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Wholesale/Retail Category The Learning Shop Tom & Todd Merryfield
Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, a Dustin Hoffman movie in 2007, is about the strangest, most fantastic, most wonderful toy store in the world. As mystical as this may seem, bringing teaching toys to customers on a daily basis is a real business. Brothers Tom and Todd Merryfield, co-owners of The Learning Shop, know all too well the reality of the toy business.
The Learning Shop was established in 1979. The second-generation company focuses on educational toys, construction sets, children's games and board games. The company has a wide variety of offerings for teachers and classroom supplies ranging from arts and crafts, children's books, language arts, multi-media, multilingual, math, science and resources for many age levels.
A solid core of employees, outstanding customer service and "management by walking around" are keys to the success of the business. The company encourages employees to be accountable for their actions, talk personally with all customers and to be experts on the products to be able to make age-specific recommendations to customers. The attention to product detail has been extremely helpful with the recent toy recalls. The store's buying strategy is to not carry any violent or gimmicky toys and to avoid licensed products. This philosophy has lead to better customer service and higher quality merchandise.
Eleven years ago, the brothers acquired the assets of a similar company in Milwaukee and doubled their size to eight stores. Initially this purchase strained the company in many ways, but forced them to make management and fiscal changes that have since strengthened the company. Both co-owners take the time to personally deliver paychecks at various times and thank the employees for their hard work.
The Learning Shop makes significant donations in the form of gift certificates to area schools, PTA's, PTO's and many children's organizations that deal with education. The company is a supporter of Lifest and hosts blood drives at their locations. All employees are encouraged to volunteer for their children's school activities. The company has sponsored a team for the American Cancer Society SoleBurner walk/run for more than 14 years.
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