Disney Store Permanently Closed 2020

[BuddyBoy600alt]

It's a Parks-operated store, so it's not affected in the closures.

Neither is the Target store.

 

[BuddyBoy600alt]

I wonder if Shop Disney is going to have a return center like what Amazon has?

 

[Lewisc]

I wonder if Shop Disney is going to have a return center like what Amazon has?

I think we'd have a better shopping experience if Disney contracted with Amazon to handle fulfillment and shipping.

 

[BuddyBoy600alt]

Breaking news, Bellevue Washington will lose their store on or before January 19. I think Time Square will be next.

 

[Lewisc]

Breaking news, Bellevue Washington will lose their store on or before January 19. I think Time Square will be next.

Isn't Times Square the only store left that isn't an outlet store?

It will either close or be operated by the theme park division

 

[BuddyBoy600alt]

Isn't Times Square the only store left that isn't an outlet store?

It will either close or be operated by the theme park division

It may close as well. And that will be the end of The Disney Store.

 

[DodgerGirl]

I think had Disney Store had improved itself a lot better the closures could've been prevented and they would've been able to stay alive but when you have toy stores and stores that sell tons of toys during Christmas you know that is when the big toy sales happen which Disney Store couldn't compete with other stores. But a similar thing happened with the toy store chain Child World/Children's Palace and in the 80's Child World/Children's Palace was the second largest toy store next to Toys "R" Us and once they became the weakest link Children's Palace closed all it's stores in 1991. But since Disney Stores have closed there really isn't a mall toy store that could've competed with them. And the same thing happened to TRU and they had tons of stores but I think they were aiming for the rich audience and trying to be like FAO Schwarz and with Disney Store they had hoped to do the same thing by aiming to a more family and kid audience but they at least were bringing in the collectible items back slowly like porcelain Disney character figurines collector dolls snowglobes and other things but it wasn't enough. If Disney Stores were to revive themselves again they would build big supermarket like stores filled with all Disney items down every aisle and have a cafe similar to Target's Food Avenue restaurant where you could buy food like Mickey waffles and the characters would be there for meet and greets and photos and this new Disney Store would be a huge hit with everyone

 

[DodgerGirl]

When I was a little girl my parents would buy me lots of toys because they knew it would make me happy and content and I went through different phases of toys. Like when I was three I was into Barbie and my mother would buy me every Barbie doll that came out every so often then when I was six I was into Disney Princesses and my mom would take me to the Disney Store to buy me anything Disney Princess and it was so wonderful when we would buy me stuff from the Disney Store. Today I still am going through different phases of toys like two years ago I was into WWE wrestling figures and now it's all about Marvel and Star Wars. But if you take a look at the children of today and the children of the 80's and 90's you can tell that they wished that they had the same toys I had growing up and now that TRU and Disney Stores now gone the children of the 80's and 90's that have kids of their own now wish that they could've taken them to a Disney Store. But when I think about it I think Disney will make a deal with Marvel and transform the Disney Stores into Marvel Stores because as you know Marvel is currently the huge empire of Disney and the idea of a Marvel Store would be so cool of them to do

 

[boredghost]

Went to a Broadway show last night and popped over to Times Square Disney store but to our and many people’s confusion the doors were locked- they have some construction walls and ‘pardon our pixie dust’ up. Looks like some heavy renovation on the interior. They may have had signs they put out with more info- but it was a stormy snow day so they had brought the signs in.

 

[cccory]

I wonder if Shop Disney is going to have a return center like what Amazon has?

That would be super.

 

[AurumPunzel]

That would be super.

Problem is that it would lead to calls for the Disney Stores to return, and only having a returns centre rather than a proper store would not be in the interests of guests, since they expect experiences.

