Family retailer makes career in education

“Thirty years ago we had enough product to fill 1,200 square feet,” said co-owner Amy Greene. “Now we carry 20,000 products.”

Those products, all designed to help children learn, range from art supplies to bulletin boards, chalkboards, science kits, furniture, games, hand puppets, audio and video equipment and books.

Greene co-owns IPA with her mother, Donna Howell, who was teaching art in 1976 at Southwest Missouri State University when she founded the company with her late husband, Earl. Through the years, the family has operated a location in Tulsa, Okla., and two others in Springfield. The store had been at 2258 S. Campbell Ave. since 1987.

Greene grew up in the business and became a teacher herself. “I taught first grade and preschool for seven years in Florida,” she said. “I think if I wasn’t doing this, I would miss teaching.”

In Florida, she met her husband, PGA golf pro Don Greene, now IPA’s comptroller. The Greenes have two children, Cameron, 5, and Ian, 3.

“My kids are some of our testers,” Amy Greene said. “Sometimes if we get a new product, we’ll test it or give it to a local teacher or day care or church to use and then get their feedback. It’s very helpful to know exactly how it works and how it’s going to be used in a real setting.”

Teachers are IPA’s primary customers. IPA also sells to parents, day-care centers, home-schoolers, churches and others in need of supplemental educational materials. Nearly all products are for preschoolers and elementary students, but Greene said that IPA carries a few items for secondary students.

One customer who gives IPA high marks is Lynne Miller, principal of Williams Elementary School. Miller, a teacher and administrator for 21 years in Springfield, said, “When I was a teacher in the classroom, I bought classroom supplies. As an administrator, I can send teachers over, and (IPA) will let them pick up items at a discounted rate. … Our experience with them has been absolutely excellent.”

Bookworm

Greene and company determine IPA’s products based on “customer requests and past history,” she said.

Books are a big item. “We carry resource books and children’s books,” Greene added. “Resource books are textbook series that teach concepts. Children’s books are books that children will actually read. We try to carry classic children’s books like ‘Charlotte’s Web,’ ‘Sheep in a Jeep’ ¬… ‘James and the Giant Peach’ and ‘Corduroy.’ And we do special ordering.”

IPA also carries games that are both fun and educational, Greene said, citing the game “Classroom Jeopardy” as an example. “The questions are geared to specific grades or subjects,” she said. “The schools that have purchased them have really liked them, because the class can play them together, and the teachers can program in their own questions if they’re studying a certain topic.”

‘Kids are kids’

Greene has seen some changes in IPA’s 30-year history, both in products and the children for whom they are designed.

“Companies have introduced a lot more items that help teachers prepare children for testing, since that’s a big push right now,” she said. “And children today are so used to TV and videogames that sometimes simple items like puzzles and blocks don’t keep their attention. …… Kids now are also so involved with soccer, piano lessons and dance lessons that it seems they don’t have as much time to play and read books.

“Other than that, kids are kids,” Greene added. “I think their vocabularies are probably larger than they were at a younger age, but generally that all kind of catches up. They all end up at about the same level.”

IPA Educational Supply

Founded: 1976

Owners: Amy Greene and Donna Howell

Address: 2404 W. Kingsley 65807

Phone: (417) 887-1154; 800-747-1154

Fax: (417) 887-1617; 800-387-1154

Web site: www.ipaeducational.com

Products: Supplemental teaching materials, mainly for preschool and elementary teachers

2005 Revenues: $2 million

Employees: 15

Q&A with Amy Greene

Q: Do you have favorites among the 20,000 products you carry?

A: “I like the art supplies, like fingerpaint and Magic Noodles. Fingerpaint is the same as always. Magic Noodles are a product made out of cornstarch, and when it’s wet it sticks to itself, to paper, to skin, to walls. It’s fun. The kids have a ball. I love my job, you know; it’s fun to play with that kind of stuff.”

Q: How does the Internet serve your business?

A: “On the Internet people can shop at 9 o’clock at night and it’s convenient, but it doesn’t replace the hands-on of picking up a book and looking inside it or actually playing the game before you buy it. We have a lot of games that are already open. I want them to feel it’s the right thing for them.”

Q: What is IPA?

A: When the store first opened, it stood for Instructional Publications Associations. Greene said it no longer has any meaning.[[In-content Ad]]