Originally Posted By jonvn Well, they finally are declaring chapter 11. This used to be a really cool store, but nowadays, you go in there, and there is absolutely nothing worth purchasing, unless it is extremely expensive. Are there going to be more though? I think with the economy going down the drain, there will be a lot of companies we will no longer see. Levitz is gone, so is Bombay Company. Now Sharper Image is closing nearly all its stores. What's next? <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/21/MNSUV5R3M.DTL" target="_blank">http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/ article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/21/MNSUV5R3M.DTL</a>
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan What's next?<< It wouldn't surprise me if The Disney Store went away, except for maybe a few located in strategic destination spots like Vegas and NYC. I was in the one in San Francisco this week. Everything marked way down. And whoever does their buying has an odd sense of what the public might buy. They had an entire wall of Ratatouille stuff. Plastic jars with plastic Remys inside. These were marked down to a couple of bucks and even at that, didn't seem to be moving. Plush "beany baby" type dolls were in a rack for $1.99. Nothing really unique there that culdn't be found at Target, Walmart, etc.
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy Gap is on the ropes. Talbots is on the ropes. Circuit City is on the ropes. Limited isn't doing very well. Name any mall-based store, and it's likely to be suffering problemd. Children's Place (which runs the Disney Stores) has had a bad run this past year, too. But the biggest bankruptcy yet to happen is Citi. Not a retail outlet, but it will be huge if the Saudis and Chinese stop sending money to Citi to prop up the balance sheet following the subprime fallout.
Originally Posted By fkurucz <<It wouldn't surprise me if The Disney Store went away>> Me either. What made Disney mechandise special was that once upon a time you could only buy it at DL or WDW. Now its everywhere, and mo longer special.
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy Disney Store will go away because it is mall-based, and all the mall-based retailers are suffering. It makes no difference what sort of merchandise they put on the shelves, or ever put on the shelves. If you look at a chart of mall-based retailers, sales are down or just treading water across the board. Even the darlings like Abercrombie, Hot Topic, and American Eagle are showing stress right now.
Originally Posted By mele <<Plastic jars with plastic Remys inside.>> Hm, I've been looking to store my food in jars with rats in them. Perfect!
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan The also had a plate of rubber pasta with rubber cockroaches in it. You trow it all against the wall and it sticks. What that had to do with Ratatouille, I have no idea. Maybe I missed that scene in the film?
Originally Posted By DAR <<Disney Store will go away because it is mall-based, and all the mall-based retailers are suffering. It makes no difference what sort of merchandise they put on the shelves, or ever put on the shelves. If you look at a chart of mall-based retailers, sales are down or just treading water across the board. Even the darlings like Abercrombie, Hot Topic, and American Eagle are showing stress right now.>> Only mall-based yes. But if you make an overall entertainment destintation, shopping, movie theatre, several well known restaraunts then you're going to attract people.
Originally Posted By jonvn The disney store is a terrible dump. I mean it really is just awful. In the store near us, it is about 85% things for girls, one corner for boys, and all of it is just junk. There was a time they sold watches and other neat sorts of things. now, the watch display case is still there, but inside it now are cheap looking princess dolls. They can't even be bothered with removing the display that has the watches on it. What a shame. They used to be great stores to go to, too. Much like everything else disney has done, it's fallen to crap. They should not have sold them off, but simply shut down most of the stores. Boneheaded move.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>is about 85% things for girls, one corner for boys, and all of it is just junk.<< Somewhere along the way, Disney got it into their heads that their market is kids, and only kids. If it isn't princesses, it's Hannah Montana. And all of it produced in excess. From a retail perspective, it just looks better to show a little restraint and not have a boatload of lookalike merchandise piled out there. Start slapping marked down price stickers on everything and it begins to look like one of those Character Outlets that sell off unwanted stuff from the parks. Disney Store had much more of an upscale feel once. Not anymore.
Originally Posted By DAR I wanted to get a classic Mickey Mouse shirt last year. You know the from the early years, he's looking off to the side has one leg out, I'm sure you've seen it. I wanted a white Mickey t-shirt like that. Shortsleeved and the sleeve had like a navy blue trim around it. Not one single Disney Store had that shirt, so I had to go to the Magic Kingdom to buy it.
Originally Posted By DAR <<Character Outlets that sell off unwanted stuff from the parks.>> Last year at Downtown Disney at WDW we saw a bin with Chicken Little, Treasure Planet, Home on the Range and Brother Bear stuff.
Originally Posted By DAR <<Circuit City is on the ropes.>> And deservedly so, they are horribly mismanaged. And around here some came up with the bright idea to open all of them up near a Best Buy. Though you do have to wonder how Best Buy is going to handle half of their merchandise being available for download.
Originally Posted By gottaluvdavillains Disney doesn't own the Disney Store - They did sell it about 2 or 3 years ago - The Childrens Place owns them now. I agree they used to be a great place to shop...Maybe that will come back as in the new AP Magazine it showed a picture of the new Disney Stores - So maybe Disney is getting back some of the creative freedom of the stores from the Childrens Place. Then maybe the quality will go back up also... Really how many T-shirts can you sell... I miss the henleys and chambrays with the embroidery!
Originally Posted By jonvn Circuit City recently fired all their highest paid salespeople to reduce their salary costs. Meanwhile the people at the top make even more money. The people running it really are greedy and inept, and deserve to lose the ocmpany. Unfortunately there really is no justice in this world, and they'll get to keep their money while the low end workers just end up looking for a new job. This is one reason why work ethics are bad in this country. Corporations that not only have zero loyalty to their employees, but actually work actively to damage them. All the while saying with a smile how valued they are to the company. So of course workers are not going to care, and they are not going to do a good job for either the company or the public. This is why you get lousy service from Circuit City. The employees have zero incentive to do well, because if they do, they know their salary goes up and they get laid off.
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy Oh, add Pier One to the list of future bankrupt retailers. I'm surprised they haven't gone belly up by now.
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy All these stores have a common thread -- they sold a bunch of junk that nobody needs, but people ate it up as long as the home equity lines of credit and credit cards kept them flush with spending money. Now that there's a credit cruch, home values are falling, and things like gas & food are sucking up a lot of income, people just don't have money to buy all the junk. People are shopping at Wal-Mart instead of the specialty retailers at the mall. Disney is selling more merchandise at Wal-Mart than they ever did at the Disney Stores -- by a very large margin.
