Editor’s Letter

We all know that you can’t judge a book by its cover, but what if a blurry, irrelevant image were (dis)gracing the cover of this publication? Would you be drawn in and want to read more or would you walk right past it, deeming it low quality and of little interest to you?

Let’s apply that train of thought to your store.

Museum, specialty and destination gift shops — much like museums and destinations themselves — have unique personalities that reflect their locales, missions and their likely visitors’ personalities and backgrounds. The appearance and arrangement of a store and its products can say a lot about the way the institution values the reputation of its business.

What sets specialty stores apart is that they have different needs than typical” retail stores — most pointedly that the mission of the institution must be supported. The three stores in this issue alone are all dedicated to the mission of their destination — from a state wildlife park to a landmark resort to a historic museum — and all have different ways of addressing these individual needs with the resources they have.

This goes right along with “The Store Room” question that asks what renovations you would make to your store if given $10,000. I got such great responses that we couldn’t fit them all in this issue, so be sure to check out our Web site for more.

But along with what you would do with the money, you also shared what you have done when given the opportunity — whether it was with a $10,000 or $100 budget.

Marcia Souers-Doell of the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum in Indiana recently had an opportunity to redesign her museum store. After prioritizing her options and weighing each consideration, immediate impact and longevity became deciding criteria.

She elected to upgrade the key visual components of the store first, painting applications to the walls with inspiring colors to spark interest. She also developed a consistent design pattern for all store signage and repeated it on all
product tags, even on sacks.

“I then de-cluttered merchandise guided by the mantra that less is more,” Souers-Doell said. “With backstock now neatly organized on new shelving, order and simplicity created focused merchandise displays and storage issues became minimized. The upgrade of the visual qualities of the museum store became apparent immediately.”

Recognizing the fact that staff contributes significantly to visitor experience, the remaining money was put towards staff service training in the areas of product knowledge and salesmanship strategies, with timely materials and updates added continuously. For Souers-Doell, the who became as important as the what for its impact value upon the store’s presentation.

And for just $100, Brenda Baskette of the Creative Discovery Museum in Tennessee turned an “annoying pole in the middle of the shop into a tree to hang plush monkeys on.” They’re now hanging monkeys, plush bugs — and even a few plush cats — up the new tree, and it’s only taking up what was previously dead space. Because of that small move, they “now have so much color that the shop looks alive with activity.”

So whether the financial investment is large or small, how the store presents itself can result in a fresh new perspective for visitors and a fresh new profit for you. You can’t judge a book by its cover, but something has to make you want to pick it up!

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