Disney Store
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Disney Store is an international chain of specialty stores, selling Disney-branded items, many of them exclusive.
At Disney Stores in North America, guests can purchase passes to the Disneyland Resort and the Walt Disney World Resort. In France, Italy, U.K. and Spain, they may purchase passes to the Disneyland Resort Paris. In Japan, guests can get passes for the Tokyo Disney Resort.
Disney Stores are located in malls and commercial areas in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy and Japan. Quite a number of stores used to open in Hong Kong. However, many of them were closed in the last few years and the only Hong Kong Disney Store is now located in the Hong Kong International Airport. The Hong Kong store is renamed as The Magic of Hong Kong Disneyland and managed by the Hong Kong International Theme Parks. Only the European Disney Stores remain property of the Walt Disney Company; Japanese Disney Stores are owned and operated by The Oriental Land Company, the company that owns and operates the Tokyo Disney Resort, and in the United States and Canada, they are owned and operated primarily by Hoop Retail Stores, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Children's Place, LLC. Both Oriental Land and The Children's Place operate Disney Stores under long-term license agreements with The Walt Disney Company. TCP's operating agreements extend at least 50 years.
Having realized the decline of popularity of the mall-based chain, Disney decided to sell Disney Store. Japanese stores were sold in 2002, while most North American stores were sold in November 2004. European stores remain on the market, and are in danger of being closed due to declining revenue. Disney's new company-owned store chain is World of Disney, but still owns and operates the Disney Store on the company lot in Burbank, California, which is accessible only to Disney employees and special guests. Having sold the majority of the Disney Stores, Disney's flagship Disney Store is now on Oxford Street, London.
The Children's Place intends to reinvigorate the Disney Store brand in the United States by expanding the number of stores, reducing initial selling prices (Disney Stores have been well known for inflated initial prices, which would be marked down substantially after just a few weeks), and opening outlet stores, which have lower operating costs and typically have a high profit margin even though they have reduced prices versus mall stores.
Disney Store's website is not currently operated by Disney Store. Under the terms of the contract of The Children's Place with The Walt Disney Company, for a period of time the website www.disneystore.com will redirect guests to Disney's web-based retail center, DisneyShopping.com. The Children's Place will acquire the DisneyStore.com domain in 2007.
