Galaxy’s Edge merchandise issues in DHS?

[durangojim]

Do we think the merchandise shortages that DL is going through will be resolved by the time DHS opens and DHS won’t have these issues a month in to the opening?

 

[MaximumEd]

Good question. I would assume it’s hard to gauge demand for a brand new (to WDW) widget. Maybe they learned from the banshees in Pandora. Maybe they just guess?

 

[rsm]

I would imagine that whatever state of success or backorder things are in at DL when DHS opens, DHS stock would follow suit. Things that they can't make fast enough will be out of stock in both places. Or if they've gotten all caught up and learned from the demand in DL then DHS will benefit from the beta test. Shipping things to one side of the country vs the other from a supplier is a minor difference. Getting things manufactured takes longer than that difference.

 

[durangojim]

I would imagine that whatever state of success or backorder things are in at DL when DHS opens, DHS stock would follow suit. Things that they can't make fast enough will be out of stock in both places. Or if they've gotten all caught up and learned from the demand in DL then DHS will benefit from the beta test. Shipping things to one side of the country vs the other from a supplier is a minor difference. Getting things manufactured takes longer than that difference.

Since WDW and are separate divisions, I wonder if WDW already has their merchandise stock that DL can’t touch and now that Disney sees how popular some things are they’ve placed additional orders with their manufacturers to prevent the shortages that have occurred at DL.

 

[danlb_2000]

Do we think the merchandise shortages that DL is going through will be resolved by the time DHS opens and DHS won’t have these issues a month in to the opening?

Part of this depends on whether the shortages were intentional or not.

 

[TP2000]

Since WDW and are separate divisions, I wonder if WDW already has their merchandise stock that DL can’t touch and now that Disney sees how popular some things are they’ve placed additional orders with their manufacturers to prevent the shortages that have occurred at DL.

All of this stuff is made in China, so you've got a six month lead time on a lot of it.

There's only a 90 day difference between the two land openings, so even if they've now placed additional orders with the factory in Guangzhou, that stuff isn't going to be arriving into the Port of Los Angeles until late year at the earliest.

 

[The_Jobu]

Part of this depends on whether the shortages were intentional or not.

Bingo.

 

[rsm]

How many months did it take to get Banshee stock under control after initial opening?

 

[The_Jobu]

How many months did it take to get Banshee stock under control after initial opening?

Disney seems very well versed in causing shortages in new merchandise to generate hype. Remember rose gold ears?

 

[rsm]

While that is possible, I would be more inclined to believe that if they were actually advertising that things were sold out. Since they're not, the only people who "know" that things are sold out are the people who went to the park and had to leave without the merchandise they wanted. And since they're currently worried about attendance it seems unlikely they'd risk upsetting the "few" people who did show up, causing a worse PR problem:

"If it weren't bad enough that the flagship attraction wasn't open, the blue milk tasted bad, and most of the land was a glorified mall - it turned out there wasn't even anything for sale in the mall because it was sold out. No wonder no one is coming."

 

[tirian]

While that is possible, I would be more inclined to believe that if they were actually advertising that things were sold out. Since they're not, the only people who "know" that things are sold out are the people who went to the park and had to leave without the merchandise they wanted. And since they're currently worried about attendance it seems unlikely they'd risk upsetting the "few" people who did show up, causing a worse PR problem:

"If it weren't bad enough that the flagship attraction wasn't open, the blue milk tasted bad, and most of the land was a glorified mall - it turned out there wasn't even anything for sale in the mall because it was sold out. No wonder no one is coming."

For years, DL has had problems with keeping desirable merch stocked, because locals stockpile. For example, back when the Mickey 90th sipper cups were sold out in California, they were easy to find in Florida. The same goes for most items. SWGE shouldn’t have problems in Florida.

 

[RSoxNo1]

Part of this depends on whether the shortages were intentional or not.

It's puzzling. With crowds being lower than anticipated they either really shorted the merchandise inventory or as you suggested, deliberately shorted it.