Originally posted by Planogirl
I'm afraid that the Disney Stores will be quite different and maybe owned by someone else. 
If Disney does not sell the Disney Stores soon, then they might as well close the rest of them. I must say that I have never seen a more poorly managed retail operation in my life. Oh how the mighty have fallen. I remember a time when TDS redefined the specialty retail industry. Since the mid 90's, this division of the company has fallen, to the point that it has started to affect the rest of the company.
When I first discovered The
Disney Store back in 1987, it was the Pier 39 location in San Francisco. It was a novelty back then. Only the second store of it's kind. The props in the store were actually built at
Disneyland and transported to the new store. A pirate ship, moving animated characters, curtains that came from the Haunted Mansion. It was pretty cool. I remember thinking, "wouldn't it be a dream come true to actually manage this place?" That was a 20 year old dreamer, dreaming.
Twelve years later, and quite unexpectedly that dreamer became the manager of the Pier 39 Disney Store. At the time, there were over 700 stores and the novelty of this location had faded, but the history was still there. Unfortunately the people who created the greatness of TDS all moved on, mostly to the parks. Paul Pressler and others were gone. And the crop of losers who replaced them created the downfall of the company.
My two and a half years at TDS were a horrible experience. It almost ruined my passion for Disney. I left a great management position at an incredible company to work for TDS. The only positive thing about working at TDS was the discount and the Silver Pass to get into all of the parks.
While at TDS, I saw two types of employees. Realists like me, who knew about business and what the real world was all about. And then there were those who were so happy to be working for Disney that they were living in a total fantasy world, completly brainwashed by the "pixie dust".
I left TDS because the upper management were incompetent and did not know how to treat people with respect and dignity. A month after I departed, they announced plans to close the Pier 39 store (a location that Eisner mentioned in his book). Today, I am pleased to say that the upper management losers who mistreated me are long gone. And I have returned to the incredible company that I worked for prior to TDS.
IMHO, those stores are a total joke today. Nothing but toys and other junk. Where's the quality? I have not shopped at TDS since I left. I had it with them when they tried to make a profit from the 9/11 tragedy. The 700 stores are now down to around 300 (I believe). I say the fewer, the merrier. When the last store is gone, I will be the first one to write a post on this board called "Buh Bye Disney Store"
But I am not bitter
Sheri
