Originally Posted By jmuboy While we continue to see threads about declining quality at WDW, I'll add another post along the same lines. The section of stores along Sunset Blvd - Once Upon a Time, Mouse About Town, and Sunset Club Couture have reopened after their extensive refurbishment. Just like what happened on Main Street to the Emporium, the previous three separate stores have now been combined into one large shopping location. Wal-Mart SunSet Blvd, now open for business. Another step in the wrong direction. No longer distinctive stores with distinctive merchandise, we have a more open floor plan with "departments" like Wal-Mart or Target. Not magical.
Originally Posted By -em sigh- I like Mart I like Disney but I really liked when they were separate entities...
Originally Posted By MPierce It definitely diminishes the cozy feel you once got going into single stores. The have managed to deminish the feel on Main Street, so I guess their next project is to ruin DHS even more. I guess they feel adding the HAT was not enough to cut back on the theme. I truly think Disney is losing it's soul slowly, but surly. Wake up Disney. We didn't have shopping malls in that era. Please leave the mall, strp center atmosphere over at DD. It fits the theme over there, not in the parks!
Originally Posted By jmuboy The lack of unique stores with unique merchandise has been one of the most bothersome things for me at WDW over the last decade. The same thing has happened at DL - but not to the degree it has at WDW. Walking through the stores on Main Street really is depressing now. There are only like 5 actual stores left, even though there are many store fronts street side. I am not ready to say that Disney per see is loosing its soul, but I know for a fact WDW certainly has REALLY lost its way. I just wish the fans would scream loud enough about these bad changes for Disney to take notice.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo This is sadly an international phenomena affecting WDW, DL and DLP, but WDW is still the bottom of the pile sadly.
Originally Posted By Ursula If I may add another interesting tidbit. We were at WDW for 12 days. Each time we got off of Space Mountain, we looked for Space Mountain merchandise as I had wanted a WDW Space T-shirt to wear to DL once in a while. They don't sell them. They don't sell ANY Space Mountain merchandise in the Space Mountain store. They did have generic Mickey shirts, however. I didn't buy one.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Sadly sounds like my experience at WDW (though DLP is even worse for not having attraction merchandise). It is a real shame as shopping used to be such a part of the overall experience.
Originally Posted By Ursula To be fair, they did have three Haunted Mansion shirts at the HM exit, and one of them was very WDW-specific. (Unless the HM elsewhere looks like the one at WDW.) But still. Three shirts do not make me happy.
Originally Posted By gottaluvdavillains Oddly Ursula - I did see lots of WDW ride shirts at the outlet yesterday... Not down there but up here in n.ca.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 <They don't sell ANY Space Mountain merchandise in the Space Mountain store. They did have generic Mickey shirts, however. I didn't buy one.< Bingo --- why don't they - wth ? I can tell you I purchased a $300 or so suede leather bomber jacket from Mickeys Startraders ( two tone browns) - highlighting TOmorrowland when the rehab was complete. Nice embroidery of the new Tomorowland logo and SM. I love this coat -- hell it is winter heavy and here I am trying it on in July - and bought it. Why ? Because it was unique and oh so cool !
Originally Posted By Mickeymouseclub I just found a very unique Space Mnt guys t-shirt at Vault Disney at the DL resort in Downtown Disney. The sku is 0001502640 6.I do not know if this store is in WDW DD or if they can be ordered on-line but a phone call might work. I will look for my receipt.Anyway it is black with "SM" and "Tomorrowland" words with the outline of the building and the spaceships with 3 astronauts in each.I think it was reasonably priced considering it was in Vault Disney.Let me know if you want more info.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Agreed. I too bought a Shag Disneyland Tomorrowland shirt for $80 even though I am not a huge Shag fan. Why? Because it is unique. Same reason why I dropped a fortune on 50th souvenirs and had them shipped to England. Or why I bought the hand painted Main Street Railroad, 14 ct gold watch on our last trip to DL. Sadly our trip to WDW and several trips to DLP we have come back under budget. I should be happy about this, but sadly, I am not. But if it means little Sally can buy High School Musical merchandise because her brother Johnny wanted to go on Space Mountain, then by golly, let's seel them HSM stuff in the shop next door. Makes me shudder. Or Billy wants some Jack Sparrow stuff they forgot to buy at the MK day on a 4 day trip so they pick it up in Epcot. I really miss when shopping was also an e-ticket experience. But sadly, I can imagine the casual visitor loves they can buy the same junk (self censorship used here) everywhere.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 just found this on ebay - I'm going to check out the site <a href="http://stores.ebay.com/WDW-Virtual-Visit-T-Shirt-Shop" target="_blank">http://stores.ebay.com/WDW-Vir...irt-Shop</a>
Originally Posted By MPierce They seem more content selling sixty pins are a dozen Mickey plushes rather than offering good quality, unique merchandise to a wide variety of Guest.
Originally Posted By -em >>They don't sell ANY Space Mountain merchandise in the Space Mountain store. They did have generic Mickey shirts, however.<< They used to have a space mountain pin... but they were sold out more than they were in stock of that sucker (and yes they only ever carried one of the atleast 3 versions available) I also think its crazy the lack of diversity in their merchandise (and I used to BE in merchandise..) there is soo much I would buy if it existed and think its sad that retail is a powerful field that can make $$ if done right- sadly disney isnt doing it right (even with the pins Ive slowed WAYY down as there just arnt cute ones I need..)
