The Sky Pirates of Mermaid Bay gift shop in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, offers guests more than traditional retail with vibrant displays and live mermaids and pirates showing off what’s in store.Bears, cabins and mountains might be the most popular themes in the Smoky Mountains, but Top Concepts likes to offer guests a detour away from these traditional motifs at its five attractions in and around Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. There’s Crave Golf Club with its candy-themed mini golf courses and escape rooms as well as the Toy Box Mini Golf with ginormous toys surrounding the golf course. The company also runs Paula Deen’s Lumberjack Feud supper club and the new Slick City Action Park in town.
Top Concepts debuted Sky Pirates of Mermaid Bay in December 2023 as its newest golf adventure park, complete with two 18-hole mini golf courses.
“It’s more than your simple mini golf,” says Marcus Watson, vice president of marketing at Top Concepts. “When you walk in, everything you do is themed to pirates and mermaids.”
Guests can choose to try an indoor course that is decorated with mesmerizing underwater caves, coral reef canyons and some live-action mermaids greeting them for photo ops. Outside on the roof, guests can tackle a pirate-themed course shaped like an airborne ship with pirates wandering around for a meet-and-greet. As visitors finish their round of mini golf, the concessions and gift shop area keeps the pirate and mermaid themes going.
“Everything we sell is geared toward the tropical, pirate or ocean animal themes,” says Watson. “If you go to the Smoky Mountains, the last thing you expect is a tropical-oriented attraction. But that stands out for us in a positive way.”
 Pucker Powder candy is a favorite with guests, along with a wall of bulk candy.
“At all our attractions, we like to offer as many ancillary options as possible for guests,” he says. “We try to take a very traditional activity that everyone enjoys like mini golf and add layers to it to make it a full experience.”
Vibrant visualsAs soon as guests walk into Sky Pirates of Mermaid Bay, they spot a giant fiberglass kraken that spans from floor to ceiling along the side of a boulder in the middle of the gift shop. Souvenir gems, rocks and T-shirts are perched along the side of the boulder, with a bucket of novelty toy swords and wands at the bottom of the display.
The attraction won a Brass Ring Award from the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) this year for its memorable Kraken merchandise display.
“It’s just a really cool visual capture that gets the attention of guests as they come in,” says Watson. “At that display, we cycle out various types of merchandise we sell.”
He adds that this focal point helps to set the tone for the mini golf experience.
“The idea from the beginning, even in our conceptual phase, was to have a centerpiece right there as soon as you walk in that grabs the guest’s eye to mark the experience,” he says.
 The boulder behind the Kraken display stores treasures for guests to take home.
“We try to have a mermaid staffed there for the whole operating day,” Watson adds. “So not only do guests see the kraken display plus gems and rocks, there’s a live person talking to them in character to try to brighten their day.”
Niche noveltiesWith a focus on serving families with kids, novelty toys perform well in the Sky Pirates of Mermaid Bay gift shop. Top Concepts Director of Merchandising Holly Sturdivant says squish toys are the current bestseller for that gift shop.
“Right now, anything that’s squishy — squishy banana, squishy butter, NeeDoh — those have been crazy this year,” she says. “It’s been a full-time endeavor to keep those in stock at all of our properties.”
While some squishies might be found on display around the kraken, Sturdivant says most can be found up by the queue line on a modular shelf.
“That’s where we put the hottest items we have and impulse stuff,” she says.
Sturdivant says she recently found the Fahlo brand at a trade show and started adding some of its bracelets, which have done well for the store this year.
“A lot of what we have is novelties and merchandise geared more to younger kids, but we also like to have something for everybody,” Sturdivant adds.
Some unisex T-shirts with fun pirate and mermaid slogans appeal to older kids, teens and adults coming in after their round of mini golf.
Novelty candy is also a hit at the store for customers who want a sweet treat on their way out. Sturdivant says she carries some classic candies, but also some edgier options like Fuego Skittles for people who want to take a risk.
“One of my team members came up to me and asked if we could try them out,” she recalls.
 Some sea-themed T-shirts and plush are perched on boulders in the gift shop.
But, she notes, she also makes sure each of her stores has items unique to the destination.
“Between my four stores, I go to great length to make sure there are several items that only that store has,” she says. “We have a park hopper pass where you can go to all our mini golfs and play as many times as you want. So I want those people to have a different retail experience at every place they go.”
Caring for communityWith several attractions in the Pigeon Forge area, Sturdivant adds that Top Concepts’ owners are just as passionate about helping their Smoky Mountain community as they are about developing attractions and retail experiences.
When Hurricane Helene hit in 2024, Sturdivant recalls Top Concepts’ owners encouraging all employees to volunteer to help with relief efforts in a neighborhood that was impacted only 30 miles away from Sky Pirates of Mermaid Bay.
“We unloaded planes and made dinners for the whole community that they could drive by and pick up,” she says.
Sky Pirates of Mermaid Bay has regularly hosted charity drives and events that support community organizations, such as a Pirates, Putts & Pups event that supported the Sevier County Humane Society. And when Slick City Action Park opened as a new attraction this year, the company donated $20,000 to support the Boys and Girls Club of the Smoky Mountains.
“Every quarter, we pick a different charity that’s near and dear to our hearts and we raise money for them at that time,” says Sturdivant. “Our owners are the full picture — they don’t just say it, they do it.”
This give-back mentality extends to team members as well. Sturdivant says she always invites her team members to pitch new ideas for the store. She also regularly plans a contest for store managers to find new products for the stores.
“Each manager finds a product that we do not carry at any of our stores. Then we have a contest to see which product sells the most,” says Sturdivant. “It just gets them in the game and makes them feel like, ‘I’m part of this team and am participating.’”
Connecting with guests is also something that Sky Pirates of Mermaid Bay is all about — staff interacts with guests and sometimes hands out a free gemstone souvenir to a lucky kid.
“We want the whole family to come here, take pictures and make lasting memories so every time they think of Pigeon Forge, they remember Sky Pirates,” she says. “That’s what we want them to remember: family time, spending quality time with us.” |
