Is fascinating to me, and so before i go to the business, i want to stop off and see what its all about. Oh, hi there. Woman hi. Lemonis how are you . My first stop is the post office, where santas helpers answer all the letters. Woman 2 it will come here if it says north pole. Lemonis this is the best one. One thing i want to do before i leave is write a letter to santa and ask him to give me a good business. This town is fantastic. From a marketing perspective, id say youre starting with a leg up, and thats why i decided to show up with the christmas spirit. When i walk in, im expecting to walk into santas wonderland with ornaments and christmas lights, but instead, it has dark ceilings and the place is totally uninviting. And even worse, theres cameras everywhere. Who decorated this place, the grinch . Mark hey. Lemonis how are you . Mark nice to meet you. Mark. Lemonis mark . Mark yep. Lemonis im marcus. Mark this is heidi. This is. Heidi hi. Nice to meet you. Lemonis how are are you . Nice to meet you. Husband and wife . Heidi yes. Lemonis well, im in santa claus. Heidi yep. Mark yeah. Yeah. You are. Its a very touristattracting kind of area. Lemonis yeah. Mark holiday world, splashin safari park. Lemonis okay. Mark . They get about a million to a million and a half visitors a year. Lemonis wow. Mark so thats the big tourism for the town. Theyre actually the first theme park. Lemonis oh, theyre the first theme park that every existed . Mark yeah. They were santa land about 70 years ago. Heidi we moved here two years ago. Lemonis oh, okay. Where are you from . Heidi we were originally from pennsylvania. Lemonis oh. Heidi and we were going to do that back there, so i researched it. Im like, wow. Thats a really cool town. So he changed his job. We moved out here, sold our house, and here we are. Lemonis wow. Heidi . About two years later. Lemonis who does the toybuying . Heidi its a family affair. Mark yeah. Yeah. Heidi our kids get involved, too. Lemonis oh, do they . How many kids do you have . Heidi we have two. Lemonis oh, wonderful. Heidi we have a 14yearold and a 10yearold. Lemonis very cool. Heidi yes. Mark when you meet hunter, youll see. Hes 14. Hes a little more advanced, and my daughter is special needs. They call her delayed, and at some point and she catching up. Lemonis yep. Mark like, shes reading now, and shes doing great. Lemonis okay. Can you take me through the products and the categories . Mark yeah. So weve got well over 4,000 different skus. Weve got games on this corner here. Lemonis okay. Mark . A lot of the little knickknacky stuff up here towards the front. Our squishies this is kind of our trendy area. Lemonis how do i know that other than looking at it . Is there a sign . Mark theres no signs. Yeah. Thats the only thing. Lemonis okay. Im not really sure where to shop or where to go. Nothing has any labels on it, and when youre competing with the internet these days, it has to be just as easy as navigating through a website, and to say that the Customer Experience was not part of the thought process here would be an understatement. Does the store seem dark to you . Heidi it does. Yes. Mark oh, my gosh. Yes. Lemonis the black ceiling. Heidi yes. Mark its just. Lemonis yeah. Mark a lot of this stuff, we just kind of did ourselves. Lemonis what are these . Mark those are our cameras. Weve got 16 cameras in here just to kind of deter somebody from. Lemonis is this, like, fort knox . The place doesnt really feel fun. Warning all activities are recorded to aid in the prosecution of crime. Then theres these cameras here telling you that again. Thats, like. Its, have fun, but dont have too much fun, okay . Because were not about fun. I think its important to elicit excitement and to encourage people to touch and play and fall in love with the toys. The best way to get somebody to buy something is to get them to fall in love with it. Mark what weve found was kids would be opening everything. Lemonis its a toy store. Mark . Breaking them. Lemonis yeah. Heidi i think we just take it personally, you know . Lemonis yeah. Heidi because we built this. Lemonis because its your stuff. Heidi so when kids come in there and, like, let loose, were like, oh. Lemonis right. Unfortunately, in a toy store, you have to factor that theres going to be a certain amount of loss. So in a candy store, its people sampling. In a toy store, its people opening. What a business like this should do is you can actually create a line item on your p l. Of course, theres revenue. Theres gross profit. Theres rent. Theres marketing expense. Theres payroll, but maybe they factor in that 1,000 a month is going to go towards opening products up and letting people play with them instead of getting angry about it. What do you do with stuff like this that doesnt sell . Mark we donate this kind of stuff for the schools, for