NAME-DROPPED PRODUCTS AND SOUVENIRS Name-Dropped Souvenirs at Public Lands Partner Stores

By Genie Davis

Public lands partner stores help to support the mission of state and national parks as well as historic areas. Each store is different regarding the types of name-dropped souvenirs they sell, and many public lands partners are just beginning to offer merchandise. But when these items are offered, they prove a popular fundraising tool.

At Yellowstone Forever, the official non-profit partner of Yellowstone National Park, located in Bozeman, Mont., Product Manager Deborah Collins related that “We sell many items with our logo or the park name on them, and we do very well with pins and patches and magnets in terms of quantity. We also sell namedropped insulated water bottles and drinkware including mugs, and those items also do very well.” Pins, patches, and magnets have great price points and are easy to pack, making them popular as well as easy to collect. Drinkware is a strong seller at least in part because of its usefulness.

Display is Collins’ focus for selling more of any of these items at the nine Yellowstone Forever shops, eight of which are in the park. “Ninety percent of our sales comes from our retail stores, not online, so our emphasis is on displaying them with thematic themes or mixed and matched with other like-items when the stores are open seasonally.” She noted that each of the stores feature a Yellowstone Forever display area. “Most of the items we have say Yellowstone on them, but the items I mentioned are those that have our name or logo on them.”

When it comes to choosing which items to namedrop with the non-profit’s information, Collins said, “We want to offer an item that’s name-dropped for us in each category, so one pin, one patch, one mug, one magnet. We have a slight representation across all the different products we sell.”

Yellowstone Forever’s stores range in size from 200-square-feet to approximately 800-square-feet at the Old Faithful Visitor Center.

At Friends of Valle De Oro National Wildlife Refuge in Albuquerque, N.M., Executive Director Katie Dix had exciting news. The public lands partner is opening their in-person nature store May 5th, a process that was long delayed due to COVID-19. The organization will also continue to sell items online and at events. “We have Tshirts, a variety of hats, insulated water bottles, growlers, beer pint glasses, and wine tumblers. The drinkware and T-shirts sell the best.” According to Dix, this is due to early fundraising efforts by the organization. “We used to have beer fundraisers at local breweries, and the pint glasses have become a bit of a collector’s item for people. And T-shirts, of course, are always popular.”

While the organization has been more event-driven in the past to sell namedropped souvenir items, now the focus will be on display. “We’ll be looking at in-store displays of course, and we will also be using social media more with both our online and brick and mortar store open.” She explained that May 5th is a soft-opening, September the

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