TooExcitedCantSleep
I can't with you basic chicks
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2008
Why is it so hard to make this one dress???? All it takes is cheap cloth and a pound of glitter and sequins!!!!! Gosh Disney---- these Queen Elsa dresses are going upwards of $1600.00..... think of the kids, especially the parents!!!!!!! Do something about this.
Elsa's Frozen Dress: The Hottest Gown in Town http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-04-17/elsas-frozen-dress-the-hottest-gown-in-town
Aaryn Costello is searching for the perfect dress, a 30-inch-long light-blue number with a sparkly bodice and a detachable white cape. That would be the Elsa dress from the Walt Disney (DIS) hit Frozen, the most sought-after fashion item among the kindergarten set. Many stores are sold out, and limited-edition versions originally sold by Disney have been offered for up to $1,600 on EBay (EBAY). Desperate parents are sewing their own or shelling out up to $225 for replicas on craft sites such as etsy.com. Every mom in the world is dying for this dress, says Costello, a Los Angeles marketing consultant with a Frozen-obsessed 4-year-old.
Toys, dolls, and clothes have always been a big part of strategy at Disney, the worlds largest licensing company. Even so, its hit an unexpected merchandise jackpot with Elsa, the Snow Queen of Arendelle, and her ice gown. It took everyone by surprise worldwide, says Stephen Berman, chief executive officer at Jakks Pacific (JAKK), a manufacturer that sells to chains such as Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) and Target (TGT). This is a new Disney princess franchise. It happens maybe once or twice in a business career. In January, stores sold out of Jakkss versionprice, $20and some retailers are ponying up to airlift reinforcements from Chinese factories.
Buyers stocked only about as many of the ice gowns as they did Rapunzel outfits from Disneys 2010 Tangled. But since its Nov. 22 opening, Frozen has become the top-grossing animated film of all time, with worldwide theater receipts of $1.1 billion, according to researcher Box Office Mojo. We are thrilled that audiences formed instant connections to the characters, and we are working hard to get additional products into stores as soon as possible, wrote Tasia Filippatos, a Disney spokeswoman, in an e-mail. When shipments do come in, Disney stores limit customers to two dresses to curb black market sales. Filippatos declined to comment on the size of the Frozen merchandise market.
Early on, Elsa dress sales were slow, and stores thought theyd over-ordered. Then kids fell in love with the movie princess. As sales climbed and orders poured in after Christmas, Jakks had trouble restocking because of the Chinese New Year, which shut down manufacturing for a month until mid-February. It takes two to three months for retailers to receive new shipments from China, according to Jim Silver, editor of TTPM.com, a toy industry website. Demand picked up again in March when Disney issued the film on DVD. Berman says Jakks will roll out new merchandise this year, including Frozen-themed furniture and snow-cone machines. He also expects Elsa and Olaf, the snowman from the movie, to be top Halloween costumes.
Disney designers created fancier versions of the dress priced from $50 to $150 for sale at the companys stores and parks. The sought-after limited edition, which has a white cape and a bejeweled cameo, is fetching top dollar online. Costello, the L.A. mother searching for the dress, says her daughter got an Elsa nightgown for Christmas and wears it every dayeven to the park. Costellos holding out for the limited edition of the ice gown. I, of course, she says, want the real deal.
Most-wanted dress in the U.S.: 'Frozen's' Elsa frock http://www.ocregister.com/articles/costume-609376-costumes-stores.html
'Frozen' out of the market, desperate parents pay thousands for Elsa dresses http://www.today.com/moms/frozen-out-market-desperate-parents-pay-thousands-elsa-dresses-2D79516107
It was 3 a.m. when Lyla Gleason finally got her hands on an official Princess Elsa dress for her 4-year-old daughter.
'Frozen' Elsa dress selling for $1,000 on eBay http://money.cnn.com/2014/04/10/news/companies/frozen-elsa-dress/
A 'Frozen' retail supply angers parents, saddens kids http://www.wtop.com/628/3604164/A-Frozen-retail-supply-angers-parents-saddens-kids
An Elsa dress from the Disney movie "Frozen" sells for nearly $1,200 on eBay. (WTOP Screen Shot)
It's not just the U.S........Queen Elsa dress woes are felt all over the globe!!!!!
