Animals do die in a zoo and you gotta talk about that. You don’t have to talk about everything that dies, but you gotta talk about significant cases when they died, what happened, what your pathologist did, what your veterinarian did. Explain the passion that goes into taking care of… Read More
You know what?… Read More
But you take that person and bring ’em behind-the-scenes and show ’em something up close or give ’em an opportunity to see how an animal’s managed, it’s off the charts. They’re absolutely, I think you’ve got ’em for life at that point. If you can get ’em into that experience,… Read More
Not saying get away with any of that, do away with any of it. But you got to have that ignition, that emotional ignition that people need to say, wow, I want to come back here. This is very cool. And if you’ve got a controversy, you can think about… Read More
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And I think, again, these, we call ’em signature experiences in ZooTampa, other zoos call ’em different things. Getting the people to understand what really goes on is really important for us. I mean that’s a big, to me, it’s a big part of our messaging. It… Read More
Doesn’t make you a difference ’cause they aren’t buying your shoes, you know?… Read More
So you moving forward on that, education you talked about, is education important in boosting the image of the zoo among the public, in the face, maybe of people who don’t like zoos?… Read More
You mean educating the public?… Read More
You might have the greatest store in the world. Read More
What are the shoes like that you’re selling in the shoe store?… Read More
You know, it’s like, it’s a shoe store. Read More
What the heck is in the exhibit?… Read More
You don’t have to, you can build something a lot cheaper. So I think the exhibitry side has been fantastic. I mean, technology, and the imagination, and all the things are great. Read More
They didn’t do that ’cause they can do it at McDonald’s or Burger King or anything else, okay?… Read More
But then what’s going in ’em, you know, if you’re not putting things in ’em that people are going, whoa, that’s very cool or has a story to tell, then what’s the point about building a $10 million exhibit?… Read More
Oh, I disagree with you. I said well, you can disagree all you want, but they came here to see animals for crying out loud. And so that’s still important. People misinterpret when I say that, that that’s not important. It’s vitally important. But don’t forget, you’ve gotta have animals… Read More
Well, what do you mean, we sell a lot of food?… Read More
Okay?… Read More
I know you do. That’s ’cause we got a lot of people coming through the gate. I’m not saying it’s bad food but they did not park in the parking lot, pay whatever they paid to walk in to go buy a hamburger. Read More
Not the fact that we sold X amount of widgets today. Good day. Well, that’s important too. The widgets are important but what’s also important is your animals, ’cause that’s why people are coming. And I got into this wonderful discussion with the food service guy in San Diego about… Read More