Museum Shops Embrace Sustainability and Inclusion as Retail Strategies Evolve
Retail operations within museums are embracing both sustainability and inclusivity, as demonstrated by the Manchester Museum, Seattle Art Museum, and Mütter Museum. Following a £15 million renovation, the Manchester Museum reopened in 2023, minimizing single-use plastics and adopting compostable packaging. Its head buyer announced net sales of £572,000 from February to December 2023 in July 2024. The Museum of Flight features a Jet Engine Turbine Wall Clock that provides job opportunities for the legally blind. Inclusivity is further exemplified by the Seattle Art Museum's sale of raven pins from Firewoman Studio and the Mütter Museum's availability of Jasmine Brown's book on Black women physicians. A Nielsen report from 2018 revealed that 73% of global respondents intended to alter their consumption habits for environmental reasons.
Key facts
- Manchester Museum reopened in 2023 after a £15 million transformation, embedding sustainability in its gift shop.
- Manchester Museum's head buyer reported £572,000 in net sales between February and December 2023.
- The Museum of Flight's Jet Engine Turbine Wall Clock is made by The Chicago Lighthouse, which provides industrial work for people who are legally blind.
- Nielsen reported in 2018 that 73% of global respondents said they would change consumption habits to reduce environmental impact.
- NYU Stern researchers found that sustainability-marketed consumer packaged goods grew 2.7 times faster than conventional alternatives from 2015 to 2021.
- Seattle Art Museum sells hand-carved raven pins made by Firewoman Studio, a Tsalagi/Salish studio led by artist Sasa.
- The Mütter Museum stocks Jasmine Brown's book 'Twice as Hard: The Stories of Black Women Who Fought to Become Physicians, from the Civil War to the 21st Century'.
- The Smithsonian Store's online shop ships to the United States and Canada.
Entities
Artists
- Emma Gittins
- Sasa
- Jasmine Brown
Institutions
- MuseumNext
- Museum Store Association
- Museum of Flight
- The Chicago Lighthouse
- Chicago Lighthouse Industries
- Nielsen
- Manchester Museum
- NYU Stern
- Seattle Art Museum
- Firewoman Studio
- Mütter Museum
- USC Pacific Asia Museum
- Sevya
- Bristol Museums
- BALTIC
- Smithsonian Store
Locations
- Manchester
- United Kingdom
- Seattle
- United States
- Washington State
- India
- Canada