Hi All,
I usually lurk on the boards but I'm a little confused by the statement made by the manager. Disneyland just came out with a BUNCH of different merchandise specifically for the 40th anniversary of their Haunted Mansion. If the statement were true, wouldn't it be hypocritical for Disney to make merchandise specific to the event, let alone specific to the park?
It seams to me that resort specific merchandise is more sought after because when it's up on Ebay it always goes fast at a high price.
Thats because it is "limited". If you slap a limited edition tag on something, you can raise the cost 10 bucks, if not more. The "aloha" shirts for the HM event, MSRP $75 I believe, the same non limited type shirt would go for about 50 or so. So that extra $25 per shirt covers up the cost of a short run.
I could be wrong, but it just seams a little fishy to me since Disney usually has long standing business relationships with their suppliers due to the fact that the costs for smaller runs are low because of the volume of different products that one company may make for Disney. My wife's company makes a lot of things for Disney, some are specific to the cruise lines and some is sold at all the Disney Parks. And trust me, Disney doesn't pay hardly anything for product. The reason companies like doing business with them is the fact that once your "in", you can expect alot of business in volume so you pretty much bend over backwards to keep them happy.
To a point, yeah. Buying 10,000 white shirts, doesn't cost all that much less than buying 5,000 red and 5,000 white (since for some reason I still can't fathom colored shirts usually cost more). But the cost to make each shirt unique does cost a bit. Yes, it may be spread out over the cost of the massive print run they do, but you still need different set ups, screens, and even the person to do the design. So someone comparing pure cost, sees 1,000 identical shirts for say 40,000 in sales generating 30,000 in profit, or 500 + 500 shirts for the same 40,000 in sales, but only generating 29,000 in profit, it's a no brainer. Save the 1,000 and BAM! I just paid for my front row parking spot for the year. Do that 50,60 times, you just justified your raise. Then throw in the cost of having to support a few extra thousand SKU's, the difference does grow. Might seem cheap on the per item cost, maybe 10-15 cents, but that adds up.
To echo some PP's thoughts, its a bad move. Say Johnny would buy 5 shirts, 1 from each park, and 1 from his resort. Each shirt made a 24 dollar profit for Disney, for a total of 120 in profit. But then Susy goes after they homogenized the shirts, and only finds 1 2009 Disney Parks tee, with a 30 dollar profit. Disney loses 90 in profits. This may be a bit simplified, but I'm sure we all get the idea. And then when profits go down, they assume people didn't have enough places to buy that same shirt, so they build another kiosk to cram the same stuff down our throats. Or raise park admission, or heck, raise the cost on the generic shirts to try to meet the same profit margin.
I don't want to go to WDW and buy another plain Mickey head polo, I want a unique shirt darn it. Dates, events, places, those make it meaningful. Mickey head? I can go buy the same style at Mal Wart for half the cost. So why bother?
Imagine pin trading if they only had 5 or 10 pins a year. Everyone would have to buy the same pin. And all of sudden, it's dead. All of the merch goes the same way. Last few trips I think I spent under 100 bucks on stuff for the two of us. Know how hard it was to find a decent photo album that fits more than 1 size photo? Not happening unless you buy a Disney scrapbook. Want my money? I'm there and willing to spend it, but give me good stuff. Something unique, something that I want to have, not more glo-stuff I can get at any fireworks display.....
