Originally Posted By Doobie This topic is for discussion of the January 15th Diz Biz at: <a href="News-ID150020.asp" target="_blank">http://LaughingPlace.com/News-ID150020.asp</a>.
Originally Posted By MouseBear Saluations Lee, A very insightful article and you provided excellent suggestions. I think the World Of Disney stores are still a lot of fun probably because they have Park specfic merchandise and the level of customer service is still high. I believe you are correct that the DisneyStore concept can be redeemed if they scale back the number of stores and return to a high level of customer service. In fact, I would look at putting one or two World of Disney stores in a large region with character greeting and the pin trading concept you mentioned. It might even be possible to have some kind of a themed attraction and a RadioDisney feed in the same place. Looking forward to your series on this subject, MouseBear
Originally Posted By CuriosWolfSo I know how you feel- My Disney store at Montclair Plaza used be unique since it was the only one to have a fast-food snack cafe called "Mickey's Kitchen" next to the store. It was a place full of Disney atmosphere with four areas each themed to "Winnie the Pooh", "Lady and the Tramp", "DuckTales" and "Chip'n'Dale's Rescue Rangers". Depending on where you were eating, you were fully immersed in that theme. For example, if you were in the "Winnie the Pooh" eating area, above you was Pooh having a party with his friends while a bee hive with fast-moving circling AA bees buzzing was hanging from a tree or with "Lady and the Tramp", you can sit 'outside' of Tony's restaurant and watch Tony & Joe making music as a silhouette of Lady & Tramp can be seen at a 'window' at a high level near a starry sky. But unfortunatly, the other fast-food places have proven to be too much competition for Mickey's Kitchen so they tore it away from the store and my Disney Store is just like any other Disney store. Bummer!
Originally Posted By Brandis I'm sure Pressler brought valuable input as far as customer service in the shops go. But I wasn't impressed with the merchandise. They used to have great adult wear, in the last few years it was only kiddie stuff and there was no more reason to visit a Disney Store. Also at the theme park shops. Each one of the used to be unique and it was fun going into several ones and discover the merchandise they had. Now, if you go into any Disney Store, you have seen them all and there is also no need to go into a theme park store, since they carry the same stuff.
Originally Posted By mdlowe Couldn't agree more. I was a cast member in the "early years" where our sole goal was to bring Disney to (insert town here). Now, it's nothing more than a bunch of ex-Limited employees in costume. People used to count on us to deliver the Magic to them and we took great pride in that. When I went back as a part-time CM this holiday season, many of those same guests expressed their disappointment on how the stores ended up. I'll never go back to work at TDS again. Now, as a guest, I admittedly set a pretty high standard for TDS. Frankly, I'm appalled at what this has become. There's no sense of "show" and service is out the window. I don't even get greeted - at any point in the store. The other day, someone did greet me, but instead of "hello", it was "this item just went on sale -25% and they she walked away from me and my 2 year old son. Look, I have an MBA in Marketing so I'm not naive to the business needs of TDS. I just think they shot themselves in the foot. Close all but 1-3 stores in each market to restore the exclusivity and get the best cast and develop the unique merchandise that characterized Disney in the past. TDS can be so great - don't ruin it!
Originally Posted By wahooskipper I am not at all impressed with the direction TDS has taken in the past several years. Specifically, the choice of merchandise has become too narrow for my enjoyment. Here in South Florida, my two local TDS's are filled with strictly kids stuff. I recall in the early 90's going into a Disney Store that had sections for adult men, women and kids. For the past couple of years I just pop in and pop out, realizing there isn't anything in there for me. I will say that our local stores are still maintaining the standards of the company. Friendliness and attentiveness are priorities. That might be due to our proximity to the parks (3 hours north) and the expectation Floridians have about quality Disney guest service. One way to spruce up business, in my opinion, would be to offer a Park Exclusive item or two each month at the stores. That might liven things up. The other way to get my interest back would be to sell a few items for those of us over the age of 10.
Originally Posted By NikkiLOVESMickey TDS, in its original form, was for the family. You could go in there and find a gift for any man, woman or child Disney freak, from boxer shorts to string bikinis to polo shirts to sweaters to golf balls. As TDS stands today, it is exclusively a kids' store. Toys, clothes and plush. Nothing for adults whatsoever. The one thing that drew adults to my old store was taken away: the collectibles. We sold oodles of collectibles and WDCC merchandise. Now we have nothing. On top of that, they backed away from emphasizing guest service and now only emphasize selling. Gone are the days when a cast member could talk to a guest about his upcoming trip to the resort. If you're not prompting them to buy something, you get a bad score on your Magic Card. There isn't anything special about working at TDS anymore - it's just a job like any other job in the mall. That's why I left the company. I miss my old store!
