How Has Your Attraction Changed Because of The Pandemic?

After the museum had been closed for some time, Retail Manager Camille Cacas wrote to the county health officer asking for permission to open the store portion of the California Surf Museum, since the store is located at the front of the museum. Permission was granted, and now plenty of foot traffic comes through the overhauled their website, texassurfmuseum.org, with the help of Molly Pierce Design, Snider said. The site enables those at home to order merchandise and support the museum through online donations. store on sunny days, which has been helpful, Cacas said. They also reduced the fixtures in their 850-square-foot shop by about 20% to accommodate for distancing requirements.

In addition, Cacas has displayed more of the shop’s merchandise online, especially unique logoed items.

The Ty Cobb Museum in Royston, Ga., was completely closed from March to October 2020. In October, they began to use a reservation system. McCall reported that the system works well. Using the reservation times has helped to limit the number of guests in the facility. Rebuilding their website and online store www.tycobbmuseum. org has also been a very helpful tool for sales, McCall said.

Director of Operations Gavin Snider said the Texas Surf Museum in Corpus Christi, Texas, was “hit hard,” just as other small businesses and non-profit organizations were. They’ve since bounced back, he said, while adhering to state safety regulations and rules.

The Texas Surf Museum also

The TOM Shop at the Olympic Museum in Switzerland decided to update their online store in October 2019, not having foreseen the onset of the pandemic. This paradigm shift pushed Morin to consider the museum shop from a different angle. Considering that the TOM shop is not just a place to go, but an extension of the Olympic experience, they are working on solutions to keep their products available to fans should a lockdown, for instance, happen again.

Despite the pandemic, the 3,000-square-foot TOM Shop has done well. Even before that, annual sales figures were steadily growing, as, over the last 10 years under Shop Manager Virginie Morin’s direction, the shop doubled its turnover. ❖