Toy Best-Sellers at Children’s Museums and Public Lands Partner Stores

Plush was a gift shop favorite before the pandemic — and now that families are returning to children’s museums and parks, stuffed critters remain a hit with shoppers.

The Children’s Discovery Museum of the Golden Crescent in Victoria, Texas, saw its revenue more than double from 2019 to 2021; plush played a starring role. “Kids go crazy over these silly $15 stuffed snakes,” said Liz Tise, the executive director. She tries to choose items that align with the museum mission; for instance, a dinosaur exhibition generated brisk sales of dinosaur plushies.

Tise arrived in February 2020, a month before the COVID-19 shutdown. She saw revenue slip from $6,600 in 2019 to $5,100 in 2020 before rebounding to nearly $16,000 last year, and 2022 looks similarly promising. Determined to bring back her museum’s retail, Tise set up wholesale partnerships, networked with colleagues at other Texas children’s museums, and announced the shop’s first-ever net retail income last year.

And that was despite supply chain challenges. “Our top seller in 2020 was a $6 giant horseshoe shaped magnet that the kids loved,” Tise recalled. “I had it in stock for about a half a year in 2020, but it’s been hard to keep it on the shelf.” Games typically are less popular, but Tise has also done well with musical toys like harmonicas and kazoos at the 150-square-foot store. She looks for items that cost less than $3: “Parents are quicker to spend small amounts, so I try to keep that price tag affordable for families.”

A range of prices is also key to the sales at the Explorer Store at the Science Museum of Minnesota in St Paul. “You have to include items that children can pay for with their own allowance or money,” explained Kate Johnson , manager of Retail Sales and Strategy. “Small grab-and-go items by the counter have been very successful for us this year.”

The plush category brings in anywhere from $10,00025,000 in monthly sales, according to Johnson, who oversaw this year’s launch of a best-selling branded plush dinosaur. Dubbed the Adopt-a-Rex, each toy wears a