Learning Express Toys and Gifts - University Park, Florida

Anna G.

Really friendly staff with a really selection - everything from Pokémon cards to squishmallows to fidget toys. We saw the cutest book bag tags that could be written/drawn on in a variety of characters. We stopped by because we saw the Easter bunny - kids got free prizes and cookies. We loved it so much we ended up grabbing a few toys and I have my eye on a few more items the next time we’re in town! Highly recommend!!

S H.

🚩Learning Express🚩
Do you like being followed to your car after your shopping experience? Do you like being asked to do the job of an employee? Do you like subtly being accused of stealing? How about listening to employees talk about how much money the store made that day? Complain about their boss while you shop? Then I have the store for you!

Buckle up, rewind an hour and step into Learning Express Toys of University Park at UTC with me.

I walked in looking for a gift for my (almost) 4 year old whose birthday is Tuesday. Her birthday party has been canceled due to the impending storm so I wanted to do something sooner for her and I don’t have a gift since the ones ordered online wouldn’t be here yet.

I don’t have anything in mind, just browsing. I finally spot Calico Critters. She loves those. I found the perfect set - royal princess dress up. Her party was supposed to be a princess costume party so this was perfect. I grab them and continue browsing looking for anything else that catches my eye. I start wondering if $40 was too much for this set.

As I’m browsing I overhear the younger of the two employees on a phone call. ‘Do you know how much we made today? Two thousand….’
I think to myself it’s a little distasteful to talk about the revenue in front of customers but whatever. She hangs up and the other employee asks if he’s coming in. He’s not. They talk about how they take bets on whether he’ll come in or not. He never does.

Anyways…. Let me check Amazon to be sure I’m not way overpaying. I’m on a budget after evacuating for Helene and potentially evacuating again for Milton. I’m squatting down to set everything down so I can get my phone out of my purse and check the price and I see Amazon has it for $10 cheaper.
I can’t justify that much of a price difference and decide I’ll buy it online and see if I can overnight it. I set it down on a table behind me and leave. As I leave I pass by the younger employee who is heading back inside. She says have a nice day and I tell her the same.

I go sit in my car and start checking Amazon. I realize the Royal Princess set won’t actually work because it won’t get to me until after her birthday, so I start looking for another idea that I can overnight. About ten minutes goes by before I notice the younger employee is standing at my window. I put the window down and ask if I can help her.

She proceeds to say ‘I saw you had a calico critter box while you were looking at fidgets and I can’t find it. What did you do with it?’

I’m really caught off guard and kind of stumbling over my words telling her it’s on the table behind where I was looking. She seems perplexed and I’m getting a little annoyed but still trying to be helpful.

She keeps asking me where it is because she’s been looking and can’t find it anywhere. She then asks me if there’s something else I’m looking for and can she help me find that? I show her my phone and say no, it’s $10 cheaper on Amazon so I’m checking there.

She says she understands but would I mind coming back inside and showing her where I set the box. 😂😂 what in the actual…

I say yeah I do mind, but sure, let’s do this.

I shut my car off, walk back inside with her trailing me, walk right to the table and pick up the box, set it on the counter and walk out. She gave me a sheepish ‘thanks’ and ‘soorrrryyy’.

Still in disbelief of this encounter for many different reasons.
1. It was literally right next to where I was. Open your eyes before hunting down the customer?

2. How insanely unsafe to walk out to a customer’s car, especially if you think they’ve potentially stolen something.

3. Has Target ever asked you to come show them where you set mascara? Has Publix ever hounded you for that can of beans you set down? Learn how retail works.

4. They have ‘Smile you’re on camera’ signs all over the store. I noticed these over an area that didn’t seem expensive and laughed to myself thinking ‘who steals art supplies’?
Check the cameras?

5. The end. 🫶🏼

Jeremiah N.

My kids and I came here to find a couple of kites and we wound up buying a couple other items as well! I even had a free magic show given by one of the staff members to the little kids in the shop. Such a clean facility and even though it's a toy store they had all of the shelves organize. That must be very difficult to keep up with! They had lots of Hands-On toys that kids can experiment with. So many toys I've never seen before from all over the world. We loved our visit to Learning Express! Keep up the good work guys!

zulli O.

BYEE this place is so cute omg I love it so much. 100% recommend everyone to go here if you love calico critters and jelly cats heheh

Jayme W.

Awesome little toy store. Really captures that nostalgic vibe of being a kid and going to pick out a new toy or game with the Fam.

B A.

I've always loved coming to this store. My first pick for gift giving and now shop there for my own kids. It's unfortunate that today I had a bad experience... I needed to take my daughter, who is potty training to the bathroom and was told to go to another store as there is no "public bathroom". I explained to the employee that it was an emergency and she did not care. How do you have a kids store without a bathroom?

David

This place is the go to for kid toys and books! Lego selection is the best in Sarasota.

Mushroom._.

Great place a lot of toys! The service was really good the girl that works there what are you looking for? And then she asked what kind of stuff are you looking for we told her and then she finds it and shows us also she asked me what do you like and I said Axolotl me cause u use to have one then she remembers it and finds a lot of Axolotl stuff the service there are so nice! 10/10 shop is amazing in sarasota it’s nothing like the pictures, I only took 2 pictures of the outside tho because I knew my hands were gonna be full inside and they were!😌
con:there are no shopping bags to carry around while shopping so it was kinda hard to carry. Pros: excellent service very nice workers and clean store nice toys very big slime collections to buy and there’s everything + they can wrap the toys for you!. The store was a 10/10