For the total museum size and the framework of its collection the book store can be and often is for many visitors a curiosity and so these visitors might find that a visit there is a good reason to return to the museum and a quintessential part of their purpose for coming to the museum in the first place. Sales do boost revenue for keeping the museum in operation. These people satisfy that curiosity and look for merchandise that will make memories of their visit there worth remembering. More worthwhile perhaps than a visit to the near-by coffee shop but the proximity of one with the other makes a visit to both places a convenient way to sample so much that the museum has to offer visitors. Does the coffee shop by itself make a visitor a legitimate art historian? Same response might be appropriate in efforts to size up the importance of the book store. A better way to size up the importance of these auxiliary museum places is to inquire about the function and importance of the museum library and to look at the library before settling in to drinking and eating at the coffee shop before or after going into the book store. Riding the elevator should not replace a visit to the book store. Intellectual benefits for visiting the bookstore are most plentiful. Find out where your membership can take you. This question is not light-hearted or trivial. Neither are the museum and its collection. Talk to museum personnel about this matter.

It should take about two hours or so. They have a nice cafe, so you might want to add more time for a snack.