Thinkbutton Blog

Puppet Play

What child doesn't have a plush friend to share adventures with, confide in, and snuggle during dark, thunder-clapped nights?  For many adults, their plush, childhood pal often adorns their dorm room bunk and eventually shares a shelf in the nursery of their own children. Let's face it, plush friends provide countless hours of comfort and companionship.  Which is why they make the classic learning tool.

At Thinkbutton we are always searching for ways to meld traditional learning with  modern concepts. Like stuffed animals, puppet shows and puppets have been around for years.  Puppets are similar to our plush pals but with the potential for much more expression and interaction. They are great to engage and reinforce messages to a young audience during story time, entertain and interact during puppet shows and become ambassadors for environmental, creative, and social causes.   Therefore, we have expanded our puppet line to include a diverse selection of animals and characters in all shapes and sizes.  We have also added a sleek, collapsible, tabletop puppet theater that is easy for young children to set up and stores in a flat, protective sleeve.   

Our puppet offering includes finger puppets that are small enough for tiny hands, stage puppets for more formal theater productions, and full-body puppets that are great for theater or snuggle time.  The finger puppets enable small hands to act out stories and aid in reinforcing comprehension and imagination.  Our stage puppets provide impressive details and ease of movement for optimum expression.  The full-body puppets look like stuffed animals, but, with hand access and movable mouths and arms, they take having a plush friend to a whole new level.

Our latest additions include Webwilds that come with corresponding websites containing information and activities regarding conservation of the animal purchased.  This option helps connect our plush pals with the struggle and reality of the real animals they represent; and, reminds us that it is up to us to ensure these animals have a future on Planet Earth.  As a matter of fact, all the animals in our collection represent actual creatures found in nature.  With so much beauty and diversity within our own animal kingdom, we find no reason to introduce fantasy creatures.

 All the puppets we offer add a unique quality and drama to formal and informal theater, as well as, the simple pleasure they bring during quiet, comforting moments. So, whether your puppet play includes one-on-one snuggle time or elaborate productions, you will find that all of the puppets we offer make a great addition to any place children gather to learn and play.

Shipping Costs: How, Where, What and Why

For millions of people across the globe, purchasing products on-line has become an integral part of life.  One wonders how we ever shopped without our computers. But, no matter how wonderful the process seems there is at least one tiny grumble that looms in the back of many customers' minds: "I don't want to pay shipping costs." One would think that paying a nominal shipping fee, to have products delivered, would be worth the expense.  After all, on-line shopping saves time, energy and money on taxes and gas.  So why are we all grumbling?  Perhaps there are several reasons.

The most obvious reason seems to be that many consumers think that on-line retailers make a profit off of shipping charges.  Second, shipping costs are still a new cost variable to consider and often put some consumers' grand totals over their budgets.  Third, many retailers keep shipping costs a mystery until final checkout - forcing the shopper to invest time selecting items without knowing all the costs.  Whatever the reason, the grumble over shipping costs is certainly understandable and an issue we feel we need to address.

We do not make a profit off of shipping charges. We take a loss. In order for us to gain and retain customers we have to keep shipping charges low and feel it is our obligation, as a retailer, to carry some of the cost. Occasionally we do make a couple of dollars off an order but it is a very rare occurrence; and, on standard shipping orders over $75 we carry the entire expense.

Our shipping charges are very straightforward. When you shop at Thinkbutton our shipping policy is easily accessible on every product oriented page on our website.  There are no surprises and, at any time during the browsing or shopping experience, one may quickly determine how much shipping will cost and how long it will take to receive the product(s). 

We determine shipping costs based on the amount purchased and not the weight of items.  We use the purchase amount to determine shipping charges for very specific reasons. First, the amount-purchased-system allows a customer to budget accordingly.  Second, weight-based systems cannot determine the shipping costs until all items are selected and placed in the customer's virtual cart.  As a result, customers are forced to invest in shopping time without really knowing the final tab.  Finally, weight-based systems generally result in much higher shipping costs for the customer.

