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Has anyone's Disney Store CLOSED by them? Mine has in Salem Oregon its horrible now if I want the Brother Bear lithos I either order online and deal with shipping or go up to Portland and buy them Does anyone have info on why they closed anywhere?

Grunches wrote:Has anyone's Disney Store CLOSED by them? Mine has in Salem Oregon its horrible now if I want the Brother Bear lithos I either order online and deal with shipping or go up to Portland and buy them Does anyone have info on why they closed anywhere?

Yeah, the Sydney one got closed and replaced by a really crappy clothing store....

...but they didn't really offer DVDs let alone lithos.

I think Disney has been closing a lot of its stores down all over the place. Shame really, but perhaps there was not really the market to support so many.

It's a shame. The Disney Store used to be great. I remember how excited I was when they started opening them in Canada... and one finally came to my city. I used to make special trips there, dragging my family and friends with me. My friends used to be make fun of me for being so hyper and happy when I entered the Store.

I couldn't help but light up when I stepped inside. It actually felt like I was entering a Disney ...World. This helped make up for the fact that I couldn't afford to visit any of the Disney Theme Parks. Visiting the Disney Store was the next best thing.

Remember when The Disney Store sold more than just clothing for little girls? Remember when they actually had a great selection of DVDs, CDs, animation art, and books? God, I found so many great behind-the-scenes-making-of books there.

But then these quality items appealing to ALL ages...disappeared. Why the change? More of Eisner's stupidity? A result of his deal with Wal-Mart? His obsession with selling to pre-schoolers and soccer moms?

Watching the Disney Store deteriorate over the years has been pretty depressing. Just another symptom of Disney's deterioration in general.

The Disney Store that I worked at also closed. The rumor going around at that time (January '03) was that Disney is planning to focus more on the catalogue scene rather than store. It's a bit of a disappointment, but then so is a lot of the merchandise that has been put out the past few years or so.

THe one at my mall is still open... granted, it sucks pretty hard. They have about... oh, 3 designs of adult t-shirts to shift through and a ton of toys.

I remember when it first opened YEARS ago, and how excited I was as a kid...

There are 4 Disney stores in New Jersey that I know are not closed, and still offer a great selection:

Deptford- rather small, but has wide variety of toys, children and adult clothing, CDs, DVD, videos, books, ever-popular snowglobes, etc. I don't think they've been affected by Disney's downsizing their stores and closing them.

Cherry Hill- Okay, maybe this one is affected. Same as Deptford, but a lot less. There's actually room for someone to do a cartwheel if they wanted to.

Echelon- Haven't been to this one in awhile, but last time I was there (some months ago), it was like a bigger Deptford, and they were even selling porcelain figures and those bronze statues and the framed artwork. Lots of stuff.

Hamilton- Same as Echelon.

Escapay

All the stores around me are still open, thank God. That store used to rock! Now it's somewhere I love to go in (the atmosphere is still great), but I only find something worthy of purchase every few months... a marked change from when I couldn't buy enough every time I went in. They used to have all those ceramic-y figurines, and snow globes, and a HUGE DVD/Video collection, and collector's merch, and quality pedestrian merch for all ages. No more

-Aaron

One Disney Store near me closed, but there's still one that's open. Like Chris, I always feel like I'm walking into a Disney world when I go in there. There aren't as many good products as there used to be, but there are still enough to take some of my money every time I walk in the store.

We used to have 2 Disney stores in San Diego. The first closed about two years ago, and the second closed at the beginning of this year. While I did like being in the stores, and they did offer some cool stuff, I honestly don't miss them. The merchandise really went downhill from what it used to be.

Still got at least two open in Vancouver, BC

But the quality has gone way down in the last couple of years in terms of variety. I remember walking into one two years ago, right after the Treasures came out and looking at the collection of DVDs they had. I walked across the street to an electronics place bought a DVD player came back and put down a few hundred dollars for DVDs. I certainly would not do that walking into a Disney store today. There marketing seems to be aimed almost entirely at preteen girls.

I've been to three separate Disney stores here in Indiana, in the past year. And all of them have seemed fine to me, thankfully. I don't think they're being shut down like other ones are, in other places. I hope they won't close.

As for their merchandise, I keep wishing they would have adult-sized clothing, or at least a bigger variety of it (like a shirt with Stitch on it, or something). And their selection of things, overall, could certainly be better, but I won't complain. I do love going there. I mostly go to The Disney Store for the plushes. And they all do a good job at having those.

one of the Disney stores here in Kansas closed at the end of last summer. luckily it was just for refurbishment. it has since reopened with a super cool DIGITAL TV much better than that projection one that glared when you got close to it. sadly, though, that is NOT the place i go to when i look for my disney dvds. why pay 19.99 when i can get it for 15.96 at my local wal-mart?

