The Store of Knowledge Inc. (SOK) was an American retail chain selling educational items and children's toys.

The chain was co-owned by public television station KCET in Los Angeles; Lakeshore Learning Materials; and private equity firm Riordan, Lewis & Haden.

[2] Leonard Straus, former chairman of Thrifty Drug and a member of the board of KCET, had suggested the idea of starting an educational materials store.

[4] While KCET had conceived of the chain as a way to raise money amid a challenging recession in Southern California,[5] threatened cuts to public broadcasting after Republicans took control of the United States House of Representatives in 1994 spurred additional interest.

[9] As Learningsmith backed off from its previous affiliations with public television and underwent an internal restructuring,[10] two of the large PBS member stations that worked with it started Stores of Knowledge: in October 1996, WNET opened its first unit in the Garden State Plaza,[11] and WETA partnered with the chain to start the first of four units in the Washington, D.C., area in April 1997.

SOK expanded into the Seattle area even though it was unsuccessful on two occasions to encourage KCTS-TV there to participate; KCTS was already running a for-profit store.

[24] The Learningsmith leases acquired included locations in additional markets where the company did not have ties with the public television station, such as Nashville.

It attempted to buy the 56-unit Great Train Store chain but failed to reach an accord before the company was liquidated.

CEO Jim Berk believed that consolidation in the space would leave mall vacancies and that landlords would be receptive to a new concept from an existing retailer.

[32] The move to wind down the chain came just weeks after Berk told trade publication Gifts & Decorative Accessories that it had no plans to open or close stores in the immediate future.

[33] At the time the chain was slumping, it was part of an overall market trend that also saw a bankruptcy filing for Zany Brainy, increased competition from other retailers, and a decrease in new educational software titles for computers.