Disney buying Disney Store back?

[wedway71]

Ive been seeing here and there about some rumors surfacing about TWDC buying Disney Store back.I guess in the contract it had a clause that said Childrens Place had to revamp a certain amount of stores under a time line and they havent been doing this?

Just curious if anyone else heard anything like this???

[Melonballer]

Re: Disney buying Disney Store back?

Nope, but I wouldn't mind as long as they improve the stores. My only concern is that the stores have been improving, I'd hate for them to lose that momentum.

[disneytim]

Re: Disney buying Disney Store back?

Disney and The Children's Place have been in ongoing talks regarding the terms of a new licensing agreement. Disney has expressed dissatisfaction with the maintenance and appearance of some of the Disney Stores that TCP operates, which Disney claims is in violation of the original licensing agreement. Talks have been going on since February. No official announcement has been made on a resolution, or lack thereof.

[merlinjones]

Re: Disney buying Disney Store back?

The operation should be closed, keeping only huge, impressive World of Disney-like stores in key regional tourist markets at most.

Disney needs to be made special again. The K-Mart-ing of the brand has been bad for all of Disney's businesses in the long term. The Disney Store deal merely perpetuates the problem.

[cellarhound]

Re: Disney buying Disney Store back?

The operation should be closed, keeping only huge, impressive World of Disney-like stores in key regional tourist markets at most.

Disney needs to be made special again. The K-Mart-ing of the brand has been bad for all of Disney's businesses in the long term. The Disney Store deal merely perpetuates the problem.

I am not certain that they should...

"K-Mart-ing" of the brand happened when Disney abandoned the Disney Store as a concept all together in an effort to market products to large discounters such as WalMart, Target, K-Mart... Selling the equity of these stores to Child's Place became problematic at best..

I am uncertain that the original concept was bad idea at the time... Warner was doing it, and I thought they where better at presenting their products than Disney was... They even include telivision properties... (I loved my "Anamaniacs" mug...)

Child's Place likely is now limited to selling the same imports that large discounters have access to, but with a greater selection at one location.

World of Disney stores harkens back to the original concept... And it too has it's faults - particularly at the Anaheim Store... I mean really - it is impossable to find a certain video or book or costume or shirt - they do not carry extended sizes for larger adults (big and tall)... But if I need a mug with Tigger on it, I can find 5,000. They really should specialize to have everything, (including items from other parks around the world) but they don't.

[kcnole]

Re: Disney buying Disney Store back?

It would be nice. I stopped by one the other day hoping to get a cd for illuminations or something like that and they said they're not allowed to carry any park merchandise now that they're not owned by Disney.

[merlinjones]

Re: Disney buying Disney Store back?

Either way, most everybody knows that last place to look for any truly cool "Walt Disney" related product is at one of the Disney branded institutions (Disney Channel, Disney Store, etc.).

[sediment]

Re: Disney buying Disney Store back?

Interesting that there are OLC-like maintenance and appearance clauses in the contract to allow TCP to use the Disney name on the stores, when the stores under Disney ownership (similar to the parks vs OLC's parks) have no such rules.
Control without the financial risk. That's MBAeering for you.

[Melonballer]

Re: Disney buying Disney Store back?

Either way, most everybody knows that last place to look for any truly cool "Walt Disney" related product is at one of the Disney branded institutions (Disney Channel, Disney Store, etc.).

Actually when I want something Disney, I do go to the Disney Store. I have gotten many "truly cool" Disney products there. It costs a lot less in gas to drive to the next town over than to drive the 1000 miles to the closest World of Disney store.

[Aladdin]

Re: Disney buying Disney Store back?

And when The Disney Store does carry mens shirts, (not
just the T-shirts), they are really nicely designed, and
usually only cost $19.99! I loved the red and black Jack
Sparrow Shirt they had last year, with the Flying Dutchman
on the back. And just recently they had a couple of neat
island shirts. And it's interesting to note that The Disney
Stores had a MUCH larger selection of merchandise for
Meet the Robinsons, than DL, WDW, or any local discount
store. The Disney Store seems to have more faith in Disney's
own movies, than Disney has itself ~ THAT is rather embarassing
for DL and WDW!

[disneyfan07]

Re: Disney buying Disney Store back?

if our company(Disney) does buy the disney stores back from the childrens place, lets see more collectibles again at the store(s). in addition to info about the disney cruise line(and a reservation kiosk), the disneyland resort-s(and reservation/ticket order kiosk), and bring back the original disney credit card (not the one from chase, but the ORIGINAL DISNEY CREDIT CARD)

[Melonballer]

Re: Disney buying Disney Store back?

if our company(Disney) does buy the disney stores back from the childrens place, lets see more collectibles again at the store(s). in addition to info about the disney cruise line(and a reservation kiosk), the disneyland resort-s(and reservation/ticket order kiosk), and bring back the original disney credit card (not the one from chase, but the ORIGINAL DISNEY CREDIT CARD)

I'm in total agreement, especially if we can get collectibles as nice as the ones at the resorts. I love the t-shirts that have been available lately. I'd say the Disney Studios collection that the Disneystore has been carrying are as good, if not better than any shirts at the resorts.

