Learning Express owners squish and slime their way to a new life

Their business is Slime.

Dope Slime.

As Nannette Cobb pulled apart a gooey hunk of Dope Slime at their Learning Express Toys and Gifts store at University Town Center, her husband, Mark Cobb, just smiled and shook his head.

"I knew nothing about Slime," he said.

He also knew little about running a business, and Nannette was on a par with him. 

But last August, they sitting at the kitchen table and taking a hard look at their future. In July, Mark had been laid off from his auto dealership job of 20 years. Nannette had retired eight years earlier to help their daughter, Brittany Hansche, and her husband, John Hansche, raise grandchildren, eventually numbering three.

"I started thinking about another dealership," Mark Cobb said. "But I was 60 and too old to start at the bottom."

With their grandchildren, both Nannette and Mark, who have lived in University Park since 2014, were used to going to the Learning Express toy store at UTC to buy gifts. Nannette loved the educational quality of the toys offered. Mark loved that they would wrap whatever he bought for free.

They were good customers, so good, that the company eventually had sent them a letter, asking if they would be interested in buying a franchise. The owners of the Learning Express at UTC went out of business about nine months earlier.

Sitting in the kitchen, they decided to take their lives in a new direction.

"We thought, 'We've got some money,'" Mark said. "'Why not bet on ourselves?'"

It might have seemed like a long shot at the time. Many toy stores were going out of business as people began doing their toy shopping online.

Nannette said the Learning Express was different than those who had failed in the market.

"It's management struggled, and then there was COVID," she said of the previous Learning Express at the site. "There were a myriad of things," she said.

But she said those times she had shopped at the store provided "an experience unlike any other" because of the learning environment.

So the Cobbs began to research the company.

"What impressed me is that this franchise gives a lot of support," Mark said. "The franchise started in Massachusetts because people needed a franchise to sell toys that are educational."

On Nov. 11, they opened their franchise.

"This is the most frightening thing I've ever done," Mark said. "Financially, we took a shot. At our age, it is scary and there is a lot of risk. We learned that there is a lot more to it than just opening the door."

If they are scared, they certainly don't show it. They glide through the store, checking out their inventory with the wonder of a little kid seeing a toy for the first time.

But that doesn't mean it isn't a lot of work.

The store is 3,012 square feet and, as Mark says, holds an "incredible" amount of inventory.

But it is the personal service he said separates the store from others.

"If you walk into (a big box store), there is nobody there," he said. "The toys here are available, and you can play with them. Our employees can explain what you are looking for."

Photo by Jay Heater

Nannette is huge on the educational aspect. They stock toys that children can use to learn more about arts and crafts. She is proud of the educational toys they have for infants.

Some of the effort involves teaching people that they do have a local toy store available to them.

"They are buying online because they think the toy store went the way of the gooney bird," Mark said.

But business has been good, he said, after months of cleaning, scrubbing, mopping and painting.

"It was a lot of blood, sweat and tears," he said.

They have learned the business in a hurry. Squishmallows are their No. 1 seller, followed by Legos, and Dope Slime.

Who knew?

They can't keep Squishmallows in the story, but they understand they have to track fads because nobody wants a wall-full of yesterday's hot items.

Besides the hundreds of new learning toys, the store has the tried-and-true favorites — such as Polly Pocket, Hot Wheels, Barbie, Sorry, Operation, Slinkys, Yo-yos, Pet Rocks, bubbles and Silly Putty.

If things continue to go well, the Cobbs hope to open another store. They own the Learning Express rights to Sarasota and Bradenton. The UTC Learning Express is the only one on the west coast of Florida.

Nannette said she loves seeing her customers look through the store.

"We can create some wonderful memories," she said.