dChan - Q Origins Project Archive

BY THE WAY

D.C. souvenir shops know what teens want: Bucket hats and Trump merch

Busloads of student tourists descend on D.C. souvenir shops for Trump hats, Biden socks and anything with eagles.

By Natalie B. Compton WAPO

June 15, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

WASHINGTON, D.C. — From the moment I Love DC Gifts opens at 8 a.m., Khalid Ismail is ready for “the storm.” A tour bus can roll up at any minute and unload a hundred teenagers to speed shop at his family’s store.

“It’s literally like a hurricane,” said Ismail, 30, who quit his corporate job in Dallas to help his father, Kadri Ismail, open the store two years ago. “They’ll just drop off 100 kids, 115 kids, 130 kids multiple times a day, every single day. … It’s a completely different level of busy."

Most tour groups have just 15 minutes for a souvenir mad grab before it’s back to sightseeing.

Despite reports of an empty downtown D.C. still gutted by the pandemic, the city’s souvenir shops see such deluges on a regular basis. The gift shop is a core component of the quintessential student trip, and D.C. trips are a year-round industry.

Peak season strikes during spring break and the first six weeks of summer, says Brooksie Robbins, vice president of North American Operations for EF Explore America, one of the many tour companies that were out shopping on a recent Tuesday. Between June and August, the company has thousands of students on hundreds of trips and tours in D.C.

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