Lakeshore Learning Store

Lakeshore never fails to make me cry with its excellent customer service and expensive yet useful products. I’ve been to this location about three times, and I always find something I didn’t know I wanted or needed for my classroom.
Parking is plentiful from what I could tell. They have additional parking behind the building if there’s nothing available immediately in front of the store. If you need a break from kids, you might want to avoid the store on Saturdays from 11 am to 3 pm. They offer free crafts during that block of time.
If an item is not available in store, employees can order it for you and have it shipped to the store for free. This is done at the register. I think those technically count as online purchases, so make sure you have the right coupon on you. Or if you don’t have any shame, you can ask whether you can apply in-​store coupons to that purchase. Maybe you’ll get lucky.

I’m quite disappointed in the experience I had at Lakeshore Learning Store. I called while I was about 45 minutes away to see if they had a product in stock for a project I was doing. I explained exactly what I needed including the size and was placed on hold for approximately 5 minutes. I thought to myself, great I’m getting awesome customer service. A gentleman came back on the phone and said they had what I was looking for. We jammed over before they closed on a Saturday evening at 7pm.
Once we arrived parking was the pits as there’s only a few spots right in front. We found one and entered the store eagerly. Zipping in and out of the aisles looking for what we called about it my worst fear came true. They had something similar to what I was looking for but nowhere near the size I had asked for. Utter disappointment. I asked if there was other stores in the area and was met with a should shrug and told they all closed down. Given the customer service and inventory here, it wouldn’t surprise me if they shuttered their doors in the near future.
Fail Lakeshore Learning, I hope you somehow learn from your mistake because you’ve lost a potential customer and several others once word spreads.

I work with children for a living and Lakeshore has become a store I visit very often. There are multiple reasons I continue to come here:
1. It is a one-​stop-​shop for everything I need for the kids. They carry tons of education tools, classroom supplies, art and craft supplies, classroom décor, games, and toys.
2. You get 15% just by being a member with them. Plus you constantly get coupons to obtain an even bigger discount! Prices might be a little steep from time to time, but it’s nothing that can be changed on the store level.
3. The customer service here is great. I am always greeted walking in the doors. The employees are really good at recommending products to meet your needs and they always seem so happy. Plus if you’re really nice to them, they’ll dig a coupon or two up for you if you have none available. ;)
4. They offer free teacher workshops and arts & crafts for kids. FREE!

I’m a teacher. I rely on my monthly budget from work to purchase quality materials that will benefit my students. Lakeshore has great products I woild love to buy but simply cannot due to the price. I am often forced to purchase lower quality goods that don’t last. When I find enriching curriculum, that’s what I want to buy. Education should be affordable for teachers, too. Your employees are the backbone of your store and very helpful. Laminating is much yes.

TAKE MY PAYCHECK! Omg, can we talk about the price of teacher items some more? I know — it’s always the same conversation but I just had to express this after spending so much $$$ this school year… and the year has YET to start! I love the Lakeshore though. The service is phenomenal and there is a lot of variety. The store is bright and happy! I just wish my wallet loved Lakeshore as much as I love Lakeshore. On the bright side, there are ALWAYS coupons/​sales to take advantage of.

The only reason I’m not giving 5 stars is I wish they carried bigger inventory. This place is great with friendly, helpful staff. Kudos!

I’m a first year teacher and have made this store my home. Everyone who works there is so friendly and helpful… especially Lei! She has gone out of her way on a number of occasions to help me with the laminating machine. I wouldn’t have made it this far without you all.

I love this store!

Love this store my son has a ball in here and loves doing the Saturday work shops a little pricey but wirtg it

I never knew this place existed until after I moved away from the area a year ago, and then I was introduced to it by my bf’s cousin who is an elementary school teacher. The store is an awesome place to buy gifts for toddlers and young children when you want something different from the Fisher Price and Playschool stuff at Toys R Us and the like. We got some great photo books and Green Toys for our niece and nephew. Stuff we don’t really worry about there being duplicates of at Christmas, and we’re certain they’ll be big hits. The store is really large and seemed well labeled in terms of what age group, type of toy, or type of learning tool you’re looking for. We pretty much stayed in the toddler section, so didn’t do too much looking elsewhere, but I’m sure we’ll be back in the future. The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars was because the prices seemed a little steep to me. We had looked at a bucket of plastic fruits and veggies as a possible gift for a friend’s child, but $ 50 seemed very high for something like that. The items we got were pretty reasonably priced, but make sure you check the price before you get your heart set on something.
Also, I thought I heard someone in line talking about getting their purchase wrapped, but that wasn’t offered to us if it is available. We didn’t ask about it either, but it would’ve been nice to know for future purposes. I always love the option of buying a gift on the way to a birthday party if the store will wrap it!

Few things I like about this shop:
— Lot of items for all age kids. This gives me ideas on what to buy. Much better than trying to find study or hobby materials online from reviews.
— They are not cheapest compared to amazon, but always have some discount coupons either through email or from their catalog.
If you are not sure how to keep your kids engaged or need to find new hobbies or see what they are interested, this is a very good place.

I love how Lakeshore checked my license last summer when I used my debit card. It’s great to know that someone has my best interest in mind.
Keep up the good work!

