Mar 14, 2007

Museum BuysBy Bob PratteThe Press-Enterprise

It is good that Joyce Simanek, manager of the museum gift store at the Western Center for Archaeology and Paleontology, loves to shop.

She relishes the daunting duty of finding items that reflect the Ice Age theme of the new museum in the Diamond Valley Lake complex south of Hemet.

California was under water when dinosaurs lived. Fossils in the museum found during the building of the lake are creatures that lived during the later Ice Age, such as the saber-tooth cat, mastodon and mammoth.

Simanek stocks some dinosaur items, which are both popular sellers and easy to find, but makes an extra effort to buy things inspired by the Ice Age.

“Ice age items are hard to find,” she said. “You have to go a long way to find these items.”

The result of her hunts at massive gift shows resulted in an unusual store that, so far, is bringing in sales about 25 percent higher than projected.

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