Name-Dropped Products and Souvenirs

Whether Nature-Made (From page 86) also brought in – and recently sold out of – namedropped mood rings.

Mugs are strong sellers in their custom product selection, as are magnets, postcards and T-shirts, said Hipp and Vessels.

Other very popular custom items include pictures of visitors snapped inside the cave and photos of the cave turned into a puzzle. Customers also frequently purchase small bags emblazoned with ‘Inner Space Cavern’ on the outside, and fill them with rocks they’ve selected.

Among these, though, “tees are probably number one, which is great because we always name drop our T-shirts,” expressed Vessels.

It’s the customer service, including the friendly service of the cave tour guide, that Vessels credits for selling custom merchandise.

“If people come in and they don’t have a good time, they won't buy anything,” said Vessels.

During the pandemic, supply chains for namedropped clothing had dried up, said Vessels. So when a salesperson dropped by selling boonie hats they took a chance and bought 244 hats – the minimum number they were required to buy if they wanted the hats name-dropped. Normally, they would have turned him away, but because they were so desperate for name-dropped merchandise, they gave the

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Top Display Tips for Custom Products

At Jacob’s Cave, Owner Frank Hurley said spreading out the custom products so customers can easily see the products is key to a good display. In addition, he recommended glass casing for expensive products.

Put your custom merchandise in places where people can see them, and keep the displays full, recommended General Manager Taunya Vessels at the roughly 500-square-foot Inner Space Caverns gift shop in Georgetown, Texas.

“If there's just a couple [items] out, it looks like leftovers and people don't want to buy it,” commented Vessels.

The way you present your showcases is important, said Owner Debbie Reinschmidt of Ice Cave and Bandera Volcano in Grants, N.M. They originally followed the advice they received at a conference to put like items together. But when a new artistically-gifted employee was hired, they changed that method. The employee designed the showcases creatively, arranging various products together in such a way that particular merchandise really caught a customer’s eye. This change made a big difference in sales, Reinschmidt said.

In their approximately 1,200-square-feet of shop, they are doing better than they ever have in terms of sales, said Reinschmidt. While she has a feeling climbing gas prices will eventually hurt them, she estimated they have probably doubled what they were making before the pandemic. “Our store sales sometimes surpasses sales for admission to the ice cave and volcano. That never happened in the past,” she said. ❖