May 8, 2017

Meet Christine Persson of The School Box in Metro Atlanta

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Christine Persson.

Christine, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
In 1990, my husband, David and I had a vision to open a “hands on” educational store for teachers and parents. I was currently teaching first grade in Cobb County and there was definitely a need for a quality educational store for teachers. Today, The School Box is a business with more than 200 employees, 11 retail locations, national catalog and website.

Headquartered in Marietta, Georgia, The School Box is the Southeast’s largest family-owned and operated retail educational store.

The vision began when I was teaching first grade in Marietta, Georgia. David realized the need for quality educational stores after spending time helping me shop for my first-grade classroom. After several years of researching and educating, we opened our first store in Marietta, Georgia. Over the years, The School Box has grown to 8 stores in Georgia, 2 stores in Tennessee, and `1 Virginia… and is still growing!

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I would say it has been an up and down road. In the beginning our business was very unique and one of a kind in our area so we were blessed with growing sales and new customers every day. Today, with the internet and Amazon shoppers, our brick and mortar retail stores are feeling the effects. However, our website sales are growing, which is wonderful. Online shopping is definitely the way of the millennial shopper, so we are working every day to improve our website and make it a wonderful shopping experience.

Also, we are not a franchise so in the beginning, it was a challenge to create all the store policies, training manuals etc. and layouts of our stores, but over the years, we have perfected opening new stores and training our staff.

The School Box – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Our tagline is “Everything Educational”! We carry educational toys, games and supplies. Our unique mix of educational products inspire learning, creativity, and self-confidence. We have a very unique product offering that cannot be found elsewhere. We are the number #1 source for test prep, summer learning, homework help, school projects, classroom decor and so much more. If your child is struggling academically, we have the resources to help!

One thing that sets us apart from others is our experienced staff.

Our helpful, knowledgeable and experienced staff continue to provide excellent customer service and continuously receives training on the latest, and the best educational standards and products. Our staff consists of many teachers and former teachers… that is why we take pride in the fact that we offer our customers over a hundred years of teaching experience to help them find the best educational products for their children.

I am most proud of our staff and their commitment to our company! We have wonderful people working with us!!

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
I believe my proudest moment in my career was when I was teaching first grade, which inspired the opening of The School Box.

Building The School Box from scratch and growing it has been a very proud moment for me. Making it easy for teachers and parents to find the best and the most unique educational products for their children and knowing we are helping their children succeed in school is truly the reason we got into this business and the most rewarding aspect of my job…helping students succeed!

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