Disney Store

Have you been to a mall in the last, I don't know, 30 years? If so, odds are you've run into a Disney store. These little slices of Disney were everywhere in the 1990s. Today, not so much. And that's because the Disney store is a great example of how sometimes even a company Disney products are nothing new to most of us. And that's because they've been around for a really long time. Walt Disney was quick to license out merchandise rights for Mickey Mouse back in 1929. It was a clever way to bring in some extra money to fund his animations with virtually no added effort. What he began was a long tradition of putting famous Disney faces on everything from wristwatches to shirts to diapers. And for decades, it was a pretty dependable revenue stream for the company. In 1986 alone, Disney's Cons The thing is, for as much money as that was, Disney was just really getting a small licensing fee of around 7% for the products that were being sold. So while they were getting plenty, it was just a slice of a much larger pie. Disney set out to find ways to expand their reach in cons And one of the ideas from their new head of business development, Steve Burke, was a Disney owned and operated retail store. Burke was allowed to rent a 2,000 square foot store in the Glendale Galleria, which was a shopping mall about 5 miles from the Walt Disney Studios. The location was chosen so that Disney executives would be able to keep a close eye on the store and to see if there would even be demand for such a store with Disneyland so close by. Burke was able to put together the first ever Disney store for just over $450,000 and the test location was opened on March 28, 1987. The answer as it would turn out is, yes, there most definitely was a demand for such a store. In its first year, the store pulled in $2. 4 million in revenue. That amounted to nearly $1,200 per square foot, which was more than three times the industry average for specialty retail stores back then. So that July, a second store was opened in San Francisco and in November, a third was opened in Orange County. With all three locations doing well, the test was considered a success, which meant that it was time to expand. Disney set out to find an executive with retail experience who could lead the stores. However, they found that most candidates, when asked what they would do to improve the shops, wanted to essentially turn the Disney store into every other retail experience out there. As it would often happen during its history, Disney realized that they themselves would be the best ones to lead. It would ultimately be easier for Disney to learn the ins and outs of the retail industry than expect an outsider to learn the ins and outs of Disney and its culture. So Steve Burke, the man who came up with the very idea, was given the reins of the Disney store. With a great proven idea, the Disney store spread By the end of the 80s, two years later, there were 41 stores across the country. By the end of 1991, that n At its peak in 1997, there were 749 Disney stores around the world with an operating income of $893 million. A big improvement over that original $72 million. The period of growth even led to more experimentation. In 1990, Disney took one of their stores and converted half of the space into a fast food restaurant called Mickey's Kitchen. The venue sold healthy alternatives such as turkey hot dogs, meatless burgers, and various salads. A second location would later open, but ultimately the venture would struggle to break even, and in 1992, both locations would be shut down. The Disney store was also used for more than just selling merch to fans. With some stores being visited by as many as a million guests every year, Disney made sure that the locations would be used for synergy, something Eisner loved. Each shop had TV screens installed at the front of the store, along with larger screens at the back, with both used to play tapes advertising everything from the Disney Channel to new releases to theme parks. In fact, it wasn't long before the Disney store was selling over $10 million a year worth of theme park tickets. So what happened? Well, the biggest downside to the Disney store was that being centered around Disney meant their sales were faded to reflect how the rest of Disney was doing at the time. From the late 1980s to the mid-1990s, that was fantastic news, because Disney was doing great. It was the Disney decade after all. However, as the steam on the Disney train began to die down in the late 90s, so did the sales at Disney stores across the world. Disney films weren't performing as well as they used to, and while many fans see them as classics today, most of them weren't pushing merchandise as well as the Renaissance films were. The mistake Disney made was that they expanded at a rate that ass Unfortunately for them, that wasn'the case. The following period would be one of downsizing an evolution for the Disney store. Disney would attempt multiple redesigns at the shopping experience, and with each redesign, more stores, sometimes as many as a hundred, would be closed to cut costs. In 2002, Disney would take a major step in a different direction by selling all of their Japan-based Disney stores to the Oriental Land Company, and switching to a licensing business model instead of owning the store's outright. They would continue that trend in North America two years later, and sell all of their stores to the children's place in a similar manner. It was a time where Disney didn't own the Disney store. Side note, but at this point, in order to retain ownership, Disney converted their flagship Disney store in New York City into a world of Disney. While similar, the two stores were actually different businesses. While the Disney store was run by the Disney Cons In any case, that direction wouldn't last long. Four years later in 2008, the children's place retail stores would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and two months after that, it was announced that Disney would be buying back its 220 Disney stores. Two years after that, the Oriental Land Company would also sell its Disney stores back to Disney. In order to start fresh with the reacquired stores, Disney announced in 2009 that they would rebrand and relaunch their locations with the help of Apple CEO and Disney board member Steve Jobs. Jobs would use his experience from launching the highly popular Apple stores to help Disney reimagine the guest experience. The Disney store has changed in ownership, it's changed in style, and most importantly, it's changed in size. Today there are more than 200 locations in North America, more than 40 in Japan, and over 70 spread out across the rest of the world. An impressive n They serve as a good reminder that even for Disney, while there may be a larger slice of the pie out there, you don't want to bite off more than you can chew.