Special Feature - Toymaster visits Learning Express

Miami nice - our very own Crockett and Tubbs visit the Learning Express June 22 conference

Paul Reader is marketing director at Toymaster, the largest buying group for independent toy retailers in the UK & Ireland. Following a visit to the group’s annual May show from Mike Derse, director of Business Development at the American toy store franchise Learning Express, Paul – accompanied by Midco Toys’ Dave Middleton - headed across the pond to attend Learning Express’ June 2022 conference. Here, Paul reports back on his time at the event and what he has learned from the experience.

My trip was the result of many months of discussions between our very own David Middleton (who has always had more than one eye on what happens in the US) and the popular Toy World columnist Richard Derr, the proud owner of a very successful Learning Express franchise in Chicago. Mike Derse’s visit to our Toymaster May Show was so successful that the natural next step was for Toymaster to check out the LE conference in June – and the fact it was held in Miami only increased my enthusiasm for the trip.

Dave and I arrived on the Saturday evening and soon found ourselves at a drinks reception, chaperoned by Mike and Rick. We were both immediately accepted as insiders, not outsiders – a testament to independent toy retail on both sides of the Atlantic. We spent a very enjoyable night talking shop, before turning in, to use the Americanism, by 10pm, ready for Sunday’s early start.

With the conference itself starting on the Monday, Sunday morning was dedicated to Learning Express’ Store Owner Presentations. I thought keeping 90+ store owners engaged in PowerPoint presentations for so long would be very difficult – imagining what our members would say if asked to do this - but Americans love a success story. A tremendous amount of praise was given, especially for the outgoing Learning Express CEO and founder, Sharon Diminico, who was handing over the reigns to her daughter Lauren after 35 years.

The afternoon was totally unexpected. We kicked off with a session called ‘Let’s Get Social’. Rather than a race to the nearest bar, this brainstorming session saw the head office team sit down with store owners to discuss how best to use social media: what they’ve done, what’s worked, what they could do differently and much more. The session was really interesting - one of the biggest contributing factors to LE success is undeniably the use of social media and TikTok. American retailers are simply more enthusiastic and so much better at it than most of their UK counterparts, and this is an important lesson we should all heed.

Any hopes that the next session, ‘35 Nuggets in 60 Minutes’, was an eating contest were quickly dispelled. Store owners, including David and I, were all given different pens and asked to join the table hosting a home office team member with the same pen. This was a simple way of splitting up each of the groups and getting to know other people. Each table was given a different topic to discuss and some questions to answer. Topics included: Buying – Reports & Principles, Loss Prevention, In-store Display and Merchandising, Cash Flow, Team/Staff Motivation, Customer Service, 2021 Highlights and Charitable Causes to Support. Each table leader then presented their findings to the rest of the group. This was a fascinating exercise and something I would very much encourage to increase member engagement.

Dave Middleton attempts to persuade Mike and Lauren Derse to become honorary Derby County fans.

The post-dinner session was ‘Power Play’ – playing with product. Suppliers invited store owners to get hands-on and learn about how to demo a product. In-store demonstrations can significantly improve sales, and here in the UK we sometimes need the confidence to just get on and do it. As for me, I can now proudly say I’m a Loom Band demo expert.

The next day, at the show part of the conference, I was struck the positivity and energy that came from the LE team, as well as the store owners and the suppliers. The size of the show surprised me though. With over 100 suppliers attending I thought the scale would be similar to our May show, but the vendor booths were a lot smaller than I expected and could probably have fitted into our larger marquee, which will be familiar to many readers. That said, given the SKU count of an average LE stores comes in at around 3,000-4,000, many suppliers were choosing to show a small amount of specially selected lines.

I was also surprised to learn around half of the product sold through LE stores is centrally purchased by the LE home office. Store owners took along these orders to the vendor and then added other lines they thought may work for their business. This is quite different to Toymaster’s approach, where we leave buying decisions up to our members.

In terms of differences, the standout is that LE operates a franchise model, while Toymaster has a member-owned model: LE owners invest a capital sum to obtain the brand, the systems and the opening stock, while Toymaster looks to support existing, trading toy retailers.

