Politics 28000 Layoffs coming to Disney's domestic theme parks - statement from Josh D'Amaro

This thread contains political discussion related to the original thread topic

Miss Bella

Well-Known Member
Restaurants aren’t being shutdown, they can’t have indoor dining (and in some cases they can’t have outdoor dining) but they can still have takeout, delivery, etc.

There are several coffee shops in my town but of the 2 that I frequented the most, one of them closed permanently in March and said “we can’t survive! Whaaaaa poor us” and the other paid to have a custom app created and put up numbered signs in the parking lot so you can order from your phone and they bring it out to your car. They also have been running sales for at-home brewing equipment (chemex, aeropress, etc.) and posting recipes for their most popular drinks.

They seem to be doing fine, they even gave away all of their profits last Tuesday to a local charity and thanked the community for their support.

But please, go on about how I lack a fundamental understanding of business. :)
The profit margin for restaurants in good times is very small and the failure rate is high again this is in a good economy. About 50% of small businesses that took the ppp loans still failed.
Even if a restaurant is able to survive on takeout the servers still are not working.
 

TrainsOfDisney

Well-Known Member
The profit margin for restaurants in good times is very small and the failure rate is high again this is in a good economy. About 50% of small businesses that took the ppp loans still failed.
Even if a restaurant is able to survive on takeout the servers still are not working.
Well, some servers would still be needed, and some servers could work as delivery drivers.

And yes, some businesses won’t pivot and will close. A global pandemic WILL affect people’s lives. No way around that.

Back to Disney... look at how Disney Stiduo (which is Igers business background) has pivoted. Look at how Disney Parks have failed to pivot.
 
Last edited:

asianway

Well-Known Member
I acknowledged being in the hospitality industry and having to live paycheck to paycheck and then being laid off sucks - not sure how that is "blaming her" in any way, but OK. Oh, and I lived that life and I can assure you, it does suck.

But on the broader point, you are proving my assertion - had Disney simply stopped everyone's pay the moment they stopped working (within the limits of their union agreements and local labor laws), your critical response would have been the same so burning through countless millions of dollars on both coasts to pay workers to sit at home provided no return for its investment in "optics". Trust me, they are learning from that mistake when they read comments like on these boards and from politicians and the media.
Tooling through the WARN notices, you can see every hospitality company in Orlando is hemorrhaging employees.
 

Miss Bella

Well-Known Member
Well, some servers would still be needed, and some servers could work as delivery drivers.

And yes, some businesses won’t pivot and will close. A global pandemic WILL affect people’s lives. No way around that.

Back to Disney... look at how Disney Stiduo (which is Igers business background) has pivoted. Look at how Disney Parks have failed to pivot.
I would assume there’s some liability involved with having your servers driving around the city.
A lot of businesses have tried to pivot and have still closed.
I think 2021 will be a very bad year .
 

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
Well, some servers would still be needed, and some servers could work as delivery drivers.

And yes, some businesses won’t pivot and will close. A global pandemic WILL affect people’s lives. No way around that.

Back to Disney... look at how Disney Stiduo (which is Igers business background) has pivoted. Look at how Disney Parks have failed to pivot.
It's hard to not fail to pivot when the state forces them to close up tight. What freaking dream world to you live in anyway. You cannot bring Small World out to the parking lot for individual showings. What is wrong with you.
 

legwand77

Well-Known Member
Not all "restaurants" are hurting, some are having booming business. Fast food places are crushing it. Elimination of indoor dining saves them a ton of money. Biggest savings trash expense (customer now takes their trash with them) and condiment cost, plus now they are making killer money on sodas, no refills. Talked to one COO of one of the largest fast food chains and they are most likely going to close all indoor dining permanently in the next year or so.

Another fast food place, Chick Fil-A was already moving towards no dining rooms before the pandemic hit, worked out great for them, this is just speeding it up.

But note, these are not small business and most of those "jobs" will be gone via automation sooner than later.

Much like Disney where mobile ordering is going to stay and sooner than later the only option, you order food on mobile, go to window and pick it up and not see any CM in the entire process.
 
Last edited:

Miss Bella

Well-Known Member
Not all "restaurants" are hurting, some are having booming business. Fast food places are crushing it. Elimination of indoor dining saves them a ton of money. Biggest savings trash expense (customer now takes their trash with them) and condiment cost, plus now they are making killer money on sodas, no refills. Talked to one COO of one of the largest fast food chains and they are most likely going to close all indoor dining permanently in the next year or so.

Another fast food place, Chick Fil-A was already moving towards no dining rooms before the pandemic hit, worked out great for them, this is just speeding it up.

But note, these are not small business and most of those "jobs" will be gone via automation sooner than later.

