From Carol Vogel’s report on the Times’s Arts Beat blog

A year ago the Met ran a total of 23 stores but over the last year it has quietly closed 8, including three in California and one at the South Street Seaport Museum in lower Manhattan. It now plans to close an additional seven, and will instead concentrate on its online shop and has recently redesigned its mail order catalog. Mr. Houghton also said that the museum had imposed a hiring freeze and is curtailing staff travel and entertainment as well as the use of temporary employees.

Met Museum Closes Shops, Freezes Hiring (Arts Beat/New York Times)