And talking of experiences, Disney had an experiential formula that worked, but ever since they replaced the management who knew how to make it work (with mostly those who only have a retail background), sold the stores to TCP - and then bought them back, they lost their mojo, and even as Imagination Park and P30 represented a move in the right direction, they failed to invest in refurbishments, and up until the pandemic, ran the stores down to the ground. Then it became a convenient excuse to replace them with subpar Target concessions, which many have said was not a good enough replacement for the Disney Stores. What's more, the visual merchandising is very poor: you sometimes see merch intended for the other sections of Target end up being lumped in the Disney Store section, and that makes the section look very messy and out-of-place.

What Disney really needed was a management that would evolve the Disney Stores into proper experiences without resorting to en masse closures and a clamour for overglorified toy sections and a faceless future. They could have even bettered the synergy with the online store. But almost a year on since the announcement, it's now beginning to look like Disney have committed a grave mistake depriving even the most prosperous shopping malls of Disney Stores, especially those that have only opened 5-6 years ago. And yet still Canada doesn't have a dedicated shopDisney, let alone Europe having any third-party partnership to have similar concessions as Target has.

 

[WAstateDVCDaddy]

Disney is being extremely short sighted. I’m guessing they’re looking at the collaboration with Target as the future of retail for Disney. Reducing costs due to fixed overhead of the stores, declining traffic at malls, and reduced exposure to inventory “spoilage”. Target provides a dedicated space, buys and deals with inventory, and runs an extremely efficient retail operation, reducing costs. I’m sure there are financial incentives paid to Disney for exclusive boutique permissions within their stores.

the problem is that this makes them just another brand in a world full of brands of the moment. It completely removes the impression that Disney is more than just another collection of toys.

As mentioned above, the Bellevue Washington store closed recently. This was one of Disney’s three special experience stores. I can’t remember what they called them, but they had employees trained for storytelling, with a dedicated area for showing films and doing storytelling and other events. The Bellevue mall is still doing well, lots of foot traffic, any tenant losses are fairly quickly replaced. High end mall, driven by wealthy demographics in all of the surrounding communities, and a youthful (lots of kids) population. There were always people in the store, and kids playing in the video/story area. It was a destination- we could never go to the mall without stopping in there, or face an unhappy DD.

So instead of supporting this experience, and keeping the Disney magic for the kids who got to visit, they’ve now replaced it with Target and online ordering. My daughter will definitely not have the same ties to Disney that I have had over the years. Which leads me to believe the first trips for her kids wont necessarily be to DL or DW.

Disney under Chapek is reminding me of GM during the 1980’s … focused on profit, and ignoring the long term damage to the brand.

 

[AurumPunzel]

Disney is being extremely short sighted. I’m guessing they’re looking at the collaboration with Target as the future of retail for Disney. Reducing costs due to fixed overhead of the stores, declining traffic at malls, and reduced exposure to inventory “spoilage”. Target provides a dedicated space, buys and deals with inventory, and runs an extremely efficient retail operation, reducing costs. I’m sure there are financial incentives paid to Disney for exclusive boutique permissions within their stores.

the problem is that this makes them just another brand in a world full of brands of the moment. It completely removes the impression that Disney is more than just another collection of toys.

As mentioned above, the Bellevue Washington store closed recently. This was one of Disney’s three special experience stores. I can’t remember what they called them, but they had employees trained for storytelling, with a dedicated area for showing films and doing storytelling and other events. The Bellevue mall is still doing well, lots of foot traffic, any tenant losses are fairly quickly replaced. High end mall, driven by wealthy demographics in all of the surrounding communities, and a youthful (lots of kids) population. There were always people in the store, and kids playing in the video/story area. It was a destination- we could never go to the mall without stopping in there, or face an unhappy DD.

So instead of supporting this experience, and keeping the Disney magic for the kids who got to visit, they’ve now replaced it with Target and online ordering. My daughter will definitely not have the same ties to Disney that I have had over the years. Which leads me to believe the first trips for her kids wont necessarily be to DL or DW.

Disney under Chapek is reminding me of GM during the 1980’s … focused on profit, and ignoring the long term damage to the brand.

