New Disney Retail store plan - a Theme Park at every store

[eeyoreguy]

According to the New York Times, Disney has big plans for its retail stores with ambitious floor-to-ceiling refurbishment of its 340 stores in the United States and Europe — as well as opening new ones, including a potential flagship in Times Square.

The central idea is to spend approximately $1Million per store to redecorate and install inovative technology which visitors to its stores can interact with creating a fun place to spend time (whilst persuading parents to buy a few things whilst there of course). In effect creating a mini theme park in every store.

“The world does not need another place to sell Disney merchandise — this only works if it’s an experience,” said Jim Fielding, president of Disney Stores Worldwide

Theaters will allow children to watch film clips of their own selection, participate in karaoke contests or chat live with Disney Channel stars via satellite. Computer chips embedded in packaging will activate hidden features. Walk by a “magic mirror” while holding a Princess tiara, for instance, and Cinderella might appear and say something to you.

The New York Times > Log In

[Tink]

Whew! Thanks for the warning! I'm not much of a shopper to begin with and having all that going on in a store is more than I would need!

I'm sure loads of other folks will like it though. I wonder if parents will end up dropping their kids off there as a "baby sitter" expecting the store to occupy the child as the parent shops elsewhere? Since that already happens at the play areas in many malls, I can see this being misused in much the same way.

[Mari]

I read this this morning and thought it will be very interesting.....

lets see if it works...

[BigThunder]

OH i'm excited about this! I hope my store gets a 1 million dollar refurbishment as it needs it! Since my kids have gotten older it seems there is less & less reason to go into the Disney Store & that makes me sad but this will be fun for at least a few visits
Thanks for sharing!

[Johnie]

ok so they sold a boatload of stores to another company and then closed a boatload of stores a couple of years ago

and now they are doing a massive refurbishment and adding new stores?

Does anyone else think this was a waste of money?

[BigThunder]

ok so they sold a boatload of stores to another company and then closed a boatload of stores a couple of years ago

and now they are doing a massive refurbishment and adding new stores?

Does anyone else think this was a waste of money?

Yup, I found it odd as well. Sounds like big business tho, I never understand why they do what they do.

[Keith]

I think the key is in Tom's other post about this subject.

This has Steve Jobs (Apple) fingerprints all over it. The concepts mentioned, getting people to stay in store longer, getting sales assistants out on the floor with little tablets to take orders at any time etc. They're all straight from Apple retail which has been a remarkable success story.

If they've been clever and got rid of underperforming locations then they'll be left with the cream of the crop and so can concentrate on paying to upgrade only the stores with potential.

Interesting to see what happens!

[Vixynne]

I really hope this works out...the Disney Store used to be a mini-dose of magic for my kids, back before they sold so many stores, and revamped the merchandise so that it's mostly t-shirts and Disney Channel-related stuff (and don't even get me STARTED on how the Disney Channel is mostly dreck these days)...I would love to see this chain revitalized. I hope the gamble pays off!

[gwennie81]

This isn't a new concept. A lot of retailers are doing refurbs now instead of expanding to new locations. This reflects people buying existing housing stock (moving into existing homes in established neighborhoods) as opposed to moving into new suburban developments.
For instance, we are having big problems with getting retailers to locate in our new mall because the zip code that it is in, the population growth has slowed down due to the economy. Retailers rely BIG TIME on the median incomes for the area (census data, economic bureau data, population projections...). That's how come some areas get Walmarts and other areas get Neiman Marcus.
Sorry to get all City Planner on y'all. HAHA!