Canada - Disney's 'Frozen' merchandise shortage creates mob of angry parentshttp://www.cbc.ca/newsblogs/yourcom...se-shortage-creates-mob-of-angry-parents.html
Canada - Frozen-out in the toy aisle: Why merch for Disneys hit film is in short supply http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts...-hit-film-is-in-short-supply/article18054075/
Singapore - 'Frozen' dress sold out in Singapore http://www.straitstimes.com/lifesty...tory/frozen-dress-sold-out-singapore-20140420
Housewife Ainsley Yip bought a Disney original dress on eBay, which cost US$80, for her daughter Rianne Chew (above). -- PHOTO: COURTESY OF AINSLEY YIP
UK - Frozen merchandise shortage spells trouble for parents http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/...dise-shortage-spells-trouble-for-parents.html
Why Disney's Frozen is Financially Crippling Parents http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/why-disneys-frozen-financially-crippling-parents-1444189
Frozen merch is making parents do crazy things http://nypost.com/2014/04/14/parents-fight-and-connive-for-sold-out-frozen-merch/
Megan (left) and Lauren McDougal came all the way from Scotland hoping to buy a coveted Elsa dress and Elsa doll at the Disney Store in Times Square but the picked-over options were not to their liking.
Photo: Anne Wermiel
Last Friday, the Disney Store in Times Square was the saddest place on Earth.
Kids streamed in, one after the other, talking excitedly to their parents about Elsa and Anna, the stars of Disneys hit Frozen, the top-grossing animated film of all time, with more than $1 billion in worldwide box-office receipts.
But their smiles quickly melted.
Were all sold out of Frozen, a Disney sales associate said for the 200th time that day. Except for this, she added, pointing weakly to a paltry stand decorated with five pairs of Anna boots, a handful of floral frocks emblazoned with a Frozen logo and four Frozen-themed ballet flats large enough to house Dennis Rodmans feet.
I cant believe in a great big store, this is all they have, lamented Pauline McDougal, who was visiting from Scotland. Her daughters, 11-year-old Lauren and 8-year-old Megan, had their hearts set, respectively, on the Elsa dress and Elsa doll.
Youd expect more in New York, McDougal added.
Its official. Frozen fever has swept the world. The only problem is, the merchandise is sold out everywhere.
The Disney Store classic Anna (right) and Elsa dolls retail for only $16.95 each. But with all the dolls sold out until who knows when, people are now hawking them on eBay and Amazon for nine times the original price and more.
Since the movies release on DVD in March, Frozen merchandise has been selling so fast, Disney had to institute a two-item limit on all goods last Wednesday (not that theres anything to buy).
Maternity-wear designer Rosie Pope says her pal who works at Disney, no less recently shelled out $1,200 for an Elsa doll on eBay after she promised her daughter one for her Frozen-themed birthday party.
By this point, she didnt care about the price, says Pope. She didnt want to disappoint her daughter.
Its a buy-or-die mentality. And one that Upper West Side mom Shannon Russo-Pollack admits to adopting. While at Walt Disney World last month, Russo-Pollack trekked to more than 42 stores in search of the elusive Elsa dress for her 6 ½-year-old daughter, Summer.
Nina Kedersha threw her 5-year-old daughter, Danielle (left, with big sister Lauren), a Frozen-themed birthday bash last Saturday. She decided to resell her two Frozen balloons for $5 total because of their scarcity.
They were totally sold out, says Russo-Pollack, who owns Dasha Wellness and Spa in NYC.
Thats when Russo-Pollacks husband, Dr. Darren Pollack, plopped down $480 on Amazon to preorder two dresses (he didnt know which size to buy), in addition to more than $350 on other Frozen paraphernalia.
I said, What are you, crazy? Keep looking! He said, I promised her. How many more stores can we go into? recalls Russo-Pollack. It was crazy, but totally worth it. My daughters eyes lit up when she saw the dress. (Russo-Pollack will be donating the extra size 6 dress to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.)
Experts liken the frenzy to the 1980s Cabbage Patch Kids craze.
