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

Arizona Docent said:
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
Click to expand...

Oh I will add to this most definitely. My wife and I have visited roughly 16 zoos in the last year and our thing is we buy a shirt from them. Most of the zoos we have been to have a fairly decent selection of shirts, but if you look online, you are not going to see anything remotely close to what they have in person. I believe this is due to what others have said in this thread that there is one company that provides a merchandising service for a number of zoos here in the States.

This has also made me a little frustrated in the miniature animal selection at these gift shops. Back in the 90s, you could find all sorts of high quality animal figures, but now mostly are the cheap ones. In my opinion, the best gift shops still have the Schleich or Safari figures. But alas, it seems many shops have sold out to the plush crowd.

I also too wish that more shops here in the US have their own guides or history books in stock. I prefer to buy directly from them, especially in a covid year, but I have had to go online to find most of them. I usually wait until after I visit the zoo to make sure they do or don't have the books before I order it.
 
TheMightyOrca said:
...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...
Click to expand...
Unfortunately print-on-demand shirts have the same issue as print-on-demand cards: the quality is terrible. (I speak from personal experience). The first problem is that the contrast is duller, especially in the blacks (than a conventional silk-screen design). The bigger problem is the design does not last and fades away with a few washes. In my experience the only way to make a decent graphic design shirt is to use a conventional silk screen press, which requires a large run to make up for the setup costs.
 
Arizona Docent said:
While we are on the topic of shirts, I prefer a t-shirt with a small embroidered emblem on the chest pocket area. I had a favorite many years ago of white and tan lions from Lowry Park Zoo, but that has long since worn out. If I could find one with a small cat like a Pallas' cat, I would buy it regardless of cost.
Click to expand...

I recently got a tank top from the Saint Francis Wolf Sanctuary. It's plain black, the back has a big picture of a pawprint while the front just has the logo on the top right chest area. Nice, simple, reflects my appreciation for wolves. I'll be sure to post it in your T-shirt thread soon.

Really, I prefer tank tops in general, when I can get them. Don't have to deal with sweat stains.

Side note, I'm really glad this thread got posted because "lousy zoo gift shop T-shirts" has been a complaint of mine for a long time but I never brought it up because it feels like such a petty thing to complain about and I didn't think anyone else would get it.
 
So @Arizona Docent might remember better than I do but one of the largest shops I have ever seen is the gift shop at Bearizona. It includes small animal exhibits, a model train area, a second level, and an entrance to the restaurant. As for the items held I remember a lot of small trinkets, t-shirts, and souvenirs.
 
Westcoastperson said:
So @Arizona Docent might remember better than I do but one of the largest shops I have ever seen is the gift shop at Bearizona. It includes small animal exhibits, a model train area, a second level, and an entrance to the restaurant. As for the items held I remember a lot of small trinkets, t-shirts, and souvenirs.
Click to expand...
It is indeed one of the best I have seen. They have a lot of original themed items not normally seen at small zoo gift shops. I even have one in my home - a clear crystal block with their jaguar exhibit etched on the inside.
 
None of the modern zoo shops can compete with the Tierpark Berlin shops range of products from decades ago.

A zoo shop is a must stop for me hen visiting a zoo but purchases become rare nowadays: plush animals, sea lion key rings, gorilla coffee cups, panda magnets, tiger towels, etc. none of those things get my attention.

However, some zoo shops, especially in Germany, still have some interesting stuff: zoo guide books and even their own zoo journal (still a good tradition in Germany) or other magazines (f.e. Tiergarten magazin from Schüling Buchkurier). These things are becoming more rare but are still to be found.

Imo any self-respecting major zoo should sell at least it's own zoo (history) books.
 
I'm still in mourning Brookfield s. Zoo fantastic. Book store of yester year!!! I could purchase the International Zoo yearbooks there.
 
I remember as a kid being obsessed with Schleich's animal models (2002-2004-ish). I'll never forget going to the Columbus Zoo gift shop and seeing a whole display full of them for sale. I don't remember anything from that visit other than the gift shop (SADLY :() because I was so hyped that they had the Indian Rhino adult & calf models. I still have them today.
 
