|
|
Post by cheerypeabrain on Jun 11, 2017 18:30:19 GMT
On our recent visit to The Barbican Centre Bixa and I indulged our obssession with Museum gift shops. I love gift shops....not just museums either...most tourist attractions have an area dedicated to relieving the culturally enriched public of their cash. As a child I would come home with leather bookmarks, pencils and tiny notebooks...tote bags and 'jewellery'...all of it hugey overpriced. What is the best thing you ever bought in a Gift Shop? and the worst?
Over the years I've bought a lot of crap...but also stuff I still like...for example a Tutankhamun fridge magnet (I kid you not) which is unusually beautiful considering it cost me £3..I bought it from the O2 (Greenwich) Tutankhamun exhibition. Another favourite is the Davros model (fictional creator of the Daleks, Doctor Who character) purchased from the National Space Centre in Leicester. Bought my youngest a jolly good Palaeontology textbook from The British Museum when he was 11 and he loved that. Got a red leather bookmark from Jodrell Bank with the solar system printed on it, had it for at least 15 years and use it all the time.
On the other hand I've bought some pretty rubbish stuff over the years...tat that I wouldn't look at if it wasn't in THE GIFT SHOP..
Bixa and I were astonished at the price of several items...tote bags...admittedly nice tote bags costing £18...in fact there were several bags in the Barbican shop that were identical apart from the design printed on them yet the price diiffered between them by as much as £4 ! tea towels for £21! scarves for £380 WHAT? who spends £380 on a silk scarf?
Anyway...confess. Are you a Gift Shop devotee? I need to know.
|
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Jun 11, 2017 20:11:05 GMT
Well, you already know I am guilty as charged. Security personnel at places such as public gardens or museums probably scrutinize my entrance closely on their monitors, as I vacillate furiously between going straight to the gift shop ("just to glance") or being mature and going immediately to the culturally enriching part of the venue. I'm going to be forced to go back to the Geffrye museum. Admittedly, I did visit the special exhibition that day (didn't read all the explanatory placards) and I did give full and loving attention to the garden. Then, in one magnificent grand jeté, I cleared the interior of the museum from the front to back where the gift shop was housed. Got some cool stuff, too.  Pee ess ~ public garden gift shops in England are heaven, full stop. |
|
|
|
Post by lagatta on Jun 11, 2017 23:37:00 GMT
Dear peabrain, Liberty and Hermès silk scarves are certainly up there. I don't happen to have any of those. Any silk scarves I have were thrifted from charity shops or what we oddly call yard or garage sales, when in central Montréal any front gardens that exist are tiny and there are few garages.
|
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Jun 12, 2017 6:04:56 GMT
I don't think I've bought anything in one of those gift shops during most of my adult life, but I always enjoy looking around to see what is on offer. And I also like to observe things through my childhood eyes, meaning, if I were a child now, what could I buy with a budget of about £2 maximum? I have noticed that every gift shop always has quite a few items for that price and lower aimed at children -- usually pencils or little notebooks or miniature figurines and things like that. Probably worth about 20p at the most, but at least something that you can take home and show off at school and say "I was there!"
|
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Jun 12, 2017 8:01:22 GMT
I have quite a nice memory of the gift shop at Pierrefonds, where Kerouac took me and Htmb there on my first visit to Paris. He graciously allowed time for me to browse the shop despite his mild alarm at the avid look on my face when I asked to check it out. He also asked the sales girls all of the exhaustive questions I had about some earrings. I didn't feel guilty about his having to do that since the two beauties were totally charmed by him and the three of them had lots more laughter and chat than however you say in French "are they gold-plated?" seemed to warrant. The earrings are now a prized possession and just the loveliest souvenir of a perfect day.
That gift shop did have lots of doo-dads for kids to buy, but it also had some terminally tempting and quite expensive things designed to hook indulgent grandparents.
Overall it gets 5 out of 5 stars from me for variety and affordability.
The Barbican gets 3.5 -- high marks for excellent taste, but docked for nose-bleed prices. Its special shop set up for the Japanese architecture show only gets 1 star. The items are limited in range, mostly boring, and stupidly, unbelievably expensive.
