Disney Talking to Children's Place About Buying Back Disney Store Locations

[Queentitania19]

Originally Posted by Angie_Duke

Halloween is currently my favorite time to shop at The Disney Store. The costumes and the nicer NBC collectibles are worth looking at, but if Disney is going to buy the stores back they need to realize that you have to stock good things all the time instead of just once a year. Christmas was really disappointing last year considering the potential. Hopefully Disney will fix this.

I agree that the christmas collection was a little disappointing this year but I'm not sure a solution is carrying halloween costumes and NBC stuff year round. Again, it's the urgency factor. People buy it when it's out because they know that they can't always get it. You lose that if you constantly carry the same things

[GrumpynTN]

I read a good post in the NYTimes thread about what a Disney Store should be. For adults, they want that magic fix when they can't go to the parks. I'm not saying stock 20 production cells and the entire line of Disney jewelry, but Disney fans should be able to go into a Disney store and order Disney stuff. Sure, they can do some of this stuff online, but they go to the stores to get some of that magic and it's been sorely missing the past few years.

If all you want to do is sell kids clothes and Happy Meal toys, TCP should have hung onto the stores. They were already offering that stuff. Again costumes and DVD's excepted. There has to be something for the adult and teenage Disney fans. The knick knack stuff is in every store. There has to be some product that draws Disney fans into Disney stores that they can't get at Target and Wal Mart.

In all due respect, my first 2 kids were toddlers during the Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and Lion King run. The pickings have been pretty slim for the most part since then as far as a feature film that can really support the stores. Cars was ok as was The Incredibles, but they're not going to be classics like LM, B&B, Al and LK imo. Today's kids haven't had that luxury, but I found it odd that our local Disney Store didn't have much in the way of Hannah Montana items to support her concert in town. They had to send all inquiries to Wal Mart. That's just poor planning.

I do concur that the latest adult offerings with the simple logos and subtle elegance under TCP are much better than a 6" Goofy on a red tie. Replace that alligator or the Polo dude with a simple Disney logo. Do what everyone else is doing to sell adult clothing to adults with your branding on it. What a concept!

You guys don't think the old turquoise sweaters and black skirts are coming out of storage do you?

[Angie_Duke]

Originally Posted by Queentitania19

I agree that the christmas collection was a little disappointing this year but I'm not sure a solution is carrying halloween costumes and NBC stuff year round. Again, it's the urgency factor. People buy it when it's out because they know that they can't always get it. You lose that if you constantly carry the same things

I wasn't suggesting to carry Halloween stuff year round, I just want to see better seasonal merchandise and a wider variety of it. I was just using Halloween as an example of what is currently good, IMO.

[mickeymark34]

As a Disney Store employee, I am very excited and anxious at the same time over these recent developments. On one hand I would love to be an employee of The Walt Disney Company, once again. But on the other hand, I would not want our store to close as the restructuring process moves forward. I guess there is nothing that I can do about it, unless I talk to the head of the company. But I do hope they keep our store open.

[GrumpynTN]

The list is already out there of the stores that have the potential to be closed.

epiqbankruptcysolutions.com

[lazyboy97O]

Originally Posted by GrumpynTN

The list is already out there of the stores that have the potential to be closed.

epiqbankruptcysolutions.com

Could you give a more specific link?

[GrumpynTN]

This will get you to the document page. It is a little tough to maneuver through the site. Click on the document for 4/3/08 which is a 197 page pdf file. The stores being bought by Disney are scheduled as are 'remaining stores'. My understanding is that there is a possibility a few of the 'remaining stores' could be added to the safe list.

http://chapter11.epiqsystems.com/Documents.aspx

By all accounts it appears that everything below a certain gross sales number and stores that hadn't been remodeled were the first ones on the chopping block. If you look at demographics or areas with population that should be served, then there doesn't appear to be alot of rhyme or reason to it. Just an exercise in bean counting.

[FantasticDuck]

What page of teh document is the list on?

[lazyboy97O]

Pages 149 - 152. Listed by store number. - Looks like staying open list.
Page 191 starts the closure list.

My [soon to be former] store is safe.
Sad though because it looks like the only Pink and Green left in the area is going away. Not surprising because they opened an outlet right down the street. What sucks for them is that I know a few working there are from another store that closed around January.

[FantasticDuck]

This sucks. My long-time store is on the closure list

[GrumpynTN]

16 of 22 in PA are on the close list
7 of 9 in MO
9 of 20 in NY
4 of 9 in VA
5 of 7 in IN
6 of 10 in OH

On the stay open list
46 of 51 in CA are safe
18 of 23 in FL
19 of 24 in TX
8 of 9 in AZ
13 of 17 in NJ

To me it would be interesting to put colored pins on a map and see what sections of the country are left largely unserved. How do you know the impact when you close all of the stores in an area and don't leave any open or just leave an outlet store in the area? I guess I understand that the destination states like CA and FL have a majority of their stores left open for those that are visiting those states for the parks. What I don't get is closing one of 2 in an area and then 2 months later closing the other one. There's not even a chance to see what the impact of the first closing might have on the second store. Some of this defies logic.

[nocaldznygrl]

Ours is on the acquired list and we are a pink and green store, so I am not sure how they chose. I am sure our DM and RM will fill us in. I know our store gets a lot of traffic and has high numbers most of the time. A lot of our CM's have been there since the beginning years of the store. I hope we get grandfathered in as far as discounts are concerned. Disney's discount schedule is different from TPC's discounts. Many of us were at the 35% discount rate when we were sold.

[lazyboy97O]

Originally Posted by nocaldznygrl

Ours is on the acquired list and we are a pink and green store, so I am not sure how they chose.

I'm sure it was all sales based. I just mentioned that the Duluth, GA store is a Pink and Green because I like, and miss, them.

[GrumpynTN]

Yeah. I think the logic there is that high sale pink and greens can overcome the remodeling costs that are sure to be coming. The frustrating part is that some of these stores were up for remodeling 2 and 3 times in the TCP days but were put off. Low sales volume or pink and greens on the bubble are more likely to get the axe I guess. The only think that doesn't make sense in your scenario is that your store had high sales and didn't get the remodel under TCP. I would have thought the remodel schedule would have started at the top and worked it's way down logically. You have to wonder why it didn't work that way.

[FantasticDuck]

I know my local that is on the close list is the top in the area and their manager would tell me that they were scheduled for remodel and nothing would come of it.