Back in the 80’s and 90’s Golden Books was a major force. Not only did they have the best line of children’s books, but they also made puzzles, tapes, videos, games, Whitman Coin Supplies, playing cards, and much more. Based in Racine, Wisconsin under the name of Western Publishing they could do no wrong. And like any large publisher, they occasionally had some production problems. Overruns and slight imperfections were bound to occur with the volume Western was producing. Instead of just destroying any of these products they decided to place them in a retail outlet featuring only their products- The Boat House. The Boat House had once been an employee only outlet but now it became an incredibly popular place to buy the wide variety of Golden products at fabulous prices.
It wasn’t a fancy place- products were either on shelves or stacked in huge boxes on the sales floor. You could get an empty box when you entered and just fill it up with your treasures. Coloring books, paint and marker books, storybooks, games, puzzles, and more were stuffed in boxes, shelves, and crates and you just had to find what you wanted. It was a popular place! I started working with Golden in 1991 and did all their mail order, school, and library business. With all the fabulous items coming in I decided to open 2 toy stores to sell these items for retail while sending a lot of them out the back door through the mail. I would take an hour trip down to the Boat House at least once a month to stock up on things for the stores and my station wagon was filled to the brim. If I only knew then what I know now! I would have bought a lot more and put it into storage. For instance, Little Little Golden Books were brand new and very hot sellers. These were miniature versions of Little Golden Books, only about 3″ X 3″ big. The kids loved them. I remember selling thousands of these books to Ethiopian Airlines- they gave them away to kids on their flights! I also remember being able to buy a pallet of these books but I didn’t have the room to store them so I passed. A pallet is about 4 feet square and 4 feet high jammed with these books. They couldn’t even tell me how many were in the pallet- it was immense. I sure wish I would have done it and just put them into storage somewhere!
The Boat House is long gone now, but if you go on Facebook you will see comments from people who used to go there. It was a family tradition that they cherished. A wonderful place from a time fondly remembered.