The London Museum is around a 3.5 also. It is pleasant but really not big enough. One should never be left thinking "Is that all there is?" in a gift shop. It is fairly affordable and I hugely approve of their bags. They are a nice weight of unbleached muslin, the straps are a good length to put on the shoulder, they say "Museum of London" on one side big enough so that people will note that you are a person of culture, are prominently placed at the checkout counter, AND *drumroll* cost only £1.50.
Besides the afore-mentioned public garden gift shops, a couple of stars I remember from last year are the Kensington Palace one and the upstairs one at the Tower of London.
|
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Nov 24, 2018 0:45:22 GMT
There's no nice way to say this, so I'll just blurt it out: museum gift shops in England are better than museum gift shops in the Netherlands. Really, when I go into a museum gift shop I actively want to buy something & the fact that I leave empty handed speaks poorly for whomever does the buying for that shop. A nice exception was the museum at Muiden castle, which was tiny but imaginatively stocked.
|
|
|
|
Post by lagatta on Nov 24, 2018 16:00:12 GMT
You are right, even when the silly Amsterdam Museum was the more serious Amsterdam Historical Museum, there was almost nothing I wanted to buy at the gift shop, not even posters. Surprising, given the Dutch merchant history... Bixa, did you get to the V&A? Interesting website: I like the illustration awards www.vam.ac.uk/info/va-illustration-awardsSome of the exhibition subjects might have shocked Vicky! |
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Nov 24, 2018 16:33:59 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by casimira on Dec 2, 2018 16:32:32 GMT
I too am a museum gift shop enthusiast and always make a point of visiting them whenever the opportunity arises.
The Museum of Modern Art in NYC is likely my all time favorite and the Metropolitan Museum of Art is right up there as well.
The NY Botanical Garden has a superb gift shop as does the Brooklyn Botanical Garden.
Not to be overlooked are some of the smaller museums and public gardens.
Here in NOLA, The Historical New Orleans Collection is dangerous territory for me. My husband has purchased some of my favorite pieces of jewelry from there. Good quality craftsmanship from local artists. A good example is one silversmith who reproduces some of the gorgeous classic wrought iron motifs from the French Quarter into earrings, brooches, pendants, belt buckles and the like.
The Ogden Museum of Southern Art is another.
Another gem is the Walter Anderson Museum in Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi which has exquisite reproductions of some of Anderson's work transformed into prints, cards, tiles and other very cool stuff.
I can only imagine what some of the European shops are like and hopefully, some fine day I will be able to visit some of them.
Having a membership to some of the local museums affords one nice discounts as well.
|
|
|
|
Post by whatagain on Dec 3, 2018 20:24:02 GMT
I hate museum sop and my wife always - always - stops there and spends years there. Last was in Mont Saint Michel where we bought stuff for Marie. My favorite museum shop is the one at Mont Saint Jean (the farm that was used as a hospital after Waterloo) because te farm is now also the brewery where Waterloo beer is brewed. And you can buy beer there... waterloo-beer.com/bieres/ |
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Dec 3, 2018 20:32:53 GMT
That's a consolation. Actually, I plan to return to Pierrefonds next week and will examine the shop that delighted Bixa. It was being renovated the last time I was there, so maybe it will be worth visiting this time. |
|
|
|
Post by mich64 on Dec 3, 2018 20:37:32 GMT
I do enjoy Museum gift shops. On many occasions I would buy Christmas gifts for my nieces and nephews from these shops. I have bought puzzles for my parents and unique toys, pens/pencils, notepads, coloring books and t-shirts for the children. Whatagain, I as well probably spend too much time there for my husbands liking!  |
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Dec 5, 2018 12:49:23 GMT
i used to like museum gift shops, and still feel like i should take a look, but then i always realize i don't need the things there and they are too expensive, anyway ... sometimes i'll buy something in a museum while abroad, if i need a present (like if it is someone's birthday right after my holiday and i want to bring them something from the place i traveled to, but that is not a souvenirshop-souvenir) ...
|
|
