Lakeshore Learning Store

I went in to replace some books mid-​year for my classroom. This is a pretty store but super pricey and on a teacher’s salary I am done shopping there. What would have cost me $ 60.00 at Lakeshore only cost me $ 39.57 at
for the exact same items. I can wait two days to receive the books in the mail!

Went back to school shopping today and had a great experience! The store was crowded and busy, but several employees stopped to make sure I was finding everything I needed. One manager even spent about 10 minutes helping me find several options for a theme I wanted to do for my bulletin board.

I’m going to go ahead and give this 2 stars because I thoroughly enjoy coming to this store at the beginning of every school year. However, I had my first negative experience in this store today. While picking up an order I was helped by an extremely patient and helpful employee. She could not help me any further without asking one of her co-​workers a very simple question. I was completely blindsided when (upon assumption) her manager, Erica, came bolting around the corner and began loudly reprimanding her for asking her co-​worker a question. The poor employee was clearly embarrassed by her «manager’s» actions and began profusely apologizing to me. She didn’t get to finish her apology before Erica turned around and scolded her for not helping the next person in line (there was no one in line). Erica then brings the order out to me and she asked how many books were supposed to be there. I give her the number and she then began to scold me because she would still need to count them. I was simply trying to let her know how many I needed, just in case there were not enough in the pile. I will continue to shop at Lakeshore simply because it is the only teacher store in the area. I truly feel sorry for the way the employee was treated today and how awkward the other customers must have felt while Erica was reprimanding her employee in front of them.

They will not honor the coupon that is offered on Unilocal.According to Rebekah they were told that these coupons are not from Unilocal and not to take them.

I have plenty of friends who are educators, both current and retired so I get how this store works. For the general public however, you would think that if the merchandise was much pricier than other retail stores (not mainly geared toward educators) you would hope that their customer service would be on point.
I waited patiently at the register for a long time while the cashier was at the front of the store rearranging things, I understand. A coworker walks through the front door (maybe from break), sees me standing there and yells to the cashier at the front of the store to help me and then walks into the backroom. No one came up to help, at that point I was just over it and walked out.
I will just go across or down the street and pay 30% less for the exact same Melissa and Doug items and get 100% better customer service.

Really cool place that I said I would visit on many different occasions but never got around to it. My 4 year old twin boys and I went to Lakeshore Learning Store this afternoon, Saturday at 3pm…
Pros: Clean, organized, good customer service, plenty of parking and a clean restroom.
Cons: The prices seem steep especially if the price tag is geared for teachers. Yikes.
Will go back to enjoy one of the Saturday events for kids.

I like this place. They offer FREE teacher workshops that tend to focus on ages infant through young school age. It’s refreshing to get new ideas and draw from somebody whom works in a different program. Plus they always have a raffle. One time, I won a $ 10 gift card. Score!
The con: SENSORY OVERLOAD and way too bright colors in this store. There is research out there that indicates bright colored toys and materials creative impulsive behaviors and sensory overload. It sort of bums me out that this store is painted in them and that many of their toys are just the same. They do have really cool stuff such as more natural like things from Melissa & Doug. I just wish they had more of a selection of more naturalistic toys.
Some really cool stuff but most of the things are kind of pricey, at least for my pocket.
I’ll still continue to shop here after workshops (whenever I go) and will be excited whenever I find toned down naturalistic toys.

Great selection and the store is pretty organized. Unfortunately the last few times I’ve gone in, the customer service was not so great. I even brought a possible new customer and she thought the same thing. No welcome/​hello and once we went up to the counter, still no hello or consideration as to if we found what we needed (I didn’t even want to bother asking them questions when needed!). They weren’t even busy and had plenty of employees working. Extremely unwelcoming.

I love that they offer teacher discounts when the only customers are probably teachers or homeschooling moms. Seems a little silly, but I love getting percentages off. The prices are a bit high on some of the toy foods and math blocks, but other items like wall décor tends to be priced ok.
My biggest complaint is that they only cater to elementary school — there are tons of high school teachers like myself that need items geared towards teens.

I like to come here and get educational books and accessories to supplement my school age daughter’s learning. Their inventory is huge. You name it! They have it! Books, grade level workbooks, educational toys, wall decorations, art supplies, etc. The only downside is that some of their games and toys are a bit pricey. I chalk that up to a small market.
They even have a poster laminating machine which we have used to laminate our daughters artwork. It’s much cheaper than Kinkos.
Every Saturday they have free art projects for children.

This place is pure heaven for any elementary school teacher. You walk in, and you see manipulatives galore, new and updated workbooks, a variety of lesson planners, borders, stickers, stamps, bells, arts and crafts, and so much more! Ahhhh! I have spent hours in here and I still love it!
The service is excellent, and the employees pay attention to the little details (just like a teacher would)! ie: Since it’s the holidays, the employees changed the tops of all the pens at the cashier to have Christmas trees and Santa beards. Cute!
I recently came here to laminate a class set poster sized pictures for holiday gifts for my students’ families. I had called FexEx and Kinkos for a price and they charged about $ 3 PER poster (which would have been a total of $ 75 for laminating!) uhhh no thank you! I go to Lakeshore and with my teacher discount, paid a total of $ 7.56. Holler!!!
I love this place!

Holy crap! My mother teaches 3^rd grade and this was like her walking into heaven. She was thrilled at the massive selection of teaching supplies. As The Report Card fades out this place is as far as I know the only game in town and I wish they would build one in either Sacramento or Elk Grove.
The prices are high but the selection is well worth it. The staff are knowledgeable and friendly. Anything you need that isn’t in store can be quickly ordered.
It’s an excellent resource for teachers and home schoolers alike.

It has some good educational toys, but I wouldn’t pay that much for toys. I’ll look elsewhere for cheaper educational toys. I can’t say much about the employees because I don’t go to this store often. Most are friendly and some are knowledgeable.