On Mon, 11 Aug 1997, Peggy Sealor wrote:

:| Diane, Thanks for the interesting posting.  Amazing what goes on under
:| the public's nose.  I would think anyone in museums who wants money
:| would like to have a cat whose face sells mugs and T-shirts!  There is
:| over 100% markup on the T's sold in the SI shops!  It is illegal to mark-up
:| that much in retailing in the US (dept. stores mark-up 40%, some in NY,
:| Pa.  mark up a little more, then discount it).

While high mark-ups may be borderline obscene in some places, the
only law is "Charge what the market will bear."  the amount of
mark-up is determined by the costs the museum shop has, along with
it's mission (service center vs. profit center).

And a 100% mark-up (referred to as a "keystone mark-up") is the
norm, not the exception in retail.

Rich Johnson
Director of Marketing
Cotton Expressions, Ltd.
312-850-2545