Learning Express relocating to Lionville
Exton Square Mall store relocating
Learning Express Toys of Exton is coming full circle.
The store, which has been in the Exton Square Mall since 2012, is returning to the place where it originally started.
Effective April 6, Learning Express Toys, owned by Rich and Fran Gordon, will return to the Lionville Shopping Center, 128 Eagleview Blvd. in Uwchlan.
The Learning Express Toys at the mall will close at the end of the business day Saturday, March 31, and will reopen in its new space Friday, April 6.
“We want to get back to being a neighborhood store and having fun in the business,” said owner Rich Gordon, adding that the couple is eager to provide the Learning Express service with which customers are familiar. “After being locally owned and operated for 20-plus years, we’re ready to help a whole new generation of families.”
Gordon said the shopping center is 100 percent occupied, has easy access in and out and plenty of parking.
“It’s in a booming area and people shop there. We’ll be back in a couple of communities that are family oriented,” he said.
“We’re going home,” Fran Gordon added. “We’re hoping to recapture some of what we lost when we went into the mall.”
The couple, which also owns a Learning Express Toys in Havertown, acknowledged there has been a shift in the way people shop — away from enclosed malls.
Not only is the store returning to the same shopping center where it got its start, according to Rich Gordon, it’s returning to the exact same space it occupied when Learning Express Toys first opened in 1997.
As for space, Gordon said the two locations are comparable: 3,470-square-feet at the Lionville Shopping Center location compared with 3,131-square-feet at the mall.
“The sales floor will be about the same, but we will have a nicer storage area,” Gordon added.
He said customers can expect reasonable prices on toys and product knowledge,
“things you can’t get online.”
“We have the collective knowledge of 100 independent store owners seeking out great products. When one of us comes across a new great item — we share with each other. When we find unique products, we embrace them,” Gordon said, adding that Silly Bandz was a phenomenon that was started by a Learning Express Toys owner in Alabama. Silly Bandz are rubber bands formed into shapes including animals, objects, numbers, and letters and worn as bracelets.
Learning Express Toys offers a birthday gift registry, gift wrapping, personalization and character events.
Gordon said the couple was able to take possession of the space at Lionville Shopping Center several weeks ago, to begin getting the space ready. All the product will be transferred from one location to the other over Easter weekend, according to Rich Gordon.
“We have heard that there is excitement about having us back in the area,” Fran Gordon said. “Learning Express Toys is a destination stop.”
Learning Express Toys originally opened in the Lionville Shopping Center in 1997 under different owners. The Gordons purchased the store in 2000, and in 2007 moved it to Whiteland Towne Center in Exton. In 2012, the couple moved the store to Exton Square Mall.
Learning Express Toys has more than 115 locations across the country — each one locally owned and operated.
For more information about the Exton Learning Express Toys, visit www. facebook.com/learningexpressexton.