 not Minneapolis, MN (Target) or\nBentonville, AK (Walmart)!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I hope\nyou enjoyed the Learning Express story and I hope you enjoy our stores on your\nnext visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
by Sharon DiMinico People ask me all the time how I got into the toy business so I thought I\u2019d write an abbreviated version of my journey. It\u2019s probably a familiar story for many business owners, but here goes\u2026. The Start My dad was an entrepreneur. I vividly remember his stories at the dinner table…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258,"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":[5,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-franchising","category-toy-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pos.learningexpress.net\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5127","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=5127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pos.learningexpress.net\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pos.learningexpress.net\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pos.learningexpress.net\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pos.learningexpress.net\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pos.learningexpress.net\/franchise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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