Disney discontinuing resort specific merchandise.

luckyeye13

New Member
When I was at Epcot a little over a week ago, I went into Club Cool and was very unpleasantly surprised to find American Idol Experience merchandise inside. I do realize that Coca Cola sponsors the show, but it was still a downer to find that there really is very little localization to the park and attraction as far as the stores go.
 

Missymoe4

Well-Known Member
I was talking with a manager at a resort gift shop and she said that Disney was in the process of discontinuing all resort specific merchandise. She said once everything that was left in their inventory was gone it would not be replaced. She said that due to smaller production runs the profit margin on resort specific items is less than items like mickey shirts.


Oh NO!!!!

And here I was wishing that they would produce MORE resort-specific merchandise.
 

gspin2k1

Member
That's sad. IMO though some resorts have "cooler themes" than others. So maybe they should keep the resort specific merch for those resorts. I.e. AKL, Polynesian Resort, Grand Floridian. But Disney is a business, gotta do what they gotta do.

~G
 

Did Knee

Active Member
Did I miss something?

I may have missed this in the thread, but has there been any second sources that have verfied this rumor? Or is this whole thread based on the claim of the original poster? I'm not saying the OP is telling a fib, but I feel like somebody may have been pulling his leg. Resort specific merchandise inclding T-Shirts and "toothpick holders" are big sellers. I doubt this rumor is true because it is obvious that Disney would be shooting themselves in the foot...........on the other hand they DID shut down DTD and the AC.... but I still would like independent verification before I will begin believing this is likely fact.

:drevil:
 

prberk

Well-Known Member
That's sad. IMO though some resorts have "cooler themes" than others. So maybe they should keep the resort specific merch for those resorts. I.e. AKL, Polynesian Resort, Grand Floridian. But Disney is a business, gotta do what they gotta do.

~G

Which means MORE resort-specific merchandise, and land- or theme-specific merchandise throughout the resort, in addition to the generic merchandise.

People may buy some generic Mickey merchandise, but not repeatedly, especially during the same trip. Resort-specific and theme-specific or original merchandise adds to sales, even if they might have smaller profit margins.

Smaller profit margins on incremental sales like these are better than NO profit margin from a person not finding anything new or interesting to buy.

Once the basics are covered, any sales that add to the profit margin, even incrementally, are a good idea -- and in this case even help to keep the resort fresh and inviting for a return visit. All-generic merchandise all the time would add to the staleness of the resort, and hurt repeat attendance over time.

Paul
 

dizzney

Member
I certainly hope this thread is wrong, we have enough Mickey, love the resort specific and DVC merchandise, in fact whn we were at HH a couple of weeks ago, they had resort specific shirts,

Cant see disney dropping a whole income line here
 

WillMouseketeer

New Member
I actually spoke to a manager @ the CBR gift shop, she said MOST resort specific merch was being discont. BUT that SELECT resorts will continue to carry it, my guess was the deluxe resorts will most likely bethe ones to keep the resort-specific merch.
 

dreamfinder

Well-Known Member
Overall Disney STUFF is NOT :eek: selling so why not reduce costs by eliminating SOME resort specific STUFF :veryconfu Duckberg :lookaroun

Eventually you hit a point of diminishing returns. Pretend you are in charge of merch for all of WDW. Say by some stroke of fate, the Disney Parks t shirt is the biggest selling item this year, despire only being sold in the big shops, Mousegears, Emporium, WOD, etc. And it accounts for 20% of sales in those stores. So Disney decides, well, lets sell it in every single store. Regardless of the stores location size, etc, etc. And in doing so they expect all those stores to also do 20% of their business in the same shirt. But in reality, they only end up averaging 10% now. Well, now you have oversaturated the market. Everyone already bought the shirt at 1 store, so don't need it again at another store.
So you have 2 options at this point. Assume that people didn't see the shirt in every store, and maybe couldn't find their size, and so you throw a second rack of the shirt in each store, and pull a rack of ride specific merch. Or you decide that people just needed a bit more incentive to buy that shirt. So a month before XMas, you run a 30% off shirts sale. And during that time period, your sales go up, but your profits dropped because of the sale. So you pull out another rack of ride specific merch because it cost a bit more to make. And thus starts the vicious cycle they are in.
WDW may very well have surveys that show people want more places to buy merch. But I'm fairly certain (as it sounds like most others on here are also) that they overlooked the chance they wanted more variety in their merch, not simply more places to buy it.
The Art of Disney stores used to have many one of a kind pieces, or limited edition pieces, and my last few stops, it has mostly been largely unlimited pieces. Yeah, you may sell a few more of them, but you can't charge as much.
As an earlier PP said, they end up narrowing their target market way to much. Tren D is a small start at reverting that, along with some of their great merch available in Asia. For example, the Dive Into Disney, Most Pit On Disney, and House Disney CD's. Holy shnikeys that's so totally NOT Hannah Montana or Princess' it's amazing. Remember when the Disney Stores all carried a small selection of animation art? Admittedly they don't have nearly the selection of new art to sell, but they stock next to nothing like that anymore. And a majority of their merch is identical, or close enough to stuff that you can find at Target, Walmart, etc. Where is the excitement in that? Yes, you get a larger market share, but you end up diluting your brand. Think if Coach started to make the same exact purse you could find on the rack at Walmart, but still wanted to charge $700 for it. Would you still think it is as desirable? Or if everystore in the mall sold the same purse, think their sales would go up correspondingly? Or remain similar since simply having the goods in more markets doesn't directly correspond to an increase in sales. They need to be careful with their choices, and need to correct the brands direction before it gets totally lost.
 

DisneyGurl2000

New Member
License Plates

I've collected Disney License plates for some 20 years now...and I've noticed just in this past year- they are no longer easy to find at all!
They are no longer making them for each resort or each new attraction as they had in years past...
So sad......
 

lspicknall

Active Member
I was in the world last week and was told the same thing by the manager of one of the trading posts at Fort Wilderness (I happened to mention I still had a book of matches from the Maggic Kingdom and Fort Wilderness), she mentioned there would be no more resort specific merchandise coming in. We also spent much less on merchandise this time, but only because we could find nothing worth buying, not because it would be cheaper somewhere else, but because we just did not wnat it.
 

bgraham34

Well-Known Member
I am going to ask around next week while i am down there. I really hope this is not the case. I do believe it is though. It is a major mistake on their part.
 

gbruenin

Active Member
Back in the 90's there was commercials that showed adults having their honeymoon at Disney. All I see today is kids being the center. So I too am becoming concerned their marketing is centering too much on kids and not adult. Thus less merchandising for resort based items because that is more adult center.


Yep, they should market to me as well, since I'm the one with the money at home. My kids never take me places or buy me souvenirs.
 

reptar77

Well-Known Member
Just back from the world. We were at the CR, I only found 1 shirt and a couple of pins. That was it. At the market there was a very very very very small DVC section. 1 BLT shirt, a generic BLT keychain, shot glass, and stickers. woooooo:mad:

I'm extremely disappointed. We had a 500.00 merchandise budget. I came home with all of it.
 

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