News Magic Kingdom's Main Street Emporium Under Construction, Shortcut Blocked

[brettf22]

I'm not clicking the link. Care to summarize what sounds like a tinfoil hat conspiracy?

More philosophical and psychological than tinfoil hat. Nor are his conclusions earth shattering. But an interesting take on how we got here. Some conclusions:

“Appeasing homogenous, mass consumer markets improves profits in all sorts of things.

There's a related shift in music, where complexity is being stripped out to appeal to worldwide streaming audiences.”

“There's no single explanation for the achromatic shift across industries.

But commercial incentives is a big one: appeal to the broadest possible tastes and offend no one.”

Sound familiar?

 

[James Alucobond]

That could just as easily be attributed to shifting preferences in general rather than a concerted attempt to avoid offense by being bland. For instance, look at any collection of advertisements throughout the years and you'll see color saturation either key up or shift down for periods of time. This feels very much like the hubbub from a decade ago about "every" movie poster being color graded toward blue and/or orange.

 

[castlecake2.0]

It looks like half the room will be tiled and the other half “hardwood” tile, I guess to help break up the space

 

[Agent H]

What’s even the point of this? Do they think this will somehow increase merchandise sales?

 

[HauntedPirate]

That could just as easily be attributed to shifting preferences in general rather than a concerted attempt to avoid offense by being bland. For instance, look at any collection of advertisements throughout the years and you'll see color saturation either key up or shift down for periods of time. This feels very much like the hubbub from a decade ago about "every" movie poster being color graded toward blue and/or orange.

The music industry has gone down a similar route around 1996. Everything “popular” since has had roughly a similar sound. But look at how music trends shifted from the 50’s through the mid-90’s, and then since then.

Disney had continued to tone down colors, remove uniqueness (World of Disney, as a prime example), and bring more ubiquity across the resort rather than uniqueness. Call it what you want - it’s there, it’s indisputable, and it’s not changing anytime soon.

 

[castlecake2.0]

What’s even the point of this? Do they think this will somehow increase merchandise sales?

This actually removed several feet of selling space. This looks to be more about improving guest flow through the shop as it has become more common to use this and the Casey’s seating area as a bypass

 

[FutureCEO]

Related to this change, and other recent de-colored-centric changes at the resort, WDW simply seems to be following the trend (instead of leading, unfortunately, imo). An interesting X thread about the topic:

I did my part. I went from a grey car to a red one.

 

[mightynine]

It’s funny to see articles mention “a seldom used cash register was removed”, when I feel like that register was the one I always used when shopping at the Emporium because there was never a line!

 

[montyz81]

Attention Target shoppers, the store is now open!

 

[LSLS]

More philosophical and psychological than tinfoil hat. Nor are his conclusions earth shattering. But an interesting take on how we got here. Some conclusions:

“Appeasing homogenous, mass consumer markets improves profits in all sorts of things.

There's a related shift in music, where complexity is being stripped out to appeal to worldwide streaming audiences.”

“There's no single explanation for the achromatic shift across industries.

But commercial incentives is a big one: appeal to the broadest possible tastes and offend no one.”

Sound familiar?

Not to totally derail, but I'm not sure I agree on music. I do agree that more complex music is not as popular (hard rock seems to need a generational-shifting artist at this point), but I think with the shift in being able to write and produce without any need for a record label, music is actually more freed than it was in my youth. Back then, you were absolutely reliant on a record label to create a professionally produced album, and they were not investing in that without thinking there was a return. Now, I can buy a $60 DAW for my computer, use a bunch of free plugins, and make anything I want. And then even upload it to like Spotify to allow the world to hear. There was plenty of music back in the day that lacked any sort of complex structure, it's just the music tastes have changed (and what people are really into right now are things they can pull a clip from, not things that flow beautifully). And we as a generation are getting older, and falling into the age old trap of "Back in my day..."

 

[Agent H]

This actually removed several feet of selling space. This looks to be more about improving guest flow through the shop as it has become more common to use this and the Casey’s seating area as a bypass

For what it’s worth I never see anyone eating in there except for the most crowded of days.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Those shops were murder for mobility vehicles. Wider aisles have been needed for a long time now.

 

[lazyboy97o]

This actually removed several feet of selling space. This looks to be more about improving guest flow through the shop as it has become more common to use this and the Casey’s seating area as a bypass

They absolutely should be building arcades like at Disneyland Paris. Especially before embarking on large scale additions.

 

[Disney Analyst]

This is absolutely strictly an accessibility and efficiency move. It was wild in there.

 

[HauntedPirate]

They absolutely should be building arcades like at Disneyland Paris. Especially before embarking on large scale additions.

You really need to stop with the logic and caring about how to best move people around. It's all about maximizing revenue streams these days. Get with the program!

 

[lazyboy97o]

You really need to stop with the logic and caring about how to best move people around. It's all about maximizing revenue streams these days. Get with the program!

Retail spaces are measured by the amount of shelf space they contain. The situation has actually progressed to the point that revenue is not the dominant concern. That means there is now a spreadsheet showing why paying to create less retail space is actually beneficial.

 

[HauntedPirate]

Retail spaces are measured by the amount of shelf space they contain. The situation has actually progressed to the point that revenue is not the dominant concern. That means there is now a spreadsheet showing why paying to create less retail space is actually beneficial.

Less shelf space = less inventory required (plus the possibility of people buying things because of FOMO?). Multiplied by 100 retail spaces around the property. Or something like that, I'm guessing?

 

[Jrb1979]

This is absolutely strictly an accessibility and efficiency move. It was wild in there.

It would help if guests stopped using it as a bypass for Main Street

 

[HauntedPirate]

It would help if guests stopped using it as a bypass for Main Street

What would help is if they didn't need to use it as a bypass.

 

[Disney Analyst]

It would help if guests stopped using it as a bypass for Main Street

Can anyone blame them really? Florida is horribly hot, humid, and it turns into a mini typhoon once a day in the summer.

Disney should have built a proper arcade. That or cover main street like Tokyo.