Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium has debuted its new Mote Science Education Aquarium (SEA) in Sarasota, Florida. Opened on Oct. 8, the 146,000-square-foot facility is located at Sarasota’s Nathan Benderson Park and is twice the size of Mote’s facility Sarasota’s City Island, which is continuing to operate as a Mote research facility.
The educational attraction also comes with a new gift shop, managed by Event Network. Store Director Sandi Finefield says the look of the store flows seamlessly with the aquarium itself.
“The gift shop was designed as an extension of the first floor, which is all about the sea,” she says. “Color schemes all match what we have on the first floor — we have wavy designs throughout.”
Event Network was awarded a contract to manage retail for Mote seven years ago when the company operated a public aquarium at the City Island facility. Finefield has been managing retail for Mote ever since then.
“I even set up the gift shop for the City Island aquarium seven years ago, which was fun,” she says. “It’s always fun setting up a store.”
The new Mote SEA gift shop is slightly smaller than the City Island store was. Because of that, Finefield says she had to be selective about what merchandise to keep and what to eliminate from the old store when planning this summer. Since Mote tends to attract locals, Finefield says she made sure she put locally made souvenirs front and center in the new gift shop.
“We focused more on local gifts and souvenirs,” she explains. “We focused on having some kids’ products and also souvenir T-shirts. But then I also know my guests are looking for products that add value and are locally made.”
Some popular local brands include Emerson and Friends apparel based in Clearwater, Florida, as well as Florida-based Mang Apparel that offers sun protection shirts and plants a mangrove tree for every shirt sold. Finefield adds that the gift shop also features Event Network’s Wearsponsible line of apparel and teamed with some artists from Jacksonville, Florida, for the shirt designs.
Sustainability is another big theme for the new gift shop.“We try to focus on what we can do to help keep plastics out of the ocean and our products,” says Finefield. “We focus on that in the front of our store so guests know our mission. We want to match the mission of the aquarium, so eliminating plastics is important to us.”
Mote SEA and its gift shop have had steady business already in October, with many locals excited for the long-awaited aquarium.
“The local community here really supports Mote,” says Finefield. “They just want to be here. Last year with the hurricane, we were closed a lot and then we moved here this summer. People were missing Mote.”
She adds, “My biggest goal for us is to give an experience — guests come for an experience. They do not know our store is run by Event Network; we’re an extension of the aquarium. I want to surpass their experience from the aquarium into the gift shop. That’s my goal, along with educating my team and making sure they know the features and benefits of the products.”
