New Breed of Retail Field Trips Emerging

On a recent field trip, 16 kindergartners and 2nd graders from a private school in suburban Washington touched baby snakes no bigger than their pinky fingers, saw a spotted leopard gecko, and marveled at Nemo, a real clown fish.

But these children from the 145-student Ets Chiyim School in Montgomery Village, Md., weren’t visiting Washington’s National Zoo, a 35-minute drive away. Rather, they walk ed through the fluorescent-lit, merchandise-laden aisles of a local Petco, a San Diego, Calif.-based pet-store chain with 690 locations nationwide.

Ets Chiyim is one of a growing number of public and private schools whose students have taken “retail” field trips to outlets such as Petco, Sports Authority, Winn-Dixie, and the carmaker Saturn. Until recently, students could also take field trips to Toys R Us stores. The national toy seller, which has suffered major financial losses, withdrew funding for...