Were now at the stage where the demand is almost being driven by the scarcity because of the social status attached to being able to find it, says Sean McGowan, a toy industry analyst at Needham & Co. in NYC. Being someone who had a Cabbage Patch [Kid] meant you were loved more than the others. It was social status and elite achievement that came with finding this rare gem.
According to Times Squares Disney Store employees, every other customer who walks into the flagship is on the hunt for Frozen gems.
Needless to say, sold out doesnt always sit too well.
People have gotten into physical fights in the morning, says one Disney Store employee, who asked not to be named.
The kids cry, but the parents are the problem. They try to guilt us, say their daughters are sick. They have no shame. But I cant make it magically appear!
Five-year-old Samantha Venokurs baby sitter won the award of the year when she bought the little girl this stunning Anna costume. Samanthas still gunning for the Elsa one, but no luck so far.
Photo: Gabi Porter
Donna Ladd, who writes a blog called Motherburg, didnt even realize what a hot commodity Frozen had become until after she snagged an Olaf doll during a recent business trip to Italy: I was with another mother, and we passed the Disney Store in Venice and we saw the Frozen shop and she went crazy.
Ladd brought home the stuffed snowman for her 4 ½-year-old son, Charlie.
Chaos ensued.
Anywhere I was, at the Met, at the supermarket, all the mothers were going crazy screaming, Oh my God, I cant believe you got it! says 43-year-old Ladd, who lives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. They were asking me if they could borrow the doll for a few days . . . I feel like I had a bag no one else could get.
Things got so intense that Ladd became wary of letting Olaf out of the house: Its causing so much angst for the kids and parents, and also kind of making them sad, she says.
Disney message boards are rife with angry mothers lambasting the company for being ill-prepared; some are even accusing the company of orchestrating the shortage to ramp up interest. But McGowan says the latter is nonsense: Theres no chance Disney doesnt want to be selling more. Retailers just made the mistake of playing it too safe after being burned by an excess of inventory from lackluster movies including Tangled, Brave and The Princess and the Frog, according to McGowan.
Motherburg founder Donna Ladd didnt even realize what a frenzy Frozen had become until she brought home an Olaf doll for her son, Charlie, from a business trip to Venice, Italy.
Photo: Christian Johnston
We knew this movie was a winner, says Erin Barrier, a Disney Store spokesperson, but it overperformed so significantly that now were doing what we can to get in more product as soon as we can. (Barrier says the Elsa dress should be back in limited quantities by early May and back fully in stock in July and August.)
But most moms arent willing to wait.
Lyss Stern, founder of Divalysscious Moms, a luxury lifestyle company, is already stocking up for her 6 ½-year-old sons Frozen-themed birthday party in July because I know Im not going to be able to find anything, she says.
Leslie Venokurs friend was in such a bind for her daughters Frozen birthday bash last Sunday that the pal shelled out $150 on a homemade Elsa costume for her child from the crafts site Etsy. It didnt even look like Elsa, bemoans Venokur, co-founder of the Big City Moms site.
In an attempt to override the price-gougers, mothers have set up Facebook groups, such as Unfrozen Trading Friends, in which approved members can exchange tips on where to score Frozen merchandise and sell their toys, at cost, to one another.
When one group member posted that Disney canceled her Elsa doll order, D.M., a lawyer who lives in New Canaan, Conn., FedExed the distraught mother a spare Elsa doll she owned.
After Shannon Russo-Pollack scoured 42 stores at Disney World for an Elsa dress for her daughter Summer (pictured), her husband caved and bought two costumes from Amazon for a total of $480.
Photo: Zandy Mangold
She was so upset because her daughter is chronically ill and going through chemo, says D.M., who asked that only her initials be used for professional reasons.
With a Netflix release of Frozen scheduled for Tuesday, even rentals of the movie have been hard to get recently the Frozen wait-list at the Scarsdale, NY, library is 702 deep (with just 5,418 households, according to the 2010 census).
The biggest Frozen fanatics admit, though, that it might be time to just let it go.
You want your kids to be happy, but at the same time, what are you willing to do, what are you willing to pay? asks 31-year-old Upper East Sider Nicole Ross, who has a 3-year-old daughter, Sydney, and another child on the way. Its really dumb. We should probably just learn to say no more often. But its so difficult when they are so obsessed with the current movie.
