ALL CANADIAN DISNEY STORES TO CLOSE

[bcwife76]

I love going to the Guildford location here in Surrey BC. With no other way to get our Disney fix it was perfect. This is very upsetting! I feel heartbroken, esp for all the wonderful CMs that work in these stores

 

[jeepwreck]

I love going to the Guildford location here in Surrey BC. With no other way to get our Disney fix it was perfect. This is very upsetting! I feel heartbroken, esp for all the wonderful CMs that work in these stores

ya i like that store too. we were just there with the kids the last two weekends buying alot of stuff, and i work downtown and i some times walk thru that store on my lunch break just to get my fix for the week

 

[Carolynleanne]

I love going to the Guildford location here in Surrey BC. With no other way to get our Disney fix it was perfect. This is very upsetting! I feel heartbroken, esp for all the wonderful CMs that work in these stores

That’s our store too, but it’s over an hour away from us so I don’t go often. It was nice to have around, but I feel like we’ll be fine

 

[ellbell]

They are going to lose all Canadian shoppers. They don't have viable shipping options to Canada and so far they have only mentioned partnering with Target and Canadians don't have access to that either. It's definitely unfortunate. Hopefully lockdown ends before they close in Ontario because I'd love to get in another trip before it's no longer an option.

 

[Carolynleanne]

They are going to lose all Canadian shoppers. They don't have viable shipping options to Canada and so far they have only mentioned partnering with Target and Canadians don't have access to that either. It's definitely unfortunate. Hopefully lockdown ends before they close in Ontario because I'd love to get in another trip before it's no longer an option.

Agreed. I NEVER ship to Canada from them because the cost was atrocious. I'd rather just go through Ebay - it's cheaper and I can get items directly from the Parks.

 

[Jabroniville]

Oh, NO!! This is a huge tragedy for me. I loved those stores and was in them all the time. They were some of the most fun retail places to be- all the music they played, coming in seeing new merchandise each week, etc. All the limited edition stuff, high-quality merchandise, etc.! No shipping fees or anything. I just can't believe it... where can one get any of that stuff now? Shipping in Canada is always horrible and they never have good prices for it... and worst of all, you now can't even see the merch in person before buying it (anyone who collects stuff knows the danger in "sight unseen" sales). The merchandise at Winners, Superstore & Toys R Us is always massively sub-par compared to the stuff at the Disney Store, too.

And the whole "experience" there... the ambiance, the Disney music playing, the setpieces they'd set up, etc. It felt like a little slice of the Parks set up in a place you could visit regularly! I missed the video screens they'd shut down during the pandemic, and was waiting for them to reopen!

So much wonderful staff there, as well. And now all of them, with all their experience, have to find new jobs, probably working at Winners or something. I got the impression it wasn't the "dream job" some Disney fans think it is with the amount of staff I saw cycle through there over the years (a couple I talked to frequently just disappeared one month and I never saw them again- I also haven't seen some of the management team in ages), so some of them moved on already. So awful for them, though.

This is just such a huge chunk of my life and habits for the past several years, and now it's just gone like so much in the past couple years.

 

[SydneyFalco]

Everytime a new brick and mortar goes down I get a little more squidgy and anxious.

 

[mort1331]

Only retail insider, no other news sources are saying that.

Sad as it is...BlogTO has jist done an article on this as well now...writing is on the wall

 

[zanimum]

Sad as it is...BlogTO has jist done an article on this as well now...writing is on the wall

So, BlogTO (and most other news outlets) basically just re-wrote what Retail Insider had reported, they didn't actually do any new reporting to confirm that story.

That said, the bigger news is that Polo Park, Winnipeg management have admitted the closure to CTV News Winnipeg and the daily newspaper Winnipeg Free Press. Winnipeg Free Press has also talked to Disney and Cadillac Fairview staff off-the-record, and both have confirmed it's a national closure.

Go to DisKingdom.com: "One mall publicly confirms Disney Store leaving, while landlord and Disney said to have privately confirmed Canada-wide closure: Winnipeg Free-Press"

Along with a summary of the Winnipeg coverage, the story above quotes various malls across the country. None of them actually deny anything, they basically just say "we don't talk about retailers' business" or "nothing to say at this time."

Something a lot of the coverage so far about Disney Store's Canada closure has missed? Almost every American store is also supposed to disappear, with the exception of major landmark stores, like Times Square. The latest closures that Disney has admitted to? They include Mall of America.

Go to DisKingdom.com: "Seven more closures: Disney Store closing last stores in three states"

 

[zanimum]

and this is how the employees are finding out. Nothing from head office yet....yikes someone slipped

That's the part that urks me, and urks Retail Insider's reporters, speaking in a podcast last night, Disney should be more forthright with their cast.

