 Plastic & rubber figurines, used for imaginative play |
With its vast inventory in both educational toys and teacher materials, The Parent Teacher Store, located in uptown Kingston, can easily accommodate both selling seasons. The 4,000-square-foot space is divided into several sections, including a book room, a teacher resource room (that can also be used by parents wanting to find extra help or enrichment materials for their children), and what could be described as the transition area, containing educational games, math manipulatives, flash cards and craft items that can be used by either target audience. There is also a well-insulated children's play area, inconspicuous behind shelves in the middle of the store, which Bell describes as "key to this business."
The Parent Teacher Store was started by Bell's wife Noreen 13 years ago. "My wife had been a nursery school teacher for years, and she became familiar with the crossover items between education and upscale quality toys," Bell notes. After working at Tinker Street Toys in Woodstock, he adds, she "put the concept together." Bell came on in a full-time capacity once he retired from IBM, where he had been a manager in design.
The store has grown substantially since its original inception, adding both space and inventory over the years. About seven years ago, a satellite store was opened in Latham, outside of Albany. According to manager and buyer Ursula Hallinan, in addition to teachers buying items on an individual basis, the Kingston store also services the order needs of several local school districts, including Kingston, Saugerties, Onteora, Red Hook, and Hyde Park. There is one employee whose sole job is to handle those orders, as well as the store's Web site, she adds.
 Ursula Hallinan, manager of The Parent Teacher Store in Kingston |
Though Bell notes that in its first 10 years, The Parent Teacher Store had a sales growth of 20 percent a year, that number flattened out after 2001, in part because of a lack of parking in uptown Kingston. The Latham store continues to expand, he says. "It's difficult to grow in Kingston," he points out. "The uptown location is not necessarily a good retail spot."
Still, the business is "pretty solid" mostly because of its dual focus. "It's hard for either concept to make it on its own, but the combination is successful," Bell adds.
According to Hallinan, The Parent Teacher Store ships all over the world, and also fills orders for various Army bases. On a local level, there is also a market in the expanding homeschooling community. Hallinan, who has been with the store for 10 years, says that one of the keys to the store's success is the quality of the items it offers. "We constantly change what we sell," she notes. "When things become mass market, we tend to shy away from them." Hallinan, who has three children and who volunteers at her local library, adds that many purchasing ideas come directly from teachers and parents. "We listen to them," she emphasizes. "They'll come in and show us something, and we'll look at it and say, 'That looks good.'"
Among the additions that have been inspired by consumer feedback is an increase in the number of chapter books dealing with real-life issues, such as divorce and death, and the expansion of teacher resource materials to the middle school and high school levels. "It used to be that we had materials for the primary grades through sixth grade," Hallinan notes. "They weren't manufacturing things for the upper levels. Now there's a demand."
Of course, the store does not always respond to what the market calls for, leaning away from violent toys and focusing on value. "It takes a lot of judgement. You need to think, is it a quality product?" Bell points out. "It takes local knowledge and a personal understanding of what kids need. A lot of stores tend to order on popularity."
"You can't buy this stuff anywhere else," Hallinan adds. "People say that to us all the time."
George Bell, owner of The Parent Teacher Store in Kingston, says the store is on the "leading edge in terms of educational toys." Through toy conferences, sales representatives, and teacher resource trade shows, the store has built an inventory of both new and traditional toys that Bell feels are unique and worthwhile.