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Store employee Mary Brooks (left) and Pady Regnier,
founder and owner of St. Croix Promotions and Retail,
which operates the shop at Underwater Adventures
Aquarium, Mall of America, Bloomington, Minn.
Shark merchandise sells well to the teen demographic at
the shop, according to Regnier.
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quarium gift stores
around the country are
trying to find ways to
reach that always difficult teenage
demographic. Increased interest
in technology has resulted in
teens spending more of their
money on iPods and Xbox systems
than plush dolphins and
souvenir T-shirts.
“I think the tween and teen
demographic is really hard for gift
retailers,” said Pady Regnier,
founder and owner of St. Croix
Promotions and Retail, which is a
concessionaire for Underwater
Adventures Aquarium in Bloom -
ing ton, Minn. “Where it’s at is
iPhones and cell phones and
videogames and gadgets and
devices. The really scary thing is
that I see 5- and 6-year-olds going
in that direction as much as 12-
year-olds.”
Timothy Murray, retail buyer
for the Tennessee Aquarium in
Chattanooga, agreed: “They are
just in between the cute things
that little kids want and being an
adult. So it’s hard to know what
they want.”
“Teens don’t even know what
they want, so how are we to
know?” joked Brittney Barber,
program specialist and education and gift shop coordinator
for Sea Center Texas in Lake Jackson, which has an annual
sales figure of $70,000. “They are at that stage where they
are here, but they are mostly with their parents, so it’s not
that cool. So they want to be here and they don’t want to
be here. The bottom line is that they would much rather
save up their money to buy a PSP game rather than a souvenir
at a gift shop. Generally, it’s not the teen buying
something. It’s their parents saying, ‘Whaddya want, whaddya
want?’ until they finally pick something.”
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Young people photographed
with
shark plush at
Underwater
Adventures
Aquarium. Custom
T-shirts featuring
sharks have been a
hit with teens at
the gift store.
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Janelle Hofstetter, 18, photographed
January 13, 2009 holding a Cabin
Critters sunfish plush piece at the
Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in
Athens. Shark tooth necklaces and
other jewelry are top picks for teens at
the gift shop. Photo by Larry Hodge.
Regnier said the decision to market
“edgier T-shirts” for the teen patrons at
Underwater Adventures has paid off.
“Sharks sell for us with the teen
crowd,” Regnier said. “We’re lucky
that we have sharks here because teens
want blood and gore or a shark eating
something. We actually had a pretty
interesting thing happen where our
main shark, Jesse, tried to eat another
little shark and we got a picture of it in
his mouth. I have five boys that
grew up in our house, and I
know something disgusting like
that was right up their alley. So
we made a T-shirt from the picture,
and it sold well. Anything
edgy with sharks really hits that
teen market, but I really think
developing custom T-shirts
works.”
Teens sure love their sharks.
So much so that all of the aquarium
managers we spoke to said
shark’s teeth necklaces are some
of their biggest selling items.
Shark teeth can run anywhere
from under $2 to $1,000, but
most of the necklaces and pendants
selling to teens cost under
$10.
“We don’t do a lot of electronic
gadgets and devices, which is
frankly where it’s at, but we do
our best,” Regnier said. “The
shark teeth are great sellers. We
have some shark teeth that are
millions of years old, and we
think we have the best
Megalodon teeth that are millions
and millions of years old.”
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Janelle Hofstetter, 18, photographed
January 13, 2009 holding a Cabin
Critters sunfish plush piece at the
Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in
Athens. Shark tooth necklaces and
other jewelry are top picks for teens at
the gift shop. Photo by Larry Hodge.
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Mickie Campbell, visitor services
manager for the Texas
Freshwater Fisheries Center in
Athens, said while shark teeth
rule supreme, other jewelry
works, too, especially if it is inexpensive.
“Girls like mood jewelry and
other jewelry with hearts and circles,”
she said. “It sounds simple,
but they sell well. And stock lots
of candy bars. You would be surprised how many we sell. Inexpensive items
are the key. We don’t see many teens reaching
in their pockets and buying bigger items
like T-shirts. Their parents and grandparents
buy them for them, but they gravitate toward
the cheaper items.”
