Teacher’s Stop: An Educational Experience
September 17, 2007
By Nicholas A. Poggioli
Christy Williams has a concise but powerful philosophy: “Each day I try to help someone. A day without helping someone is a wasted day.” Twenty years ago, she said it was her motto. If you want to verify that, just check her high school yearbook. Much has changed since then, but ask any of Willams’ cutomers, and you’ll find that she remains steadfast in her devotion to helping others.
Today, Williams owns and operates her Mid-City business, Teacher’s Stop, Inc., 4315 Bienville Avenue, where teachers, parents, and students can find all the educational supplies they need.
Before opening Teacher’s Stop, Williams taught at various grade levels in the Orleans Parish public school system. She also has a Masters of Education in Curriculum and Instruction from UNO. One day while leaving Lafayette Elementary School where she was teaching, Williams noticed the school supply store that teachers shopped at was going out of business. She wondered how people would buy supplies once it closed. This concern for the educational community led her to suggest to a coworker that they open a school supply store. The coworker never followed through, but Williams used her savings and opened Teacher’s Stop in the 100 block of North Broad Street in 1996. This first location was about 400 square feet.
The business did well and outgrew the small space, so Williams moved up the street in the summer of 1997. Still the business grew, and Williams eventually realized that she needed to move again. It took some time before a move became financially viable, but in July 1999 Teacher’s Stop moved to its present location on Bienville. Williams now has 6000 square feet of space at her disposal, though she uses slightly less. In just three years the business had increased its space tenfold.
The success of any business with Williams at the helm is as close to predetermined as a business venture can be. Teacher’s Stop is a combination of her personal philosophy of helping people and a savvy entrepreneurialism that identifies and takes advantage of opportunities when they arise. She also has a “delicious” power of description: “Business is like chicken,” she says, smiling. “My business is baked chicken: You season it, watch it, you take care of it. Others are fried chicken: You just dump it in!” And Williams takes care of her business, especially its customers.
Williams wants to help people make the right purchase. She believes that the educational community deserves service that understands its needs, and she strives to be that service. Her years as a teacher and her graduate studies taught her about education, and she evaluates each customer’s needs individually. She knows that teachers have tight budgets, and often subsidize those budgets with their own money.
As a former teacher herself, Williams works hard to make sure those teachers stretch their dollars as far as possible and will even steer them away from unnecessary purchases. She asks teachers what grade they teach and whether or not their schools might provide some materials for them. She asks parents what grades their children are in.
Convinced that a smart, knowledgeable saleswoman will create repeat customers, Williams sees individual service as essential to the long-term health of both her business and New Orleans education. New customer Shannon del Corral, an English and music teacher at Ursuline Academy on State Street is proof she’s right. On a recent Saturday, del Corral stopped in for the first time after hearing about The Teacher’s Stop from another teacher.
“Several posters had arrived for my music classroom, and I needed to have them laminated,” says del Corral. “When I went in with my posters, Christy was great! Other places often laminate without testing and assume little or no responsibility for the outcome. Christy didn’t just laminate the posters. Since the poster paper was thin and glossy, she took the time to test the machine using similar paper. I can’t tell you how much I appreciated this type of service and attention to detail. One poster alone cost $25!”
And then del Corral was in for her next pleasant surprise: Williams’ dedication to affordability. “I could not contain myself when I heard that the total cost to laminate 5 large posters was under $8,” says del Corral. “I was expecting to only afford the laminations, and was more than able to purchase the other materials I had selected. The next day, I shared my good fortune with other teachers in the faculty lounge.”
Best of all, rather than having to drive to Metairie to pay more for less, del Corral was able to make her purchases less than a mile from where she lives. “Here’s to rebuilding New Orleans one purchase at a time!” says del Corral.
No New Orleans business story is complete without a Katrina saga, and Williams certainly has one. Katrina put four feet of water in the store and, as she puts it, “peeled the roof off like a sardine can.” She persevered, though. She went to trade shows where she would tell people her store “had a natural skylight.” She kept the business going by operating without a storefront. Some of the customer base she had developed since 1996 remained intact and called her up, asking for this or that. She would order it for them and personally deliver it. However, she knew this was not a permanent solution. She wanted to get back into her building.
In January of 2007, Williams applied for a small business recovery grant from the Louisiana Economic Development Department (LED). First word she got back was that her application had been lost. Then, in March 2007, the intermediary assigned to her to facilitate the grant process called and told her that her application had been found and that she was approved to receive the money. She’s still waiting for the check to arrive.
Never one to twiddle her thumbs, Williams did not sit idly by waiting for her business recovery grant to show up. Knowing how critical the fall season is in the education supply business, Williams applied for and received a small grant from a local business assistance agency so she could open in time for the Fall 2007 back-to-school rush without taking on additional debt. Once again, Williams’ self-sufficiency and creative problem-solving won the day.
Yet, even now, two years after the storm, Teacher’s Stop is not back to its former status. Inventory is less comprehensive, and though Williams can order anything her customers need, she is reluctant to advertise her return too widely for fear of disappointing former and new customers who arrive expecting her to have everything in stock that she once did. Her business recovery grant, once she gets it, is earmarked for filling out the inventory, she says.
One thing that has definitely survived the storm is Williams’s devotion to helping her customers, New Orleans’ teachers. Williams’s dedication to her business extends beyond regular business hours. “If I’m not at the store, I’m still doing something for it.” She is dedicated to the success of both her store and, more importantly, the students, parents and teachers of New Orleans.
“I miss the classroom,” she says, standing behind the cash register and surrounded by colorful posters and school supplies, “but I feel like this is my classroom, too.” If you’re looking for first-rate advice on educational supplies, or to finally learn how to use one of those misnamed EZ-Graders, Teacher’s Stop and Christy Williams are the only store and teacher you’ll ever need.
Teacher’s Stop is open 11am-6pm Mon-Thurs. and 11am-4pm Fri. –Sat. Tel. 504-483-7687