Pairi Daiza is - no surprises there - one of the craziest I know with regards to gift shops. There are no less than three gift shops near the day-visitor entrance, the petting zoo and the Lear's and Spix's macaw aviaries. One is much larger than the two others, and the product range is different for all three. Pairi Daiza also has two more "trading posts" in The Last Frontier and The Land of the Cold and a (perhaps non-permanent) panda shop in a tent in The Middle Kingdom, which offer more themed product ranges.

The shops at Pairi Daiza sell the usual toys, decorative items, books and clothing, but also other products like spice mixes, food products and the Cambron Abbey beer from the brewery on its grounds.
 
Does anyone know of any zoo gift shops that sell decks of playing cards? It’s something that I would expect zoos to sell (maybe with a photo of an animal or the zoo logo as the card back), but when I went to the Central Park Zoo today they didn’t have any for available. I haven’t paid much attention if these are for sale at other zoos in the past.
 
I have to say that the Bug Parc in Norfolk has one of the best gift shops in any zoo I have visited in recent years - among the things sold there were artworks, various cards and children's games, clothing, crockery and both children's and specialist books about invertebrates.
They also sold equipment, including enclosures, substrates, diets and care guides, for visitors to keep their own invertebrates.

I remember the older Colchester Zoo layout, with two shops on either side of the visitor entrance - the more standard kiddie's gift shop that was also the main exit, plus a more niche shop that sold figurines and furniture for more grown-up audiences. Now they have both been combined into the one big store, although there is never really anything in there that appeals to me - certainly the books are entirely for much younger audiences.

As an aside, I do remember buying a VHS of Eyewitness Mammal at ZSL Whipsnade on my first visit - definitely the best gift I ever got from a zoo. Haven't seen any multimedia for sale in a zoo for a very long time now though.
 
For what it is worth, the book selection at ZSL London has improved recently. It's still not as great as it was 20 years ago, but it has a small selection of popular natural history books for adults (mostly along the lines of David Attenborough, Dian Fossey etc), alongside the usual kid-focussed fare
 
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.
Click to expand...
I know this is an old comment but have any zoos you've visited have a literal vintage zoo clothing line where they would put vintage drawings of animals on shirts and mugs? Mine did that recently but seems to have been mostly discontinued.
 
Arizona Docent said:
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.
Click to expand...
As someone who at the Monterey Bay Aquarium recently I will say that the book selection is still pretty good. I got my myself the sixth extinction which has proved a good read so far.
 
The Good, Bad and Ugly, Victoria’s Zoos

The Good

Melbourne Museum

I know it’s not a traditional zoo, but has a diverse enough collection (free flight aviary, reptiles and amphibians, insects, fish) to warrant being mentioned in a discussion about zoos. Easily the best gift shop in Victoria with plenty of items for young and old. The standard items such as plushies and kids books are all present but the highlights are the fossils (albeit most are overpriced) and diverse range of books including those published by the Museum. Also some super high quality CollectA figurines too.

The Bad

Zoos Victoria (Melbourne, Werribee, Healesville specifically)

I remember the days of Melbourne Zoo’s gift shop being full of wonderful books and figurines, I even remember a special book celebrating the zoos anniversary in 2012, those days have long passed with the main gift shops now primarily geared towards children with some other trinkets such as poor quality expensive coffee (just because it has a conservation message it doesn’t mean it’s a good product) thrown in-between. This applies to all the major Zoos Victoria zoos, Healesville has a few books on Indigenous culture but apart from those it is slim pickings and the less said about Werribee’s gift shop the better.


The Ugly

SEALIFE Melbourne Aquarium and Moonlit Sanctuary

Two zoos here not for necessarily a bad selection of items but for interesting gift shop design.

While SEALIFE Melbourne’s products have a lot to be desired, mostly plushies, plushies and more plushies, the pathway is very narrow and when a family is looking at plushies there can sometimes be a long wait just to exit the aquarium which can be frustrating at the best of times.

Moonlit has a different problem and one that cannot be fixed, the majority of the ‘gift shop’ space is used for the cafe leaving a very small, albeit fairly high quality corner of the room where the gift shop is. Just simply not a lot of space. Nothing wrong with it, just a bit of an oddity
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top