Lakeshore is an educators best and worst friend. Why worst friend? simply, because if a teacher spends longer than 30 minutes, there is a great chance they will be in debt with their bank account =)
In other words, lakeshore has it all!!! Not just for teachers and educators, but for parents and anyone who works with children.
What to find at lakeshore;
Abundance of décor– borders, banners, letters, posters, paper rolls, cut outs and more
school supplies– anything and everything a student or adult may need
a huge amount of educational toys– all age ranges
educational games, puzzles, trivia– all age ranges
resources– common core resources, workbooks, children books, and more
arts and crafts– play dough, paint, supplies, construction paper, and more
pocket charts galore– many different sizes and uses, calendar, number, sentence strips, plan, mini, large, wide, … and more
Whatever you are looking for, lakeshore will have it =)

Outstanding customer service! Staff knows their products and always something great to recommend if your buying for a birthday or special occasion. I know for a fact it is going to be a hit! I’m not a teacher but i love this store. i was sucked in by laddie pencils, the cute writing paper, dot art, stinky stickers and magna tiles. Oh, I could go on and on… But I will just say if your not sure ask. Thank you Lakeshore Staff your customer service keeps me coming back for more!

The employees at Lakeshore are amazing. Even tho prices are a little higher than other places, the service is worth it. My kids love Lilia. They have been doing arts and crafts with her for a while. The staff always offer to help me with ideas. I used to be a parent against spending $ on arts and crafts but after seeing how much they enjoy making things and the pride they have, I have done a complete 180. The staff are really friendly with kids. They patiently let them play with things while I’m trying to decide what to get. The staff all seem really experienced with how to talk to kids.

I brought my baby girl here for her first time knowing she will love this place & I was right. We were immediately greeted & asked if we were looking for anything particular & let us know about some sales. The ladies that worked here was friendly & helpful to me & my baby girl. One of the ladies that was helping us was so friendly my baby girl felt comfy right away & rawring at her for fun to pretend to scare the lady hehe. Baby hailey picked out some items that were a good deal for. Some items were a lil pricey. Baby girl loved the fishing pole fishing for fishes game but it was a lil pricey so I will wait til next time when it’s on sale possibly or if we get a coupon. Overall, friendly staff, organized & clean & fun place. We definitely will be back here again :)

I live near by and walked to the store, not thinking of it left my ID at home and just brought my debit card.
When I was ready to pay I was informed that because I had no ID they couldn’t take my card, I think it’s great that Lakeshore takes steps to protect themselves and their customers from fraud, however the Woman ringing me up treated me like a criminal. She was rude and unapologetic, a simple «it’s for your protection» or «Do you want me to hold this?» would have been nice.
Ended up finding almost the exact same item for less $$ at Toy’s R Us.

Decent store– just about everything you could need to teach elementary school, with an inflated price tag. For the area, apparently some things here are priced better than Morrisons but overall it’s a bit pricey which is a shame since the chain knows their customers are teachers buying class materials out of pocket, but I digress.
I found this location to be a little unorganized, though things do get hectic here at the beginning of the school year. Was not greeted or offered help when I entered, had to seek it out– not too big of a deal, but employees seemed more interested in chatting with each other, loudly, than helping the customer (s) at their registers.
Combine these minor issues with the chain making significant changes to their annual teacher planner, and I’m less than tickled with my visit and purchase. Overall. Not a bad store, but this location needs improvement.

FAVORITE EDUCATIONAL AND LEARNING STORE!
I finally just realized a few months ago (the dork that I am) that I have been buying stuff from their mail order catalog for years and just noticed that they have a store locally.
Anyway, I took my kids here last weekend and WE all had a blast in the store! Yes that’s right WE ALL had fun. I think it was like all of us being in a toy store for the first time ever. Even better instead of a toy store an educational store? How could that possibly be? LOL When we walked in my daughters eye’s were so BIG. My youngest daughter said, «Mommy these are all the things in that catalog that we order from.» They both said OMG this place is amazing! I just started laughing and told them that this is the store that we get stuff from in the catalog. Of course my oldest daughter has to say. «You knew about this place before you just wanted to keep it a secret so you don’t have to drive us here and buy us stuff.» I was like OMG Really? LOL Just FYI my daughters are 5 and 7 years old.
The store is packed with educational and fun learning toys, art supplies, books etc. etc. This is your go to place if you are looking for fun educational learning materials.
The store isles are a little narrow so you might bump into people. Overall the place is clean and well organized.
Every Saturdays they have a few tables in the store for the kids to do different crafts and learning projects. It’s all FREE too. I do love free stuff! ;) There is a staff member to help you and your kids with the projects. The staff here is extremely friendly and helpful. If you like discounts like I do make sure you sign up on their mailing list and texting list. They have all sorts of discounts and promo’s all the time.

I am giving this store a 3 only because they have very very friendly staff that are so helpful and nice. I got some of my papers stuck in the laminating machine the the staff person was so nice to help me meticulously cut the papers to salvage them. I was very appreciative of that. The store has so much to offer in terms of supplies, you can find everything here. They also have sales and sometimes coupons. The only reason I am even giving it a 3 is the prices. Lakeshore is very expensive, you can find most of the items for chapter at Target, Amazon, or Discount School Supply. I am often frustrated by how much items cost so in general I do not shop here.
BUT I will say that, prices aside, I have had a great experience every time I go here.