We rely on UPS and USPS for all our shipping needs.  Which carrier we select depends on the size of the item(s) ordered, where, and what type of shipping the customer requests.  All international orders are shipped through USPS, as well as, some of our smaller items. The remaining items are typically shipped via UPS. UPS does take a week to deliver a standard ground shipment from coast to coast - as our shipping map indicates. Both services offer a variety of expedited shipping options and, although we offer expedited shipping as a courtesy, we do not encourage using it unless absolutely necessary.  Express shipping is expensive and we have no choice but to pass the expense onto our customers.  It is quite an impressive feat for UPS to pick up a package from our North Carolina warehouse and have it delivered to California by the next afternoon - thus, justifying the expense. The same may be said for second and three day delivery.  We have had great success with both carriers and feel confident in our delivery promises to our customers.

Therefore, to all our past, present and future customers we thank you for accepting the reality of shipping costs and taking time to understand how much the benefits of shopping with Thinkbutton outweigh the minor shipping costs one may have to incur.  Delivery expenses are a necessary part of on-line shopping that we take gladly a loss on so that our customers may enjoy the benefits of having fast, reliable, front door delivery for all our unique educational products.

Is There a Brick and Mortar in Our Future?

Since Thinkbutton launched on the World Wide Web in 2001, customers, family, and friends continue to ask when we will have a "real" store. You know, one up the road or in the next big town that one has to negotiate traffic, time, crowds, and even pay taxes to purchase the same products we have on-line.  Although it makes some sense to assume that a website only serves as a precursor to a larger, more tangible presence, our business plan never included a brick and mortar venture. For us, the idea seemed too limited. 

Brick and mortars only serve a local, or at best, regional customer base.  Even if we open multiple stores across the nation, our message is still restricted to local pockets of consumers. By focusing strictly on our web store, we can concentrate on a global customer base that is never limited by location and time. Not only is Thinkbutton accessible through a computer 24 hours a day and seven days a week, we can add product and enhance our store visually and technically, without ever interrupting the costumer's visit to our site.

Through customer inquiries and shipping addresses, we are constantly reminded of the educational priority environmental, creative, and social issues are to the global consumer.  We have sold products to schools, organizations and individual consumers on six continents. For Team Thinkbutton, knowing that our message and corresponding product offering is celebrated on a global level, confirms a web store is the right decision. A brick and mortar limits the opportunities we have to provide products to a research conservation children's program in Papua New Guinea, schools in Malaysia and children's educational programs across the USA. Also, we run the risk of loosing focus and foregoing service and quality for the thrill of opening the next store. As a compromise, our new headquarters offer regional customers a physical place to visit and a chance for us to further integrate Thinkbutton's philosophy into the community.

One may argue that shopping on a website doesn't compare to physically browsing and handling potential purchases.  For this reason, we are constantly trying to enhance product descriptions and images, as well as, offer product galleries with supporting text and photos of children testing products. By incorporating video into future galleries, we plan to take the gallery to a new level of Internet shopping.  True, one may not be able to hold a potential purchase from Thinkbutton.  However, a physical store doesn't allow one to shop in their pj's at 3:00 a.m. in the safety and comfort of home; and, the purchase is delivered to any location specified.

This leads to another groan of Internet shopping - shipping charges. This topic will be discussed in a future post. However, to sum up briefly, shipping is free for purchases over $75 and for what one saves on taxes and gas, our customers typically come out ahead.

Therefore, we ask all our family, friends, and customers not expect to see a Thinkbutton store on your local street corner.  However, we do encourage everyone to keep their eyes open for Thinkbutton brand products in reputable brick and mortars; as, product development has always been a part of our plan.

The First and Certainly Not the Last

Thinkbutton developed this weblog as a tool for trading resources, insight and questions.  If you are not familiar with our company, the following link should answer any general questions you may have: About Us

Therefore, please consider this the beginning of what, we hope, will become rewarding dialog between Team Thinkbutton and all interested parties.  WELCOME!