Gift Report

The Nature of Sales (From page 80)

time finding employees.

The gift shop at Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort State Historic Park in Nevada is small, about 20 feet by 20 feet, but it is right by the Visitors’ Center front desk, and you must walk through it coming into the park and leaving. Beth Hewitt , park supervisor, said they’ve had a slight increase in visitors this year and “people want to spend.” Books are the top seller, then souvenirs specific to the site like lapel pins. Kids like rocks and minerals and she also carries low end jewelry as well as necklaces in the $30 range that are made from recycled sari material that she got in just before COVID hit. She will feature new items on their Facebook page and in the “Friends of the Fort” newsletter. The store gets about 30-40 visitors a day, solid growth from the 100 a week when she started about six years ago, an increase she attributes to each park getting more autonomy for ordering. Her top tip for increasing sales of a particular item is playing around with placement in the store and she is lucky enough to have staff with retail experience. Hewitt’s supervisor is Retail Storekeeper III Nicki Kendrick . She agreed with Hewitt that visitor spending is higher than normal and they’re up from last year. She said, “I think that has a lot to do with people just needing to get outside. Right now, between the two top grossing store in the Nevada system the top sellers are T-shirts and beach supplies.” She recommended that you ensure the displays are clean and fully stocked as “people tend to not want to buy an item if it is the last one on display.” Of course, try to make sure that you are open and wel-

Continued on page 84 coming when customers come in. She also recommended that you display things in a staggered line as that tends to draw the eye to that area more than a straight line. The annual sales for all nine Nevada stores are around $1,000,000.

Lake Murray State Park in Ardmore, Okla., stayed open last year and Park Manager Richard Keithley , a 25-year veteran, said they were “swamped” with visitors. He attributed that to their location being on a main highway between Dallas/Ft. Worth and Oklahoma City. Keithley said, “We’re still up from before COVID and I don’t think it’s going down.” He also said that stickers are huge for him along with hat pins, hats, T-shirts, hiking sticks, medallions, bandanas, roasting forks, and plush. “People are in a mood to buy stuff.” His only tip for improving sales is “keep the shelves full and keep the doors open.” He has run into some supply issues but said that’s another reason to emphasize American made and, even better, locally made. The shop is about 20 feet by 20 feet, and he said an average day’s receipts might be $1,500-$2,000 or it might be zero.

Aaron Farmer , the park manager at Dead Horse Point State Park in Moab, Utah, is excited to report that their numbers are way above last year or the year before. However, he is having trouble getting merchandize because of COVID and the Suez Canal blockage. He still has lots of back orders and they will be going into the fall merchandising season shortly and he lacks merchandise. Summer is usually very slow as they are in the desert and it is very hot, especially this year. He urged shop buyers to focus on the park’s brand and use a consistent logo. The view at his park is world famous so everybody wants to buy something that evokes that view. He signs things that are new so they stand out. The store is about 350 square feet, but Farmer said they pack a lot in, and he did about $750,000 for FY 2020-2021. They also sell snacks, ice, and firewood for camp sites.

At Fort Bridger State Historic Park in Fort Bridger, Wyo., Park Superintendent Joshua Camp said they only reopened in late June and, at the time of writing, weren’t quite all the way open. The main gift shop has opened but the second shop which is a replica of Jim Bridger’s trading post carrying goods available in Bridger operated it in the 1840s hasn’t reopened because of spacing restrictions. Even with that handicap, Camp said their sales are much higher than they were in 2019. “People seem to want to spend money; they’re tired of being cooped up.” His

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