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA We were in Disneyland yesterday, and we really liked the new shop that was once the New Century Watches shop. It was a real improvement over just watches, and they had a lot of neat jewelry for sale. Interesting stuff. A whole line of pricey bracelets and necklaces with reproductions of Sir John Tenniel's illustrations from 'Alice in Wonderland.' Very nice. Never seen them before either. In fact my wife bought the Disneyland Shag charm bracelet, my daughter a neat looking cameo, and I, a cool looking, over-sized Mickey Mouse watch. We really didn't walk through the Emporium too much, but it appeared to be essentially the same type of junk...er..uh...merchandise.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 It's great (and very sad at the same time) to see threads like this that I didn't start! It's also quite interesting and telling that you will never hear an interview with anyone in merchandising for Disney (or marketing for that matter) on this or any other fan site. They know exactly what they are doing. WalMarting. In this case, literally. I am sure some middle manager will get a few grand bonus for this one. (Disney IS cheap, even with its execs to a large extent). You take three individual locales (even if they were the considered one back of house and I am not sure, I know they weren't when they opened) and bland them down into one. Sure, everything looks nice when it's new. But what you have is another giant World of Disney outlet (just like Emporium has become). You lose story. You lose individuality. You get generic homogenized Disney crap that the powers that be will say is what the guests want. They'll talk about how much easier it is for the 500-pounders on the ECVs and the triple wide moms and dads pushing double wide strollers (ASIDE: I believe that both ECVs and strollers should not be allowed in stores) to navigate without walls in between. They'll point to 2-3 'unique' items that will soon be sold everywhere else. They ruined Centorium at EPCOT by making a two-level showcase into a WoD ... and they turned Emporium into another ... now we have the third ... look for the next coming to DAK in the near future. These people seem intent on absolutely ruining WDW. So here's a question ... do you think they're all clueless as to what they're doing or do you think they are just self-serving trash that only concerns themselves with their bank account at the end of the day? Magical either way ...
Originally Posted By -em >>do you think they're all clueless as to what they're doing or do you think they are just self-serving trash that only concerns themselves with their bank account at the end of the day? << Uhhhh I'll vote for the first one... One prob with Disney merch is how many different people they have to do for a job that in most retail takes one or two... At Mart we would set, order, stock and sell the items, at WDW you generally have 5 different teams that do that. At Mart if we wanted games to take up 30 feet instead of the 20 we are "required" to we did it and ordered the stuff to fill, as long as sales were justified there was never any issues. At WDW you could suggest it and they would think about it and ask every other team that has to do anything with that section before you might get an approval... One does not need to know anything about retail in order to work retail... Its all handed to ya (and not in a good way...)
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo >>> believe that both ECVs and strollers should not be allowed in stores) to navigate without walls in between.<<< Sorry Spirit, I disagree here, if the person in the ECV is truly in need, then that would be against the law as it is discrimination. Also, as a dad, if the kid is asleep, shopping and eating are about the only two activities you can do. So, nope, I can't agree with you on this one.
Originally Posted By CarolinaDisneyDad Hi Guys, I just got back. My wife and I were discussing this very topic while we were there. While yes the first time visitor might find things to buy, the repeat shopper has no options. This year my younger daughter was crazy for Donald Duck. But, there was no merchandise with Donald Duck on it. Even in T-shirts we didn't find any cute shirts for her to buy. The only Donald shirts they had had some rude saying on them that we would not allow. This isn't rocket science, just put a cute picture of Donald on a nice looking T and we'll buy it! Not one figurine of the duck. Only 1 christmas ornament and it so small my daughter didn't want it. Bobble heads? nope. Only Mickey, Minnie, or Goofy playing B-ball. Autograph book? nope. Pen? nope. 2 years ago we started buying those round ball mushees of each character but those were eliminated after the first year. Now only Mickey and Minnie are carried. We purchased a 5x7 picture with my daughters inserted into the picture. then we went looking for a frame. nope. No 5x7 frames that could sit long side down unless we wanted wood. My youngest daughter also looked for a Donald hat. Only 1 available and he was playing golf. No interest. she wanted one where his beak is the bill. I know all these products existed. I've seen them. Where did they go and why? My youngest ended up bringing home 130 dollars that she had taken to spend in WDW. I don't know who is purchasing for WDW but they are letting a tremendous amount of cash walk right back out the door. We used to look forward to certain stores because they had such unique merchandise. Now each store carries the same lines.If you don't want Mickey or Minnie or Tinkerbell then you are out of luck. Even at DHS in the villain store there are no villain T's other than the nightmare before Christmas. What a waste of great characters. Imagine how fast the tweens would snap up creative villain T-shirts. Costumes? nope, not unless you are a princess.Even on disneyshopping.com there were no costumes other than princess or maybe a power ranger. Villains? Not a one. I would think surely sales have been affected. It isn't the economy that is hurting merch sales it's the selection.