Vendor numbers differ too. The LE home office team has around 180 active accounts and one store owner said to me they could add another 100+ to that. These are the ones they deal with direct. The SKU count in a typical LE store is considerably less than that offered by many of our members, yet the number of suppliers our members deal with would be considerably less than LE.

Another striking difference is the back-office support for accounts purposes. Unlike our members, LE store owners buy direct and process all the paperwork individually. Home office doesn’t facilitate the invoicing of goods: in fact, one store owner told me it’s a full-time job for them to look after all the paperwork and payments. Our TIMS system, which makes life so much easier for our members, was a fascinating concept among LE store owners and many appeared envious of our back office support.

Data analysis is one of the many things LE does really well. The LE EPOS system doesn’t really track purchases, but it does capture sales every 24 hours. The speed and efficiency with which this data is shared with other LE owners, in the form of daily and weekly best-sellers, allows them to be reactive and drive sales. Toymaster knows pretty much everything regarding the purchasing side of the business, but the actual sales data is something we need to work much harder on if we are to react at a similar speed to that of LE.

I’m biased of course, but I did feel the show didn’t quite match the buzz and ambience that a Toymaster show offers. Creating a little more theatre is something we can help with if that’s what the LE team would like, especially for the evening events - by 10pm, there were only a handful of people still there. Some Toymaster members would be just warming up by that point. With a 10pm bedtime, our bacon rolls would have to come out at 9.30pm. Unthinkable!

With over 100 suppliers showcasing product it was inevitable that we would find some standout lines. The reality check was that many products in the US are not tested to EU and UK Toy safety standards, and it would require serious investment and commitment to make them work for us. The other point of interest is that the LE franchise model locates stores in more affluent suburbs. LE stores don’t stock the same highprofile brands we do and can therefore command a higher price for many of the lines, as they can’t be found in mass market US retailers or discounters. Many of the retail price points quoted were $10, $20 and even $40: even Hamley’s in Regent Street would struggle with the price points on some of the items we saw.

The two key categories we liked the most were Novelty and Tweens. Novelty was exciting and very different. Well packaged and with the right merchandising in-store, we believe this is an area well worth exploring more over here. The Tweens category, aimed at girls 6-14 years, is also worth monitoring - a little like Claire’s Accessories (but better). We’ve come away with a few good leads to explore and several conversations to have with existing UK suppliers regarding distribution to our independents. We’re also going to follow-up on a several exciting products that UK suppliers may have missed from their US partners. Watch this space.

The positivity, enthusiasm and drive that we saw at the LE show has inspired both Dave and I to push on a little harder in our respective endeavours. Learning Express is surely a gold medallist when it comes to passion: Dave was stripped of any title by one Codi Perino from LE in Seattle. If you get the chance, check out his TikTok on Squishmallows.

Our trip has left us in absolutely no doubt that there is and will be a future for independent toy retail - no one is better equipped with the tools to explore, react and adapt than independents. With the continued support of our invaluable suppliers, and by maintaining the very best of relationships with them and each other, we will not only survive and thrive, but we will also prosper.

Now we’re back in the UK, the plan is to remain in contact with catch-up meetings and Zoom calls. Both Toymaster and Learning Express plan to keep attending each other’s shows, perhaps not every year but every other year or certainly every three years. We’ll potentially also use the US Astra speciality conference to come together and take a more serious look at product opportunities and seek out new suppliers. There is also a plan in the works to talk to the specialist toy group Mastermind in Canada… but I’ll tell you more about that in due course.

Finally, as glamorous as Miami is, the airport, carpark and conference hotel were pretty much as good as things got for Dave and I. Any grand ideas about relaxing by the pool or on the beach were extinguished very quicky once we realised how many trips to Learning Express stores, other toy stores, Target, Walmart and shopping malls we’d be going on, looking out for US retail trends that might find themselves this side of the pond in the near future. I came back both enthusiastic and exhausted – but I guess when you’re on tour with Dave, you really shouldn’t expect anything else.

Thanks for having us, Learning Express. It was a blast and we can’t wait to do it all again.

Rick Derr was also welcomed into the US Derby County Supporters Club.