"Wishes - Exit Music" memory

casrin · Post by **casrin** » Sep Sun 09, 2007 3:59 pm

In the Wishes - Exit Music that's playing right now, it has Linda Rondstadt singing "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes." As I've never seen the parade? fireworks? to Wishes, I can only relate the Rondstadt version of the song to working at The Disney Store.

Back in the "olden days" at TDS, laser discs played for an hour with a variety of Disney music and video... from sing-a-long clips to snippets of the films and more. It must've been 1996 or so when Hunchback was out that the Rondstadt version of the song was the finale on the laser disc. If the manager had timed it right when first loading the disc during the day, that was the last song we CMs would hear before it was turned off and we went about recovering the store (my primary job was always fixing up Plush Mountain

).

Hearing that Exit Music just now took me back to the good ol' days of my first job, and that was working for Disney.

Yensidaj · Post by **Yensidaj** » Sep Mon 10, 2007 3:51 pm

I loved the Plush Mountain and the Disney store at the Overland Park Kansas location. When you walked into the store you really got a sense of disney magic but then they went and re-did the store and it feels like your walking into a Target that has had mouse merchandise put into it. No magic feeling any more. I hear that Disney has outsourced the Disney stores to another company maybe this is the reason why.

casrin · Post by **casrin** » Sep Tue 11, 2007 2:16 pm

Yeah. Disney sold The Disney Store to "Children's Place" which has its own mall store already. It definitely changed the look of the stores, and the merchandise quality. In a bad way.

boilerbabe · Post by **boilerbabe** » Sep Thu 13, 2007 10:21 pm

I didn't realize that's why the stores changed. The merchandise is definitely different. I prefer to buy my Disney stuff at WDW, that way I know it's different. To me it's more official!

casrin · Post by **casrin** » Sep Sun 16, 2007 12:04 pm

Yeah. It was strange because, when I worked for TDS, they were on this mega push to have 1000 stores worldwide. (In 1997, they were at nearly 800 some, if I remember right.) And then by 2003 or so, they were selling to Children's Place.

Bummer.

jbvenn · Post by **jbvenn** » Sep Sun 16, 2007 10:27 pm

The first few years, The Disney Store was great. It was a nice way to get a little taste of magic between trips and the merchandise was high quality. Then it started to go downhill. The quality of the merchandise declined sharply, and the selection declined. I stopped shopping there quite a while ago; there was just nothing to see.

casrin · Post by **casrin** » Sep Mon 17, 2007 9:49 am

Was probably when they switched ownership, jbvenn.

Everything changed when that happened.

WVParkfan · Post by **WVParkfan** » Sep Thu 20, 2007 6:52 am

jbvenn wrote:The first few years, The Disney Store was great. It was a nice way to get a little taste of magic between trips and the merchandise was high quality. Then it started to go downhill.

I guess that depends on your perspective. We don't have a Disney Store within 100 miles of our home, so it is a RARE treat when we go to a mall out-of-town and get to visit a Disney store. For us, it's just like you said... "a little taste of magic" between trips to WDW. We may only get to a Disney store once a year, or once every two years. So, it is still special for us.