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Each store peddles more than 10,000 items, running from $3,000 telescopes to 45 cents minimammals, as well as fossils, rubber animal noses, minerals, globes and even memberships to the nonprofit Nature Conservancy. Since killing animals is taboo, don't expect to find seashells or mounted butterflies here. But skinning the beasts is apparently O.K., since some stores carry goods that contain leather.
SAFETY ZONE Urban naturalists already know that it's a jungle out there. Now there's a chain, the Safety Zone, to capitalize on their fears and paranoias. Armed with statistics such as "a burglary is committed every 12 seconds," and "every hour 350 disabling injuries occur in the home," the Zone hawks everything from a safe-within-a-safe ($825) to a portable door-knob alarm ($14.95) that can be used in hotel rooms. Also: safety belts for dogs, paper shredders, wristwatch cameras, portable 12-story fire-escape ladders, counterfeit-money testers, water test kits, telephone tap detectors, even an electronic voice changer for the phone ($215).
"People are terribly relieved that there's a store like this," contends co-founder Melanie Franklin, who carries her own pocket-size alarm to scare off potential assailants. Launched in 1989, the Safety Zone already has eight stores, with most outlets on the East Coast. Ever conscious of security, though, Franklin refuses to divulge sales figures. One could safely surmise that they're healthy.