Riedel on Cats creating theater merchandise

http://nypost.com/2016/08/02/thanks-to-cats-theater-souvenirs-are-now-and-forever/

Pretty interesting. Would have liked something even longer...

Have always wondered how much merchandise generated for shows like Wicked and Lion King...

Let me tell you, the merch people at CATS tonight were earning their money tonight. Lines before, during, and after the show. I felt bad, they looked exhausted trying to get some turnover while people waiting in line just to get to the front and still think about what they want.

As a former merch seller I rarely got flustered or upset at a long line. 99.9% of the time people would wait patiently. I only grew impatient at what taboo mentioned when they would wait 10 minutes and then have to think about it, but it was tolerable. Sometimes if someone just wanted a cd or program they'd hold out a $20 and mouth "cd?" and I'd try to help them while others were "just looking/deciding," but occasionally that person would get upset I helped someone else. The MOST frustrating are the people who don't listen and ask the same questions over and over. "Do you have other shirts??" "No, we only have these three." "Well, does that one come in blue instead?" "No, we only have the shirts the way you see them here." "Oh! Well...how about *that* one in blue??"

I used to work merch as well and I actually quite preferred the busy shows. The slow ones were boring but I still ended up being there later than most and didn't make as much (or any) commission. The only time it gets a little overwhelming is if someone takes a long time to decide what they want and a line starts to form behind them while they're still hemming and hawing; I'd usually politely ask people to step to the side past a certain point while they were deciding.