the nonprofits. Lemonis so can you walk me through and show me the other dead merchandise in this store . Mark yeah. I sure can. We switched brands from that to this. Lemonis okay. Mark so once those are gone, we will not have anymore. Lemonis so thats dead merchandise . Mark yeah. These, i cannot sell. Lemonis okay. Heidi the remotecontrol cars dont really seem to go that well. Lemonis they dont sell well . Heidi mnhmnh. Mark none of these, this whole rack, ive had these for two years. Lemonis it doesnt sell . Mark yep. Lemonis wow. Do you do a lot of Business Online . Mark we dont. No, and now heidi we have it. Lemonis do you do any Business Online . Mark we do a very small amount. We have a regular website. Lemonis whats that called . Mark santastoys. Net. Lemonis dotnet . Mark yeah, and you can go to that. Lemonis why dotnet . Mark because the dotcom costs more. Lemonis how much is the dotnet a year . Mark i believe its 29 a year. Lemonis and how much is the dotcom . Mark a hundred and something, it was. Lemonis and so you thought for the 70, it was better to go with dotnet . Heidi just because we werent getting the orders from there. Lemonis maybe because nobody knows dotnet. While i appreciate the frugalness, the Customer Experience is awful. They have santastoys. Net instead of santastoys. Com. He didnt even invest a little bit of money to have a shipping box that had his brand on it. Instead, hes reusing old boxes, and theres a handmade sign that looks like it was made in an artsandcrafts class. Whats a busy day here . Mark 5,000 to 6,000. Lemonis and whats a low day here . Mark a low day here would be. Heidi zero. Lemonis did you ever do zero . Heidi we did. Mark we have. Heidi especially in the slow time, january through march. Mark january, february. So right now were at the end of the summer season, where everything dies down a little bit. Lemonis uhhuh. Yep. Mark so in the offseason like this one, nobody is open. Theres nothing going on. Its quiet. Lemonis and have you ever thought about closing down seasonally and just having the website open . Mark some of the locals do that, local businesses, but for us. Heidi you dont know if they have a birthday or. Mark you have a birthday. Yesterday, we had a little girl. She broke her leg, so we had probably five or six families come in and buy toys for her so she had something to do when she was recovering in the bed. Heidi so were here all the time. Lemonis so mark and heidi stay open yearround because they live here, and i get that, but ultimately, they have to generate revenue for their family and they have to do it efficiently. And so whats the solution . Launch a website that actually gives people the chance to buy product 365 days a year, 247, and have it end in a dotcom, not a dotnet. Lemonis im kind of disappointed that it doesnt feel like christmas. See . Like, i look at this, right . Why did you feel the need to do that when you had this . Mark well, because its a toy store. Lemonis i mean, people know santas toys, its a toy store. Mark yeah. Lemonis and it doesnt even feel like its in the christmas theme. Mark no. Its not. Lemonis so as you stand out here, wheres the christmas feel . Mark its one of the things that were working towards. Lemonis i mean, when you look at santas lodge, its got a giant santa out front. Mark yeah. Lemonis its welcoming. You know that its christmastime. Your building looks clean. It just doesnt look inviting. What happens if the business doesnt work . Mark i mean, i go back to work, and she runs it because i made 20 times more than im making now. Lemonis what did you do before . Mark i was an atm repair guy. God, i was gone six to eight months out of the year. Lemonis yeah. Mark i was always gone. Theres a lot of pictures of the family going to the zoo or the aquarium or the science museum. Im not in them. Lemonis why did you get in the toy business . Mark for me, especially in this town, a classic town, you get that spirit of christmas. When you see that in the heart of a little child. I didnt grow up with a lot of money. I never met my real father. [ sniffs, sighs ] so i kind of grew up on my own. Lemonis and so are you trying to create a refuge for kids to come somewhere and feel safe . Mark i just want them to feel the magic of christmas. Lemonis i think what you have to do is bottle up that passion that you have for it and figure out how to package it in a way where it could provide for you and your family 365 days a year. Mark yeah. Lemonis because every day is christmas. Mark it should be. Lemonis okay . Lets head inside. Guys. Heidi hey. Mark how you doing . Lemonis how are you . Do you have the financials . Mark i do. Yep. Lemonis okay, so 50,000 of inventory right now. Mark right now. Lemonis and what are the payables that you owe . Mark yes. We dont do credit. We buy it outright. Lemonis pay cash, and