[Disney Magic]

Re: Disney buying Disney Store back?

... in addition to info about the disney cruise line(and a reservation kiosk), the disneyland resort-s(and reservation/ticket order kiosk), and bring back the original disney credit card (not the one from chase, but the ORIGINAL DISNEY CREDIT CARD)

Extremely doubtful that they would ever bring back Disney travel kiosks within the stores. Some stores had them in the past and ended up closing them, cause they wasn't extremely popular, to make more retail space. There is only one store that I know for sure that had a kiosk like that was in Warwick, RI.

Also the Disney charge card will most likely never come back either. Though I did enjoy it since it was my one of my first cards. The new Chase Visa does have better benefits even if it does have a high interst rate, (but the Disney card did too)

[wedway71]

Re: Disney buying Disney Store back?

They need to buy the stores back and.......

a- reduce the number of stores to 100-200.

b- have each store themed to the local area as well as Disney.Make it a shopping destination.Id rather drive an hour to a really well themed/well stocked store than have 3 stores close by that I dont want to go to.

c-they need to offer more adult merchandise,collectables,etc.

d-they need to utilize the synergy that all of the other units of the TWDC do.Every other unit of TWDC advertises either by print or radio or TV.Disney did not want to do this when they owned the stores due to the fact that they said it cheapened them. I disagree.

e- they need to cross market the stores with top of the line commercials very much like the park commercials that shows magical family moments at the stores as well at.......

-trailors of Disney movies
-tv,radio,print
-when you walk into the magic kingdom there are always posters of new movies and others things with Disney-put some up for Disney Store as well.
-DVC and yearly passholders can get coupons and up to date info in their news letters.
-Disney hotel guests on all of their info brochures and Disney ran channels spotlight some Disney Store info there as well.

[Melonballer]

Re: Disney buying Disney Store back?

HOw many DIsney Stiores are there anymore. We used ot have around a dozen at least in WA, now there are 2.

[Nancywitt]

Re: Disney buying Disney Store back?

I think Children's Place is doing a good job managing the stores, at least in my area of Pittsburgh. They are getting different merchandise and the new stores are pretty cool. But I can remember 10 years ago when the Disney stores were awesome and had everything! Oh well.

[lazyboy97O]

Re: Disney buying Disney Store back?

The operation should be closed, keeping only huge, impressive World of Disney-like stores in key regional tourist markets at most.

Disney needs to be made special again. The K-Mart-ing of the brand has been bad for all of Disney's businesses in the long term. The Disney Store deal merely perpetuates the problem.

Agreed. Disney needs to be exciting again.

Either way, most everybody knows that last place to look for any truly cool "Walt Disney" related product is at one of the Disney branded institutions (Disney Channel, Disney Store, etc.).

I have to go to the local video store to purchase the Walt Disney Teasures DVDs. I find that to be very telling. My only recent purchase from the Disney Store was a Walt Disney World Annual Pass.

[disneyfan07]

Re: Disney buying Disney Store back?

Extremely doubtful that they would ever bring back Disney travel kiosks within the stores. Some stores had them in the past and ended up closing them, cause they wasn't extremely popular, to make more retail space. There is only one store that I know for sure that had a kiosk like that was in Warwick, RI.

Also the Disney charge card will most likely never come back either. Though I did enjoy it since it was my one of my first cards. The new Chase Visa does have better benefits even if it does have a high interst rate, (but the Disney card did too)

did chase take over that card program? or did monogram credit card bank discontinue the program?

[Disney Magic]

Re: Disney buying Disney Store back?

did chase take over that card program? or did monogram credit card bank discontinue the program?

Well I don't know who ended the arrangement with monogram credit card Disney or the bank. My guess would be that Chase presented the Disney Visa idea and Disney jumped at the chance to upgrade their credit card offering. But wouldn't be able to keep both, as it would be a conflict of interest, so they went for the option that had greater appeal to both guests and Disney. Actually wasn't the new Disney Visas first issued through Capital One bank?

Either case the old Disney cards were made invalid in Oct 04 shortly after the new Visa was rolled out, and all old accounts were considered dead once the balances were paid off.

[Doopey1]

Re: Disney buying Disney Store back?

One of the reasons I liked the early Disney Stores is that it was like getting a little bit of the theme park experience but a lot closer to home. It really felt like you were "stepping into Disney". The stores were richly themed. The service was great and personable. There was creative synergy with the parks and other parts of Disney. Alot of that has definitely been lost.

I still shop their with my family and we get lots of cool stuff there, but it's not the same as it was.

Scaling back the number of locations would definitely be a step in the right direction. Maybe taking back the stores from CP and once again allowing that synergy with other parts of the company would help too.