Disney Store

[Disneyfreak]

Okay, this may have already been covered before.:dunce:

Tonight I was out with DW on a date & we strolled into our local Disney Store, of course we found something we wanted to buy. :jumpingbe

I went up to the register & whipped out my DVC member card looking for a discount when I was told that they no longer accept the card as another company now owns the Disney Stores outside of Disney World.:sosad:

Is this true? I was surprised to find this out. I thought Disney was Disney but I guess not!:idontgeti

Is DVC still owned by Disney? Is Mickey still the main mouse? Have I gone into a time warp :hypnotict and nothing is the same anymore?

Please tell me it is not so!!!:headbange

[tjkraz]

Yup, it's true. Can't remember if it was December '04 or '05--I tend to think it was all the way back in '04. The same corporation that runs children's stores under the name "The Children's Place" now owns all of the Disney Stores in the US.

The good news is that DisneyShopping.com is a separate entity still run by Disney. Since DisneyShopping deals in web sales only, they are not required to charge sales tax. DVC members have a standing 10% discount at DisneyShopping, but Mousesavers.com often has discount codes even better than that. And they have free shipping on orders over $75 pretty consistently.

Honestly it had been a while since I bought much from either the Disney Stores or the website, but last November / December I placed 3 or 4 separate orders from the website. Between the great discount codes and free shipping (each order was over $75), I got quite a bit of stuff at some nice prices.

Now, if only DisneyShopping would start carrying theme park merchandise. Then my credit card would really start smoking. But that's a topic for another thread. ;)

[Disneyfreak]

Thanks for the info tjkraz,

I was just making sure my whole "Disney World" was not turning upside down.:D

[doombuggy]

TWDC sold the North American Disney Stores to The Childrens Place/Hoops Retail back in November 2004. TWDC still owns the European stores, along with the online catalog. Disney Direct (Disneyshopping.com) which is still part of the Consumer Products division of TWDC stopped sending catalogs out by mail in April. They are strickly online and the customer service unit is outsourced in Nevada. TWDC does own the World of Disney store on 5th Ave in NY. That is part of the Parks & Resorts division. Savvy?

[bavaria]

And FWIW, the Disney store on 5th Ave is wonderful - much better even that the 'old' Disney stores. My sister frequents the Disney stores in UK and France and says the same. Sadly I find the Disney stores which still remain in North American shopping malls are little more than large toy stores.....

[jiggerj]

And FWIW, the Disney store on 5th Ave is wonderful - much better even that the 'old' Disney stores. My sister frequents the Disney stores in UK and France and says the same. Sadly I find the Disney stores which still remain in North American shopping malls are little more than large toy stores.....

I agree the 5th ave store is really neat- They had a great book section last time I was there and were even doing meet and greet with some characters-

I lived and worked thru the demise of the REAL Disney Stores (meaning pre -CP)- worked for them about 3 yrs. In the beginning it was FANTATIC! True team players filled with Disney spirit- the product was fun,the guests were fun, the cast was fun...it was literally whistle while you work-

Meetings were in high Disney fashion with all of us even at the end all in a circle singing Mickey Mouse song-

Then when our store was chosen to be a Castle store and what a production that was- Cast members were flown in from all over the country to help get the store ready for opening- (I remember one of the suits from Calif. that was there overseeing actually had his start in the company as Prince Charming!) Mickey and Minnie were there ect.. The Store was beautiful!

Then the dark cloud approached- The product changed, traditons changed and in the change went along with it alot of the Disney Spirit in many-

I bailed as the Childrens Place came in- I went in as a cm and I was leaving as a cm-

But I will be back!! :howudoin: doombuggy! ;)

[Disneyfreak]

Well, I did notice that my local Disney Store was lacking in the " Magic " Dept.

I guess DW & I will have to wait a couple of weeks to get back to the " Magic " in Orlando.:thumbsup:

[dvcconvert]

Then the dark cloud approached- The product changed, traditons changed

The cloud was the bean counters from Strategic Planning at TDA....the hot air that drove that storm was one Mr. Eisner. :tapedshut :sosad:

[jdvm]

....and hopefully at least some of the magic that was snarfed up in the later Eisner cost cutting years will start to creep back into the picture.
John