Disney World Columns > Larry Pontius

The Disney Store Crisis

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Then things got worse. First, in terms of the merchandise:

"The majority of the merchandise was EXCLUSIVE to the stores. And that was one of our selling points with our guests. Then they started carrying stuff in the stores that you could buy at the discount stores (K-Mart, Wal-Mart, Toys-R-Us, etc.) And people would say to us why I should buy it here, when I can get it cheaper at....."

"Stop trying to compete with Wal-Mart. Strive to recapture the audience that once was willing to spend $50-60 on a denim button down instead of trying to pull in the people who only want to spend $10 on a t-shirt."

"Who remembers the princess vanity with the seat we had in, I think, 2001? We had dozens of those returned to our store. It reminded me of those Juicy Juice commercials that have a boy riding a toy car, and on the box it says 10% satisfaction guaranteed."

And then something called Project Go was recommended by some pricey consultants and instituted:

"Project Go introduced a four letter word into TDS vocabulary -- SELL. For the first time in our history we cast members were to sell our little tochas off. Sure we were always a retailer, but we were supposed to suggest items, never push. Now we were supposed to push and push some more."

"In the earliest days of the Project GO, we were not supposed to even touch unfolded clothes, pick up garbage off of the floor or straighten plush, just to name a few no-no's."

"I was quite shocked when I started at the Disney Store and found that cleanliness was an afterthought for when all other duties have been accomplished."

"I recall the low grade I got one night when I didn't manage to sell eight sweatshirts in a four hour shift, when the temperature was about 94 degrees and the relative humidity hovered at over 90%. Only a moron would have set such an unattainable goal."

"Don't talk to the guests about trips, trivia or favorite memories. Shove a plush in their face and tell them they need to buy it! Who remembers the stupid phrase 'Think of plush as a French fry, and add it on to every guests purchase.'"

"...remember how we had to continually re-approach (euphemistic term for harass) the guests to get them to buy something??? It was funnier than hell when you only had one guest in the store on a weekend and three cast members hovering over the guest lest they get a bad Magic Feedback Form. And they wonder why some good customers stopped coming in."

"My worst memories of Project Go were pushing things into guests' hands, because Home Base felt if they held it they would buy it. I remember watching guests physically backing up as cast members tried this idiotic idea."

And finally, perhaps the saddest comment of all:

"We were (once) like a piece of the parks. You felt as though you had just walked in off of Main Street, USA. Seems to me, that feeling of being a Disney family is gone."

I think we all know how Walt Disney would have reacted to all of this. Need I say more?

Regards,
Larry Pontius

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A former vice president of marketing for Disneyland and Walt Disney World, Larry Pontius is the author of Waking Walt, a thriller that brings Walt Disney back from cryonic suspension. Larry lives in Florida with his wife and a large, orange dog named Samson.

For more information about Larry Pontius please visit his website at www.wakingwalt.com.