Disney Store
The Disney Store is a chain of specialty stores selling only Disney related items, many of them exclusive, under its own name and Disney Outlet. It was a business unit of Disney Consumer Products with the Disney Experiences segment of The Walt Disney Company conglomerate.
Company type
Disney Store was the first "retail-tainment", or entertainment store.[1] The company had operated a number of store chains beyond its flagship Disney Store chain such as ESPN-The Store and the short-lived Mickey's Kitchen restaurant. Currently, the company operates the stand-alone stores, Disney Baby, Walt Disney Gallery and Disney's Soda Fountain and Studio Store. Disney Store was a partner for Disney at Harrods, which included a Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique salon.
North America stores were owned and operated by The Children's Place's subsidiary Hoop Holdings from 2004 to 2008. The Oriental Land Company's subsidiary Retail Networks Co., Ltd. owned and operated the Japanese stores from 2002 to 2010. Since 2012, Disney departments exist in JCPenney in about 520 Penney locations.[2] In India, two licensed chains, Disney Jeans and Disney Artist, are owned and operated by Indus Clothing and Ravi Jaipuria Corporation respectively. At the 2019 D23 Expo, it was announced that Disney departments were opening at Target stores across the United States starting in October prior to the release of Frozen II. Disney Store items are also being sold on Target.com in addition to the Disney Store website (previously known as "shopDisney" from 2017 to 2024).[3]
Disney's Character Warehouse Outlet Store was licensed out to liquidator Asset Management & Sales LLC to sell overstock and discontinued Disney Parks merchandise. The Character Warehouses just have a few permanent locations while having temporary stores at times. Asset Management & Sales is owned by Janie and Gary Stump.[4][5]
Disney at Harrods[edit]
Disney at Harrods was a partnership between Disney and Harrods for the operation of Disney stores, Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, a Disney Store and Disney Cafe, within Harrods from 2002 to 2017.
On October 10, 2012, a 7,000 square foot Disney popup shop with a Princess Parlour, Cinderella Slipper salon, special Disney/Pixar corner and Activity Zone was set up in Harrods on the fourth floor.[84] Harrod followed National Princess Week with their Christmas theme being Disney Princesses by having Oscar de la Renta designed dresses for the Princesses.[85] In August, the dresses were on display at D23 Expo before being auctioned off on November 13 to benefit Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity.[86]
Within the previously operating Disney Cafe and Disney Store, the Disney at Harrods partnership added the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique salon to those stores.[87] The Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique salon was replicated for the first time for any Disney Parks, Experiences and Products experience in Europe at Harrods[88] as a part of Disney at Harrods[87] with its opening on November 25, 2013.[89]
From July to 21 August 2016, a Star Wars gallery ticketed event was held here with the Millennium Falcon cockpit, Holochess Table and Sofa and prop replicas. Propshop's state-of-the-art photogrammetry system captured heads and faces added to a Rebel Pilot, Stormtrooper or TIE Fighter Pilot overlay for personalized half a meter tall scale model for sale along with prop replicas.[90] On June 1, 2017, Disney at Harrods closed.[91]
Mickey's Kitchen[edit]
Mickey's Kitchen was Disney's first attempt at running a chain of restaurants outside of their resorts. The two locations were paired with a Disney Store, and operated from April 1990 to March 1992.
In April 1990, the 50th Disney Store opened at the Montclair Plaza mall (now Montclair Place) located in Montclair, California, along with the first Mickey's Kitchen fast food restaurant. 25,000 visitors had shown up, without any promotions. This location was opened as an experiment, with 190 seats taking up 6,000 square feet out of a total 12,000 square feet for the paired location.[18] The second location opened on May 31, 1991, at the Woodfield Mall, which was located in Schaumburg, Illinois. It was 14,000 square feet, when paired with the attached Disney Store.[92]
In March 1992, Disney closed the two Mickey's Kitchen locations, as the restaurants were only breaking even. While the concept was well received by customers, the company wanted to focus on expanding the Disney Stores to overseas locations.[93] A few years after the closures of the restaurants, the two Disney Stores they were attached to remained open until the 2021 closure wave. The Woodfield Mall store had relocated and remodeled in the early 2000s, while the Montclair Plaza store retained the original "pink & green" Disney Store design up until its closure in March 2021.
ESPN Store[edit]
ESPN—The Store was a chain of sports retail stores run by Disney Stores. The store were designed to look like a broadcast center and have interactive kiosks for video games and news.[1]
With Disney purchase of Capital Cities/ABC, ESPN was a key part of the purchase, which Disney chairman/CEO Michael Eisner moving into more brand extensions from biweekly sports magazines, ESPN Grill restaurants, video games and retail stores.[94] On September 16, 1997, Disney Stores opened its first ESPN—The Store at the Glendale Galleria, with sportscaster Dick Vitale providing color.[1] Two additional locations were opened. In September 1999, all three stores in the chain were closed down.[95]
Merchandise in the store consisted the usual branded clothing, collectibles and equipment like binoculars and radio headphones. Collectibles included one of kind collector's memorabilia like boxing gloves signed by Muhammad Ali ($350), and jerseys signed by basketball superstars Michael Jordan ($950) and Magic Johnson ($450). Sporting equipment was sold under the X Games name, ESPN's brand of "Extreme Games" competitions.[1]