Originally Posted By wahooskipper That is too bad. I know a lot of adult Disney fans and even my wife can't get me Christmas items anymore. They have a poor selection of books, when they have them at all. If working there is as bad as you say then it is really unfortunate. The only exception would be if you worked in a Florida TDS. At least you could take advantage of the free park admission on a fairly regular basis. I don't know what the turning point was but TDS just isn't special anymore.
Originally Posted By Inspector 57 More of the same here... I used to enjoy browsing and purchasing clothing, books, and collectables at my TDS. Now I go in weekly and try to convince myself that I'm interested in any of the merchandise (kids' clothes, plush, pins, the same old "Toy Story" toys, a limited selection of DVD's and CD's). Why can't I buy a decent adult sweatshirt there? Park merchandise? Books about Disney or the Parks? Disney greeting cards? The CM's are friendly enough. But there's little to no "synergy" or cross-company knowledge. When I asked recently whether I could buy a Disneyland Annual Pass from them, two staffers told me they sold "something like that" but that I could just wait 'til I got to Florida to buy it. A third intervened and recognized that I wanted to go to California, dragged a book from under the register, and found a couple pages about DLR admission media. She didn't understand it and couldn't explain to me exactly what they sold or why I would buy it there. Also recently, when I asked the manager if she could tell me if "Dad, Can I Borrow the Car?" is available on VHS or DVD, she said she had NO information on Disney's video/DVD product other than what was in stock there. She was very apologetic and said they used to have some information. She said she thought there might be some listing "somewhere" on the web.
Originally Posted By NikkiLOVESMickey At least when I worked there (and this still holds true with my former cast members who still work there) when I or any other CM was asked a question, we bent over backwards to give you an answer. If we couldn't give you an answer, we did our best to give you a number of other resources to check out. It's a shame that the CMs Inspector 57 encountered couldn't answer basic questions about merchandise and park tickets. That shocks and disgusts me! How can TDS allow such behavior onstage? How can they hire CMs who know so little? What happened to MAGIC, training and Traditions? It's disgusting and upsetting. TDS is and should strive to be better than that.
Originally Posted By mrichmondj A lot of the problems assigned as specific to the Disney Stores are really problems that the entire specialty retail and shopping mall industry is facing. Mall traffic has declined substantially in the past several years as suburban Wal-Marts and box stores like Best Buy and Toys 'R Us have attracted more and more consumers. Wal-Mart is the number one retail outlet in the U.S. today, and upscale mall departments stores now get less than 3% of all retail business. When mall foot traffic was higher, the Disney Stores could afford to have a more diverse array of merchandise. However, with fewer shoppers, who are accustomed to Wal-Mart discounting and economies of scale, specialty retailers are stuck trying to narrow down their merchandise to items that they think they can sell to everyone. It's a tough business to be in. I think it's safe to say that the Disney Stores have not adapted very well to the new retail environment, but they have a great deal of company among other specialty retailers that are suffering as well. In a day where Wal-Mart, Target, and Kohl's rule the roost, it is unclear whether any specialty retailer can survive for much longer.
Originally Posted By MainStreetMagic I have to agree with most everyone here about the quality of the Disney Stores. We used to look forward to going into the stores in the past. We were able to find items for all of us and, as mentioned, we could strike up a conversation about either of the parks or perhaps an upcoming Disney release. Times have certainly changed. Last week we visited two different Disney Stores and didn't spend 5 minutes total in both. Both stores were stocked almost entirely with Princess related items and the newest craze, the white stuffed characters (why completely white? do they come with crayons?). Oh sure, there was a small rack of Disney books and videos but gone are all the unique Disney items that one can ONLY get from Disney. And, because Disney isn't releasing any new videos, there wasn't any previews on the "big screen'. What a waste the Disney Stores have become.
Originally Posted By mickeymouse_boy The stores need to have more clothes for adults. I know that you can go to others major toy stores and get the toys for cheaper. The cast members Theresa and Paula are very helpful at our store. I personally love the old design for the store.
Originally Posted By NikkiLOVESMickey My old store (Lakeside Mall in Metairie, LA) was one of the first to be redone in the Disney Gap style (as I like to call it - if you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about!) and I too definitely prefer the old design. They could've updated the colors a bit (the teal and the pink was a bit 1988) and left all the animation in and it would've been perfect. Instead, they screw it up and make me feel like I should be looking for a pair of flat front khakis instead of a Mickey t-shirt.
