SPOTLIGHT ON STORE FIXTURES AND LIGHTING Arranging for a Sales Winning Streak

Display Tips at Sports Museums and Halls of Fames

Sports fans and history buffs alike can get their fill of both at sports museums and halls of fame. Afterwards, a stop in the gift shop offers visitors an assortment of one-of-a-kind merchandise available for purchase.

Although these gift shops carry several unique souvenirs, they are not fan stores. Ricardo Rodriguez , Museum Director at the Baseball Heritage Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, said, “I find it important to identify most strongly with a museum gift shop and not a sports memorabilia store. We’re not in the business of baseball cards, autographed bats, jerseys. We have a few autographed baseballs but it’s a very small percentage compared to our branded merchan- dise. It’s really easy to be sucked into the world of sports memorabilia as a sports museum.” Rodriguez said their best-sellers are their standard branded T-shirts; second would be baseball caps. In his tenure as museum director, Rodriguez said he’s expanded the shop’s T-shirt selection; the shop now carries more designs featuring text and imagery of the Museum’s adjacent League Park, America’s oldest baseball park. “We have three shirts which are our core designs. The interesting thing about the museum is it’s an historic place. When people come to the museum, they’re not necessarily coming for the

“ …When people come to the museum, they’re not necessarily coming for the museum—they’re coming for League Park. Sometimes they come for the museum and don’t know the ballpark is still there. It’s important to have ‘League Park’ on all of our merchandise. We quickly changed the wording to ‘Baseball Heritage Museum at League Park.’ ”

- Ricardo Rodriguez, Baseball Heritage Museum, Cleveland, Ohio museum—they’re coming for League Park. Sometimes they come for the museum and don’t know the ballpark is still there. It’s important to have ‘League Park’ on all of our merchandise. We quickly changed the wording to ‘Baseball Heritage Museum at League Park.’” The museum shop has limited space (50 square feet), and Rodriguez, who handles the merchandising, must be creative with product placement. “Being a small nonprofit, we have to be creative for many different reasons—space, budget, resources. I got an 8-by-8 fence panel which goes with the baseball theme, and that’s where we hang our T-shirts. Next to that is the hat rack, then we have a glass showcase about 6 feet tall. We use that for the higher-ticket items-- antique reproduction photos in antique frames, autographed baseballs. The glass showcase acts as our retail stand and transaction area. Have patches, bumper stickers, mugs, autographed baseballs, signed programs,” he explained.

“Display” doesn’t always mean keeping items behind glass or on a shelf. Visitors to the USGA Golf Museum and Library in Liberty Corner, N.J., can test items out on the putting green behind their 430-square-foot shop before purchasing. “There’s no better way to display the merchandise than actually going out there and using it yourself,” said Karen Geppert , Community Engagement Coordinator at the Golf Museum and Library. She explained their shop has three distinct sections of merchandise—U.S. Open-branded items, museum items, and general golf items. “Of course our biggest sellers are the U.S. Open items,” she said. “One nice thing about our shop is a person can purchase a U.S. Open item before it happens and wear it to the event. That’s always exciting for people.”

For sports fans and history buffs, there’s no better souvenir than a genuine article. Fans of horse racing can purchase a dirty horseshoe at the Kentucky Derby Museum store in Louisville, Ky. “It’s an official horseshoe worn on the Churchill Downs racetrack, and it still has dirt in it from the world-famous track,” said Kristina Gerard , the Museum’s Director of Retail Operations. It’s the top seller in the 1,500-square-foot

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