: Sounds like good marketing to me. I certainly : appreciate them as a consumer (read: museum shop : junkie) when I travel. Obviously, you don't want the I am glad someone brought up this issue! As someone who greatly enjoys museum shops (and does much of my Christmas shopping in them) I have no personal objections to having exhibit-related merchandise available for purchase adjacent to the exit of an exhibit. However, I take strong objection to forcing exhibit visitors to pass through the stores (or view merchandise advertising in the exhibits themselves). I think we need to reflect on contemporary museums' missions to reach broader, more economically diverse communities. Forcing all visitors through a museum shop (where poorer parents are faced with battles with their merchandise-craving children) is something that will further alienate them from the museum experience. Not only does this make an educational experience into an alienating commercial venture for poorer families, but it also reinforces the message that museums are for the affluent and not for the less economically privileged. To me, this seems the strongest reason of all for locating such shops in of-to-the-side locations. The Field Museum does this with its Egyptian exhibit and I think it is a sensitive, sensible way to do things. Those who want to shop will spot the shop easily, while those who cannot afford it can steer their children away. Kathleen M. Adams Dept. of Anthropology Loyola University of Chicago