Most tour groups only have 15 minutes to purchase a crazy souvenir before resuming their tours.
Despite reports of an empty city center, still emptied by the pandemic, the city's souvenir shops regularly see such deluges. The gift shop is an essential part of the perfect student tripand travel to Washington DC is a year-round industry.
Peak season hits during spring break and the first six weeks of summer, says Brooksie Robbins, vice president of North American operations for EF Explore America, one of several travel agencies shopping on a recent Tuesday. Between June and August, the company hosts thousands of students on hundreds of trips and visits to Washington, DC.
That same day, six tour buses idled in front of another gift shop a few blocks north of the White House. A blond riding hood held the door open for her gaggle of teenagers dressed in matching red T-shirts commemorating the trip.
“This is what you’ve all been waiting for!” » she chirped as they entered.
Students flocked to buy merchandise – key chains, mugs, flags, ornaments – candy and soft drinks, or simply to take a break from their educational schedule. And bobs. Lots of bucket hats. Those of the American flag, those of Washington, DC, those of politics.
“It fits my personality,” said one boy, wearing a white hat with Donald Trump’s name stitched on the front.
“Where’s RFK Jr.’s stuff?” » asked another student.
Trump visors and RBG figurines
Back at I Love DC Gifts, Khalid Ismail said the best-selling item was a Cherry flower sweatshirt that says “Good Vibes”. Even in June – months after the city's famous ephemeral flowers have disappeared and the daily temperature approaches 90 degrees – the sweatshirt rules. Ismail said he had never seen anything captivate customers with such fervor, although Trump merchandise was a close second: T-shirts with his ID photo and visors with fake orange hair coming out of the top.
“We don’t have any horses in the race, politically. Like, who cares, but man, people love him,” Ismail said. “Anything Trump-themed, anything with his name on it…people buy it.”
Luke Wilbur noticed the same thing. Wilbur, 56, owned a gift shop in Washington DC on Pennsylvania Ave. The pandemic forced him to close, and now he runs DCgiftShop.com. Although he tries to stock an equal amount of Republican and Democratic items, Wilbur sells many more items of the former.
Wilbur isn't convinced this means much for the outcome of the presidential election. Only that “conservatives buy by far more products”“, he said.
Plus, “when Trump holds rallies, they all take the blame,” Wilbur said. “He's a marketer…I mean, Trump was selling water.”
Some souvenir purchasing behaviors are seasonal. In front of the US Treasury building, White House Gifts, anything with eagles sells around the 4th of July. Christmas tree decorations are trendy all year round. The same goes for anything bearing the presidential seal or effigy of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
“Even though she passed away, everyone loves her,” said store owner Jim Warlick, pointing to an RBG figurine lined up alongside one of the most famous U.S. presidents. “We’ve never had anything other than her for a Supreme Court justice.” She's so popular.
Warlick, 71, opened White House Gifts in 2008, a dream born from his interest in American history and entrepreneurship. He also took a fateful trip to Washington DC when he was 12 and purchased a bust of President John F. Kennedy.
“I said, 'One of these days I'm going to live in Washington,'” Warlick recalled.
As a youth, Warlick studied and left college to work for political campaigns and elected officials, then realized he could make much more money selling campaign buttons. He expanded his offerings by creating campaign posters and stickers, and eventually opened his first gift shop in Washington in 1992.
Five presidents later, the American public is still hungry for patriotic products. Our appetite for what to buy has evolved, however. Postcards barely sell these days and political pins are out (because people don't want to put holes in their clothes, Warlick guesses); pet gear and fast fashion sunglasses are king.
“Ten years ago, people didn't buy socks, but they do now,” Warlick said next to a batch of novelty pairs knitted with famous faces. Contrary to Ismail and Wilbur's findings, President Biden's socks provided by Warlick were sold out last week, while his rival's version remained plentiful.
Warlick also attracts a different clientele than other stores. More of its foot traffic comes from White House tour runoff than from big bus loads.
“We get some,” he said of the bus business, but not as much as he could. Warlick said some merchants offering 24-hour bus stops are “paying the bus drivers.” He said he had been approached to make deals with drivers, “but we can't give half of what we sell.”
Robbins, of EF Tours, said that “we don't have a financial relationship with any of the gift shops” but that some are better suited than others for large bus groups. Stores must have “inventory diversity,” including both snacks and souvenirs, perhaps a bathroom, and the infrastructure to handle and process a swarm of young adults.
I Love DC Gifts meets these criteria. The store is across the street from Ford's Theater, where President Abraham Lincoln was shot, and right next to the Petersen House, where he was transported after the assassination. Ismail pointed to a wall of tourist T-shirts. “We share the walls of where Lincoln died,” he said.
This proximity alone is not enough to guarantee customers.
“The buses stop in front of us, but that doesn’t mean they will come towards us,” Ismail said. “It’s the positivity of the bus drivers and the tour guides, the relationships we’ve made…we go to dinner with these people, we know their families.”
Warlick is doing well without the bus business. White House Gifts averages 3,000 customers a day in the summer, and it's immersed in side hustles.
For example, Warlick has built five replicas of Oval Office structures that he rents to movie studios. One is located in a building around the corner from the gift shop. Customers who spend at least $50 in the store can have their photo taken behind the desk or from a replica of the White House press briefing room, free of charge.
Or the traveling exhibition he created about Kennedy, populated with historical objects that Warlick purchased at auction. Exhibits included one of Jackie's swimsuits, one of JFK's shaving kits and two of his limousines.
“It’s just part of preserving history,” he said.
History isn't necessarily part of the equation for Ismail. He's addicted to the chaos and joy of dealing with hordes of customers at I Love DC Gifts.
“It gives me a purpose in life…it gives me energy, like vigor, if that makes sense,” he said. “How many people live and die to have such an opportunity?
