Exit through the 9/11 Museum gift shop — Page 3

If you think it's of poor taste, like most people, don't buy stuff at the gift shop. Sadly, it's the only thing you can do at this point. If people want a mouse pad, or a rescue dog made in China...they will buy them

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As PalJoey said earlier in this thread about the Anne Frank House only selling books and DVDs, I’d like to add that the same thing is done at the Holocaust Museum in D.C. It’s a bookstore; nothing more than books and DVDs.
What’s being sold here is just really disrespectful.

I was told tonight that there is a piece on the museum which is a piece of 5 floors compressed onto the height of 40". I am sure there are traces of loved one's remains in there as well. First thing I think of is "Oh, I want a stuffed animal!". You were right Namo that labs are to die for.

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Updated On: 5/20/14 at 08:48 PM

I went to the museum with my mom and sisters this weekend. Even though I had been dreading the experience, I have to admit the museum as a whole was a lot more tasteful and respectful than I anticipated (I know some people disagree but in a case like this you're never going to please everyone...) No one in my family had done on audio remembrance for my dad because we were waiting to see everything would be set up and displayed. Sitting in the inner chamber in the In Memorium room was actually pretty cathartic while admittedly painful and I'm planning on calling in my remembrance at some point in the next few weeks.

But the gift shop... I didn't want to go in at all but my mom wanted to see it so I went with her. I walked in and immediately walked back out and straight out of the museum because I felt kind of sick to my stomach. The books were fine- I actually probably would've thumbed through some of them- but the kitschy souvenirs just soured me experience for me in a major way.

All well I'll just to hold on to the closure I got from the rest of the museum and avoid the gift shop if I ever return for a future visit.

Beautiful post, eponine. Thank you for sharing.

Kudos to Mr. BoCo Professor on an authentic and genuine response that doesn't drip of antagonistic sarcasm. Color me surprised, but EXTREMELY pleased and relieved.

FVCK YOU LH you know nothing.

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Updated On: 5/20/14 at 09:13 PM

LH, if you really knew Namo as you say you do, you wouldn't have been surprised to see how he responded to that post.


They need to go back and revisit this whole gift shop idea.

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I think that's one of the things that rankles me. It's as if they have no concept of how eloquent simplicity can be.

Of course, it *is* true that not everybody is going to be pleased by any direction they took this in as eponine pointed out, but in the Washington Post piece "Families infuriated by ‘crass commercialism’ of 9/11 Museum gift shop", the criticisms are met by a written reply from "the nonprofit 9/11 museum’s senior vice president of communications and digital media…". I mean, did this have to be such an enormous thing that it needed a senior VICE president of communications and digital media?

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Updated On: 5/20/14 at 11:41 PM

My feeling has always been: rebuilt on the original site, make the foundation the memorial with meditation areas engraved with the list of those we lost and a motto along the lines, "Built stronger for those we lost" or some such legend. The new towers themselves then would become the monumet. Showing resilency and stregnth.
If a bus load of children and nuns are killed on an interstate by a drunk driver, we would NOT reroute the interstate and put up a shrine. Before I am flamed, please be aware I lost a member of my extended family that day.

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Recently published by NY Magazine this opinion was helpful to my own understanding of why I look negatively on the existence of the gift shop. I don't agree with the author's conclusion.
Why the 9/11 Museum Gift Shop Offends Us

I visited the site I believe in 2012 before the museum (and ghastly gift show) was opened, and found it incredibly peaceful and respectful. The reflection of the two large ponds in the surrounding buildings was a bit surreal, and everyone when I was there was respectful. The full museum was not open, but there was a small gift shop that I found distasteful at the time.

When I went to the Holocaust Museum in DC I did visit the gift shop, and did buy something that I remember being repeated over and over again when I was child. It was a shirt with the Dante quote "The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who in time of moral crisis preserve their neutrality" with a variety of religious symbols on it. I thought it totally appropriate for that museum, and it now sits framed on my wall.

The description of what it is for sale at the 9/11 museum makes me ill. Maybe next they will sell simulations so you to can see exactly what happened to the WTC..., including your own vinegar and baking soda.

Jose, thanks for that link. I liked the economic theory discussion. It doesn't touch on the actual items, which I think is an important part of the issue. "Why *this* particular iPhone case? This plush?" That gets discussed in the Washington Post article, with insight from a woman who was the vice chair of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council for over a decade. She talks about how important it was to be really thoughtful about what went up for sale and how board members needed to have really sensitive antennae when considering things.



gift shop article

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I think our complaint is with whomever came up with the idea of these trinkets and those who put it into practice, and not the consumers who want them.

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