genmai:They are a publishing house and they have roughly as many salesperson as the no. of seats in the workshop. You'll get personal attention while waiting. Yes very true. I regretted signing up my kids for it. It is a marketing gimmick in disguise. My husband was quite cheesed off and I feel so bad that he had to endure the sales pitch. My way of looking at this is, you are paying $9.90 for them to entertain your kid and keep you captive waiting outside so they can do their sales pitch (encyclopedia).