The sad thing is, when all this stuff gets restocked, theyll be on to the next thing, admits Venokur, who still hasnt managed to get her daughter the Elsa dress.
Until Frozen 2 comes out.
Elsa's Frozen Dress: The Hottest Gown in Town http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-04-17/elsas-frozen-dress-the-hottest-gown-in-town
Aaryn Costello is searching for the perfect dress, a 30-inch-long light-blue number with a sparkly bodice and a detachable white cape. That would be the Elsa dress from the Walt Disney (DIS) hit Frozen, the most sought-after fashion item among the kindergarten set. Many stores are sold out, and limited-edition versions originally sold by Disney have been offered for up to $1,600 on EBay (EBAY). Desperate parents are sewing their own or shelling out up to $225 for replicas on craft sites such as etsy.com. Every mom in the world is dying for this dress, says Costello, a Los Angeles marketing consultant with a Frozen-obsessed 4-year-old.
Toys, dolls, and clothes have always been a big part of strategy at Disney, the worlds largest licensing company. Even so, its hit an unexpected merchandise jackpot with Elsa, the Snow Queen of Arendelle, and her ice gown. It took everyone by surprise worldwide, says Stephen Berman, chief executive officer at Jakks Pacific (JAKK), a manufacturer that sells to chains such as Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) and Target (TGT). This is a new Disney princess franchise. It happens maybe once or twice in a business career. In January, stores sold out of Jakkss versionprice, $20and some retailers are ponying up to airlift reinforcements from Chinese factories.
Buyers stocked only about as many of the ice gowns as they did Rapunzel outfits from Disneys 2010 Tangled. But since its Nov. 22 opening, Frozen has become the top-grossing animated film of all time, with worldwide theater receipts of $1.1 billion, according to researcher Box Office Mojo. We are thrilled that audiences formed instant connections to the characters, and we are working hard to get additional products into stores as soon as possible, wrote Tasia Filippatos, a Disney spokeswoman, in an e-mail. When shipments do come in, Disney stores limit customers to two dresses to curb black market sales. Filippatos declined to comment on the size of the Frozen merchandise market.
Early on, Elsa dress sales were slow, and stores thought theyd over-ordered. Then kids fell in love with the movie princess. As sales climbed and orders poured in after Christmas, Jakks had trouble restocking because of the Chinese New Year, which shut down manufacturing for a month until mid-February. It takes two to three months for retailers to receive new shipments from China, according to Jim Silver, editor of TTPM.com, a toy industry website. Demand picked up again in March when Disney issued the film on DVD. Berman says Jakks will roll out new merchandise this year, including Frozen-themed furniture and snow-cone machines. He also expects Elsa and Olaf, the snowman from the movie, to be top Halloween costumes.
Disney designers created fancier versions of the dress priced from $50 to $150 for sale at the companys stores and parks. The sought-after limited edition, which has a white cape and a bejeweled cameo, is fetching top dollar online. Costello, the L.A. mother searching for the dress, says her daughter got an Elsa nightgown for Christmas and wears it every dayeven to the park. Costellos holding out for the limited edition of the ice gown. I, of course, she says, want the real deal.
Most-wanted dress in the U.S.: 'Frozen's' Elsa frock http://www.ocregister.com/articles/costume-609376-costumes-stores.html
'Frozen' out of the market, desperate parents pay thousands for Elsa dresses http://www.today.com/moms/frozen-out-market-desperate-parents-pay-thousands-elsa-dresses-2D79516107
It was 3 a.m. when Lyla Gleason finally got her hands on an official Princess Elsa dress for her 4-year-old daughter.
'Frozen' Elsa dress selling for $1,000 on eBay http://money.cnn.com/2014/04/10/news/companies/frozen-elsa-dress/
A 'Frozen' retail supply angers parents, saddens kids http://www.wtop.com/628/3604164/A-Frozen-retail-supply-angers-parents-saddens-kids
An Elsa dress from the Disney movie "Frozen" sells for nearly $1,200 on eBay. (WTOP Screen Shot)
It's not just the U.S........Queen Elsa dress woes are felt all over the globe!!!!!
