In 1982, Sharon DiMinico, pregnant for the first time, shopped for her daughter’s nursery furniture and baby gear at several stores in Nashua, NH. Purchasing toys, a crib, strollers, and bassinets for her child was both fun and heartwarming. As she checked out, she daydreamed about setting up the perfect nursery and engaging her child with the educational toys she had just selected. The seed was planted. She would look to sell her retail tile business and start a new venture, one that would capture the emotion and fun she just had shopping for her first child.

The opportunity to realize that venture came a little more than 4 years later, when Sharon, president of the board at Groton Community School, presented her Learning Express business plan as a fundraiser to stabilize the school’s finances without raising tuition. A few months later, Acton, MA became the first Learning Express location in March of 1987.

In September, 6 months later, Sharon opened her first solely-owned location in Needham, MA. While getting Needham ready to open, Sharon happened upon an article in Inc. Magazine about franchising. Knowing how rewarding business ownership was, she felt that franchising would be a fantastic way to grow the business while giving other families the same satisfaction she felt as her own boss. Sharon placed an ad in the Boston Globe for toy store franchising opportunities, and sold the first franchise in Andover, MA in 1990.

In 1998, Learning Express hosted its first company convention and moved from a historic Groton, MA schoolhouse to a renovated office building in Devens, MA. In 1999 the company earned its first recognition by Entrepreneur Magazine as one of the Top 500 Franchises in the country, an award it has received several times since. Today, Learning Express is the largest family of specialty toy stores in the United States and continues to thrive through the franchise business model.