I am really shocked to just read an article that all of the Disney Stores anywhere near me are all closed now. What??? All in Maryland and Virginia are closed. Apparently they are abandoning them in favor of an aisle at lots of Targets. I am really sad. The Disney store was classy and beautiful. I have no desire to shop for Disney stuff at Target. The closest one to me now is several hours away.
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Len & Jim had some insight on the topic on a fairly recent Disney Dish podcast episode. Yes those stores were like attractions. Another reason Disney Springs’ WOD is so popular.
I’ll admit, I’m not so sad about this. I mean, I get it. There was a time when the Disney Store was cool and all, but I honestly couldn’t tell you the last time we stepped foot in one. And, frankly, we became EXTREMELY dissatisfied with the quality of the clothes they sold there. They just wouldn’t hold up, and sometimes you washed them and they would shrink one or two sizes.
With so much available on-line now, and the alternative now beginning to be offered in the Target stores, I can’t help but think this is a positive move for Disney, financially speaking.
Yeah I haven’t been in a physical Disney store outside of Disney Springs since they stopped selling paper Disney Dollars, lol.
They closed the majority of stores in the Philly area years ago. I needed to go out of my way to visit any of the ones that were still around, and that didn’t happen all that often.
Now I can travel over an hour to Lancaster or 2-3 hours to Times Square (NYC).
The Target merchandise is a joke and not even close to a replacement of the brick and mortar stores. Heck, Target can’t reliably keep my shampoo in stock, there is no way we can expect any consistently stocked Disney merch.
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The store where we live closed at least 20 years ago. It wasn’t a very exciting store, though. Mostly items for kids and lots of drinking mugs. The other a few hours from here was equally disappointing. I wonder how much ShopDisney affected the stores. It has so much more.
I am also bummed about this. There was a Disney store at our usual mall. We didn’t go a lot, more of a special occasion (read: need a costume quicker than molasses slow shipping of ShopDisney could provide). They did have Halloween events that were cute with free trinkets for my kids. Not many other stores think about kids in that way.
I just remember as a kid Disney store (and Sesame Street store too, anyone else remember that?) being the only store besides Toys R Us (also RIP) that were cool places filled with things made just for me. Another casualty of the internet made possible by the miracle of modern day supply chain logistics.
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Not sure of your location, but I believe there is a Disney store in Clarksburg, MD. At least there was one when I was at that mall in August.
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