New Generic Option - Costume Shortage

[LittleBuford]

From a guest perspective sure it would be great not to see a cm pumping gas

I for one would actually be delighted to see this! A bit of magic spilling out into the real world.

 

[WDWTrojan]

You fail to miss the point, that execs want to make can impact by restructure , strive for efficiency methods regardless of Disney not going bankrupt. You seem to hung up on Cinderella eating at Denny's etc. Shareholders and guests from all over could hardly care less about your opinions on cast in their off time wearing their costumes eating at Denny's etc. Saved them little money? By eliminating 20 min walk time daily for thousands of cast 12/365 doesn't equate to saving the company little money according to you.

Again, they went from having only a few wardrobe pieces stolen yearly to thousands. When wardrobe pieces are often in the hundreds of dollars, walk time savings was largely negated by this. Adding in whatever reputation or brand loss you got by breaking the illusion, it was all a net negative. Also, this isn’t speculation on my end.

 

[Lilofan]

I for one would actually be delighted to see this! A bit of magic spilling out into the real world.

Cast members are real people too !

 

[castlecake2.0]

Again, they went from having only a few wardrobe pieces stolen yearly to thousands. When wardrobe pieces are often in the hundreds of dollars, walk time savings was largely negated by this. Adding in whatever reputations or brand loss you got by breaking the illusion, it was all a net negative.

Not a negative for cast who don’t have to worry about getting changed before and after work all the time when they just want to go home

 

[Lilofan]

You continue, for the second time, to miss the point. I understand how companies survive and what IE does. However, Disney was in no danger of going bankrupt due to how it was handling CM costuming for 30+ years. What you continue to miss is that while on paper the cancellation of walk time looked like it would save X, this was mostly negated by an explosion of lost and missing wardrobe pieces from outgoing CMs and the need to continuously create + maintain 4x the amount of wardrobe that was previously needed. When you factor in the brand degradation when you see off-duty CMs in full costume shopping or dining out, it was not a good business decision and saved them little money due to a number of unforeseen issues.

I find it hard to believe that departing cast are not audited or a process in place returning costumes prior to turning in their company ID. Being charged for missing costumes should be reflected on their last check. You keep harping on costumes not being returned is more loss to the company instead of 20 min loss productivity in operations because of walk time. 20 min away from operations 12/365 for thousands of cast is far more expensive in payroll numbers as opposed to a small amount of missing costumes. Industrial Engineering true to their purpose of looking for efficiency in company operations did their job by eliminating walk time.

 

[WDWTrojan]

I find it hard to believe that departing cast are not audited or a process in place returning costumes prior to turning in their company ID. Being charged for missing costumes should be reflected on their last check. You keep harping on costumes not being returned is more loss to the company instead of 20 min loss productivity in operations because of walk time. 20 min away from operations 12/365 for thousands of cast is far more expensive in payroll numbers as opposed to a small amount of missing costumes. Industrial Engineering true to their purpose of looking for efficiency in company operations did their job by eliminating walk time.

Again, cast members are audited. However because of the high turnover, especially among CPs, where you have tens of thousands of CMs yearly, many want to keep the costumes - either as souvenirs or for resale. This offsets much, but not all, of the savings. When you factor in the damage done to the brand and illusion by seeing a CMs trying to pay for groceries with food stamps, you wind up with a net negative. This is why many of the executive who once championed the “cast zooming” process came to regret it.

 

[WDWTrojan]

Not a negative for cast who don’t have to worry about getting changed before and after work all the time when they just want to go home

Certainly but that was one of the things that made Disney different. You didn’t see CMs in costume outside of the park.

 

[tanc]

Maybe they're going to buy costumes with the huge price increases, one can only hope

 

[peter11435]

I was in numerous meetings about the process change and "outside" pressure never came up. It was always about how do we save on walk time. They just never counted on thousands and thousands of pieces going missing every year thanks to CPs.

There was absolutely pressure from several unions.

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

Heard Chapek just commissioned a few of these for himself. Can't wait to see him walking around the parks.

 

[phillip9698]

Can someone explain how there is a shortage. If there wasn't a shortage before the pandemic how is there one now? Did all the old cast members just take them home when they were furloughed?

 

[castlecake2.0]

Can someone explain how there is a shortage. If there wasn't a shortage before the pandemic how is there one now? Did all the old cast members just take them home when they were furloughed?

That, supply chain issues getting pieces/fabrics, mass hiring, more people now checking out different pieces that weren’t allowed to before based on gender specifics

 

[Lilofan]

Can someone explain how there is a shortage. If there wasn't a shortage before the pandemic how is there one now? Did all the old cast members just take them home when they were furloughed?

I believe I read that when the college program, International program were abruptly cancelled spring of 2020, cast had to cease work, leave immediately and vacate Disney premises including company housing and some cast needed last minute plane tickets to leave the USA and return to their homeland . Lost in the shuffle could be some costumes that were meant to be returned.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Can someone explain how there is a shortage. If there wasn't a shortage before the pandemic how is there one now? Did all the old cast members just take them home when they were furloughed?

Costuming was tight before the pandemic. There might be pieces available but it wasn’t uncommon for it to be difficult to find pieces that fit properly.

 

[Lilofan]

Some I know who were out of work for a while gained a lot of weight staying at home before returning to work in other companies. Perhaps costumes in other sizes were not readily available to the returning cast whose body shapes had changed.

 

[JoeCamel]

DHS no longer makes costumes on view? Do they still (post pandemic) produce or has all that been outsourced?
New production is dependent on fabric supply and the ability to have many sewers working together. Pandemic would impact all of the supply lines.
Not like a new hire is issued somebodies used costume correct?

 

[drizgirl]

DHS no longer makes costumes on view? Do they still (post pandemic) produce or has all that been outsourced?
New production is dependent on fabric supply and the ability to have many sewers working together. Pandemic would impact all of the supply lines.
Not like a new hire is issued somebodies used costume correct?

That was part of the Back Lot Tour that has been gone for some time.

 

[TYOTimer]

I for one would actually be delighted to see this! A bit of magic spilling out into the real world.

Go the the 7/11 directly behind MK, you’ll see it

 

[TYOTimer]

Can someone explain how there is a shortage. If there wasn't a shortage before the pandemic how is there one now? Did all the old cast members just take them home when they were furloughed?

A lot of CMs took them home due to furlough, and when you get laid off/fired/quit at Disney, you may have a costume at home because of that. So, when that happens, Disney very kindly sends you a letter, telling you to return what costume you have needs to be returned by a certain date, or you won’t be considered for another role in the company. What most people end up doing, is just keeping them as a keepsake, or, you can cut the chip out of it, and sell it on eBay or something. (This also applies to the hundreds/thousands (it’s somewhere in that ballpark, I don’t know exacts) that either quit during the pandemic, or were fired by Disney once they went back to their strike system around April/May)

There’s also the issue, at least from what I heard, of costuming being basically barebones staff at the moment, and nowhere near being able to make up for the costume shortages that have happened in the past 6 months.

 

[peter11435]

Can someone explain how there is a shortage. If there wasn't a shortage before the pandemic how is there one now? Did all the old cast members just take them home when they were furloughed?

Some costumes were lost due to layoffs and sending CP’s home. Although many of them still returned those because otherwise they won’t be rehired again unless they return or pay for the missing garments. The bigger issue is supply chain shortages for fabrics and materials combined with staffing challenges. Also operational costuming production is a full time year round operation that was shut down for many months last year and then has been playing catch up with limited staff and limited supplies ever since.