Disney Store

Disney Store

Type	Subsidiary
Founded	1987
Owner(s)	The Walt Disney Company
Website	http://www.disneystore.com

Disney Store is an international chain of specialty stores selling only Disney related items, many of them exclusive. Disney Store is a business unit of Disney Consumer Products.

At Disney Stores in North America, guests can purchase passes to the Disneyland Resort and the Walt Disney World Resort. In France, Ireland, Italy, and Spain, they may purchase passes to Disneyland Paris. In the UK, they may purchase tickets for both the Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Paris. In Japan, guests can get passes for the Tokyo Disney Resort.

Locations

Disney Store in Scarborough Town Centre, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, after a 2005 renovation. This location has closed.

The first Disney Store (then titled "The Disney Store") opened in Glendale, California on March 18, 1987. Disney Stores are located in malls and commercial areas in the United States, Canada, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Belgium and Japan. A small number of stores were opened in Hong Kong and Australia; however, the Australian stores were closed in 2003, and the only Disney Store in Hong Kong at this time is located in the Hong Kong International Airport, which was renamed The Magic of Hong Kong Disneyland and managed by Hong Kong International Theme Parks. Disney also operated approximately 15 smaller-scale locations in airports throughout the United States, which were all shuttered in the early 2000s.

In the United States, Canada, and Europe, Disney Stores are owned by The Walt Disney Company. However, Japanese Disney Stores were owned and operated by The Oriental Land Company, the company that owns and operates the Tokyo Disney Resort, but have now been bought back by The Walt Disney Company. From November 21, 2004 until May 1, 2008, Disney Stores in the United States and Canada were owned and operated by Hoop Retail Stores, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Children's Place, LLC. Oriental Land operates Disney Stores under a long-term license agreement with The Walt Disney Company, as did The Children's Place. Until The Children's Place exited the Disney Store business, their operating agreements were to have extended at least 50 years.

Sale of divisions in Japan and North America

Even though the Disney Stores maintained strong sales, mounting cost of sales and operation and the loss of key executives who had driven the Disney Stores to success lead The Walt Disney Company to convert Disney Stores into a licensed operation. The Japanese stores were licensed to Oriental Land Company in 2002, while most North American stores were licensed in November 2004. The Walt Disney Company decided to keep the stores in Europe, along with the Manhattan store, which was converted into a World of Disney store. World of Disney also owns and operates a Disney retail location on the company headquarters in Burbank, California, accessible only to Disney staff and special guests, along with retail outlets associated with Disney-owned, operated, or leased theaters such as the New Amsterdam in New York City, the El Capitan in Hollywood, and merchandise outlets at its Broadway shows in New York. The Fifth Avenue World of Disney store was closed on December 31, 2009, and was replaced by a smaller Disney Store located in Times Square.

The Children's Place intended to reinvigorate the Disney Store brand in the United States by expanding the number of stores, reducing initial selling prices. Previously, Disney Stores have been well known for inflated initial prices, which would be marked down substantially after just a few weeks. Also, The Children's Place opened Disney outlet stores, which have lower operating costs and typically have a high profit margin even though they have reduced prices versus mall stores. However, Disney's strict licensing agreement, which included the burden of being required to invest significantly in store remodels, contributed to the eventual decision by The Children's Place to exit the business.^[1] Additionally, the licensing agreement required the stores to sell goods that only promoted Disney's high-risk and short-lived film properties.^{[citation needed]}

Repurchase of stores

The Times Square store.

Hoop Retail announced on March 20, 2008 that they were in talks to sell the Disney Store brand back to The Walt Disney Company, affecting two-thirds of the 335 stores currently operating in North America, with 98 expected to close after the proposed transaction is completed. This was further confirmed on March 21, 2008, when The Walt Disney Company officially stated that it was interested in buying back a portion of the stores, stating that the Disney Stores are "an important extension of the Disney brand" and that Disney believed a smaller chain "could add value to the Company in the promotion and monetization of its growing number of robust franchises".^[2]

Hoop Retail filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for Hoop Retail LLC, the Children's Place subsidiary which operates the Disney Store chain, on March 27, 2008. The Children's Place stores were not affected by the bankruptcy filing for Hoop Retail. At the time, negotiations with the Walt Disney Company were still underway, with a reported target turnover date for two-thirds of the existing Disney Store locations on May 1, 2008.^[3]

On May 1, 2008, approximately 220 Disney Stores in North America became the property of The Walt Disney Company, operating under the Disney Consumer Products arm. The remaining 98 stores in North America closed by the end of summer 2008, turned over to a third-party liquidator. The majority of stores affected by the closures were lower-volume stores; however, a number of newer store locations were shuttered as well. Taking many by surprise, Disney closed its only two stores in the city of San Francisco, the Stonestown Galleria Store and its flagship Union Square Store on Post Street. In Disney Store's heyday, there were three stores in San Francisco; the one at Pier 39 was one of the first Disney Stores to open when the chain began in 1987.

