Across four decades, Como Friends’ gift shop has helped make free admission possible
Led by veteran retailers Terri Scheunemann (Director of Retail Operations), Sheila Wewers (Associate Director of Retail Operations), and Skip Grantham (Retail Store Manager), Como Friends’ gift shop has also been the first job for hundreds of local youth. During peak season, the operation typically employs more than 45 staff members. A favorite shopping destination for many visitors, Como Friends members get an extra perk, with 15 percent off every purchase.
Forty years ago this fall, a group of committed Como volunteers persuaded the City of Saint Paul’s construction crews to help them build a brand new business model for supporting Como Park Zoo and Conservatory: a permanent gift shop where proceeds would help support plants and animals.
A city architect designed a space in the center of the decommissioned WPA zoo building; a nonprofit precursor to Como Friends paid for the materials; and city electricians, carpenters, and tradespeople built it in time for the big unveiling in spring 1987. As Terri Scheunemann, longtime director of Como Friends’ retail operations remembers, “the city was very generous, and allowed us to rent the space for $1 a year—and they still do. It was very much the beginning of the strong public-private partnership that we have now.”
That first spring, Scheunemann and her team were overwhelmed by the volume of field trip visitors, who bought up every novelty pencil, plush toy, and t-shirt they could lay their hands on, leaving shelves bare until the next shipment could arrive. Nearly five decades later, the Como Friends Gift Shop is a well-oiled fundraising machine, selling a record-setting $2.6 million in merchandise last year. With a permanent space in Como’s Visitor Center, and satellite stores near Gorilla Forest and Polar Bear Odyssey, and inside Como Town, gift shop proceeds made it possible to invest more than $1.5 million in animal care, horticultural operations, education programs, and more in 2025.
“The gift shop is definitely one of the secrets to Como Friends’ longevity and impact, because it gives people who love Como a very easy way to support the things they care about,” says Katie Hill, Como Friends’ president. “It’s always fun to bring home a little treasure of the time you’ve spent at Como, but it’s even better knowing that the money you spend at the Como Friends Gift Shop will stay here, investing in everything from free admission to seasonal flower shows.”
To cater to the varied tastes of Como’s nearly two million annual visitors, Scheunemann and her team do their research, traveling to trade shows, keeping up with trends, and looking for ways to promote conservation both through the products they choose, and the stories those gifts help tell. “Como-themed apparel has been a constant seller,” she says, “and of course, we’re known for the huge variety of plush animals we stock.” (Predictably, polar bears, sloths, lions, and seal pups are all popular choices at Como.)
More recently, shoppers have shown a growing interest in products designed around sustainability, from beeswax food wrappers and reusable drink straws, to collectible animal tracking bracelets and accessories made from recycled materials. This year’s buying trends have also been shaped by the boom in squishies, the tactile squeeze toys that have gone viral on TikTok.
“We also look for gifts that tell Como’s story,” she says, from the annual Como-themed Christmas ornaments visitors often collect, to the Sparky-themed reusable water bottles that help keep single-use plastics out of the ocean.
Of course, no one knows as many great Como stories as Scheunemann, who has a deep family connection to Como. Her late mother, Arlene, was the founder of Como Zoo’s docent program during the 1960s and 70s, fostering more than 200 wild animals in her home in the days before Como had the resources to care for infant animals. Scheunemann and her three siblings grew up alongside a series of young gorillas, orangutans, and large cats—even traveling with a jaguar who joined the family on vacation.
Sharing her mom’s passion for animal welfare inspired one of her first jobs, helping Como turn its first campus kiosk into a serious money-making enterprise. When Como Friends’ first indoor gift shop opened, those first-hand animal experiences also helped her to cope with working in close proximity to Rudy, a 10-foot alligator, whose ill-timed bathroom breaks sometimes required the gift shop staff to hose down his habitat. “But that’s probably not for public consumption,” she says with a chuckle.
Now more than 40 years later, regular customers often ask Scheunemann if it’s “her” store. “And I’ll say, no, the money goes to Como Friends, and they spend it on making Como Zoo and the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory even better,” she says. “It’s a business model with a mission our guests and supporters really like.”