Originally Posted By usmclass My local TDS in Anchorage Alaska just closed. I am totally upset, to say the least! The CMs here were the BEST of any Disney CM's I have met...Walt would have been proud! The store had a couple of problems, but they had nothing to do with service or spirit. With the change of focus from high-end collectables to a "kiddy store" the Anchorage DS lost some of it's momentem. Instead of changeing the format of the stock I would have hoped that the stores would ahve followed my idea of adding the ability to purhcase some of the high-ticket collectables on a LAY-AWAY basis. Even a NON_REFUNDABLE Layaway plan would have been embraced by the folks here in Alaska. It is hard for us to get down to california, or even Florida to enjoy the parks and special events, so TDS really DID bring Disneyland/WDW to US! ( I always did hate the fact that many of the items we got here were marked WDW and NEVER DisneyLAND! C'mon! We are WEST COAST... and DL is OUR main park!) When i went to DL/DCA last year I hit some of the local malls and found TDS in most of them......tired old items, lackluster cast members....scratch that... EMPLOYEES!!! They did not deserve the CM title! If TDS or even working inthe park becomes "just a job" for you, then it is time for you to leave or be ASKED to leave. But I digress; the point is, why so many TDS in southern cal, when the PARK and even DOWNTOWN DISNEY are only 20 minutes away? Our Anchorage store serves the entire state.... many people charter bush planes to fly into town during the holidays to shop, and most prefer to buy at a DS instead of the catalog because 1. they can seperience the items in person, and 2. they KNOW that the items will be ready for chirstmas, instead of hoping that they makeit in on some snow-bound mail run. Our store also serviced businessmen and other visitors from China, Korea, Russia, Japan....the whole family of countries that sue Anchorage International Airport for connections! In conclusion, to recap. 1. Re-open TDS in ANCHORAGE ALASKA (bigger store with a place to hold Law-aways?) 2. ADD LAY-AWAY!!! Even if it has to be with a 100% re-stocking fee! 3, in ANY store..... if CM's do not preform to DISNEY standards.... cheerful, attentive, friendly, knowlegelble.... then REPLACE them! The wages might not be great, and the hours might not be a full-time position, but there a grat many PERKS to being a TDS CM! Earn 'em or LOSE them! Give me my store back.... it's an addiction! OH! one other thing! In alaska we HATE doing business with the catalog departments. IF you call, they 1. Charge you OUTRAGEOUS fees to ship to Alaska...we ARE part of the US (although I could not convince on sales rep of that) and 2. They have this nasty habit of running your credit card ONCE to "see if it works for that amount" and THEN running it AGAIN to collect the fees......which means I hav to WAIT 2-3 weeks to have those funds available to work with, for no good reason! I will eaither buy my stuff in the store, Or I will wait until I make a rare trip to the park to shop! WAKE UP Disney!
Originally Posted By Kansasteen I also used to love the Disney store but now it doesnt have anything, except pins which I go in there for even though I have to beat an obstacle course of stollers. I will say I hope they dont have park merchandise there ever because that defeats the purpose of souveneirs
Originally Posted By NikkiLOVESMickey My biggest problem with TDS removing collectibles and WDCC merchandise from all but a few (and I mean FEW, like 5) TDS stores is that if I am going to spend $100 or more on a piece, I want to SEE it before I buy it. I want to hold it in my hand and look it over. You can't do that on the internet!
Originally Posted By usmclass EXACTLY! And if they have something I would kill for.... like a disneyland Chess set at $300 I would wish that they would make it possible to put it on layaway for a bit.........that way they wouldnt have to offer it up on ebay later.
Originally Posted By BobKola Living in South Jersey, I have 3 Disney Stores within short driving distance: Cherry Hill Mall, Deptford Mall, and Echelon Mall. When the Cherry Hill store was the first and only one in the area it was a treat to go there. A little driving could give you a little taste of the Disney Magic you could only find at the parks. However, with three stores, not that far from one another, and all themed the same, the magic was gone. It really didn't take a special trip to get to one. Then, when Cherry Hill was made over to the next format I was shocked. It looked no different from The Gap across the way. There was NOTHING SPECIAL at all about it. Just anohter store in the mall. My first visit there was a day after their soft opening and by chance there was a man and two women from "corporate" there. I watched and listened to them, and the way they were gushing over this new concept was both sad and laughable. I don't know where they got their market research for this but it had to be the same people who did the research for "New" Coke! It is obvious that they didn't really talk to any true Disney Fans (who are probably their core busniness). Like everyone else, I'm disappointed in the product selection currently at the stores. Nothing for men. Nothing creative or "must have." I only hope that the new Spring line has more Stitch merchandise (i.e., Stitch coffee mugs, Stitch (and Lilo) Hawiian shirts, ANYTHING to make me want to save my pennies and HAVE to go there). But, in the end, I doubt it....
