This is one of the most ridiculous reasons I have ever heard for deciding
where to locate a gift shop!  Do businesses put themselves in
out-of-the=-way places because somebody might be embarrassed if it were out
in front???

george

==============

>:      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
>
>