Google retail insider podcast Disney

Basically, any store up until now gets a couple days advanced notice before the public, and then the signs go up, and there's three weeks before closure. Since the stores aren't scheduled to close until late summer, Disney probably had no intention of being frank with their employees until late July.

If their cast are really "Ohana" to the corporation, they should want to give them a fighting chance in the job market, especially right now. But the longer you keep the secret, the less chance that you'll have people leaving before their last day.

 

[Lydia S]

For anyone that's bought on ShopDisney and shipped to thier Canadian addresses, have you had to pay customs/duty fees? Everything I've had shipped from the US up here since the pandemic started has not been charged for me, but I read on another forum that the shipping method used by Disney is more likely to be charged. What have your experiences been?

 

[igrsod]

For anyone that's bought on ShopDisney and shipped to thier Canadian addresses, have you had to pay customs/duty fees? Everything I've had shipped from the US up here since the pandemic started has not been charged for me, but I read on another forum that the shipping method used by Disney is more likely to be charged. What have your experiences been?

I had duty charged.

 

[Lydia S]

I had duty charged.

That's a bummer. Was it a lot? I hate that the shipping charge is already so high, but I can't resist those new Star Wars Starbucks mugs.

 

[bcwife76]

For anyone that's bought on ShopDisney and shipped to thier Canadian addresses, have you had to pay customs/duty fees? Everything I've had shipped from the US up here since the pandemic started has not been charged for me, but I read on another forum that the shipping method used by Disney is more likely to be charged. What have your experiences been?

I just received a ShopDisney order this week but I used a freight forwarder (Planet Express) so shipping was cheaper than ShopDisney and I was not charged duty or taxes.

 

[Silvermist999]

For anyone that's bought on ShopDisney and shipped to thier Canadian addresses, have you had to pay customs/duty fees? Everything I've had shipped from the US up here since the pandemic started has not been charged for me, but I read on another forum that the shipping method used by Disney is more likely to be charged. What have your experiences been?

I placed two ShopDisney orders around $100USD each recently. Total duty/taxes (incl. the $11.30 UPS custom brokerage fee) for each were around $28CAD.

 

[gskywalker]

So other than that one article there hasn't been a peep about this. Based upon what the people, who I knew, said when the square one location was closing, it is coming, its just a matter of when but it doesn't seem it as soon as the article made it seem. Our family would go there when we needed a fix. If they keep the outlet store in Niagara falls open then we will go there once the border is open. Of course once the border opens up we will likely be going about every 2 months for the first year with our annual passes.

 

[Jabroniville]

yeah I'm really curious about the lack of updates in articles. Everyone else is just quoting Retail Insider and doesn't appear to have their own take. I don't even see forums completely astonished over it or a massive outbreak of news regarding the story.

I have to figure it's true or Disney would have come flying out denying it by now, because it looks so bad (not to mention unfair to their staff, who will be worrying for weeks now about whether or not they need to go job-hunting).

I still find it stunning, because Disney HAS to know this is "bad optics"- something they're usually afraid of. This makes it look like Disney is bleeding money and totally desperate, and it's infuriating a big chunk of people who don't want to do online shopping (it's especially bad for Disney's dolls, which can have questionable hair sometimes). I mean, seeing that huge "Disney" logo in malls across the world is a pretty good bit of advertising.

 

[Reepicheep]

I have to figure it's true or Disney would have come flying out denying it by now, because it looks so bad (not to mention unfair to their staff, who will be worrying for weeks now about whether or not they need to go job-hunting).

Edmonton has two Disney stores. Last week, two of my friends asked an employee (at different store locations) if the rumours of store closings were true, and in both cases the employee said the rumours were false. Most likely, this is a case of employees "whistling past the graveyard" and hoping stores stay open. Sadly, I think the most likely scenario is that all Canadian locations will be closed by fall.

I read somewhere (I can't remember where, and have no idea if it is true) that the Disney store at West Edmonton Mall is the most profitable store in Canada, so for now I'm choosing to live in a Fantasyland where the WEM location stays open.

 

[marchingstar]

Edmonton has two Disney stores. Last week, two of my friends asked an employee (at different store locations) if the rumours of store closings were true, and in both cases the employee said the rumours were false. Most likely, this is a case of employees "whistling past the graveyard" and hoping stores stay open. Sadly, I think the most likely scenario is that all Canadian locations will be closed by fall.

I read somewhere (I can't remember where, and have no idea if it is true) that the Disney store at West Edmonton Mall is the most profitable store in Canada, so for now I'm choosing to live in a Fantasyland where the WEM location stays open.

umm i think you mean galaxyland

 

[Reepicheep]

umm i think you mean galaxyland

An excellent point.

It just wasn't the same, after the park got renamed...