SGN Merchandise Manager Perspective

stopped, so even though we couldn’t have that festival last year, people really wanted those products.”

The park was fortunate, according to Busche, in that Knott’s was able to reopen in part five weeks after lockdown, for a Taste of Boysenberry Food Festival. The park itself stayed closed due to the pandemic.

“All the other parks were completely closed, but we had six food festivals,” Busche said. “They were safe and a lot of fun. Attendees received a tasting card for different boysenberry food items. The tastings were sold out every single week.”

Of all the Cedar Fair parks, only Knotts was open during the pandemic – for the food fairs only. “It met all the safety regulations in California. And it re-energized the boysenberry business. I had to keep getting jams and jellies, and it was a really big deal.”

Also big was the anticipation for the Beary Tales ride. “It was closed for 35 years, and it is now completely updated. We brought back the old children’s book that the ride was based on, and we are selling thousands of copies of that. The bears originally had a crafty coyote nemesis who steals their pies, and the entire ride is about Crafty stealing the pies. So, we brought in plush of Crafty who now has six pups. We have the whole plush of the bear family that run the pie factory and now the coyote family, too. That plush has been selling like crazy. Really anything to do with the ride people want to buy. The ride itself, being a dark ride with a shoot ‘em up game, it brings a lot of nostalgia, and people are really responding to that.”

Along with new plush figures, Busche also brought back old posters about the original ride and ride maps. “We put them on regular 24-by-36-sized posters, and we have been selling a lot of those for $9.95 a piece. People usually do smaller posters nowadays but we went back to the big ones, which people seem to like a lot. They’re as large as the Farrah Fawcett poster era,” he laughed.

Like the souvenir sales themselves, the park “came back fast after the pandemic,” Busche attested. “We have more of a neighborhood feel than Disney. A lot of our employees live down the street and walk to work. It feels comfortable here and people are very respectful of the rules.”

After experiencing a hard close in December, the park reopened for a food festival in January, and now the full park has been open at 25% capacity. “I’m not sure what the new regulations will look like, or whether we will be at 40% open or we might be fully open. We are trained to do whatever the state wants.”

Presently, guests are staying masked except to eat and drink, and 400 picnic tables are located throughout the park to do just that. “We have a high annual pass rate. It’s relatively inexpensive at just $101 a year, and people often come in and just get food or buy things, even when the park is fully open.”

During the food festivals, when no rides were operating, guests very much focused on making purchases, Bushe reported. “They could walk around with food, but then they were driven into the stores. Nothing else was open. The food festivals brought out more adults than kids so the items that sold were different. Our Peanuts sales weren’t as strong because of kids not being back until the park opened again, but once we did reopen, the kids are buying, and Peanuts-related items are huge. And candy has continued to explode.” There are still some differences with pre-pandemic sales. “You can’t just fill up your own bags with candy now, but we have extra staff to do that for you.”

As to what’s ahead in souvenir sales, Busche said he sees a strong trend for purchases of a Peanuts “Welcome Back” shirt and other tees with a representational K for Knotts. “Anything that is a kind of a welcome back theme has been resonating. We have Snoopy hugging the K that represents Knotts, with ‘welcome back.’” He added, “That whole welcome concept is the biggest trend this year. People want to feel regular again, they want to scream on the roller coasters. When we first re-opened people were just bouncing up and down, they were so excited to get on the roller coaster, and to even see the horses with the stage-coach. Just to see anything. People are embracing everything.”

Busche said he sees the theme park market in general revitalizing since COVID-19. “People are more excited than ever to be here. They feel more relaxed at outdoor attractions and most of our attractions are outdoors. They can just walk around with the kids and experience fun fair-like food and take photos. I see a lot more taking photos at our ‘fun photo’ sites throughout the park and then sharing them on social media.”

Being glad to be a part of the theme park experience is in part why people are enjoying food elements as much as the rides at Knotts, Busche said. “We are not a ‘healthy options’ sort of place, but that’s not what guests are after. They are here for the original Mrs. Knotts chicken dinner. This is not a salad crowd; people don’t care about calories or cost.”

The enthusiasm and willingness to spend also extends to creating plush at the park’s Build-a-Bear store, and big sales for “the geode guy, whose big thing is cracking open the geodes right in front of you. He said he never saw so many people wanting to have him do that.”

The reason? “I think people are starving for live experience, people are back into the handmade items, and of course we have lots of crafters here. People want an authentic feel which is partly why we sell so many jams and jellies and why people enjoy just walking around watching costumed cowboys strumming music.”

Busche said that the games business at the park has also exploded. “People love the simple games like throw a ball, win a prize. We have exclusive prizes based on Squishmallow toys, and the prizes are very hot right now, too.”

Buying exclusively for Knotts Berry Farm rather than for all Cedar Fair park stores, Busche focuses on a specifically-Knotts assortment. “We’re the exclusive buying group for Knotts as the only year ‘round Cedar Fair location. We have our own merchandise. We do participate in imports and such, but really 99% of what we have is just what keeps this park going.”

While individual park shops are not as themed as Disneyland’s stores, there are different merchandise mixes at the different shops within the park. “The historical emporium is more of a general kind of gift shop than some of the others. The Virginia Knotts store has also changed over the years to more of a full park experience. We have a full food store for all our jams, jel- lies, butters, and coffees. We have three candy stores, and our Fiesta Village store is themed to have a more Hispanic feel, even with the Snoopy items. Then of course our Camp Snoopy camp store, and our Peanuts Headquarters have all sorts of Peanuts-driven merchandise.” Additionally, the park has western apparel and hat stores, and has added a new shop, Cordie’s, located near the new Beary Tales ride. “It’s a very large store, so we were able to put in an art show, featuring artists who are fans of Knotts or selling Knottsinspired art there as well as our regular merchandise. We did this because it gives people new things to experience. But we are also theming that store with merchandise inspired by the new ride, including small cars that replicate the old ride cars when Beary Tales was last a part of the park.”

Between strong retail sales and enthusiastic guests – and hungry ones – Busche attested that things are changing back rapidly to a pre-pandemic environment. “The only real difference between 2019 and today is that people are more aware of their personal space and still wearing masks. People are walking around having a great time again, and there is no big change to that, except that they have their masks on.”

For Busche, if there is one message from the past year that he sees and wants to impart, it is this: “Yes, something happened, but we are going to get over it. It was easier for us to bounce back than for Disney because we were back already with the food festivals and didn’t have to wait an entire year to bring any guests to the park.”

Those festivals not only entertained the public hungry for fun as well as food, but allowed the park to keep employees on staff despite pandemic closures. “They are just solid gold right now,” Busche said. “Getting great employees is always the biggest challenge and we are in good shape.” ❖