One-hop shopping

If you're looking for frog-themed flowerpots or wind chimes to welcome guests, or a few yards of frog fabric to make tablecloths for your next dinner party, or even frog-shaped pasta for the meal, it's time to jump on the Internet and hop on over to visit Melissa Boyd.

Boyd, 49, is the owner of Oregon's one-stop frog shop, The Frog Store, where just about any type of frog or frog-themed item for the home -- including towels, kitchenware, candles, shower curtains, mirrors, umbrellas, telephones and soap -- can be found. After collecting frogs for nearly 25 years, Boyd expanded her hobby to an online store six years ago.

"We've stocked over 3,500 different frog items during the years we've been in business," says Boyd, who sells items from www.frogstore.com, based in Corvallis. "We often get calls from people who are truly desperate for a particular frog."

When Canby resident Debbie Sowles urgently needed a deck of frog playing cards, she contacted The Frog Store. "I e-mailed Melissa," she says. "The next time I went to the Web page, there they were."

Sowles became interested in frogs a decade ago when her son's kindergarten class began raising tadpoles. She now has more than 500 pieces in her collection, and many -- including pajamas, beach towels and mugs -- have come from The Frog Store.

But few people have amassed a collection as impressive as Bob Usher's. Usher began collecting 35 years ago while on a trip to Los Angeles.

"I was staying with friends and, while shopping one day, bought a frog squeaky toy for their dog," he says. "It was so cute, I went back the next day and got one for myself."

That's all it took to get Usher hooked on frogs. Now he and his wife, Maggie, have nearly 4,000 frog items crammed into their Portland home, mostly on the dozens of shelves that line the walls of their living room. Usher's collection includes figurines, stuffed animals, clothing, chinaware and music boxes. Perhaps his most unusual frog is a brown one fashioned from a cowpie. "We try and make sure that one stays dry," he says.

When Usher first heard about The Frog Store a few years back, he could hardly wait to visit. He called Boyd to see if he could come down and browse the aisles of "frog heaven," but he was disappointed to learn that The Frog Store was solely an online business, with no actual "bricks and mortar" shop. Nevertheless, he has been a regular virtual visitor and has purchased several items, including frog stationery and a frog phone that croaks when it rings.

Usher admits his collecting might have gotten a bit out of hand. "Our collection of anything and everything 'frog' is more than respectable," he says, "it's bordering on insane."

Melissa Boyd's interest in frogs began harmlessly enough when she was a student at Montana State University back in 1974. While on a summer job in California, she bought a small brass frog on a trip to San Francisco. "People saw my frog and would get me another one," she says. "Before I knew it, I had a collection going."

When Boyd moved to Corvallis in 1982, the frogs migrated with her. As a mechanical engineer for Hewlett-Packard Co., she did a lot of traveling and was soon collecting frog mementos on every trip. With the never-ending amphibian home invasion, husband Randy began to see a different green.

The couple had talked about starting an online business for their retirement. "I was just planning to stock some items in my basement and sell some frogs in my spare time," says Boyd, who kept her day job with HP.

The Boyds figured that by the time they retired, they would be experienced in running an online business. What they didn't expect was the popularity of The Frog Store. In fact, it was so successful, they had to start a spinoff company, Croak City Wholesale, to handle bulk-purchase requests from retailers. But success didn't come overnight.

At first Boyd had trouble finding products to sell, so she made some herself and obtained others from companies in Portland and surrounding areas. A manufacturer from California helped Boyd learn about wholesale trade shows and markets in 1998, and Boyd now attends the Portland Gift and Accessories Show at the Oregon Convention Center three times a year to find the latest frog items.

As The Frog Store's inventory expanded, the Boyds' home filled up. "We finally rented a warehouse and moved the frogs out," she says.

One of The Frog Store's best-selling items has been frog-shaped pasta, which Boyd calls Frogaroni.

"I designed the frog shape and contracted with a specialty pasta extruder in California to get it made and packaged," she says. "Then one day a semi truck pulled up in front of our house and unloaded 2 tons of pasta into our garage. Those are times when you start to question your sanity."

The Frog Store now has five employees to help with packaging year-round and additional help during the holiday season. Frog Store frogs have been shipped to every state and more than a dozen countries.

Boyd has no trouble understanding why so many people love filling their homes with frog-themed items.

"Frogs are fun!" she says. "They can be beautiful and artistic, but they can also be quite silly and whimsical and come in all sorts of interesting colors and shapes. They are also symbolic of the rain forest and the environment."

The success of The Frog Store has come at the right time for the Boyds. Randy is now retired, while Melissa works part time at Hewlett-Packard. When she eventually joins her husband in retirement, she expects The Frog Store to keep them hopping for quite some time.

"We have a whole wall covered with personal thank-you notes from grateful customers," she says. "Not exactly what you'd expect from a frog business, but it's been quite gratifying."

Freelance writer Nick Thomas: nthomas@mail.aum.edu