Subsonic Radio

casrin and I were at the mall today and discovered that the Disney Store where I used to work was closed!!! The security guard said it "closed a month or two ago." So much for hoping it would be one of the stores that Disney bought back!

casrin called the store where she used to work (it was her first job there) and the number was disconnected. We looked online and it is gone too. Now, the only ones in the area are nowhere convenient.

What a bummer!

TDS has really tanked over the years. One of the malls in our area still has one but I can't recall the last time we even set foot in it. I miss the old Disney Store, say from the 80s/90s but if every single current Disney Store closed I wouldn't miss them.

When Disney sold the Disney store to begin with, the merchandise was the only thing that changed in "mine", not the decor. However, I visited a few others while on vacations, I noticed many didn't have the animated dioramas and used this huge red Mickey eared archway. Is this what most of the Disney stores had become or is this what they looked like when Disney owned them too.

What did most of the Disney stores look like before they were sold. I only ever visited the one and it's a fairly older one. It has these window displays with animatronic characters moving around inside and animatronic characters alomg the ceiling inside with paited walls depicting movie scenes. (Then there was the big tv and pile of plush). Was "mine" the average Disney store norm?

Yeah, that sounds about right, Cheshire Cat. The color scheme was a teal, purplish-pink and white for the most part. The old-style carpeting was dark with star patterns and what-not before they went to the bright blue, bright colored look.

We also heard that, in the case of my store, that the mall wanted the Disney Store to remodel as part of the terms of renewing the lease. Apparently, the guard heard that Children's Place didn't want to do that.

It's such a shame Disney grew them to be too big to sustain, and then had to sell. And too bad CP couldn't bring the magic back.

Was "mine" the average Disney store norm?

Yah I cureently work at the Disney Store at my mall. And what you described is exactly what my store looks like. LOL!

When the Children's Place bought the disney store chain, they changed alot for us cast members. We had alot of perks that connected with Disneyland. They took it all the way down to just three free tickets a year. But they were 1 day single park tickets. Our discounts went down to 30% and we weren't considered real cast members when we visited the parks because we weren't really working for Disney anymore, we were just selling the products. They took away our cast member IDs and gave us these little paper cards to fill out with our ID #, Name, and Store number. So when we visited the park we couldn't even get into the cast members only store.

I noticed many didn't have the animated dioramas

Yah TCP Also took away ALOT of our collectables away and deminished our adult clothing section down tremendously. All we have left is Snowglobes and Pins for collectables. And because of this our regular geusts stopped coming in so often and we got a totally different type of clientell. My store is one of the lucky ones to stay and I can't wait to get the hardcore Disney fans back!

That's a bummer, how you lost so many CM perks.

Well it was even worst here outside of Boston we use to have a "Disney Gallery Store" they had Cels, and all sorts of collectables. They closed the store saying it was going to reopen in the mall which was on the other side of the parking lot.

They never reopened. And the stores where sold to CP. So that was pretty much that. While my wife and I were dating, we use to goto the Disney Store in Salem (Rockingham Park Mall.) We use to go in there and spend about $100, as the conversion happened we saw our spending drop and drop and finally the last few times we bother to go in there we didn't spend any money at all. Now we go to Rockingham rarely but the last few times we have gone, we didn't even go in.

There was an article in, I want to say the wsj, that Disney was in talks about buying them back.

We hope it happens as the mall across the street (then Natick Mall, now the Natick Collection) has done a HUGE expansion, and they have been courting speciality stores who don't have any other outlets in NE.

johno

Bummer. I still have three available to me in my area.

Our Disney store closed a few years ago. I'm hoping Disney will open another one now that they own it again. Well, I guess I should be careful what I wish for, since I would have to budget for it.

With Disney planning to close 1/3rd or so of the remaining Disney Stores upon repurchasing, I wouldn't expect to see anything much new. Though I am hopeful that it means good things for the remaining stores.

It'll be great to hopfully have real cast members manning the locations again. Living in Mpls/St. Paul, I'm hopeful that the Mall of America store will remain. At least I have an option, even if it is 15-20 miles away.

Calypso wrote:Our Disney store closed a few years ago. I'm hoping Disney will open another one now that they own it again. Well, I guess I should be careful what I wish for, since I would have to budget for it.

AGREED!

casrin and I were at the mall today and discovered that the Disney Store where I used to work was closed!!!

Okay.. I learned casrin is from SE Michigan, so I'm assuming you are too. Please don't tell me it was the store at Twelve Oaks!! I'm going downstate this weekend and planned on stopping by the mall so I could pop in the store!!

Thank goodness the Disney stores around me are still open. I know that I'm a total Disney freak when it comes to buying Disney merchandise (and wearing it out in the open much to my husband's displeasure) but I love wearing Princess t-shirts.

Bigthunderlover, thanks for the heads up on the Disney Store discounts. I had always wondered whether or not it would be worth it to get a part time job in the Disney Store but I'm going to leave that until they are owned by Disney again. Thanks!

Calypso,

The Twelve Oaks store is the ONLY ONE LEFT from what we were told. So, good for you and a bummer for us!

I just found out that my Disney Store is closing, too. It has never been redone. I wonder what they're going to do with all of the figurines that line the walls at ceiling level and in the front windows. I shall have to find out. I'm guessing that the other nearby (45 minutes) Disney Store will be closing as well. Now I'm back to having to go to Danbury, CT for the closest Disney Store like when I was little.