Canada - Disney's 'Frozen' merchandise shortage creates mob of angry parentshttp://www.cbc.ca/newsblogs/yourcom...se-shortage-creates-mob-of-angry-parents.html
Canada - Frozen-out in the toy aisle: Why merch for Disneys hit film is in short supply http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts...-hit-film-is-in-short-supply/article18054075/
Singapore - 'Frozen' dress sold out in Singapore http://www.straitstimes.com/lifesty...tory/frozen-dress-sold-out-singapore-20140420
Housewife Ainsley Yip bought a Disney original dress on eBay, which cost US$80, for her daughter Rianne Chew (above). -- PHOTO: COURTESY OF AINSLEY YIP
UK - Frozen merchandise shortage spells trouble for parents http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/...dise-shortage-spells-trouble-for-parents.html
Why Disney's Frozen is Financially Crippling Parents http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/why-disneys-frozen-financially-crippling-parents-1444189
Frozen merch is making parents do crazy things http://nypost.com/2014/04/14/parents-fight-and-connive-for-sold-out-frozen-merch/
Megan (left) and Lauren McDougal came all the way from Scotland hoping to buy a coveted Elsa dress and Elsa doll at the Disney Store in Times Square but the picked-over options were not to their liking.
Photo: Anne Wermiel
Last Friday, the Disney Store in Times Square was the saddest place on Earth.
Kids streamed in, one after the other, talking excitedly to their parents about Elsa and Anna, the stars of Disneys hit Frozen, the top-grossing animated film of all time, with more than $1 billion in worldwide box-office receipts.
But their smiles quickly melted.
Were all sold out of Frozen, a Disney sales associate said for the 200th time that day. Except for this, she added, pointing weakly to a paltry stand decorated with five pairs of Anna boots, a handful of floral frocks emblazoned with a Frozen logo and four Frozen-themed ballet flats large enough to house Dennis Rodmans feet.
I cant believe in a great big store, this is all they have, lamented Pauline McDougal, who was visiting from Scotland. Her daughters, 11-year-old Lauren and 8-year-old Megan, had their hearts set, respectively, on the Elsa dress and Elsa doll.
Youd expect more in New York, McDougal added.
Its official. Frozen fever has swept the world. The only problem is, the merchandise is sold out everywhere.
The Disney Store classic Anna (right) and Elsa dolls retail for only $16.95 each. But with all the dolls sold out until who knows when, people are now hawking them on eBay and Amazon for nine times the original price and more.
Since the movies release on DVD in March, Frozen merchandise has been selling so fast, Disney had to institute a two-item limit on all goods last Wednesday (not that theres anything to buy).
Maternity-wear designer Rosie Pope says her pal who works at Disney, no less recently shelled out $1,200 for an Elsa doll on eBay after she promised her daughter one for her Frozen-themed birthday party.
By this point, she didnt care about the price, says Pope. She didnt want to disappoint her daughter.
Its a buy-or-die mentality. And one that Upper West Side mom Shannon Russo-Pollack admits to adopting. While at Walt Disney World last month, Russo-Pollack trekked to more than 42 stores in search of the elusive Elsa dress for her 6 ½-year-old daughter, Summer.
Nina Kedersha threw her 5-year-old daughter, Danielle (left, with big sister Lauren), a Frozen-themed birthday bash last Saturday. She decided to resell her two Frozen balloons for $5 total because of their scarcity.
They were totally sold out, says Russo-Pollack, who owns Dasha Wellness and Spa in NYC.
Thats when Russo-Pollacks husband, Dr. Darren Pollack, plopped down $480 on Amazon to preorder two dresses (he didnt know which size to buy), in addition to more than $350 on other Frozen paraphernalia.
I said, What are you, crazy? Keep looking! He said, I promised her. How many more stores can we go into? recalls Russo-Pollack. It was crazy, but totally worth it. My daughters eyes lit up when she saw the dress. (Russo-Pollack will be donating the extra size 6 dress to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.)
Experts liken the frenzy to the 1980s Cabbage Patch Kids craze.
Were now at the stage where the demand is almost being driven by the scarcity because of the social status attached to being able to find it, says Sean McGowan, a toy industry analyst at Needham & Co. in NYC. Being someone who had a Cabbage Patch [Kid] meant you were loved more than the others. It was social status and elite achievement that came with finding this rare gem.
