Botanical Garden outsources shop, projects more sales
ST. LOUIS • The Missouri Botanical Garden, host of regional food markets, peddler of native plants and promoter of all things local, has outsourced its retail operations.
Without advance notice to vendors — without even a vote of its board — the Garden signed in January a contract worth about $670,000 a year with the California museum shop operator Event Network Inc.
About 16 Garden Gate Shop workers will no longer be Garden employees, though staffers say Event Network has already offered nearly all of the workers their jobs back. It’s unclear if the company will match their current pay.
The news began to trickle out this week, after Garden bosses met with staff to notify them of the move. Event Network manages stores at the Smithsonian in Washington, the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, Ill., among others. The outsourcing will free up Garden personnel and bring in more revenue, Garden President Peter Wyse Jackson wrote in an email Friday to staff. Wyse Jackson was out of town this week and unavailable for comment.
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