On Tue, 15 Apr 1997, Claudia Nicholson wrote (in response to the
following troll):

:| >The shop exists to make money, not to educate.  That's where we take
:| >admissions money anyway, and visitors always want souvineers.
:|
:| Whoa right there--and wait a minute, hoss.  I don't run our shop, but I
:| have read enough about the shop/museum tie-in to know that if the shop
:| does not sell and stock objects that directly relate to the educational
:| mission of the institution, the sales might be subject to UBIT (unrelated
:| business income tax).

What she said.  Many times the merchandise can simply be imprinted
with the site name and/or logo to meet this criteria (in the case of
"stock" items such as mugs, pencils and magnets).

Secondly, and most importantly, the whole
:| institution functions together--the shop is *not* unrelated to the museum
:| *or* its message.  If the merchandise in the shop is sending a conflicting
:| message to what is in the exhibitions, you have serious problems.

*vigorously nods head* Many museums will maintain a much stricter
mission charter than required to simply meet the tax code because
they want to set their store apart from local tourist shops.

For anyone who thinks that the gift shop is merely a "necessary
evil" and something apart from the museum's mission to educate,
consider this: a person who is in your store is interested in the
museum's message enough to want to _spend_ _money_ on it in addition
to whatever admission charge they paid to get in.  This is a great
opportunity to educate them even more.  Plus, when someone asks them
where they got the cool giftbook/poster/t-shirt, your
attendee-customer will be able to pass on the information they
obtained and they become the most valuable resource imagineable:
positive word-of-mouth advertising for your site.

Rich Johnson
Director of Marketing
Cotton Expressions, Ltd.
Science & Nature Imprinted Apparel
http://www.cottonexpress.com