I Got Lost in the Gay Dolphin Shirt

Whether you're looking for a colorful koozie, an Egyptian statue, a personalized license plate or a pressed penny, there's ane store in Myrtle Beach where you can observe information technology all. The Gay Dolphin, which celebrated 70 years of business organization in 2016, is a must-run into for Grand Strand tourists.

Located along Bounding main Boulevard just a few anxiety from the sand and waves, the retailer stocks a seemingly endless supply of trade.

The shop covers roughly 30,000 square anxiety, and customers must travel up and downward staircases and weave around large pieces of merchandise in order to see every corner of the identify. It'southward non dissimilar a maze. In fact, the shop sells a t-shirt that reads, "I Got Lost in the Gay Dolphin," which is probably a true statement for many visitors.

"Information technology's i of our best sellers," said owner Buz Plyler, whose family opened the store in 1946.

"We sell over one,000 of those shirts every year. So many people get lost in here," function manager Michelle Kerscher said with a express joy. "Earlier prison cell phones, it was a manner bigger deal."

Another favorite item is the customized mini blue Southward Carolina license plate tags that line a large wall inside the store. You may recognize the shiny display from Dan + Shay's "xix You & Me" music video, which was filmed in various locations along the Grand Strand. Whether you lot're shopping for Donita, Edgar, Marguerite or Olaf, the personalized possibilities are seemingly endless.

"Children love to meet their names," Plyler said.

New names are added oft. The internet has helped the store keep up with name trends in contempo years. The Gay Dolphin uses census data to assistance keep popular names in stock.

"Liam remains the most pop male proper noun," Kerscher said. "We've been seeing more than Adeles and Eleanors this year."

Some of the store's other popular items include jewelry, seashells and Christmas ornaments, merely Plyler said there's something for everybody.

"Information technology'southward countless," he said.

Plyler has been importing seashells since age 12, and his expertise has immune the store to keep prices low.

"Almost of the shells are the aforementioned cost they were in 1949, while their availability has declined 99 percent," Plyler said.

New this twelvemonth are ocean urchins that concord air plants, succulents that require no water. The plant and shell combination looks similar an octopus.

Plyler said the ease of ordering from companies online has allowed the store to keep the most current styles and trendy colors in stock from week to calendar week, peculiarly in the jewelry department.

Essential oil jewelry is very popular this twelvemonth. The store carries pendants that can be filled with your favorite scent.

Since The Gay Dolphin is such a huge store, the staff has a lot of flexibility when information technology comes to displaying merchandise.

"Typically, I have the room to do things that other retailers cannot practice," Plyler said. "It takes a lot of stuff to make full 30,000 square feet of infinite, especially the way we pack it in."

Plyler said he follows trends when purchasing new items for the store, merely Myrtle Beach souvenirs and beach-themed items will always have a identify at The Gay Dolphin.

Pineapples and flamingos have been very trendy this year, and The Gay Dolphin has plenty of merchandise featuring both of those, from inflatable flamingo pool floats to koozies and jewelry featuring the symbol of Southern hospitality.

"We're noticing it across the lath in jewelry and home decor," Kerscher said.

The staff is very excited nigh the addition of new trade.

The store has expanded its Only Southern offerings, branching out from t-shirts to include beach comprehend-ups, hats, koozies, handbags and more. Kerscher said Simply Southern items are cheaper at Gay Dolphin than they are anywhere else on the Grand Strand.

Plyler said his family's key to staying in business over several decades is hard work.

"During the nine months of winter, we manufactured a lot of our own production. My begetter operated a printing company, printing postcards and bookmarks," he said.

The store continues to produce a keen deal of its own merchandise, and items begetting the Gay Dolphin name and logo are still acme sellers.

"Yous can't observe it in other stores," Kerscher said.

Another thing that has factored into the Gay Dolphin'due south success is price.

"You'd amend be cheap," Plyler said. "We're cheaper than Walmart on a lot of the things nosotros overlap on."

Plyler tries to stock as much American-made merchandise equally possible.

In the days when The Gay Dolphin first opened, Myrtle Beach was a factory resort.