“We have some shark’s tooth necklaces
that sell for $2 and $3, and if one of the
teens buys them, you will sell five or six in a
row,” said Mary Jo Gothard, retail and
museum store manager for the National
Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium in
Dubuque, Iowa, which has an annual sales
figure of $500,000. “ The same goes for the
mood rings and the friendship bracelets,
which are only $1. If one in the group buys
one, the whole group buys one. It is so low
priced, it allows everyone to make a purchase.”
Patricia Beyer, purchasing manager for
Sea Life Park Hawaii in Waimanalo, found a
way to offer something inexpensive that
fits into the teen technology craze.
“It is very important to offer relatively
inexpensive items for teens,” Beyer
said. “Although a lot of them have discretionary
money, they are very slow to
spend it in a gift shop. So we started
offering charms for their cell phones.
They retail for around $4.99 and are
these tiny charms with names and laser
solar lights. It appealed to them.”
Baseball hats also sell decently, but
they have to be hip.
“The most popular ones are the soft
caps with the sandwich bill and embroidery
that wraps around,” Campbell said.
“You have to pay attention to the popular
styles.”
The National Mississippi River
Museum and Aquarium in Dubuque,
Iowa, does particularly well with a T-shirt and hat combo that sells for
under $20.
“They are a really good value,”
Gothard said. “We tend to buy
them in the more fun and trendy
styles with the bent caps and cool
colors.”
Style plays a big part in teen
choices.
“Teens want shirts that are
more tight fitting, especially the
girls,” Murray said. “They don’t
want the traditional souvenir Tshirt,
for the most part.”
Sea Center Texas recently
began to sell T-shirts that are also
contemporary.
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Brittney Barber, program specialist,
education and gift shop coordinator,
Sea Center Texas in Lake
Jackson. Tailoring apparel choices
to what she sees being worn by
teens, such as fitted T-shirts, is a
way to reach this often difficult-toserve
demographic.
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“They are not your traditional
aquarium and zoo T-shirts with a bunch of animals
on it,” Barber said. “They are something like you
would see in Old Navy or Express with our name drop
on it. We do as many name drops as possible; they sell
better. The shirts are also
more fitted; they are not
those big box T-shirts.
We’re hoping they sell well.
I like to look at everything
when I am shopping and I
also notice the teens coming
into our place and try to
notice the styles and then
see if we can get some
things in our gift shop that
will fit their tastes.”
“Teens are very fussy with
apparel,” Beyer added. “We
brought in some T-shirts that
were more of the so-called
‘hip’ T-shirts. We offer surfer
style shirts, which is a natural for us here, and we do it with
our name but it doesn’t look so touristy.”
Swimsuits also sell well at Sea Life Park Hawaii.
“Once again, we try to watch the styles,” said Beyer, who
noted that the teen market is difficult because their tastes
constantly change and small shops particularly have trouble
keeping up with trends because they have to really cater
to the “parents and grandparents who are buying the tickets.”
“We carry board shorts that sell very well. They may
not be the very hippest board shorts you can find, but
they are medium priced and hip
enough that teens will make a
quick buy and use them to go to
the beach or to swim with the
dolphins. It fits in well with what
we do here.”
Gothard said brainteaser
games such as Scramble Squares
also sell well.
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Teens photographed at the Sea Center Texas gift shop
counter. Finding even inexpensive items to appeal to this
group can boost sales.
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“If they are easy to travel with
and are challenging, they might
pick it up,” she said. “If there is a
good value under $20 and you
can stay fun and interesting, you
have a shot.”
Gothard said finding the right
vendors is essential to success.
“You have to work with your
reps,” she said. “We talk about
what’s in style right now, what’s happening at the mall,
what are the big players doing? After we talk about that, we
discuss colors, styles, certain logos and then we look at
what the choices in the store are. Good common sense
choices combined with knowing
what’s going on out there
will result in better sales.”
As for the future, Regnier
believes the teen market is
wide open.
“When you look at items
like Webkinz, which were a
great invention because they
combined technology with
plush, you realize how much
technology means to the
younger demographic,” she
said. “So it will be a challenge
for vendors to come up
with items for that demographic.
There is a real
opportunity there with the right product. If you can
engage them with something gadgety, something electronic,
it will sell and drive teen customers and excitement
back into the stores. There’s money there for vendors
willing to come up with some fun items that will sell
and hit that text messaging, videogame loving visitor.
We’re lucky we have the shark theme here, but when we
really look at it, we say, ‘Wow, how can you compete with
the iPod?’”
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