American toy store owner Rick Derr reports back to Toy World readers following his Certified Play Expert training.

After 20 years working at A.C. Nielsen/D&B Research Company, Rick opened the first Learning Express Toys franchise in the Chicago area in 1996, and then became a sub-franchiser, opening nine more stores. Although leaving the corporate environment behind, he has combined his expertise in data and numbers with a passion for the toy retail space.

In April, Rick’s column spoke about the lack of tackling child mental health issues in the toy industry. In turn, he decided to complete ASTRA’s Certified Play Expert training. In this month’s column, he tells our readers what the training entailed and why he thinks it’s so important.

He comments: “Based on my experience, I will be sending other key team members to take the Certified Play Expert training in person, and my team member Jamie and I will also be elevating the knowledge base among the rest of our team with in-house training. I’m also pushing Learning Express Toys corporate to incorporate this programme, as well as the MESH initiative, into our overall training. I believe Certified Play Expert training will encompass a module of MESH, allowing toy retailers to meet kids where they are today as well as parents. Of course, we’ll need to keep on training and learning over the years to stay certified; we want the customer to look out for the Certified Play Expert sign and know it means something tangible.”

Rick then shares his six top learnings from the training, which include that retailers should have higher confidence in the value of play and the power of their discussions with consumers.

He also ends his column with Learning Express’s top sellers this summer, and what he has instore for Halloween.

To read Rick’s September column in full, click here.