"They'd come to Myrtle Beach and spend every nickel. They bought things for large families, and so we tried to keep prices low," Plyler said. "Nosotros accept all the same tried to remember that there will always be people who don't accept a lot of money."

Plyler said he aims to make his store kid-friendly, placing toy displays close to the floor and stocking colorful, fun items. He wants a trip to the Gay Dolphin to exist memorable.

"It's my thinking that if they accept a skilful time here when they're 5, 10, 15, 25, 40…they'll come back with their families," he said. "We've had a wonderful relationship with our customers. It's groovy to be a role of people'south vacations their whole lives."

When the Plyler Family opened The Gay Dolphin, in that location was zero on the Grand Strand but "trees and a beach," Kerscher said.

Many years agone, The Gay Dolphin was habitation to an amusement park, a mini golf game form, a donut store, a grocery store, a rifle range and even Myrtle Beach's commencement aquarium. The first gift shop the Plyler Family opened was called Shell Craft and featured handmade items.

72 years later, The Gay Dolphin is one of the largest gift shops on the east coast. As Myrtle Embankment's landscape changes, The Gay Dolphin remains a fun, costless, family-endemic allure.

"Every bit this area changes, people desire to have part of Myrtle Beach that remains the same year after year," Kerscher said. "We do that."

Trade changes on a weekly basis, so there's always something new within.

Kerscher and Plyler recollect of the shop as not just a retailer, merely an attraction too.

"People come in here when it rains or to cool off on hot days, not necessarily ever to shop. Nosotros tell people they're welcome to have pictures," Kerscher said. "We want people to have a good fourth dimension."

Plyler agrees.

"We aim to entertain our customers," he said.

The Gay Dolphin once again received the TripAdvisor Document of Excellence, and the shop has received lots of positive feedback on social media.

"We've been very lucky," Plyler said.

There are a lot of photograph opportunities throughout the shop. Customers are encouraged to have fun and stop for photos.

"We merely ask that you tag them with #gaydolphin so we can come across them," Kerscher said.

The forepart window facing Ocean Boulevard is abode to a detailed velociraptor.

Definitely check out the hammerhead shark selfie spot near the t-shirt racks. Kerscher said the photo op has been very popular.

"A lot of people take been in that constantly," she said.

On the main floor, you will detect a pirate who likewise presses pennies. For 51 cents, guests can take home a coin featuring the gift shop storefront, the SkyWheel, a skull and crossbones design or the Gay Dolphin sign. The staff designed all four logo choices.

Zoltar and The Medicine Human being will tell you your fortune if yous put some coins in their machines.

In the basement, you lot'll meet a huge gilded Yeti who wears a "I Got Lost In The Gay Dolphin" t-shirt.

With floor to ceiling merchandise, The Gay Dolphin is "not for the claustrophobic," Kerscher said.

"Information technology's part of the personality of the store," Plyler said.

The shop still carries a pick of vintage items, from postcards to bookmarks.

"We just found some other box of vintage postcards in our warehouse," Kerscher said.

In that location truly is something for everybody within the store.

"It'southward rewarding to entreatment to then many different kinds of people," the owner said.

On a rainy day, Kerscher and Plyler said the average company could spend about two hours in the shop. Several families choose to render to the store multiple times over the course of their vacation. Plyler said the average family comes back three times during their Thousand Strand stay.

And many shoppers accept returned year subsequently yr throughout their lives, bringing back their children and now their grandchildren.

"We're very sentimental to some of these people," Kerscher said.

But if you've never been to The Gay Dolphin, you lot may showtime a new tradition.

"This year, we've had a large number of people who have never been here earlier. New customers remain entranced," Plyler said. "While information technology's impossible to brand everybody happy, we are pretty darn close."

The Gay Dolphin is located at 910 Due north. Ocean Blvd. in Myrtle Beach.

The store is open from 9:30 a.k. to 10 p.m. March through October (open until midnight Memorial Day through Labor Day and from nine:30 a.m. to 6 p.g. November through February.

Call 843-448-6550 or visit gaydolphin.com to acquire more.