It's definitely damaging their brand, and it's a crying shame because the Disney Stores were definitely not obsolete. They just needed reworking to shed the legacy problems that were hung over from the TCP era, particularly the lack of investment in refits that led to a large number of stores still being stuck in their legacy formats, and of course, making them a clear USP over general third party retailers and big boxes (including Target) that overlap in Disney merch. Not to mention that retail isn't just shifting online, it is also becoming an experience. The Target concessions lack that experience, and doesn't give the same buzz as going into an actual Disney Store. Who's going to want to celebrate a birthday or an upcoming Disney trip in a Target? Might as well get inebriated in a nearby bar in the parking lot across the Target to drown my sorrows of not being able to celebrate my upcoming WDW vacation in a Disney Store.

 

[DodgerGirl]

Does anyone remember a toy store chain called Toy Liquidators? They were a toy outlet that was found in outlet centers and sold toys at discount prices? What I also think Disney Store could've done was open a toy outlet and called it Disney Toy Outlet and it would've sold toys from Disney Stores and theme parks at discount prices very much like Toy Liquidators did when they were around during the 80's and 90's. But ever since the popularity of bargain closeout stores such as Tuesday Morning Factory2U DD's Discounts and Big Lots I think that's why the big store chains were hurting in toy sales because you could find the same toy at Big Lots for a cheaper price and the same thing happened to Disney Stores too. I remember when I would occasionally go to Big Lots and they had shelf after shelf of Disney toys at good prices and they would also have Disney bedding too. But if Disney Stores make a comeback they should open a toy outlet

 

[The WDW 3]

The malls near me are all half empty. That type of retail is just going away. Disney stores are no different.

 

[starlite_]

Does anyone remember a toy store chain called Toy Liquidators? They were a toy outlet that was found in outlet centers and sold toys at discount prices? What I also think Disney Store could've done was open a toy outlet and called it Disney Toy Outlet and it would've sold toys from Disney Stores and theme parks at discount prices very much like Toy Liquidators did when they were around during the 80's and 90's. But ever since the popularity of bargain closeout stores such as Tuesday Morning Factory2U DD's Discounts and Big Lots I think that's why the big store chains were hurting in toy sales because you could find the same toy at Big Lots for a cheaper price and the same thing happened to Disney Stores too. I remember when I would occasionally go to Big Lots and they had shelf after shelf of Disney toys at good prices and they would also have Disney bedding too. But if Disney Stores make a comeback they should open a toy outlet

There are literally Disney Store Outlets in existence that sell shopDisney and Disney Parks stuff at cheaper prices.

 

[1lilspark]

There are literally Disney Store Outlets in existence that sell shopDisney and Disney Parks stuff at cheaper prices.

Those all closed as well the only “Disney stores” at least local that I know are still open are character warehouse which sells park stuff but I’ve heard even that has gone downhill and the “discounts” aren’t as much and they are mainly stockpiled with Halloween popcorn buckets

 

[Princesca]

Man, the Target stores are just no substitute. Going to the Disney Store was about the only way to get a teensy taste of being at WDW, and now it's gone. *sob*

 

[starlite_]

Those all closed as well the only “Disney stores” at least local that I know are still open are character warehouse which sells park stuff but I’ve heard even that has gone downhill and the “discounts” aren’t as much and they are mainly stockpiled with Halloween popcorn buckets

Huh I wasn't aware of that I just went to one. How sad

ETA: It says they are still open. It's on their website.

 

[afan]

Those all closed as well the only “Disney stores” at least local that I know are still open are character warehouse which sells park stuff but I’ve heard even that has gone downhill and the “discounts” aren’t as much and they are mainly stockpiled with Halloween popcorn buckets

They didn't all close. Some of the outlet stores are still open. Though when I went last Nov I wasn't impressed with the prices. It seemed more like reg Disney store prices compared to when I'd gone about 6 months before. And very little park stuff compared to before. There wasn't a ton of Will be curious to see how it is now that the Disney stores are gone. Will go again in a month or two.