Much like Disney where mobile ordering is going to stay and sooner than later the only option, you order food on mobile, go to window and pick it up and not see any CM in the entire process.
I wonder what's going to become of big urban cities like NYC. It's pretty sad. I don't feel like things are bad here. It feels busy. Everything's open and the snowbirds are here. We've had no trouble getting crisis staff. They want to come here. It's warm and it's open. I haven't met any of them that want to go to a cold, locked down city.

It's pretty obvious that some states are going to recover from this and some are not.
 

TrainsOfDisney

Well-Known Member
I wonder what's going to become of big urban cities like NYC. It's pretty sad. I don't feel like things are bad here. It feels busy. Everything's open and the snowbirds are here. We've had no trouble getting crisis staff. They want to come here. It's warm and it's open. I haven't met any of them that want to go to a cold, locked down city.

It's pretty obvious that some states are going to recover from this and some are not.
That’s how it where I live too. Nothing really closed down except a few places that didn’t want to even try or were already losing money.

Has New York City had a mass closing of restaurants? So many people live there, it’s not like the place is deserted, just not as many tourists.
 

techgeek

Well-Known Member
There truly is lack of fundamental understanding of how the business world works along with capitalism. The same people who are crying about how everything should be shut down, restaurants closed, travel restricted for a year or more, are the same ones complaining about companies not taking care of their employees at all costs, which would destroy companies and already has a lot of small business. Restaurant owners gets shutdown for a year, spent their entire lives building it and some expect them to just pivot to something else? Some are living in a true fantasy land here, but I guess that is expected as it is a Disney board.

This situation is completely unprecedented and beyond the scope of the ‘normal’ business practices that Wall Street has packaged into your typical MBA. Wall Street is not built to see the community that a company represents, especially one like Disney in a company town like Orlando. This is the defining global crisis of a lifetime, and capitalism is supposed to just trickle down and save the day like it’s 2009 and correcting from a recessionblip? We are off the script here, but Bob and Bob are still trying to find their footing thumbing through act 2.

For capitalism to work you have to have a functional society. You knock a significant chunk of the working class off the payroll all at the same time in the same city, without any social safety net to catch them and no other jobs for them to take, then what exactly do you think we have?

Government at the federal and state levels dropped the ball massively on actually helping small business through this crisis. 3 months of PPP funding and then you’re left to figure it out was barely enough time to even understand the rules of the game. Disney isn’t 3 months or even 3 years from going bankrupt. The long term good will and investment in the valuable resources of their cast members could have repaid the hit to the balance sheet ten fold looking at a long term picture. Instead of thinking about the community WDW needs to be a part of in 2030, the company chose and was rewarded the short term gains chasing the D+ content monster, which I’m guessing not much of which will be remembered past 2025 and will keep people gainfully employed for far shorter a time.

You speak of destroying companies, but I see a lost vision of a missed opportunity for Disney to truly define itself for another generation. You miss enough of those shots, eventually you lose the game.
 

Miss Bella

Well-Known Member
That’s how it where I live too. Nothing really closed down except a few places that didn’t want to even try or were already losing money.

Has New York City had a mass closing of restaurants? So many people live there, it’s not like the place is deserted, just not as many tourists.
I guess you don't keep up with what's going on. A google search will answer most of your questions.
 

legwand77

Well-Known Member
You speak of destroying companies, but I see a lost vision of a missed opportunity for Disney to truly define itself for another generation. You miss enough of those shots, eventually you lose the game.
guess you missed the Disney investor call yesterday. Plus stock hit record high today. If that is called losing in your book I don’t think there is much more to say.
 

Sirwalterraleigh

Premium Member
Taking my comments here so as to not derail the other thread.

Full shame on Disney for this.

I linked the story without comment, but.. these stories are the reality in central Florida right now, and it’s sickening that not only would the company not look after their own dedicated cast, but neither can our federal, state, or local governments.

Not just Disney, but stories like this exist from every single one of the hundreds of hotels, I-drive restaurants, bus and taxi drivers, and other business tangentially attached to tourism (which, the way cash from tourism jobs trickles into almost everything means that it’s literally almost every business in Orlando...). It’s not just the lowest paid housekeepers, it’s positions across the entire pay scale. People can’t wait until 2022 for things to ‘return to normal’, and there are little to no jobs to pivot to right now.

It is abundantly clear from Disney’s financials that leadership could absolutely have said “No one gets left behind. We may have to be creative, but we’ll figure out a way through this together.”

They chose another path. Perhaps the right path for the short term financial picture of the company, but I feel there were other paths out there besides mass layoffs. Perhaps in the long term those paths would have made for an even stronger company.

