National Park Gift Shops Must Sell Only US-Made Goods Under New Bill: Prices and Souvenirs May Change

The newly introduced American Products in Parks Act is straightforward: starting one year after it becomes law, if you buy a souvenir, T-shirt, or postcard at a National Park gift shop, it must be made in the United States. No exceptions.

This isn’t just about final assembly. The bill, outlined in SEC. 2, sets a high bar for what counts as "Made in the USA." To be sold in a park shop, a product must have its final assembly here, all significant processing must happen here, and, critically, all or virtually all ingredients or components must be made and sourced domestically. The Secretary of the Interior has one year to figure out the audit and enforcement rules for this strict standard.

The New Rules for Your National Park Souvenir

Think about that iconic Grand Canyon T-shirt or that Yellowstone magnet. Right now, those items often come from complex global supply chains. This bill aims to yank those supply chains back home. For the domestic manufacturers, this is a clear win—a guaranteed market within the 400+ units of the National Park System. If you run a small textile mill in the Carolinas or a ceramics shop in Ohio, this suddenly creates a huge potential customer base.

But for the retailers and concessionaires who actually run those park gift shops, this is a massive operational hurdle. They have 12 months to completely retool their inventory. Finding a domestic supplier for every single item, from hiking socks to keychains, that meets the "virtually all ingredients" test is going to be tough. For example, if a souvenir mug uses clay mined in the US, but the glaze components are sourced internationally, it might be disqualified. This strict definition means retailers can’t just slap a "Made in USA" label on something that was mostly assembled here; they have to trace the origin of the raw materials, too.

What This Means for Your Wallet and Your Options

This is where the rubber meets the road for park visitors—that’s you and me. When you drastically restrict the supply pool, two things usually happen: prices go up and variety goes down. The current concessionaires rely on existing global supply chains to keep costs down on high-volume items like water bottles and cheap souvenirs. Shifting to exclusively domestic, high-content-value products will almost certainly increase their wholesale costs, and those costs are then passed on to the consumer.

Imagine you’re looking for a specific type of outdoor gear in a park shop—say, a lightweight, technical rain jacket. If the best or most affordable option doesn't meet the "all or virtually all components" requirement, the shop simply won't be able to stock it. We might see fewer choices overall, and the price tag on that essential hiking item or simple souvenir is likely to climb. The bill is pushing for economic nationalism, but the economic burden could land squarely on the shoulders of the millions of tourists visiting the parks each year.

The Vague Details That Matter

The biggest challenge lies in the vagueness of the language in SEC. 2. What exactly constitutes "significant processing"? And how will the Interior Department define "virtually all ingredients"? Is 95% enough? 99%? These definitions are critical because they determine whether a product qualifies or not. Retailers and manufacturers will be lobbying hard for favorable interpretations, and the final rules set by the Secretary will be the ultimate gatekeeper, potentially creating inconsistent enforcement across different park vendors. This ambiguity means uncertainty for businesses trying to comply and could lead to legal challenges down the line.