Disney Consumer Products promoted James Fielding to President of Disney Stores Worldwide in May 2008.^[4]

Furthermore, Disney Announced in November 2009 that they were planning a massive "re-launching" and re-branding of all Disney Store locations, spear headed by Apple's Steve Jobs, who pioneered the Apple Retail Store Concept.^[5]

The Oriental Land Company announced an agreement that it would sell its Japanese Disney Stores back to The Walt Disney Company. Disney would take over beginning April 1, 2010.

Online retail

1995
Online retail at The Walt Disney Company began back in 1995 with the opening of The Disney Store Online. At the time, the business was under the Disney Online business unit.

1998
In 1998 the company purchased Infoseek and that purchase included Starwave. With that purchase there were now many other online properties under Disney Online including Disney.com, DisneyStore.com, MrShowbiz.com, Family.com, Movies.com, ESPN.com, NFL.com, NASCAR.com, NHL.com, etc. This led to a new business named Buena Vista Internet Group (BVIG) which grouped all internet sites under one business unit.

1999
In 1999 the business was changed from BVIG to Go.com and was then spun that off as a tracking stock. Also in 1999 the DisneyStore.com business was moved under a business named Disney Direct Marketing (DDM). DDM was a business entity under the company's Disney Consumer Products (DCP) division and ran the Disney Catalog. At the same time all of this was happening, the team that ran the DisneyStore.com site also built and launched ESPNStore.com, NASCARStore.com, DisneyTickets.com and DisneyAuctions.com.

2001
In 2001 DDM was moved directly under the control of The Disney Stores business.

2004
The sale of The Disney Stores to The Children's Place didn't include the sale of DDM but did include the sale of the DisneyStore.com domain name, so in 2004 DisneyStore.com was changed to DisneyDirect.com.

2006
In 2006 a complete rebranding was done. Disney Direct Marketing, Inc. was changed to Disney Shopping, Inc. (DSI), the domain was changed from DisneyDirect.com to DisneyShopping.com and the Disney Catalog business was shut down.

2008
In 2008, after the repurchase of the Disney Store business from The Children's Place, the domain was changed back to DisneyStore.com.

2010
In 2010 DSI was moved back under the control of the newly reacquired Disney Store business and a complete redesign of the site was launched. Also in 2010, the Disneystore.co.uk site was completely rebuilt on the same platform as the US site,

2011
The Walt Disney Company purchased Marvel Entertainment in 2009, and in 2011, MarvelStore.com was relaunched using the same technology as the DisneyStore.com site. Also in 2011, a new online store (DisneyStore.fr) for the French market was launched and a new store (DisneyStore.de) for the German market was launched.

Disney Auctions was created in October 2000 with a partnership between The Walt Disney Company and eBay. Items like signs and ride vehicles from Disneyland and Walt Disney World were commonly sold as well as costume pieces and props from previously released movies from Walt Disney Studios. In fall of 2006, Disney ended their partnership with eBay and moved the Disney Auctions website under its own banner. In 2009 DisneyAuctions.com was completely shut down and that domain now redirects visitors to DisneyStore.com.

References

1. ^ Disney Store unit of retailer files for bankruptcy protection - MarketWatch
2. ^ The Walt Disney Company and Affiliated Companies - Corporate Press Releases - 080320
3. ^ The Children's Place - Investor Relations - Press Release
4. ^ Disney Consumer Products - James Fielding
5. ^ Barnes, Brooks (October 13, 2009). "Disney's Retail Plan Is a Theme Park in Its Stores". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/business/media/13disney.html?scp=3&sq=disney+store&st=nyt. Retrieved May 1, 2010. 

External links

• DisneyStore.com
• DisneyStore.co.uk
• DisneyStore.fr
• DisneyStore.de
• DisneyStore.co.jp
• MarvelStore.com