Gift shops in zoos - the good, the bad and the ugly

Years ago I visited a gift shop in a local falconry centre. To my delight it was full with paraphenalia about birds of prey, including some high quality coffee table books about birds of prey.

A gift shop at Kerzers, Switzerland recently had lots of specialized children books. For example one about a little girl bat, or a little boy caterpillar having adventures describing life of their species.

I am also fascinated with paleo-plushies: plush toys of rare and extinct species. A plush gorgonopsid, or a plush vaquita.

All zoos should sell such modern educative toys, which are recently quite many.
 
birdsandbats said:
Another think about zoo gift shops is the setting. An gift shop that is filled with junk is better if it looks good.
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I have to disagree; junk is junk, no matter how pretty its presentation is.
Speaking of junk:
tigris115 said:
I wish the Bronx Zoo had more enticing gifts besides plastic toys
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I completely agree. The Bronx Zoo has one of the worst zoo gift shops I've ever been to, completely at odds with the eco-friendly message the zoo tries to convey in other areas.
 
You can tell by tge tags that every single zoo I have been to get their shirts from the same company. They are overall good shirts, so there is not an issue with that but it does prove your point. Also, I have seen the same exact elephant snow globe in 2 zoos (neither of which exhibited elephants)- it does not bug me seeing the same snow gkobe in multiple zoos (I collect snow globes from different places I go)- yet it bugs me that they both had an elephant at zoos without elephants.
 
I've been to many zoos before, and I always go to their gift shops. Most of them never have much to offer, they sell mostly low-quality toys. Never really have souvenirs that represent the zoo itself. Even Central Park Zoo's gift shop does not have anything that represents itself.
 
In general I don't like the shop locally (the Netherlands), mostly focussing on childrens. With sometimes a few postcards and some dated posters and an ugly coffee mug..
I like in general the shops in other countries more. With some magazines about the zoo and (especially in the UK) also some decent books about the zoo. The shop I liked the most till date was the shop of WWT Slimbridge. Lots of good books about the zoo, but also about wild birds and photography. And lots of decent other stuff like towels with bird prints, sturdy umbrellas, bird pins and still enough stuff for the children.
On last years UK trip I bought lots of books (at London, Cotswold, Slimbridge, Chester, Port Lympne), but also loved a bag I bought at Chester.
 
I know I mentioned the gift shop at the International Crane Foundation already, but after the renovation it has become even better. The bulk of the collection is made up of books and art, but there are also stuffed animals, posters, and a large collection of hats. Nearly every item in the gift shop features cranes in some way.
 
birdsandbats said:
I know I mentioned the gift shop at the International Crane Foundation already, but after the renovation it has become even better. The bulk of the collection is made up of books and art, but there are also stuffed animals, posters, and a large collection of hats. Nearly every item in the gift shop features cranes in some way.
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A gift shop just with crane stuff? That sounds so awesome. I love it when a gift shop curates to have a specific selection related to their theme. (I find that state park gift shops are good at this) I'm going to the St. Francis Wolf Sanctuary today and I quite like their gift shop. It's all wolf stuff. Last time I went with some friends and we all bought a lot of wolf stuff, my friend spent like eighty bucks lol. I restrained myself cause I knew I'd visit again but I regret not buying the tank top.

Side note, I went to the Audubon Zoo a while back and I thought their gift shops were super cool. Instead of just being a bunch of generic zoo stuff they curate the selection to be more specific to their zoo.
 
Jurek7 said:
I wish gift shops in zoos would stock also more "serious" zoology books. Not that they would generate sales, but they would complement basic education done by the zoo.

Zoos care much about conservation and education, but why only in animal exhibits? Why children playground and gift shop are education deserts?
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I suspect this is because there is a bigotry of low expectation on the part of zoos towards the visitors.

A lowest common denominator stereotype of the zoogoing public or perhaps zoo management just do not consider it worthwhile to order in or print lots of books that they believe will just end up not being purchased and will gather dust on shop shelves ?

In any case I've always found that natural history museums tend to have a much better stock of serious books than zoos.
 