thats it . Mark yes. Lemonis so you dont owe anybody any money on the vendor side . Heidi correct. Lemonis so heres 17, last year 344,000. So the business makes about 60,000 a year . Mark yes. Lemonis after everybodys paid . Mark yes. Lemonis is that including you guys getting a wage . Mark i mean, we only take enough to pay our bills. Lemonis but thats in these numbers . Mark mmhmm. Lemonis considering that you bootstrapped it and in the last 12 months being open less than two years, you made 60,000, theres not a lot of businesses that can make that kind of return on capital in less than 24 months. Does the place look as good as it could . No. But did you learn how to make a profit and do it with what you had . Mark mmhmm. Lemonis yes. Like, highfive on that one. Mark [ laughs ] thanks. Lemonis and i want to do a deal with you guys. Mark ooh, wow. Lemonis i want to put up 75,000 bucks. I want half of the money to go into the store to improve it, to fix it up a little bit, and i want the other half of the money to go into building the website, which means that the store will be closed for a few days. Heidi [ gasps ] mark she would freak out. Heidi i couldnt even shut it down for a halfhour. Mark shed be like. Shed be a wreck. Lemonis yeah. Mark for me, it comes down to every little bit helps. We just want more for our kids than what weve had. Lemonis youve said to me, we want more for our kids, and in a weird way, by not having an online store, youre doing your kids and other kids a disservice. Mark again, we have a website. We have an ecommerce. We have a whole Payment System and lemonis i understand, mark, but i dont like a dotnet. I dont think its as good, and were going to have something built because thats the nice thing about having an online store. You can always work. Its always open. But it also will work for itself when youre not there. Mark yeah. Heidi its just not our thats not why we did it. It was to have the actual store. I think we should focus more on the store. Yeah. Lemonis coming up. Mark, put your heart into it. Mark can you imagine a place. Lemoso youre a smallice thing about hbor a big one. E store. You were thriving, but then. Oh. Ah. Okay. Plan, pivot. How do you bounce back . You dont, you bounce forward, with serious and reliable internet. Powered by the largest gig Speed Network in america. But is it secure . Sure its secure. And even if the power goes down, your connection doesnt. So how do i do this . You dont do this. We do this, together. Bounce forward, with comcast business. Mark yeah. Heidi its just not our thats not why we did it. It was to have the actual store. I think we should focus more on the store. Mark yeah. Lemonis so when we were in front of your store, what did you tell me outside that christmas is all about . Mark family. Lemonis uhhuh. How are you addressing that in working seven days a week and not taking any time for the family . Mark yep. I see what youre saying. Lemonis if youre selling christmas and joy and family, you better live it. Mark yeah. Lemonis so my offer is 75,000. Half of the money goes into the store to improve the brand. Mark i see. Lemonis and where i want to partner with you guys is on santastoys. Com. Mark how much of that do you want . Lemonis i want 50 of it. Mark thats fair. Lemonis i want you to keep owning 100 of the store. For your family, its enough to make a good living. Even though im not taking a financial interest in the store, the reason i want that money to go towards it is so that it can help build the brand for the website. What i expect from you guys is buying the product. Well ship them out in a really cool santa claus box. Well make cool labels, but you guys have to do all that work. Heidi im in. Lemonis so do you understand the deal . Mark absolutely. Lemonis this is the biggest check i ever wrote to santa. [ laughter ] mark santa is getting a new sleigh. Lemonis a new sleigh . Hes got a new maserati. We have a deal . Mark absolutely. Lemonis im going to give the money to her. Mark i would. Yes. Lemonis thank you. Heidi thank you. Mark marcus. Lemonis thank you. Mark thank you so much. Lemonis good luck. Now that the deal is done, im super excited to get started working for santa, and im going to put some christmas in the air. These are good. I love these. Heidi good morning. Mark hey lemonis whats happening . Hi. Hunter hello. Emily hi. Lemonis how are you . Im marcus. Emily im good. Im emily. Lemonis nice to meet you, emily. Emily nice to meet you. Hunter hunter. Lemonis hunter, nice to meet you. Do you love all these toys . Emily yeah. Lemonis what do you think about making it better . Hunter yes. Lemonis what do you think we should do to it . Hunter just decorate it better so that way it doesnt look kind of cheap, almost. Lemonis oh, it looks cheap . Okay. At least we have an honest family member. And what do you