In an era when many small businesses fold before they even get off the ground, Soine’s Teaching Tools in Mount Vernon, Washington, is marking its 26th year of operation. It stands to reason, then, that veteran ed dealer Robyn Soine must be doing something right. We contacted her recently to learn about her approach to retail and how she maintains a thriving business despite the ups and downs of the past quarter-century.
Robyn has worked in the store full time since 2006, when she retired after a 33-year career as a classroom teacher. Her experience makes her sensitive to the needs of teachers, and helps cement her store’s reputation as a place where educators and parents will find a wide selection and great depth of product.
Careful planning and measured growth
With the hands-on help of her parents (“I thought they needed something to do in their spare time.”), Robyn launched Soine’s Teaching Tools in August of 1984. It started out very small, in her father’s workshop behind her parents’ house. At only 200 square feet, the store called for an extremely high level of organization, which proved absolutely crucial to its early success. Even now, in a much bigger building, Robyn considers organization critical.
Her dad handled sales, her mom served as secretary and treasurer, and Robyn did the buying and display. Each summer they’d gain some extra space for merchandising in an open-air tent they pitched in the yard.
Four years later, after outgrowing the backyard, the store moved to a slightly larger location where it remained for 10 years. Robyn’s father passed away in 1993, but her mom remains a minor partner in the business to this day.
In 1999 Robyn bought the building Soine’s occupies today. It’s on a busy corner near a post office, with lots of traffic and plenty of parking. Upstairs features 700 square feet of retail space plus a bathroom and storage. Downstairs, there’s an additional 500 square feet of retail. “We call it the frugal floor because that’s where we put the sale items.”
It’s a house dating back to 1929, which she converted to commercial space by taking down some walls, installing fixtures and adding extra-padded carpeting for warmth and comfort. “Customers come in and sit on the floor!” she told us. “Some will spend an entire Saturday here going through the materials. The store may not be big but it’s cozy and warm, and there are a lot of products to see.”
In addition to serving in-store shoppers that include public and Christian school teachers, homeschoolers and parents, Soine’s also fills purchase orders. The store attracts customers within a 65-mile radius that extends from the Canadian border to Seattle.
While she was teaching, Robyn handled weekends and a friend minded the store during the week. Since retiring, she is the sole employee in keeping with her philosophy of small, manageable and intimate.
Know your products
“I always greet my customers with a smile,” she said, adding, “One of the things I learned early on in a business class is to ask, ‘How might I help you?’ not ‘Can I help you?’ I find I don’t get, ‘No, I don’t need help,’ as often, and we really can start a conversation that way.
“Having been in business for more than 25 years, and having taught as well, I know my people. Teachers, in particular, don’t have time to do a lot of looking. They need to be able to ask for something, find it and move on.”
Robyn can home in on exactly what her customers need – sometimes when they aren’t sure what exactly that is. “I’ve learned over the years that I have to know a product by what’s in it in order to make recommendations to customers. I ask a lot of questions and show them a lot of different books to narrow down their search. Beyond that, I keep checking in with them when they’re in the store to see if they need further help.”
She added: “Last summer, a teacher called me from Utah looking for a particular book. She didn’t know what the cover looked like, but she could tell me what was in it. I was able to find the book and ship it out to her.
“To be successful, it is imperative that everyone in a teacher store – owners and employees – be well trained,” she added. “Those of us who do the ordering look at catalogs and attend shows, but generally, employees aren’t doing those things. Everyone working in the store needs to know the merchandise intimately, even if it means that while they’re on the clock working, they go section by section to study each class of products, just to get to know what’s in them,” she said.
Broad and deep
Knowing every single product available at Teaching Tools, despite its small size, might represent a challenge to anyone but Robyn herself. Part of the shop’s appeal is that the selection is both broad and deep. Every square inch is put to use, devoted either to rack upon rack and shelf upon shelf, or to cross-company displays showcasing every item available on a specific topic, such as “China.” In a single display, Robyn will group together decoratives, theme books, manipulatives, puzzles – anything and everything that a teacher might conceivably look for under a given theme. She does not order large quantities of a single item, but rather a broad range of resources in each category. And, she manages all her orders and inventory by hand without a POS system, partly because it works for her and partly because to switch now would be a lot of work.
It can be a bit much for the uninitiated. As Robyn explained, “When a teacher friend brought her sister to the store a year or so ago, I could hear her on the front step before they came. She was saying, ‘Take a deep breath before we open the door. It’s going to be overwhelming,’ and it is. But when a customer asks for something, I enjoy being able to pull anything and everything on a specific topic. As I lay them all out, sometimes they’ll say, ‘That’s right. I do need that, and that ...’ It’s not a pushy thing either. I don’t sell them what they don’t want.”
In terms of bringing in new products, she takes cues from her customers. “I listen for trends and if I don’t have something, I make a note of it and look it up to see if it’s a good fit for the shop,” she said. “I do my homework by researching online, poring over catalogs and talking to reps. With some companies, I know that no matter what I buy from them, the quality will always be high. I can tell by looking at something if it will work in the store or not.”
In the last five years or so, she’s noticed a real increase in requests for preschooler products. “It’s not only day care centers, but also schools and parents,” Robyn said. “Even though I already have a nice section of those products, I started focusing on early learning games and resource books for parents.”
Be the resource
Robyn does more than sell resources, she is a resource to her customers. “One of my teacher friends who had been serving more as an administrator came into my store when she was suddenly called back into the classroom. The teacher who had been there previously had taken everything with her when she left. It was a Sunday, there was school the next day, and we had to put together her whole room. In January!”
It’s probably what Robyn does best. Known for her great selection of borders, she’ll help design an entire layout for a bulletin board. “It seems that if one person retires, a whole group will. As that group leaves, a crop of new teachers comes in. We’re seeing a lot of new teachers at the moment, and I do a lot of mentoring here.”
If Robyn doesn’t carry a requested product, she’ll call around to track it down. When she works with local homeschool parents, she directs them to resources available in the local schools and tells them, “You don’t need to buy anything. Just come in and pick my brain.”
Some customers are simply enticed to go in by the promise of a homemade chocolate chip cookie. Robyn keeps them in constant supply in the shop.
The bottom line? Because she is loyal to her customers, they return the favor. While many businesses continue to scramble in the economic downturn, Soine’s numbers have been steady, even up in some months year-to-year. Success in hard times – now there’s something sweeter than a homemade chocolate chip cookie.
Red Hot Dots
For the past three years, Robyn has held a special event at Soine’s during the back-to-school season. Teachers look forward to the gift bags, discount coupons, prize drawings and the product giveaway contest called “Red Hot Dots.” (“If a shopper finds one of the red dots we have hidden, she can bring it to us and choose a free product from a bin,” Robyn told us.)
“I set up outside and it’s very festive with balloons and other decorations,” she told us. “My reps donate brand-new books and the prize drawings take place every half hour. People know that when I give them something for free it’s going to be nice, and when I do an event day, I do an event day.”
Robyn begins promoting the August celebration in April by coming up with a theme, setting up a display in the store and sending fliers to schools. “It’s become very popular, and my goal is really to honor all my colleagues who work so very hard.” |