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TheMightyOrca said:
...(I find that state park gift shops are good at this)...
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Very true. State parks and and national parks and local nature centers have a better book selection than just about any zoo. I remember the small but nice gift shop at Point Reyes National Seashore having a good selection (including a couple books written by my brother). I think it comes down to demographics. The kind of people who visit state and national parks include a lot of serious adult nature watchers (as well as families, but they have shirts and kid stuff for them too). The major demographic of zoo visitors - let's be honest - are young families with small children. ZooChatters are most definitely not the major demographic, so unless each of us plans on taking a thousand bucks to stock up at a gift shop on each of our zoo visits, there is no reason to cater to us. Gift shops are for profit (even in non-profit zoos) and if items don't sell then they won't carry them. As a general rule, the zoological facilities that have lots of books are those that are not traditional zoos or aquariums, but present themselves as more diverse natural history institutions. Examples of places I have seen good book selections in recent years include Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Oregon Coast Aquarium, and maybe Monterey Bay Aquarium (my memory is a bit fuzzy on that one). San Diego Zoo used to have a good selection but they cut back.
 
Arizona Docent said:
The major demographic of zoo visitors - let's be honest - are young families with small children. ZooChatters are most definitely not the major demographic, so unless each of us plans on taking a thousand bucks to stock up at a gift shop on each of our zoo visits, there is no reason to cater to us. Gift shops are for profit (even in non-profit zoos) and if items don't sell then they won't carry them. As a general rule, the zoological facilities that have lots of books are those that are not traditional zoos or aquariums, but present themselves as more diverse natural history institutions. Examples of places I have seen good book selections in recent years include Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Oregon Coast Aquarium, and maybe Monterey Bay Aquarium (my memory is a bit fuzzy on that one). San Diego Zoo used to have a good selection but they cut back.
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I know what you mean but it would be nice though if they also catered for other demographics in terms of books and I also agree with you about the non-traditional zoos and these being a bit better.

I think a lot of these institutions and particularly if they have charismatic or famous founders seem to stock books by these like for example Jersey zoo with the books of Gerald Durrell and I imagine WWT with Peter Scott.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
I suspect this is because there is a bigotry of low expectation on the part of zoos towards the visitors.

A lowest common denominator stereotype of the zoogoing public or perhaps zoo management just do not consider it worthwhile to order in or print lots of books that they believe will just end up not being purchased and will gather dust on shop shelves ?

In any case I've always found that natural history museums tend to have a much better stock of serious books than zoos.
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As ArizonaDocent pointed out, a lot of the people visiting zoos are parents with young kids. And in my personal experience a lot of them aren't particularly interested in the educational aspects, it's just a way for them to entertain the kids for the day. (I'm not trying to dunk on those people or anything, zoos and aquariums are excellent public spaces to spend your day in. And the US in particular is infamous for its increasing lack of public spaces, but that's a whole conversation on its own)

I think it largely has to do with the attractions. With a zoo, there are live exotic animals and you can be entertained just by looking at them. No need to use any brain power, it's a cool-looking deer or bird, most people are happy to see it even if they don't care to know what the species is or anything about it. With museums, most of the displays are static objects that aren't very interesting to most people unless they know the context of it, so they have to go in ready to learn and ready to read the little signs.
 
Can I just rant about the t-shirts at zoos? It makes me angry how they have evolved. If you look up "vintage zoo t shirt" you get really nice ones with animal paintings or drawings of animals in colorful fun art styles. I really like how they seemed so carefully designed and the art was wonderful to look at. If you look through today's zoo merch on online zoo stores, so many of the have these ugly art styles that look like the first results of the google shopping tab, or just a shirt that says the zoo's name, not even its logo. I especially hate the boring puns they put on shirts, especially relating to llamas and sloths.
 
TheMightyOrca said:
As ArizonaDocent pointed out, a lot of the people visiting zoos are parents with young kids. And in my personal experience a lot of them aren't particularly interested in the educational aspects, it's just a way for them to entertain the kids for the day. (I'm not trying to dunk on those people or anything, zoos and aquariums are excellent public spaces to spend your day in. And the US in particular is infamous for its increasing lack of public spaces, but that's a whole conversation on its own)

I think it largely has to do with the attractions. With a zoo, there are live exotic animals and you can be entertained just by looking at them. No need to use any brain power, it's a cool-looking deer or bird, most people are happy to see it even if they don't care to know what the species is or anything about it. With museums, most of the displays are static objects that aren't very interesting to most people unless they know the context of it, so they have to go in ready to learn and ready to read the little signs.
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Yes, I do agree with both of you on that.

I'm just saying that it would be nice if there was a little more consideration paid to other demographics of visitors.
 
On my first visit to Chester Zoo, I went to a big postcard stall showing many cards. I couldn't find one of a tuatara, despite Chester being the only mainland UK zoo holding the species. Supposedly, the animal wasn't interesting enough for visitors.

