[boo's_parents]

Parkhopper brought this up back in June, 2004:

http://www.disneycentral.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=10537

Indeed, this occurred:

http://www.bizjournals.com/losangele...8/daily28.html

I searched the forums and didn't see any discussion about it. I don't know if it is due to a lack of interest, but there are already impacts to Disney lovers. For example, I recently posted under Rumors and News that DVC members no longer receive 10% discounts at Disney Stores.

Last night I was browsing, and folks were commenting on the lack of "specials under $10" in the Disney Catalog. This is likely DIRECTLY related to this folks. Disney operates DisneyDirect.com (notice the new name), maintaining a presence in catalog and online sales. They have an agreement with The Children's Place to sell them some exclusive merchandise for storefront sales (aka The Disney Store in your local mall).

If TCP agrees to buy 100,000 MickeyWidgets from Disney, Disney is going to have a factory manufacture 100,000 MickeyWidgets and not have anything leftover for the under $10 specials (or manufacture a very limited # of MickeyWidgets to sell via Catalog/Online). Hence, no specials to be had via Catalog/Online, because they have nothing leftover to sell....or possibly, they can't undercut prices that have been agreed to with The Childrens Place for Disney Store Retail sales.

My point is that the landscape of Disney Merchandise has changed significantly, and the impacts go beyond who signs the checks of your local Disney Store employee.

-boo

[Disneywife]

We did discuss this significantly last fall when Disney sold the stores, the catalog, and the internet catalog. The Children's Place now owns them, and Disney Store employees are now Children's Place employees.

There is good news, however. The World of Disney stores are expanding, and those stores are way better than the Disney Stores ever were. They are still owned by Disney. A select few Disney Stores became World of Disney stores, including the large one in New York City.

[boo's_parents]

DW, thanks for the response. I did a search on Children and Place (you can imagine the result set), browsed the results, and only saw Parkhopper's thread as being relevant. Sorry to be late to the game on this one.

-boo