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The gift shop is a place that every guest in the museum is going to stop visit. Just out of curiosity. The gift shop is two foors and is located in the main lobby, and by the coat check and garage entrance downstaris. All guests must at some point see the gift shop. Upstairs guests wander in and check out whats available. The most expensive items are located upstairs; hand woven baskets, hand blown glass, jewelry, table accessories. The upstairs portion of the gift shop makes me feel like i'm in a Pottery Barn, or a Pier 1 Imports. The items available are very nice, good quality items, although they are quite expensive. Some of the woven items can cost $800.00.

Downstairs, you will find items such as books, the childrens section which is full of brightly colored gifts and musical instruments from Africa in coordination with the Africa artifacts collection, knick knacks, art flash cards, callendars, stationary, journals, magnets, and other smaller items at a more affordable price. The bottom floor of the gift shop is wandered in less as the main floor gets the most traffic. The bottom floor of the gift shop is located on the exhibition level, which during my visit wasn't open making it less of an attraction to guests unless they entered through the garage or needed to check a bag or coat.

The collection of items in the gift shop on the main floor seemed to be for the modern, artistic homemaker. There were practical items of every day use such as place mats, and salad serving dishes and tongs made out of exquisit woods. The main floor also featured the gift shop items unique to the museum, such as the satelite photo of San Francisco, items with the De Young logo on it, and books of featured artists, or artists in the permanant collection. Downstairs had more affordable practical items. My gifts for my secret person was purchased on the bottom floor of the gift shop. Hundreds of books were available downstairs, as were some very nice calendars and posters of featured, or permanant collection artists. You could also purchase a few of the musem's signature merchandise such as t-shirst and bags, but the bulk of their signature merchandise was upstairs on the main floor.

I found that on most days, the majority of shoppers were women, a lot of them elderly. Members of the museum get a 10% discount on all items, and occasionlly they will feature member sales where members of the museum get a 20% discount on all merchandise. I noticed that most of the elderly women were looking at jewelry, framed art, scarves and china. The most common items purchased in the gift shop despite the quality of their nicer, more expensive objects, were the most affordable ones. A gift shop worker informed me that most people purchased soapstone hearts; $5, as they were the most practical souveniers; small, pretty, and affordable.

The gift shop ties directly into the museum's mission statment. A portion of its statement claims, "To contribute to the economy and culture of San Francisco." By having this gift shop, guests can spend their money here, and bring back items with the logo of the museum on it. They can also display pieces wherever they choose potentially recieveing response such as, "Where did you get that?" In which case the guest would reply, "The De Young Art Museum." Through consumerism, the De Young can gain exposure, which could in turn bring in new guests, those new guests could potentially be from outside the city of San Francisco thus contributing to the economy. Artifacts purchased at the gift shop also represent the culture of San Francisco by representing the art community of San Francisco and those who are involved such as museum guests.