Quality of available merchandise significantly reduced?

[Eric Graham]

Yep, bottom line Made In China.

Not many things are made in America anymore...maybe Igloo coolers etc...

 

[DW Aficionado]

it's the price of some of this junk....for instance, a 49.00 tiki glass at the Polynesian isn't just for 12.99

 

[KikoKea]

I remember when stores had unique merchandise. It gave us a reason to pop in different shops. Now, it's the same cheap garbage in every store. Or just go to Walmart down the road to buy souvenirs.

Yep. There used to be a Villains shop in DHS on Sunset, before the eating places. I picked up several Villain cups from there until one visit we went in....and it was just the same stuff as elsewhere. That was probably 15 years ago. We rarely buy any trinkets now, other than 1 or 2 things for grandkids if we have them with us, and a good portion of that is from the Shades of Green hotel Exchange (limited merch there, but much cheaper) or bought earlier at Walmart.

 

[LittleBuford]

It really varies depending on the kind of product. Their mug game is pretty strong, and the mugs I have bought in recent years are higher in quality than those I got in the ’90s. Their Christmas ornaments are also often very well designed and made. Unpopular opinion, I know, but they still sell some great merch.

 

[Tom Morrow]

I've been noticing this getting bad for a while. Hardly any attraction-specific merchandise, and it's hard to find any merchandise at all that doesn't have f*****g characters slapped all over it.

 

[hismattjesty]

Yep. There used to be a Villains shop in DHS on Sunset, before the eating places. I picked up several Villain cups from there until one visit we went in....and it was just the same stuff as elsewhere. That was probably 15 years ago. We rarely buy any trinkets now, other than 1 or 2 things for grandkids if we have them with us, and a good portion of that is from the Shades of Green hotel Exchange (limited merch there, but much cheaper) or bought earlier at Walmart.

Villains in Vogue, arguably one of the best stores to ever exist on property.

Villains in Vogue

 

[DisneyHead123]

A lot of the stuff is fine but overpriced, but for specific products, yeah, I’ve noticed issues. We got this monorail for my son like two years ago, and it worked for about an hour before never working again. Ok, I mean, that happens but - they are still selling the same frigging broken design over two years later!! Like they have to know they’re selling people a hundred dollar defective product at this point, right? 90% of the reviews speak to this. There’s no way they’re unaware that this thing basically just doesn’t run after a few weeks at most, and yet it still hasn’t been pulled from their inventory.

I will say, for some things I think the quality has gotten a bit better. I got my niece a doll and was surprised at how nice (albeit expensive) it was. Die cast and remote control vehicles purchased in the parks have held up well. Things like mugs and tumblers - eh, they’re all basically the same no matter where you buy them. Clothing quality has probably declined a bit but I remember the 80s when fabric was really expensive, before globalization, and it’s still a net gain since then.

 

[stuart]

Not really adding anything that hasn't been already said, but the variety of merchandise isn't amazing now compared with what it used to be. Very generic across all their outlets, and no variety in different shops either.

I stumbled on pictures of World of Disney from 90s/00s and there was such a variety of home and office items then. We have a mickey head calculator we bought on one of our early trips in the 90s, you don't see that any more.

There are other things, like packs of pens, which seem to never have come back after covid. There used to be a selection of nice individual pens as well, but not now.

I also noticed with covid, they started to introduce parks product on the ShopDisney UK site, including WDW and Disneyland product which had never happened before. This still happens, but not as much as there was for the 50th / 100th. It's also worth UK guests checking the site before they buy in the states.

On a similar note, a lot of product appears to launch on the same day, or very close to it, on the UK and US sites.

The range of t-shirts they do now is actually pretty good with all the various park designs, and more so than they did before.

I just wish they would have a line of polo shirts with current and former park, ride, show or resort logos. A service like the place at Downtown Disney where you could have a logo embroidered or printed would surely be a winner. Same would apply for mugs as well.



A polo like that could be worn out more than the garish t-shirts and hoodies. Not every garment of clothing has to be covered in text or graphics. I actually made some up in my old work.