I think it's a shame when zoo gift shops have postcards of animals that the zoo doesn't have. London Zoo had a range of postcards depicting many obscure species. Surely, zoos could have a facility where there were images of many species and the postcards could be printed while the customer waits.
 
Dassie rat said:
...Surely, zoos could have a facility where there were images of many species and the postcards could be printed while the customer waits.
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Not in a cost-effective manner. Postcards are mass produced on commercial printing presses, often overseas, which makes the cost-per-card very cheap but requires a large run. There is no way to produce quality cards on a one-by-one basis. Sure you could use a personal inkjet printer, but the cost per card would be much higher and the quality would be lower. When you factor in the labor of someone operating the booth and taking custom orders, it would never make money.

Unfortunately this has led (at least in the States) to a situation where one dominant card maker - Impact Photographics - produces cards for most zoos. They use generic stock photos that were taken wherever (not usually at the zoo they are sold at and sometimes not even species at the zoo). Even the mighty San Diego Zoo, which has their own full time staff photographers (plural), uses these instead of their own images. Surprisngly it is often smaller zoos that use their own images. I haven't been recently, but my local Reid Park Zoo used to have cards of their own animals (not just species they hold, but their actual animals). I have seen this at even smaller zoos like Heritage Park in Prescott, Arizona and Cat Haven in Dunlap, California. Sending postcards is also a dying art, I am the only person in my circle who still mails postcards when I am on vacation, but I am glad to see at least that most zoos and tourist destinations still sell postcards.
 
Arizona Docent said:
Even the mighty San Diego Zoo, which has their own full time staff photographers (plural), uses these instead of their own
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This really surprises me. I tend not to look in the gift shops at my local zoos, except for the Capron Park Zoo where it serves as the entrance and exit. I know that their postcards have always been of their own animals, and they don't have a photographer on fulltime staff, although there is one photographer that the zoo uses when needed.
 
There is a second card and poster company - I think it's called Lantern Press - that rose to prominence a few years ago producing illustrations (not photographs) of vintage-style designs. They are common in national parks, producing imitations of the travel posters of the 1930's and 1940's, but have started doing zoos as well. I confess I do like their designs.
 
MonkeyBat said:
Can I just rant about the t-shirts at zoos? It makes me angry how they have evolved. If you look up "vintage zoo t shirt" you get really nice ones with animal paintings or drawings of animals in colorful fun art styles. I really like how they seemed so carefully designed and the art was wonderful to look at. If you look through today's zoo merch on online zoo stores, so many of the have these ugly art styles that look like the first results of the google shopping tab, or just a shirt that says the zoo's name, not even its logo. I especially hate the boring puns they put on shirts, especially relating to llamas and sloths.
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I tried starting a thread on t-shirts several years ago and it died immediately. Let's see if your interest will revive it. ;)
Zoo T-Shirts - ZooChat
 
MonkeyBat said:
Can I just rant about the t-shirts at zoos? It makes me angry how they have evolved. If you look up "vintage zoo t shirt" you get really nice ones with animal paintings or drawings of animals in colorful fun art styles. I really like how they seemed so carefully designed and the art was wonderful to look at. If you look through today's zoo merch on online zoo stores, so many of the have these ugly art styles that look like the first results of the google shopping tab, or just a shirt that says the zoo's name, not even its logo. I especially hate the boring puns they put on shirts, especially relating to llamas and sloths.
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Dude, don't even get me started! A lot of them now just have these generic animal T-shirts that every other zoo and aquarium gift shop has. And half the time it's popular animals that aren't found at the zoo or related to the zoo's research or conservation work! There are several online print-on-demand apparel shops these days, and there are so many talented artists you can work with online, it should be easier than ever to offer decent zoo-specific T-shirts. I'm into fashion but I also live in a state where it's too damn hot to wear a nice top for most of the year, so a graphic tee (or even better, tank top) with a nice design is very appealing to me.

Right now I'm wearing the wolf sanctuary tank top I bought yesterday, and let me tell you, I look EXTREMELY cool.

Arizona Docent said:
Surprisngly it is often smaller zoos that use their own images. I haven't been recently, but my local Reid Park Zoo used to have cards of their own animals (not just species they hold, but their actual animals). I have seen this at even smaller zoos like Heritage Park in Prescott, Arizona and Cat Haven in Dunlap, California.
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Smaller zoos (and animal sanctuaries) often encourage more focus on the animals as individuals, so it's a lot easier to push items specific to the zoo in the gift shop. If the gift shop merch features your favorite tiger in the zoo, it's gonna be a lot more attractive.
 
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