Disney Stores to be Split

[lrodk]

Walt Disney Co . is preparing to split its Disney Stores chain into two separate retail concepts with different identities, a move it hopes will help it conquer the malaise that has dogged Hollywood "studio stores," Friday's Wall Street Journal reported. The first group of stores, to be called Disney Play, will be aimed squarely at kids, with a mix of products heavy on toys, princess outfits and especially stuffed Mickeys and Poohs. The second group, called Disney Kids at Home, will be pitched more toward parents, with a greater focus on apparel and lifestyle goods like sheets, furniture and mirrors for kids. The idea behind the remake, which is expected to cost about $200 million over time, is to better focus each store on a core audience, a la specialty retailers like babyGap and Pottery Barn Kids. It's a reversal from the kind of emporium- style stores that Disney has traditionally operated. Peter Whitford, president of Disney Stores Worldwide, says those stores were an attempt to create "a department store in 4,000 square feet" by offering a vast array of merchandise across many retail categories, but he adds: "That's pretty hard to achieve." Disney is in the process of shrinking the Disney Stores chain from a high of more than 500 stores in the U.S. to 300 to 400 locations. Over the next three years, the company plans to make over the surviving locations using one or the other of the new concepts. A relatively small number of malls may have both versions, or a combined store. The company's 189 overseas outlets will still carry the Disney Stores name. Though Disney Stores has rebounded somewhat from a sales slump that dogged it in the late 1990s, enjoying a better-than-expected holiday season and continuing to improve so far this year, Wall Street remains uncertain about its prospects for a lasting turnaround.

http://biz.yahoo.com/djus/020228/200203010152000046_1.html

 

[OnWithTheShow]

This is definitely a good idea considering how much merchandise is available out there for adults that they just don't carry anymore. One would hope that his was their plan all along when they phased adult out of the current stores. Otherwise they sure did some faulty analysis on that move. Didn't they realize that it was the adult items that drew the parents into the store? Hopefully this will really revitalize the D-store.

 

[hopemax]

Ummm...I read this as there are going to be two types of stores. One store for kids, stocked with things that kids like (toys, dress-up clothes) and another store for kids, but stocked with things that parents know kids need but kids don't (like regular clothes and furniture).

I read this as there will be no more adult merchandise at all.

 

[YoHo]

That's the way I read it too. there will be ZERO adult Merchandise.

As I said on WDWMagic, What I wouldn't give to have presslar back in that group. It seemed to be his skill.

 

[hopemax]

You were supposed to tell me I misread!

Today is probably the most depressed I've been about the future or Disney in awhile. I just can't figure out why selling things to just kids is more profitable than selling things to kids AND adults. Can't say I'm surprised though.

I figured this was coming about a month ago and was desperately hoping I would be wrong. We have on those @#$%! Disney Kids at Home stores in Bellevue, WA. My Mom is an asst. manager at a different store, but knows the managers of that store. While we visited the Bellevue store my Mom asked how sales were since they were being kept secret from the other stores. The response was, "We're the #1 store in the country for December." Of, course it's easy to do that when you're the Disney Store where all the Microsoft executives shop, who wouldn't mind spending $1500 on a bed for Susie, even if it has shoddy construction.

But this news pretty much is the death nail in my Mom's store. Although they've been consistantly either #1 or #2 in their distict and even break into the Top 10 nationwide some weeks, they are an "outpost" store which means it's small and not in a big city. It would not make much sense to remodel this store and I expect it to close when the lease expires next year. Which means not only no adult Disney merchandise for me, no more Silver Pass for my Mom or discounts (the "perks" were why she was working there in the first place, not because she needed a job). We're not used to paying for park admission...

Oh well, I guess more money for the "visiting Japan" budget.

 

[lrodk]

Here are some pictures of what the new stores will look like:


Stores in this new specialty group will offer bed and bath products, apparel and home furnishings.
Disney Kids at Home

These stores will stock toys, costumes from Disney characters and Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh dolls. Disney also plans to close some stores.
Disney Play

 

[cindyfan]

I do like this idea MUCH better than what they had planned last year.
BUT......I still feel they are losing alot of business by having the more "adult" items exclusive to the catalog and online.
It would really be nice if they added to the "home" store a section of more adult home items such as bath accessories, and frames and such.
It really is a shame that we will no longer have a place to go to get a "Disney fix"
I just heard that another store in our area is closing in 2 weeks......this store happened to be one of the very first TDS to open....it has been around about 13 years!!!!

Still can't help but wonder if all this effort is for nothing and if they should just throw in the towel.

 

[YoHo]

Hey Hopemax, Just today I was in the Bellvue Store.


On the Positive Side, the place looks great. while it doesn't have the dioramas, it is far more whimsical (one of the CMs commented that last year's plan sucked the Magic out of the store) and with more reds, it is definatly more lively then the overly blue original. On the Negative side, a CM confirmed that there was absolutly NO Adult merchandise, EXCEPT for seasonally and during big promotions.

The only thing I can think is that sell through on the adult stuff was lower. Likely, more kids stuff was sold. What we may find out is that the Adult stuff was the Draw and that while much of it didn't get sold, it was what brought people in.

I was thinking about it another way too. If both of your stores are only selling to kids, then why would you include kids so prominantly in the name? Could it be that in a quarter or 2 we'll see the Disney Adults store? Anything is possible.



