School supply store rings final bell: Morrison School Supply to close in San Carlos after nearly six decades

Co-owner Chris Morrison said it is time after a long, successful run to step away from the company which he and his siblings inherited from their parents, who founded the store in 1957.

Though Morrison, 62, said he looks forward to spending more time with his family after retiring, he does feel bad about walking away from the place which so many local residents and teachers depend on for a wide variety of school supplies and classroom equipment.

“It’s a mixed bag,” said Morrison, of the emotions he has grappled with leading toward the final days of operation. “I feel a sense of accomplishment, but also feel bad for our customers and for our staff, because our staff is like our family.”

As the going-out-of-business sale is underway, a foreign and unwelcome sight to Morrison has become increasingly more common amidst the 13,000 square-foot warehouse — barren shelves.

Walking amidst the picked-over piles of construction paper spanning seemingly every color of the spectrum and past the diminished stock of teacher planning books, Morrison’s displeasure is palpable.

“It makes me feel bad to not be able to serve customers,” said Morrison. “It hurts to see empty shelves.”

But with the help of his sister and brother, Morrison admitted there is a great deal of pride associated with successfully running the business for nearly 30 years, after the baton was passed from his mother and father.

The company was started by Morrison’s mother Marguerite, a former teacher who parlayed an interest in providing supplies to her children’s schools into a full-time business which she initially operated from the family’s garage.

Morrison grew up in the store, which began operating from its San Carlos location nearly 30 years ago, and has witnessed it develop into the go-to source for teachers not only on the Peninsula, but across the Bay Area.

Though pens, paper, erasers and other necessities for students are stocked, Morrison said the availability of the products such as chalkboards, classroom decor, games, lesson books, calendars, arts, crafts and much sets the store apart from big box chain retailers, as the easy access to specialized educational material helps teachers do their jobs better.

He said once the store closes, there will be no other similar, local competitor, which means most of the regular customers will be forced to do their shopping online.

In the past, an annual trip to the store became tradition for teachers beginning to think about their upcoming school year, said Morrison, or a rite of passage for young educators beginning their career.

One of the unique joys of the years spent operating the store has been witnessing recently hired educators grow and develop their own unique sense of style in designing their classroom and distributing lessons, said Morrison.

Some teachers have returned annually since his mother operated the company, said Morrison, resulting in the establishment of lasting personal relationships with some of the longest tenured customers.

“We have got to know them and their family and they have got to know us and our family,” he said.

With the expectation that many of his customers will eventually transition online, Morrison said he fears a crucial component of the school supply shopping experience will be lost, as teachers will no longer be able to engage with experts at the store regarding which are the best products for their classroom or students.

Morrison said over the years he became a resource for teachers needing guidance regarding which instructional material would best fit their students, because he took the time to familiarize himself with each piece of text he ordered to stock on the shelves.

The absence of such experienced counsel, or merely the opportunity to walk aisles and check out new material, will be a tremendous loss for local educators, said Liz Devlin, an instructor at Kids Connection School in Foster City.

“I’m really sad,” she said. “It’s our local resource and it is going away. I feel this is a staple of our community.”

Tori Black, who also works at Kids Connection, agreed with her colleague.

“The people here are so nice. We are definitely going to miss it,” she said. “So many teachers know and rely on this place.”

austin@smdailyjournal.com

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