Originally Posted By alexbook The Starabilias store in Anaheim's Downtown Disney has closed. (Seems they had a going out of business sale last week and I missed it.) According to their web site, they have two stores, one here and one in Orlando. Anybody know if the Orlando store is still open, or if the whole "chain" is gone?
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA Tough type of merchandise to sell even when the economy is booming. Not a big surprise, right?
Originally Posted By irishfan I always loved to go in and look at the merchandise, but like most people (it seems) I never bought anything in there.
Originally Posted By JAYDIZZLE1 I HAD WORKED AT STARABILIAS/ TIN PAN ALLEY. STARABILIAS IS CLOSED IN ANAHEIM AND I HEARD ORLANDO WILL BE CLOSING IN JULY ALSO. IF ANY ONE KNOWS WHY THEY CLOSED PLEASE LET ME KNOW. THANKS
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 ^^Because we are in a severe economic downturn that some are calling a recession ... UK prime minister Gordon Brown is calling it a depression and saying the USA media is ignoring it and downplaying how bad things are. He's right. How many empty locations are there in DD now?
Originally Posted By poohbear14 Department 56 (Jan) Libby Lu (Jan) Starabilia (Feb) Illuminations (April) I wouldn't mind seeing Yogurtland come to DTD
Originally Posted By FerretAfros When I was there last week, we walked by it and I wondered to myself how much longer it would be there. Turns out, not too long. I'm sad to see it go and leave another vacancy in DTD, but I honestly can't say that I've ever had any interest in even going in there. That type of stuff just doesn't really appeal to me. And is Illuminations leaving in April? This is the first I've heard of that. What exactly do they sell, anyway? It looks like a candle-type store, but it's another one of those places I've never been quite sure what to make of it.
Originally Posted By Westsider I'm really surprised Starabilias lasted as long as it did. Shouldn't we at least wait for the unemployment rate to reach 18% or 20% and/or wait for six or eight quarters of negative GDP growth before we declare it a depression? If we go claiming this a depression at two quarters of negative GDP growth and an unemployment rate of 8% then all the previous recessions that had higher unemployment and falling growth that dragged on for years will start to feel inferior.
Originally Posted By dshyates First the Bush administration, for years, have been manipulating the GDP and unemployment number. Like reclassifing McDonalds burger fliipers to manufacturing jobs. So as the car makers laid people off, the unemployment numbers rose dramitcally showing we add millions of manufacturing jobs, when in actualality the numbers went down. It didn't create millions of manufacturing jobs at all.
Originally Posted By dshyates sorry, that should be "the employment numbers rose dramatically..." When NO jobs were created.
Originally Posted By juicer You know, there are quite a few stores at DTD that are almost just a unique that are still open and always seem dead. I wonder how many more will be closing this year?
Originally Posted By Dabob2 <I'm really surprised Starabilias lasted as long as it did. > Me too. I had to wonder at the authenticity of some of the stuff when I saw a "signed" picture of the Rolling Stones circa 1966 selling for big bucks. They still had Brian Jones then, of course, but over his pic was a signature of "Ron Wood." (!) Makes you wonder who really signed.
Originally Posted By alexbook The item I saw there that really made me go "Huh?" was golf ball signed by Bob Dylan.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 <<I'm really surprised Starabilias lasted as long as it did.>> Me too, to a certain extent. Although there always was a market for the autographed type memorabilia and the like they sold. I wasn't part of that market, but there was one. <<Shouldn't we at least wait for the unemployment rate to reach 18% or 20% and/or wait for six or eight quarters of negative GDP growth before we declare it a depression?>> Honestly, no, we shouldn't. Because numbers lie and the politicians and talking heads who spin them lie even more. I think if anyone did an honest assessment of unemployment for instance, you'd find the number over 20%, maybe approaching 30%. The 'official' number doesn't include so many people that it is beyond laughable ... the millions upon millions who either can't collect unemployment (or it ran out without them finding employment), have been out of work for years and have given up and are living off family, friends and/or charity, people who are severly unemployed (the $80,000 a year VP who now works 15-20 hours a week at Staples or Starbucks or WDW for $8 an hr. is for all intents and purposes unemployed etc ... there are so many people in this country who just don't count and aren't. The reality of our situation is easy to see if you just look around in each and every sector. And this has been building for years, the idea it just started last summer when gas went over $4 a gallon, foreclosures hit an all-time high and then banks started collapsing didn't happen overnight. We've been headed in this direction for many years ... when companies started outsourcing and off-shoring jobs to be lean and mean and make Wall Street happy and our alleged 'leaders' in DC patted them on the back and gave them tax breaks they were destroying this country ... when companies were allowed to consistently ask more of workers while cutting benefits like healthcare, they were planting the seeds ... when laws allowed companies to make billions of debt disappear (which also made things like pensions go away like pixie dust) while credit laws were changed to allow companies to screw over consumers for the rest of their lives if they defaulted on a thousand dollar tab to Visa, they were planting the seeds ... when the government decided it only represented Wall Street and big business, it was sowing the seeds. Well ... now, I'd love to know how this mess is going to get cleaned up because I don't see it. And 'retraining' professionals that made $15-50 an hour for new jobs that may pay $10 if they're really lucky with no benefits just isn't going to anything other than further WalMart the USA into a third world nation with nukes and delusions of grandeur. Now ... what were you saying about DD?
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Originally Posted By jmuboy To bring the conversation back to DTD, I assume that the expansion plans for this area will remian on hold for now. Which makes sense with 4 tennants, 2 large ones, all leaving in a narrow window of time.
