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Genevieve Norris, director of human resources and attractions and retail buyer for Seabreeze Amusement Park, Raging Rivers Water Park, Rochester, N.Y., photographed with her parents, Rob and Deb Norris, on the attraction’s hand-carved carousel. Rob Norris is the fifth generation of his family to own and run the park, and Genevieve represents the sixth generation.
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isitors who spend an exhilarating and refreshing day at a waterpark often want a souvenir of their fun day in the sun. Retail managers and buyers know that name-dropped apparel and hats are some of the most popular items that park guests want to take home with them.
Noah’s Ark Water Park in Wisconsin Dells, Wis., is America’s largest waterpark and boasts among its many attractions the country’s longest water coaster and the world’s largest bowl ride. The 70-acre park is also home to 49 waterslides, two wave pools and four children’s areas. There are five retail stores throughout the park, and four carry name-dropped apparel and hats.
“Our name-dropped apparel and hats display both the name of the park or the name of our most popular rides or ‘America’s Largest Water Park,’ ” explained Marcia Huebner, retail sales manager and buyer. “We have two large gift shops and two small ones plus a candy store. All, but the candy store, carry name-dropped apparel.”
Among the most popular name-dropped apparel items are T-shirts, sweatshirts and all types of hats including baseball caps and visors.
“When we have a new ride, the T-shirts for that ride go quickly,” Huebner noted. “Also, the sweatshirts that our lifeguards wear have become very popular with our guests as well.”
T-shirts come in adult, children and infant sizes as do the sweatshirts. Hats cover a range of ages as well. Huebner is conscious of keeping the prices reasonable and offers adult T-shirts for $15 and sweatshirts for $29.
Huebner displays the name-dropped merchandise together in the stores on racks. In the two larger gift shops, Dockside Gifts and The Big Kahuna, she displays the apparel and hats on the walls as well. Although most guests look for the name-dropped merchandise, there are a small percentage of guests who look for brand name merchandise especially when it comes to swimwear or trendy apparel.
“We get many local residents who come to the park several times during the season, and they are not always interested in buying name-dropped merchandise, so we always have in our stores non-name-dropped merchandise.”
As retail manager and buyer for Water Safari in Old Forge, N.Y., Erik Russell supervises five retail shops in the 60-acre park, which is the largest waterpark in the state. Each store maintains a separate theme and each carries a variety of name-dropped merchandise as well as brand name merchandise. The main store, the Paul Bunyan Gift Shop, carries the largest selection of name-dropped merchandise, which consists of T-shirts, sweatshirts, baseball caps and visors. The stores have bucket hats, but they have not proved as popular as the baseball caps or visors.
“The name-dropped apparel is displayed in the clothing section on racks and the hats have their own area in the clothing section,” Russell said. “We do not really separate out the brand name merchandise from the name-dropped apparel, but our customers can easily see which is which. We are always trying to keep the stores fresh and new for guests, so we try to come up with new designs for the Water Safari name on the apparel and merchandise. We are also talking about re-doing the stores as well. New surroundings will inspire more creative display ideas.”
Thunder Island Water Park in Fulton, N.Y., has been a family owned and operated enterprise for more than 30 years. The park offers tube slides, body twister water rides and kiddie water slides. General Manager Harry Perau oversees the park’s 600-square-foot retail store.
“Most of the merchandise has our name printed on it or embroidered,” Perau noted. “Our most popular items year after year are the T-shirts, sweats, sweatshirts, jackets, baseball hats and visors.”
Thunder Island has always stressed value when it comes to its guests. In the gift store, Perau sells three T-shirts for $12.
“The T-shirts are always a great bargain for guests looking for a souvenir to take home. The shirts come in adult and children sizes, so everyone in the family can get a T-shirt without breaking their budget. We also keep the prices low because we look at the T-shirts as walking billboards for our park. The more shirts people can afford to buy, the more billboards are out there. ”
Perau displays the name-dropped hats on the wall of the store while the rest of the name-dropped merchandise is kept in an antique shoe display case that is located by the register at the front of the store.
“The display case is different and it is a focal point for customers as they come in the store,” Perau said. “It really draws them in and makes them want to see what we have. For a store our size, this type of display case allows us to be creative without cluttering up the floor space.”
Raging Waters Water Park is California’s largest water park. Owned by Palace Entertainment, Raging Waters is one of 17 theme and waterparks operated by the Newport Beach, Calif.-based company. Situated on 50 acres, Raging Waters offers 36 rides and attractions plus a sand beach. As Retail and Admissions Manager Nick Patterson oversees two, 1000-square-foot retail outlets. The Beach Shop contains name-dropped souvenirs and apparel including T-shirts and hats while Surf ‘N Swim carries mainly brand name beach and swimwear.
“Our name-dropped merchandise is quite popular with the guests,” Patterson observed. “We carry all types of hats as well and all hats are name-dropped with the exception of straw hats. Those are bought mainly by women who prefer not to have the Raging Waters name displayed.”
Since name-dropped merchandise is always popular, Patterson moves merchandise quickly with ongoing promotions such as a name-dropped T-shirt and hat combo.
“We have T-shirts and apparel in all sizes from kids up to adults,” Patterson said. “We display the different age groups separately throughout the store. In the back of the store is the kids’ area. We put the women’s apparel in the middle of the store and the men’s merchandise in the front.”
Patterson is mindful that guests are looking for reasonably priced souvenirs to take home. Prices for name-dropped merchandise range between $15.99 for adult T-shirts to $27.99 for a quality sweatshirt.
“Our merchandise is high quality, which our guests do notice. We really work to provide a great product at a reasonable price. We want our guests to be happy with all aspects of their experience here at Raging Waters, including the shopping.”
In addition to her duties as director of human resources and attractions for Seabreeze Amusement Park and its waterpark, Raging Rivers, in Rochester, N.Y., Genevieve Norris also serves as buyer for the park’s two retail outlets. Host to 300,000 guests per season, Seabreeze Amusement Park is the oldest park in the country and has been family owned and operated since its opening in 1879.
“This park is such a big part of our family’s lives and we look forward to the season and welcoming our guests each year,” Norris said. “Our guests love the history of the park, and they look for the name-dropped merchandise in our stores.”
While the retail stores do have some apparel that does not bear the park’s name, it is the name-dropped merchandise that is most popular. According to Norris, last season, the most popular name-dropped apparel items were sweatshirts because the summer was so cool. T-shirts are also very popular as are baseball caps.
All apparel is displayed on racks, and hats are close by. Norris does use special display racks that are furnished by the manufacturer. To increase the apparel’s visibility, she also uses display tables.
“We do not have to worry about being too creative as our customers seem to have a pretty good idea what they want when they walk in the stores,” Norris said. “We make the merchandise as accessible as possible, and we concentrate on service too. We have been here a long time, so our guests know how important they are to us.”
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