Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 19, 1993 TAG: 9306190058
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MICHAEL CSOLLANY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Merchandising already has yielded millions of dollars for toy companies and sellers of ecology-related products.
Even jewelers have unexpectedly benefited from the dinosaur movie's hoopla. "Jurassic Park" has created a large demand for amber.
The movie's premise - that ancient DNA sucked from fossilized insects trapped in amber can be used to resurrect dinosaurs - has helped prompt mammoth demand for the tawny substance, gem sellers say.
"The weekend sales that we tracked from Friday really changed," said Esther Swann, buyer for The Nature Company, a 104-store chain and catalog merchant based in Berkeley, Calif. "It was just like a vacuum."
Across the country, amber sales have also been on an upswing at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History's Dinostore, said buyer Ernest Pazmany.
He tracked the date of increased interest to an article that appeared in the Smithsonian magazine earlier this year about DNA research.
In Roanoke, the Phoenix Store has an extensive collection of amber. But store employee Shannon Simpson said amber sales have not increased dramatically since Jurassic Park opened at theaters last weekend.
However, "a lot more people have been looking at it," she said.
Amber pieces at the Phoenix store range from $15 to more than $200.
The Smithsonian's Pazmany said he "actually resisted carrying this stuff simply because you could sell a piece for $500 and it could weigh all of 3 ounces."
Brisk sales for more traditional movie merchandise - posters, postcards, models, stuffed animals, clothing and books - have translated into immediate profits.
It takes a 9-acre warehouse in south Seattle to supply U.S. outlets - including the Museum Shop of the Science Museum of Southwest Virginia - with mostly Asian-manufactured merchandise.
Although the Steven Spielberg movie has just opened, rubber T. rex's and stuffed Velociraptors have been arriving for nine months in Seattle, the entry port for virtually all "Jurassic Park" items made for Kenner, a division of Hasbro Inc. of Pawtucket, R.I.
It's taken careful planning to make sure the Science Museum shop in Roanoke has had a constant supply of dino-goods, said shop assistant manager Tracy Staples.
"We knew [sales] would take off as soon as the film actually opened. Even so, we were surprised by the high volume of sales we did in the first week.
The Associated Press and the Knight-Ridder/Tribune wire service contributed to this story.
by CNB