According to Times Squares Disney Store employees, every other customer who walks into the flagship is on the hunt for Frozen gems.
Needless to say, sold out doesnt always sit too well.
People have gotten into physical fights in the morning, says one Disney Store employee, who asked not to be named.
The kids cry, but the parents are the problem. They try to guilt us, say their daughters are sick. They have no shame. But I cant make it magically appear!
Five-year-old Samantha Venokurs baby sitter won the award of the year when she bought the little girl this stunning Anna costume. Samanthas still gunning for the Elsa one, but no luck so far.
Photo: Gabi Porter
Donna Ladd, who writes a blog called Motherburg, didnt even realize what a hot commodity Frozen had become until after she snagged an Olaf doll during a recent business trip to Italy: I was with another mother, and we passed the Disney Store in Venice and we saw the Frozen shop and she went crazy.
Ladd brought home the stuffed snowman for her 4 ½-year-old son, Charlie.
Chaos ensued.
Anywhere I was, at the Met, at the supermarket, all the mothers were going crazy screaming, Oh my God, I cant believe you got it! says 43-year-old Ladd, who lives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. They were asking me if they could borrow the doll for a few days . . . I feel like I had a bag no one else could get.
Things got so intense that Ladd became wary of letting Olaf out of the house: Its causing so much angst for the kids and parents, and also kind of making them sad, she says.
Disney message boards are rife with angry mothers lambasting the company for being ill-prepared; some are even accusing the company of orchestrating the shortage to ramp up interest. But McGowan says the latter is nonsense: Theres no chance Disney doesnt want to be selling more. Retailers just made the mistake of playing it too safe after being burned by an excess of inventory from lackluster movies including Tangled, Brave and The Princess and the Frog, according to McGowan.
Motherburg founder Donna Ladd didnt even realize what a frenzy Frozen had become until she brought home an Olaf doll for her son, Charlie, from a business trip to Venice, Italy.
Photo: Christian Johnston
We knew this movie was a winner, says Erin Barrier, a Disney Store spokesperson, but it overperformed so significantly that now were doing what we can to get in more product as soon as we can. (Barrier says the Elsa dress should be back in limited quantities by early May and back fully in stock in July and August.)
But most moms arent willing to wait.
Lyss Stern, founder of Divalysscious Moms, a luxury lifestyle company, is already stocking up for her 6 ½-year-old sons Frozen-themed birthday party in July because I know Im not going to be able to find anything, she says.
Leslie Venokurs friend was in such a bind for her daughters Frozen birthday bash last Sunday that the pal shelled out $150 on a homemade Elsa costume for her child from the crafts site Etsy. It didnt even look like Elsa, bemoans Venokur, co-founder of the Big City Moms site.
In an attempt to override the price-gougers, mothers have set up Facebook groups, such as Unfrozen Trading Friends, in which approved members can exchange tips on where to score Frozen merchandise and sell their toys, at cost, to one another.
When one group member posted that Disney canceled her Elsa doll order, D.M., a lawyer who lives in New Canaan, Conn., FedExed the distraught mother a spare Elsa doll she owned.
After Shannon Russo-Pollack scoured 42 stores at Disney World for an Elsa dress for her daughter Summer (pictured), her husband caved and bought two costumes from Amazon for a total of $480.
Photo: Zandy Mangold
She was so upset because her daughter is chronically ill and going through chemo, says D.M., who asked that only her initials be used for professional reasons.
With a Netflix release of Frozen scheduled for Tuesday, even rentals of the movie have been hard to get recently the Frozen wait-list at the Scarsdale, NY, library is 702 deep (with just 5,418 households, according to the 2010 census).
The biggest Frozen fanatics admit, though, that it might be time to just let it go.
You want your kids to be happy, but at the same time, what are you willing to do, what are you willing to pay? asks 31-year-old Upper East Sider Nicole Ross, who has a 3-year-old daughter, Sydney, and another child on the way. Its really dumb. We should probably just learn to say no more often. But its so difficult when they are so obsessed with the current movie.
The sad thing is, when all this stuff gets restocked, theyll be on to the next thing, admits Venokur, who still hasnt managed to get her daughter the Elsa dress.
Until Frozen 2 comes out.