Not to ask hardcore “realist” questions here...but what did you guys expect would happen during a bad recession? The same thing that always happens in Florida - just bigger...all the ballast (employees) are thrown overboard. Wall Street rewards for that. Not a secret.

I think a problem with Disney in these times is that there is a completely false belief that all that money for the last 8 years and all those price increases on large crowds somehow “protects” the employees?? Like a magic slush fund?

Good god is that completely wrong. And it even seeps in the “cast” in booms. I’ve heard a lot of chatter down there from Emps and have noticed old acquaintances for the last 5 years or so justifying all the price hikes and upsells. They begin to believe they are somehow “sharing” in that? Never ‘twas...never twill.

Just cogs in the machine.
There truly is lack of fundamental understanding of how the business world works along with capitalism. The same people who are crying about how everything should be shut down, restaurants closed, travel restricted for a year or more, are the same ones complaining about companies not taking care of their employees at all costs, which would destroy companies and already has a lot of small business. Restaurant owners gets shutdown for a year, spent their entire lives building it and some expect them to just pivot to something else? Some are living in a true fantasy land here, but I guess that is expected as it is a Disney board.

Well you failed at being an epidemiologist...so goodluck with the Economics career👍🏻

The profit margin for restaurants in good times is very small and the failure rate is high again this is in a good economy. About 50% of small businesses that took the ppp loans still failed.
Even if a restaurant is able to survive on takeout the servers still are not working.

Restaurants failed all the time in “booming” economies...which I’ll remind had started to crash before the germs showed up.

Obviously it’s accelerated now. If only there was some way to stabilize that? 🤔
 
Last edited:

Lilofan

Well-Known Member
Tooling through the WARN notices, you can see every hospitality company in Orlando is hemorrhaging employees.
And TV news in other parts of the country are reporting store managers are seeing a rise in customers shoplifting. Desperate things some are doing in desperate times.
 

wannabeBelle

Well-Known Member
Has New York City had a mass closing of restaurants? So many people live there, it’s not like the place is deserted, just not as many tourists.
Yes NYC wil be closing indoor dining as per the Governor as of Monday. Take out is simply not feasible for some so they will close for the foreseeable and hope they can reopen soon or they may be closed permanently. Marie
 

gdrj

Member
You started out saying all the things that make it part of reality until you got to the last part. You're telling me that Chapek is the creator of the Pandemic? If he isn't then blaming this on him is without any merit at all. What Chapek would have done if the Pandemic didn't exist is just not possible to know and it doesn't matter what his past actions were, his responsibility is a lot different with his new title.

Besides that the BoD is the ultimate approval of any cuts or expenses. No business, albeit an entertainment venue, would be wise to continue to pay people that are unneeded. Now what happens after the Pandemic ends, within a reasonable time window, is when we can start being critical of actions that do not make sense. In spite of what seems like a huge amount of net worth a very large amount of that are physical objects like, let's say Haunted Mansion. That doesn't give them the money to pay people with what is obviously a huge loss of revenue. They can't very well pay the help by giving them pieces of Haunted Mansion can they. Worth is not just cash.

Even using the "Executive Bonas card isn't legit! What they pay out in Bonuses would, at best cover only a couple of weeks of full payroll. Let's put our anger and energies into doing what is necessary to get this deadly illness to go away instead of grasping at straws and blaming things that have done nothing more then react to a very bad situation that we are all part of.
Fair enough on Chapek, should have been left out of thread. I will say that IMO, it will give him license to make cuts or not bring back certain things. His reputation precedes the pandemic. It will be interesting to see what Disney World and the Parks look like in 2022 and 2023 (and forward). WIll it take a decade to recover? For all I know from a financial stability standpoint Chapek might be the right person to lead, from a “Guest Experience” side...maybe not. I guess we will have to wait and see.
 

Jrb1979

Well-Known Member
Fair enough on Chapek, should have been left out of thread. I will say that IMO, it will give him license to make cuts or not bring back certain things. His reputation precedes the pandemic. It will be interesting to see what Disney World and the Parks look like in 2022 and 2023 (and forward). WIll it take a decade to recover? For all I know from a financial stability standpoint Chapek might be the right person to lead, from a “Guest Experience” side...maybe not. I guess we will have to wait and see.
For me the Disney experience started going down hill at the end of Eisner's tenure. Too much focus on IP every where, not investing into the parks consistently. Outside of MK, the parks need a lot more attractions. Instead of adding in festivals at Epcot they should have invested in new attractions. Give people more to do then just eat and drink.

Now with Chapel in charge, its all about cuts. Remember he said that the CM's are the entertainment.
 

Sirwalterraleigh

Premium Member

Lilofan

Well-Known Member


Write your reply...

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom