No doubt there are success stories regarding contracting out a museum's
gift shop.  Colleges and universities are turning increasingly to Barnes &
Noble for their bookstore/gift shop operations, but their sales volume is
relatively predictable and attractive to companies as qualified as B&N.

In the previous setting of two heavily patronized state historical museums,
I inherited shops that were contracted out.

One was to a non-profit that had other shops; one was to a business that
specialized in wholesaling souvenirs.

The non-profit had a hard time covering its expenses and still turning
something over to the museum as profit share.  Yet it used volunteers.  The
overhead was mainly in amateurish buying decisions that created an overload
of inventory.  The non-profit kept asking for more space, and with a loan
we finally bought out its inventory and created our own shop.  The loan was
paid back in two years and now there is not only merchandise control, but
excess income that's used to support the museum.  Moreover, the shop can
carry items that relate to changing museum themes.

The business had an iron-clad long term contract and tended to use this
shop as a dumping ground for stuff that wouldn't sell elsewhere.  Every
discussion over the merchandise being offered, ended up being extremely
long, aggravating, and resulting in no change.  Now the shop befits the
museum and though the museum receives less net income than the contractor
had given it, it is a worthwhile shop that doesn't pander to
souvenir-seekers.

Here, we have our own shop.  A short-term experience several years ago with
having it operated privately plainly did not work.  The individual expected
enough earnings to live on.   Sales are unpredictable in our rural
environment, where an early or late snowstorm can shut us down for a week
or two at a time.  Near the end of that person's one-year experiment, the
museum was paying her out of its other income just to make good on an
ill-conceived contract guarantee.