SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ENTERPRISE : Playtime Is Just Beginning : Firm Finds Success--and Fun--in Making Learning Materials - Los Angeles Times
9/9/12 5:07 PM
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YOU ARE HERE: LAT Home → Collections → Elementary Education
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ENTERPRISE : Playtime Is
Just Beginning : Firm Finds Success--and Fun--in Making
Learning Materials
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October 09, 1995 | NANCY RIVERA BROOKS | TIMES STAFF WRITER
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Michael and Charles Kaplan sometimes race each other around the Carson headquarters of their
company, Lakeshore Learning Materials. In suits. On tot-size tricycles.
"I'm faster," says Michael, company president and younger brother.
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There is a practical aspect to this goofiness: Somebody needs to test new the products Lakeshore will
offer through its catalogues and small chain of retail stores specializing in educational toys and school
supplies. But it also says a lot about the loose, family-style atmosphere at this company, which was
founded by the Kaplans' mother, Ethelyn, now retired.
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The brothers work hard to keep the feeling of a small, friendly firm, even though Lakeshore's revenue has
swollen to $100 million and its work force to more than 500, Michael Kaplan says. And Lakeshore
continues to grow and make money despite a downturn in other types of mail-order catalogue
businesses, he adds.
The low-key company's most recent success is its 25% stake in the Store of Knowledge, a glitzy, fastgrowing chain associated with KCET-TV and other public television stations that features educational
http://articles.latimes.com/1995-10-09/business/fi-55011_1_lakeshore-learning-materials
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SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ENTERPRISE : Playtime Is Just Beginning : Firm Finds Success--and Fun--in Making Learning Materials - Los Angeles Times
A Guide to the Best of Southern California : Toy Soldiers
September 30, 1990
MORE STORIES ABOUT
Elementary Education
Toy Industry -- Los Angeles
Lakeshore Learning Materials (company)
9/9/12 5:07 PM
toys and products for all ages.
But the heart of Lakeshore's business has changed little in more than three decades of catering to the
needs of teachers.
"We've grown every year for 35 years, and we've made money for 35 years," Kaplan said. "Our niche is
institutions. When we get parents, we're delighted, but we are set up for schools."
And Lakeshore is a veritable teachers' amusement park, offering an extensive collection of teaching aids,
supplies, equipment, toys, books and the ever-popular laminating machine through three catalogues: one
with products for younger grades and infants, one for middle schools and high schools, and one for the
general retail market called "Toys to Grow On." Lakeshore also operates six retail stores.
"I go in there and just say, 'Wow,' " said Debbie Lovell, a West Los Angeles nursery school teacher. "I
want all of that stuff."
There is the basic (construction paper and building blocks), the artistic (finger-paints and clay), the
dramatic (face paints and costumes), the scientific (frog hatcheries and egg incubators), the musical
(vinyl records and tambourines), the physical (big balls and climbing structures), the practical (nap mats
and chalk holders) and the inspirational ("Perfect Attendance" ribbons and "Student of the Week"
certificates).
Some products are the result of modern situations, such as the video called "Proms & Pacifiers: Teens as
Parents," which "follows the story of teen-agers Shana and Ronnie as they face the challenges of
parenthood."
Kaplan said his favorite item is the "people-colored" paint, which allows children to paint pictures of
people with skin tones other than pinkish-white.
"If you're a black child and all you get are white dolls and 'flesh-colored' paint, it does something to your
self-image," he said.
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Several other Lakeshore products promote understanding and accepting diversity, including dolls that are
multiethnic, disabled or both.
*
About 40% of Lakeshore's products are developed by the company's team of six to eight designers and are
manufactured to Lakeshore's specifications.
Many of the ideas come from teachers, Kaplan said. The company sponsors a contest every year
encouraging teachers to submit their ideas for products they have always wanted but could never find.
Winners get Lakeshore gift certificates ranging from $250 to $1,000, and their names go in the catalogue
with their finished products.
It was 1959 when Ethelyn Kaplan decided to open a toy store on Lakeshore Avenue in Oakland. It was "a
resounding non-success," Michael Kaplan said. But one day, a teacher came in and bought five puzzles.
"She thought, 'My, there must be a market supplying nursery schools,' " Kaplan said.
The toy store was sold and a mail-order business was launched, doing $1,760 in sales the first year.
http://articles.latimes.com/1995-10-09/business/fi-55011_1_lakeshore-learning-materials
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SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ENTERPRISE : Playtime Is Just Beginning : Firm Finds Success--and Fun--in Making Learning Materials - Los Angeles Times
9/9/12 5:07 PM
Ethelyn Kaplan retired in 1975, and her sons, who had been running the firm's Southern California region,
took over and moved the company to Carson.
Lakeshore has continued to grow at a time when many other catalogue companies have not.
The catalogue industry, which enjoyed double-digit sales growth in the 1980s, saw sales increase only 7%
or 8% last year. Consultants project that sales growth in the industry has slowed even more this year.
At the same time, sales of learning toys have racked up dramatic increases in the past five years. In one
category, electronic learning aids, the value of shipments to retailers jumped to $225 million in 1994 from
$132 million in 1989, according to the Toy Manufacturers of America, a New York-based trade group. The
value of shipments of building sets increased to $366 million in 1994 from $186 million in 1989.
*
Michael Kaplan credits much of Lakeshore's success to a creed first established by his mother: Listen to
your customers and guarantee your products.
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