think they sacrifice for you . Hunter a lot. Dad worked a lot. He still does. Mom still does. We never get to have family outings, not very often, anyway. Lemonis im marcus. Laura hi, laura. Nice to meet you. Lemonis laura . Laura yes. Lemonis nice to meet you. Jessica jessica. Lemonis jessica. Jessica yep. Lemonis nice to meet you. Do you guys work here fulltime or parttime . Both parttime. Lemonis and so i know that were just meeting for the first time, but mark and heidi and i ended up making a deal for me to help grow santas toys, and in order to get ready for the holidays, somethings got to change, and step one would be to take out the stuff that doesnt sell and put it in a truck and try to liquidate it. Lets go outside for a second, okay . Emily lets go. Hunter outside we go. Lemonis so. This truck is going to get filled today with everything in the store that we all know isnt good merchandise. So why dont you guys go start pulling things that you know are a problem, and then well load them up . Mark okay. Lemonis all right . Mark got it. Lets go right by you. There you go. Lemonis how do you know what sells and doesnt sell . Mark just from being here. Everything in this area sells. Lemonis all of it . Mark all of it. Lemonis get the data. Dont just guess. Mark oh, im positive. Lemonis one of the things that i want to do is dig into whats really wrong with this business. Mark microscopes got to go. Lemonis and the best place to start at any business thats struggling is you start with the inventory. So whos the one thats buying all this stuff . Mark [ sighs ] me. Lemonis all this is these are all mistakes. Mark yep. Lemonis okay. You should get out of the toybuying business if this is your aisle. After seeing all this crap inventory, maybe it was too early for candy canes. Heidi, what about all the stuff that you buy . Heidi all these dinosaurs are good. We just have to reorder more. Lemonis and you have to get a lot more. Heidi yes. Good. Good. That is good. Lemonis okay. Heidi this is good. Lemonis this is good. Heidi good. Lemonis all of that is good . Heidi all thats good. Lemonis what about all this . Heidi good. Lemonis look, it seems like the toys that are selling are the ones that heidi is buying, and the one that mark bought are ending up on the truck. So from here on out, mark is on the naughty list when it comes to buying toys. Were getting close to being done, and the place still doesnt look right. It looks like a Metal Building with a low, black roof with a couple different types of floors. And so how do you feel about closing the store for three weeks . Heidi [ gasps ] three weeks . You mean three days . Lemonis three weeks. Heidi three weeks . [ chuckles ] no. Lemonis coming up. Heidi, im only comfortable being in business if you are the lead buyer. Heidi no. Lemonis what is it that youre worried about . Closing the store and sofor three weeks . About heidi [ gasps ] three weeks . Mark yeah. Lemonis the idea is to open the whole store up, from wall to wall. Open up the ceiling and have it actually feel like christmas in here, like santas workshop. Its going to take about three weeks. Mark honey, itll be okay. If we sacrifice a little bit now, then the end result will be way better than continuing on the path that were going, which isnt going as well as it should. Heidi yeah. Lemonis and the two of you have too much at stake, too much of your heart in it, for it just to chug along. Heidi okay. Lemonis with heidi onboard, christmas is back on, but lets be clear. We still have to figure out how to get rid of all this stuff. Just out of curiosity, how much money is in there, heidi . Heidi 15,000 . Lemonis 15,000 . Mark yeah. Lemonis so for me, id rather buy it from you for 15,000 and donate it to kids and put the money back in the business. Mark im all for it. Yeah. Lemonis . And then we go to a show, and we take the 15,000 and were smart about it. Run it through the register. Ill sign the receipt. Look, after weve gotten all the bad inventory out of the store, they need to buckle up because this is just the beginning of the changes. So the next three weeks arent going to be a vacation. Mark oh, no. I didnt lemonis we got to go find a couple toy shows. We got to go find a box manufacturer to get santas toys boxes done. We got to go get a new marketing plan, get the website moving, get the website open, and youre going to write up a plan for the toy show. I wanted to bring mark to chicago to take him to a box manufacturer so that as we move the business forward and launch the website, when a customer gets a package, its in a branded box. Keith we make 100,000 a day, maybe 200,000. This is the quantity you want to get to. Like, this is a bigass order. Lemonis this is yeah. How cool this is . And they do something even on the inside to elevate it. I mean, i want to understand what the barrie