Museum Store Memories and Mementos

June 27, 2016

My staff regularly discusses the mission of our museum store, and the way our products create a lifelong link to the visitor’s experience in our museums, and their memories of that day. We find, sometimes to our own wonder, that many of those experiences hold deep meaning and significance decades after a museum visit, and it’s fun to revisit those memories again as professionals in the industry.

One sales associate on my team reminisces fondly about his first visit to an art museum—the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where his father bought him a tie. It was his first tie, and as a child, it seemed so meaningful and mature, to have a neck tie all his own. He laughs now, as he sells ties daily, about the turns that life takes.

Another remembers teaming up with her sister to find “the things in the store that mom couldn’t say ‘no’ to”—the thrill of the hunt, when the strategy was to find the item that their mother couldn’t refuse. She says books were always fair game, because it’s hard for a parent to turn down a child asking for a book about a museum topic.

My Floor Supervisor remembers visiting the Betsy Ross house as a child, and the fact that she was able to buy a postcard in their shop with her own money. She remembers how children are so used to being in stores filled with inaccessible things, and having to ask parents for permission for everything, and she was particularly happy to be able to find something she could take away using her own tooth fairy money. What a reminder of the importance of having items at all price points, and that reaching out to the children in our audience can fill their visit with a sense of autonomy and importance.

My own earliest gift shop memory is from Niagara Falls, where, I must confess, I don’t remember the waterfalls at all. (In my defense, I was only 2 or 3 years old at the time). I have a very clear and vivid memory of the store, however, where there was a small playhouse with plastic figures to go in it, and I wanted it so very badly (but alas, did not get to take it home). My first gift shop memory, so full of longing it eclipsed the experience of the waterfall itself—go figure that I would go on to become a retailer after that!

We all get accustomed to our perspective from the business side of the cash register, and it’s fun to remember the time before we saw our stores this way, and revisit why these objects and experiences matter most. What museums do you remember visiting, and what role did the store play, at that time? We’d love to hear more stories of items from museum and site stores that have been particularly meaningful to you throughout the years. Comment here, or email me your stories, I’ll compile them and post a follow-up in the future with some of the tales MSA members can tell.

Julie Steiner, Director of Retail Operations, The Barnes Foundation