Well, woody and Mia's Daddy, if I might interject a thought or two here. First, my Wife and I are former cm's at local stores here in Austin. She was a part-time cm, then a an asst. mgr. I was a seasonal cm. After having worked there, we can say that there has been a shift in the attitude and outlook for the stores.
One of the 3 stores in Austin was closed, and we were told that the mall wanted to more than double the lease agreement it had with Disney. Disney declined, and decided to close the doors. Now some of the cms/mgrs. were given an option to move to the 2 other locations but not all of them. I wasn't brought back after my schedule was up at the end of the year. My wife, who had taken the place of another mgr. who left for maternity leave, was asked to move back down to her first position, and to take a pay cut in the process. After almost six months of holding the position of asst. mgr. with all the responsibilities included in that position, she felt very slighted. Now please understand that we love the company and both wanted to stay with the stores we worked at. But she declined the "offer" to take a pay cut, and so now we both are on the outside looking in.
Next, after returning from the yearly mgrs. meeting, which was held at WDW last year, our mgrs. were told that the benefits for Disney Store cms for the parks, (park tickets), were going away.
Now I'm of the opinion that this was a big mistake on the part of Disney. I could go on, but I'll just leave it at that.
Since we have left, our district mgr, and my former store mgr., both the nearly 10 years of loyalty to the company, both left the company amid rumors that the stores were "on the selling block" and that more closings were in the offing.
Not to mention the merchandising/stock issues that exist within the Store structure. Although we had many great offers for guests, there was too much pooh product and not enough of what our guests wanted to see in the stores. I will say that there has been a change for the better in the last year with regard to that matter, but with the economy being what it has been at the retail level for companys like Disney, there hasn't been a windfall of profits. So my guess is that this will be seen as not having helped the company, hence the need to shift back to the status quo.
I'm not sure that I would advise looking for other employment just yet, but I can certainly see where you might want to explore the environment a bit, just to see what's out there.
I tend to be a glass is half full kinda guy, and so I'm always hopeful that things are headed in a positive direction. Now I'm not sure that Disney relinquishing ownership of their stores is the right answer here. Any time you give up something that has your name attached to it, you take a tremendous risk. What if the company is moved in a direction not consistent with the traditions and values of the company? What recourse do you have? I believe this is one issue which has kept anything from happening to date with the stores. Rather, I'd like to see some changes with regard to the companys involvement with ABC/ESPN, viacom, etc. etc.
. Like how the stores are sold in Europe and it was a done deal, yet did not happen. And then you act as if you have no doubt the U.S. Disney Stores will close. You are not alone. Jim Hill is on the same boat you are on. It is just you have no information to base your opinions on AT ALL. I think the term is "not credible".
