Deb Tandy of Learning Express is leaving on a high note, seeks her replacement to fill some big shoes

THE WOODLANDS, TX – A family-style toy store that has enjoyed a dozen years of business in The Woodlands is as popular as ever… and its owner is ready to retire and hand the reins over to a new generation.

Deb Tandy, owner and operator of Learning Express Toys & Gifts of The Woodlands, recently posted an announcement that, after running the store that she opened in 2011, she is ready to retire. However, this is no ordinary ‘changing of the guard,’ and the business isn’t closing down.

Learning Express is the largest independent toy store retailer in the country, founded in 1987 and currently with around 85 stores and many more being opened this year. It was conceived by its founder Sharon DiMinico to be a store offering high quality toys and games to inspire young minds from infant to pre-teen.

Tandy’s love of toys and business savvy go back decades. “I have a BBA in Marketing & Finance, and an MBA in International Business & Finance. It was in the business / finance industry that I met my husband in Michigan,” she said in a recent exclusive interview with Woodlands Online. “We moved to Texas in 2004; my husband’s brother had a company down here and prompted us to move to better weather and opportunities, just around the time my daughter turned one year old. I stayed home for a few years and we shopped at the old Learning Express all the time. They were closing, and I took the opportunity to contact the home office in Boston. After the local shop shut its doors, my husband and I immediately set about opening a new location here in the Alden Bridge Shopping Center after discussing it over cocktails in the pool. Our plans came to fruition in 2011 and we completely renovated the place and made it clean and fresh.”

Renovations included a complete gutting of the original layout to fit the Learning Express vision of what a toy store should be.

“We try to keep the ‘special’ in ‘specialty,’ – you’ll find things here that you won’t find in Wal-Mart or Target,” said Tandy. “We definitely try to have things that are new and unusual, and every single thing that we sell has educational value. Whether you’re learning fine motor skills, or role-playing to model adult behavior – such as pretend cooking – everything is educational.”

The layout of the store is reminiscent of made-to-custom toy stores one would find in a romantic comedy; instead of endless generic aisles and easy-to-miss sections of genres, every nook and cranny of Learning Express is filled with toys, games, trinkets, costumes, props, and articles of wonder. Within moments of entering, child and parent alike could easily lose track of time and get lost – not physically, but nostalgically.

“I’ve always loved toys, I love fun, I love people, so it was the perfect job for me, and I’ve loved every bit of it. I think it was what I was born to do,” said Tandy.

She maintains that it’s the people who make a primary difference between Learning Express and other chain toy stores. “We’re all about ‘team, product, and wow.’ Every member of our team is a highly trained toy expert. Before they work with customers, we give them tons of training, because our primary business is building relationships, with customers, with vendors, with the community. We also do free gift wrapping and free personalizations, especially for special holidays like Easter. We offer online shopping, curbside pickup, phone orders, and we’ll ship your order. Anything you need, we’re full service.”

Despite the joy of operating the store and her long history with Learning Express, Deb made the difficult decision to set the retirement ball in motion and look for someone to buy her longtime ‘second home’ from her, and announced as such in an email blast she sent out to the community.

“I didn’t even know I was going to do it until I did it,” she said. “I’ve been waffling about it for a while. But my daughter is going away to college this summer. My husband travels a lot, and my son is a freshman in high school who plays lacrosse six days a week and I get to drive him. This job is all or nothing; you have to be all the way in, and currently we’re at a point in our lives where I can concentrate on family before my son also graduates and my husband and I retire to the beach. I decided that this is the best time to transition to that new stage.

Too often, local businesses – particularly retail – shut down to a lack of business or firm management savvy. Learning Express suffers from neither. “We’re doing great here; we’re very busy and it’s a very healthy business. Much like ‘Seinfeld,’ I feel it’s better to go out on a high note. I think that someone can come in and take what we’ve done and raise it to the next level. Someone who’s younger than me who’s on a different family path that we’re currently on.”

Those who are interested in becoming the new owners of this local shop are encouraged to contact Mike Derse at Learning Express at mike@learningexpress.com to start the process.

Tandy laughs at the thought of ‘vetting’ any candidates to take over the store’s operations from her. “I have very high standards, but it’s not just me. The main office will definitely want someone who can and will do the job. And I want someone to take over more than just my story; I want them to take over my legacy and make it great. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done to post that announcement. It’s hard to leave a healthy, profitable business.”

She is adamant about what a perfect fit the store is for the Township, and how anyone who runs it needs to appreciate that fit. “When it comes to The Woodlands and Learning Express, you can’t have one without the other. I think The Woodlands is important to this store because we’re all about community, and without the community we wouldn’t exist. We partner with local schools and charities, churches, and Toys for Tots. We’re very involved with our community. What we bring to The Woodlands is a fun, friendly, happy place to shop for toys without the usual hassle or ‘same old same old’ in a full-service format.”

Tandy’s emotions are understandably going in several directions at once at the thought of leaving the store that she opened and nurtured throughout the years.

“It’ll be hard to leave, and whoever takes over will have to enjoy a formal hand-off celebration with me, but this is the time. I’m ready for the next step, and can’t wait to see how Learning Express continues without me.”