Photos (use the arrows to navigate): The new Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument park store, two (2) photos of the updated Canyon Rim Visitor Center at New River Gorge National Park & Preserve, an interior photo of the updated Thurmond Depot park store at New River Gorge National Park & Preserve, two (2) photos of the updated homas Jefferson Memorial park store.

Fiscal Year 2024 was an exciting year for Eastern National store design. As we update our stores in collaboration with our National Park partners, we unite customer engagement and education with the overall visual satisfaction of a beautiful, flexible selling space.

After a renovation to the visitor center and exhibit space, New River Gorge National Park and Preserve reopened in March. With two retail locations within the park updated in 2023, the Fiscal Year 2024 focus was Thurmond Depot and the Canyon Rim Visitor Center. Each location was designed to incorporate the visual elements of the space they reside in, such as the historic railway features of Thurmond and the water/recreational elements of Canyon Rim. We boosted the merchandising space to accommodate the growing volume of sales and visitation by increasing the surface area of the walls and adding additional floor fixtures. These subtle but effective changes have maintained impressive sales this year.

April 2024 saw the opening of a new Eastern National store at Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument. This store is nestled in the back of Charles Young’s historic home, complete with a custom product line and all the educational staples Eastern National provides to park visitors. This design incorporated the historic details of the home to seamlessly integrate into the space.

Another long-awaited update was the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Park store that reopened to the public in May 2024. We took a more modern and sleek approach to this store design. The inspiration was taken directly from the contemporary exhibits surrounding it. Complete with a colorful image of the cherry-blossom-framed memorial behind the cash wrap, gold and marble elements pay homage to the grandiose monument while wall-to-wall merchandising assists this location with the thousands of visitors it sees daily. We also collaborated with our park partners to incorporate exhibit elements into the store. These elements and our Cherry Blossom-themed support sign are part of our efforts to bring more custom graphic elements and support language into our retail spaces.

Renovations in conjunction with park construction are also in progress at Russell Cave National Monument and Cape Lookout National Seashore. The Carter G. Woodson Home National Historic Site is also planning to reopen in August this year, after several years of construction and a new exhibit design. A fresh take on their park store will finish out the fiscal year with a colorful and informative product line and a brand-new store design.

We always focus our approach to the design of every park store and product assortment on the reinforcement of the educational themes and interpretive experiences of the park while enhancing the visitor’s shopping experience. No location or store footprint is too small for this bespoke approach. Supporting our employees and partners with an exciting educational retail environment is always our goal.