Because let’s face it: the best stuff in the joint is generally silkscreened on an XXL T-shirt, printed on a novelty oversized pencil, or reduced to a tiny plastic key chain. Monet coasters and Van Gogh posters stuff shelves by the front door so you can pop in and out real quick and say you saw the good stuff.
AWESOME!
Photo from: here
They just love the XXL sizes!
I often think of a museum’s greatness in terms of its gift shop. For instance, the National Gallery in DC (where I’m from)….awesome. Wonderful. Huge gift shop. The Whale Museum in a small town I visited in Maine (no offense Maine, I still think you’re great)….not so awesome. A little lackluster. No gift shop.
Museum Gift Shops can also be a Godsend if you have kids…..
“Okay kids, just behave while we are here and I promise to buy you a piece of junk toy from the gift shop that you won’t care about anymore in a day or two!”
I work in a Museum Gift Shop (Glenbow Museum, Calgary, AB, Canada) and my day is made when a visitor finds just what they were looking for: a unique, locally made gift to take home as a reminder of their time in Calgary. For some reason, at year end, we seem to have a lot of XXL T-shirts left…who could resist a “night shirt” with Marilyn Monroe on it?? :)
I’ve been to the Glenbow so many times, and the best part is always the gift shop! Awsome museum, if I hadn’t moved out of Calgary I would have applied to work there!
The best part of museum gift shops is that they always have a least some stuff from whatever their current special exhibit is. It means that there’s always something new!
I once purchased an Albert Einstein mouse pad in a museum gift shop. It’s one of the best things I ever spent money on, honestly.
My mom, Beth, is the manager for a museum gift shop…
her and her store are AWESOME!
Top tip for keeping kids interested: go to the shop first, buy something (postcard, key fob, whatever) with piece of art / object on it. Have treasure hunt in museum to find that piece of art / object.
Fun times for all.
Last year I visited Washington DC for the third time in my life…. but this time I only went into the museum shops… love them! (that XS astronaut suit fits my little nephew perfect!!)
i like to get stuff in museum,too:)…
we always go on gift shops whenever we want to find something to give on special occasions ~;`
The only “gift” you’ll get out of attending the Vancouver Police Museum on , “get this”, GORE Avenue, are a string of really groase nightmares; destruction of all your greatest memeories ever of Stanley Park and/or if your a relative of Steven King, a theme for a best seller thriller or movie.
:)
thera are nice for the kinds
there are very good for the tourists
I work in a Museum Gift Shop (Glenbow Museum, Calgary, AB, Canada) and my day is made when a visitor finds just what they were looking for: a unique, locally made gift to take home as a reminder of their time in Calgary. … Nice posting.
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