February 2012

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he effects of hurricanes and high oil prices are felt nationwide but they didn’t keep the family out of the zoos and aquariums in 2005. Likewise, the tendency to take home a memory largely kept pace with attendance. To continue the trend in 2006, retailers are upgrading spaces and reaching out to visitors beyond the gift shop confines. The animals, too, are getting into the act, of merchandising, that is.

A phenomenal seller at the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center Gift Shop in Virginia Beach, Va., has been the artwork of the harbor seals. Ruth Ann Steenburgh, director of retail operations, has been selling their compositions, the result of a seal enrichment program. “The seals came up with some really cool pictures and were very prolific when offered a paintbrush dipped in paint,” said Steenburgh. The store also features a T-shirt design patterned after one of the original seal paintings. This year, the design will also grace mugs and magnets. Profits from the store go to the operating budget of the aquarium, half to the stranding program and half to enrichment.

The aquarium and science center buildings each has a gift shop with distinct sets of merchandise. The North Ocean Pavilion Store will be moved and designed so that aquarium visitors exit through it. The store will open in 2007 and renovation will not be complete until the next year. The South Marsh Pavilion Store, which hasn’t been spruced up since being built in 1996, will be renovated with painting and upgraded, with reconfigured track lighting to highlight selected areas.

The gift shop at The Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, Tenn. The store has a newly developed river otter line.

Attendance figures have remained at 600,000, but are gleaned from several factors some of which don’t produce revenue, such as whale watching. The stores sales were around $1,200,000, up for the calendar year 2005.

A plush animal named Sandy for the aquarium’s mascot sea turtle will be the big branding push for 2006.

The Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, Tenn., opened the doors to a new building last year, revealing an entirely new series of exhibit galleries. The gift shop at the end of the experience does not require guests to exit through it. So to capture their attention, Judy Powell, director of retail sales, is rearranging the entryway to increase visibility of a newly developed plush river otter line designed to engage customers interactively rather than just be seen from a shelf. The line is an offshoot of three aquarium river otters that were named Everett, Pete and Delmar by a contest winner for the three characters from the movie, “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou.” Bountiful add-on possibilities accompany the line. The little “junior aquarist” can be characterized in an assortment of clothing, sandals, and sunglasses, with hiking supplies, backpack, fishing pole, or accessory of choice. A machine-made tag will be available to name and attach to the adorned otter on a collar, necklace or bracelet. The otter also ties into the behind the scenes junior aquarist children’s tour at the aquarium. “It creates a mascot effect,” said Powell. “Kids can relate to having seen the otters in the aquarium and with the outfits, can playact that this is the kind of thing they could do.” She considers the otter station an experiment to be revised again, if needed. “There is so much more challenge for retailers today because people have so little time. We have to make sure we have something to capture their attention because if it’s same ol’ same ol’ they will walk by.”

Aquarium attendance increased in 2005 to 1,059,000 from 855, 979 the previous year. Powell noted that per cap spending remained flat because members who visit repeatedly don’t make a purchase each time.

A Great White Shark in the tank contributed to a substantial spike in attendance at California’s Monterey Bay Aquarium in 2004. The six month captivity prompted gift shop General Manager of merchandise Andrew Fischer to augment shark-related merchandise. This year new merchandising programs tie into the currently expanded children’s exhibits, Flipper, Flukes and Fun and the Splash Zone.

One of the four stores at California’s Monterey Bay Aquarium. New merchandising programs tie in with expanded children’s exhibits at the facility.

The main store was remodeled in 2005 as well as were three other locations. Fixtures were revised and replaced with those that can be moved around and changed. When completed this year, suspension cable lighting will span half of the store from one end to the other. Fischer explained that the main store cash register locations were removed and centralized in one spot to ease customer service access, open up selling square footage and increase traffic flow pattern fluidity on busy days. He is looking forward in spring, to moving the kid’s area into the main store, which is typically adult, gift and wearing apparel merchandise. He also will be preparing for the new Otters From Around the World exhibit scheduled to open in 2007. He expects it will create excitement because otters are the most popular animals at the aquarium, being visible out in the bay.

Though 2005 attendance was down 30 percent relative to the Great White Shark release, per cap spending maintained the $4 range of previous years. Developing and building the customer service program, and educating staff on product knowledge are priorities for Fischer. “We continue to be a key part of the aquarium visit because as people leave they want to take a terrific memory with them and we want to give them that opportunity but we have to be there to keep them knowledgeable. The remodel will ultimately be a tremendous help in having more variety, merchandising things together better, telling more stories and giving more selling square footage.”

Remote site kiosks will increasingly bring the gift shop to the Tacoma, Wash.- based Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium onlookers of various exhibits. Gift shop manager Katherine Edmundson said the store is new as of 2004 and is in a great location, but wants to reach out to visitors on site around the zoo.

To support and market around what the new Kids Zone area teaches children about professions that work with animals, the store will provide educational information through toys and outfits such as veterinarian lab coats. Merchandise in the store will reflect the new walrus and seahorse exhibits, as well as one that celebrates Audubon’s 100th anniversary.

Edmundson will be looking for new innovative product in 2006, zoo and conservation-related but fun and exciting for kids, and more free trade items. “We’re working to increase the consciousness of the consumer, to drive some interest into how the zoo contributes to conservation, and in being more of an educational tool, to increase sales.” Per cap spending and attendance both were on the incline in 2005.

The value of outside-store visibility became apparent at the Texas State Aquarium in Corpus Christi, Texas, last year when sea life design airbrush tattooing brought in over $30,000 in a sixmonth period. For 2006, gift shop manager Mary Jo Mastrangelo had a roving cart built on which to display merchandise and spark interest of guests who no longer exit through the store, following a remodel in 2003. She has also added a book nook to the Shoreline Gift Shop and window displays and book shelves to the Cove Gift Shop. She was pleased to report that per cap spending continues upward a little each year, as does the aquarium attendance.

Merchandise will sport a new logo to represent the Aquarium, Rainforest and Discovery Pyramids of Moody Gardens Inc. in Galveston, Texas this year, in unison with an upgrading of the main gift shop. Manager Valencia Temple is supplementing the book and educational section with more educational toys for pre-K through the 3rd grade level.

Moody Gardens attendance increased from 662,844 in 2004 to 962,065 in 2005. Per cap was up slightly, said Temple, “until the incident with the hurricane which put us back under for the year. We were doing extremely well right before that happened.” Temple stated that she plans to increase sales this year with educational merchandise related to the new Bones exhibit in the Discovery Pyramid.

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