One positive for me in this whole thing is that once again I will have my traditional Souvenir. You see when I was younger, my Disney souvenir was a porcilen Figurine, maybe 2. This was a big deal to me and remained one until the Disney Stores made those figurines commonplace. Then made more expensive exclusive ones. Now I have my $6 memory back


(PS, hopemax, I need help finding IKEA, that was the number two reason I made the 3 hour trip (#1 was getting to the closest Crate and Barrel to portland to exchange some wedding presents) But Mapquest was freebasing this morning. Had me on small residential streets up on the north side of the city. Ended up by the locks. It was fun and all, but I never did find IKEA. Hopefully whatever Mapquest had, its sharing. )

 

[maleficent1959]

I can't speak to the situation in Bellevue's district, but I can tell you about my district. We have had a Play concept store in our district since August or so. And it has been doing great. We all kept saying it was just because people were buying for Halloween, then we said it must be the holidays. Well, it is March are they are still going great guns. Meanwhile, in our store the most popular items are the kids stuff -- especially princess and Buzz. We joke about dusting our adult merchandise. Our t-shirts and sweatshirts hardly move. It's the same with the snowglobes. Pajamas are the only popular adult item, and even they don't do as well as they used to.

We hear "I can get that at Walmart" all the time. Now, you can blame Disney for lack of available options, a decline in quality, increase or prices or whatever, but the fact remains that the stores need a change. When adults aren't buying adult merchandise, when we can't keep toys in stock, when the concept Collectible and Home (not Kids home) stores sort of fizzled, what conclusion is Disney supposed to come to about what the guest wants?

 

[hopemax]

Yoho, I tried to PM you directions to the only IKEA I know about, which is not exactly near Bellevue or the locks (?!?) but your box is full

Anyway,

I-5 N to I-405 N
On 405, take Exit #2 Valley Freeway WA-167 S (Auburn/Renton)
On WA-167 take Exit "W. Valley Road/41St"
Left on W. Valley Rd
Left on 180th
180th turns into 43rd and the IKEA should be across from the Valley Medical Center

I wouldn't get to excited about figurines coming back though. The princess ones that Bellevue has is old stock. Those princesses were sold about 2 years ago. Disney keeps selling a lot of old merchandise on their "Great Values" section on Ebay and I wouldn't be surprised if these figurines came from the same warehouse.

We joke about dusting our adult merchandise. Our t-shirts and sweatshirts hardly move. It's the same with the snowglobes. Pajamas are the only popular adult item, and even they don't do as well as they used to.

Well, if other customers are like me the T-shirts and sweatshirts don't sell because how many "on grey" items does one person need to own? I also found the styles visually unappealing compared to things they used to carry, sold in the parks and the kids styles. The Disney Store recently got a new line of Grey and Pink Mickey ladies wear that was actually cute. I didn't buy it the first time I saw it, and now only weeks later the only size they have is Small.

 

[YoHo]

Thanks for the Directions. PM Inbox has been cleared out.
Like I said Mapquest was smoking the funny cigarettes yesterday. It sent me to 43rd (NW if it matters) and to the address given on the Website, but it was in some residential neighborhood.

GOt a great tour of Seattle though

 

[cindyfan]

So in today's ads......KMart....who we all know is in DEEP financial trouble.....
Has this huge spread introducing their NEW and EXCLUSIVE line of all Disney kids clothing!!! Pages and pages of really nice looking stuff. But the thing is, not alot of what they showed had very many Disney characters on it. actually quite subtle....but nice.
AND .... they were showing alot of Disney Home items....kids bedding etc!!
So now with the licensing contracts Disney has with Walmart, Kmart and Penney's......what does that leave for the Disney Stores???
It will be interesting to see how this all plays out
Seems like all that will be in the "new" designs will be TOYS and very expensive HOME ie..furniture.
How will they compete if there isn't anything they can call "exclusive" and truely be "exclusive"?????
I have a feeling this novelty will wear off VERY FAST .....expecially since we can get any of these toys and such just about anywhere.!!!

 

[Planogirl]

I'm still a little puzzled by this. I see both kids and grownups wearing Disney themed clothing all of the time. Are the adults buying their stuff in stores like Target and Wal-Mart while the same or other adults are buying their kids' things in the more pricey Disney Stores?

I think that such specialty stores have been struggling all across the board for a while now. The unfortunate demise of the Warner Brothers Stores showed me that. I just wonder if such concepts are out of style now or if people's pocketbooks are controlling this change? I suspect that the true answer is a combination of both.

I wish the Disney Store all the best now in whatever form it takes and all I can say is thanks for the memories. It was a great place for a Disney nut to get a fix!

 

[d-r]

Do the play stores at least still have dvds and books? If so, I think our stores are basically at this point now.

Will the home stores have things like kitchen stuff, glasses/plates, knobs, snowglobes, etc.? Like the home store at dtd?

DR

 

[hopemax]

The Kids at Home store in Bellevue has kids beds (Princess, Mickey, Buzz, Jessie, Pooh Bunk Beds). There is Mickey bathroom stuff that would work for either kids or adults. The sheet sets come in either Twin or Full.

No kitchen stuff at all. There are a few snowglobes. One or two princesses, one or two pooh, one or two Mickey but that's all. None of the adult stuff you would find at the WDW home store. It's Kids at Home.

Basically if it fits into the theme (Princess, Toy Story, Mickey, Pooh or latest movie) and is appropriate for kids, they might have it. Even the movies are extrememly limited stock, just the newest releases.

They had the pin rack though.