I don't know if the Disney Store here in Orlando(okay, it's in Sanford, but I'm in Orlando) is closed or not, having not been there in years. But my best friends Mom got Finding Nemo there in December and nothing was closing. I'm gonna have to check it out.

My store hasn't closed yet but our lease is up later this year and we don't know if Disney wants to keep us or not. We are the best selling store in TN so i'm hoping that because of that fact we will stay open.

And as far as there being too many toys and less adult merchandise I agree that it is a shame. While we mostly carry items aimed at children, we do have some beautiful snowglobes and a plethora of mugs, and kitchen-wear to choose from. We have about 5 different styles of women's spring pajamas, several adult sleep-shirts and about 15 styles of regualr t-shirts (male and female). We have sweatshirts and jackets for adults too. We just put our cookie jars on sale and we got a new stock of picture frames in about a month ago.
Other than that everything else is made especially for kids, except for DVDs and CDs which are made for all ages. Before Christmas we had men's pajamas but they sold poorly.

I wish we carried more adult merchandise but i don't control what disney decided to give us to sell. Even though we appeal mostly to kids, i would hate to see us close.

Out here in Las Vegas we had 5 stores last year, two were shut down this last year and I am told one more maybe this year. If anybody ever has visited here, the Store at Caesars Palace Forum Shops is pretty incredible, more clothing and toys than I have seen at any store. (I have been to at least 20 Disney stores and they are all about the same..)Plus they have this whole room full of rare animation pieces, drawings and original cells. Lots of them are several thousand dollars a piece!!!!! You do get a nice frame though. Also lots of fancier porcelain and stuff. Sadly this store may be the one to close!

disneyfella wrote:sadly, though, that is NOT the place i go to when i look for my disney dvds. why pay 19.99 when i can get it for 15.96 at my local wal-mart?

It's Disneyfella! He's the one putting the Disney Store out of business!

Only joking. But it raises an important question. Why can't Disney sell to their own companies cheaper (or at least equal to) the price that they sell to Wal-Mart in bulk?

2099net wrote: It's Disneyfella! He's the one putting the Disney Store out of business!

Only joking. But it raises an important question. Why can't Disney sell to their own companies cheaper (or at least equal to) the price that they sell to Wal-Mart in bulk?

That's a really good question! I hate Wal-Mart, but I have to go there to buy some things, just because I'm poor and most things I need are cheaper there. I try to go there as little as possible.

When I was in Raleigh, NC, there were 2 Disney stores open at the malls there, now I'm pretty sure they are down to one, and the newest malls built there, within the past 2 years in Raleigh and Durham, there is no Disney store. Don't know about anymore that are open in the Triangle area of NC. Here in Charlotte the only one I know of is 35 miles away from where I live on the opposite side of the city.

Luckily the one in Arizona hasn't closed yet. And I'm glad. I don't really like the selection of stuff there now. Too girly. Too much pink! I can't stand it! I'd like to see more snowglobes and Disney beanbags.

Eisner and Wal-Mart have formed an unholy alliance.

Hey why not - they have lots in common... both treat their employees like crap and pay them minimum wage... and they're both primarily interested in selling products that cater to toddlers and soccer moms.

It's typical of Eisner, isn't it? Why work to maintain the *Disney* Store, when he can just make a deal with Wal-Mart to sell Disney products?

Why invest in *Disney's* Feature Animation department when he can just make a deal with an outside animation studio to create the films? (previously Pixar, of course... and now some unknown small studios I've forgotten the names of)

Why create new, unique, *Disney* characters/movies/park attractions when he can buy the already-established-and-beloved Muppets and exploit the heck out of them?

Oops sorry, wrong thread.

But really, it's no wonder that "Disney" doesn't feel like Disney anymore!

chrisrose wrote:Eisner and Wal-Mart have formed an unholy alliance.

Hey why not - they have lots in common... both treat their employees like crap and pay them minimum wage... and they're both primarily interested in selling products that cater to toddlers and soccer moms.

It's typical of Eisner, isn't it? Why work to maintain the *Disney* Store, when he can just make a deal with Wal-Mart to sell Disney products?

Why invest in *Disney's* Feature Animation department when he can just make a deal with an outside animation studio to create the films? (previously Pixar, of course... and now some unknown small studios I've forgotten the names of)

Why create new, unique, *Disney* characters/movies/park attractions when he can buy the already-established-and-beloved Muppets and exploit the heck out of them?

Oops sorry, wrong thread.

But really, it's no wonder that "Disney" doesn't feel like Disney anymore!

You forgot they're both greedy!