>   John Martinson writes:
>
>  " What is the average spent per person..?  ...high/low items...?"

I missed the original post on this, but will add 2 cents to this section.
One parallel might be nonprofit cooperating association sales outlets in
national parks and other public lands visitor centers.  One for which I have
current information is the museum shop at the Anasazi Heritage Center,
a Bureau of Land Management archeology museum near Mesa Verde,
run by the Southwest Natural and Cultural Heritage Association.

The stock is mostly books, posters and cards, with a high of $80 and a
low of $.25, most in the $8 - 10 range.  There is one case with perhaps
half a dozen excellent handmade replicas of pottery vessels in the AHC
collection, ranging up to $400 - 500, depending on the piece.
Publications are by far the largest part of sales.

Gross sales income of roughly $110,000 on visitation of ca. 40,000
works out to about $2.75 per visit.  That average varies seasonally,
approaching $4 per visit on a lower volume in the Christmas season
and dropping to $2 or less per visit on a high volume of cards and
posters in the April-May school visit season.

Another indicator to consider is the number and size of transactions,
which tells you the number of people you actually serve and the size of
the average purchase.  I don't have the exact AHC numbers, but I
think it roughly works out to a sale to one third of the visitors.  The size
of each transaction reaches a high of over $14 in the Christmas season
and a low of $10 or $11 in the school season, averaging between $12 and
$13 through the year.

This ratio of $$$/visit is quite high, I think, and places that do a much
larger volume of smaller purchases, such as places that double as rest
stops for interstate cruisers, probably have ratios more like the $.75 in
the previous post.  IMHO, the high average at the AHC (similar to the
figures at remote Chaco Canyon, by the way) is due to 1) good constant
attention to display, stocking, service, and seasonality by the outlet
manager; 2) careful attention to the list of publications to insure the
currency and topical relevancy of each title; and 3) a visitor population
that's really interested in the subject matter.

It should be pointed out, of course, that any such outlet has the usual
overhead and inventory costs of any museum shop, and all income over
costs goes to support the interpretive efforts through publications,
sponsorship of public events, etc.

Finally, while these cannot be money-losing operations, I strongly
believe the PRIMARY value of these museum shops is extension of the
learning experience beyond the exhibits of the museum.  At the AHC,
as in many other places, the exhibits can barely scrape the surface of
the topics, whetting the appetite and leaving visitors wanting more.
The museum shop is the "more."

Best wishes,
Tom V.
--

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