Big things are in store for the
Disney 's (NYSE: DIS) ho-hum Disney Store
empire.
This morning's
New York Timesdetails
a massive makeoverat the 340-store chain, as the family
entertainment giant tries to sprinkle some interactive pixie
dust on its namesake retail concept.
Some of the components in the test stores that will open
next year include demand-driven miniature theaters,
scent-powered marketing, and RFID-tagged merchandise that
interacts with other objects in the store when in proximity.
For instance, donning a princess tiara and passing by a
magical mirror may trigger a response from Cinderella.
Disney could use the improvements. When it peaked in 2002,
Disney's retail empire had nearly twice the number of stores
that it has today, but was bleeding $100 million a year. A
disenchanted Disney sold the unit to
Children's Place (Nasdaq: PLCE) in 2004, but
it has since repurchased a part of the chain and closed the
remainder of the chain's retail stores.
The old retail concept was stale, obvious, and too common.
Other companies have found ways to out-Disney Disney at the
retail front:
Mattel 's (NYSE: MAT) American Girl stores
offer doll hair salons, weekend brunches, and a photo
studio.
Build-A-Bear Workshop (NYSE: BBW) allows
guests to participate in a customized teddy bear's
creation.
Landry's (NYSE: LNY) Rainforest Cafe offers
in-store animatronics and glow-in-the-dark caverns.
Disney appears to be borrowing liberally from some of
these concepts, down to Rainforest Cafe's interactive trees
and a
Muppets-based spinon the Build-A-Bear model. One can even
argue that the RFID-tagged items are a kissing cousin to the
MagiQuest game now popular with wizard wand-toting guests at
Great Wolf Resorts (Nasdaq: WOLF).
So what? Disney doesn't have to outdo its rivals in
innovation -- just improve its existing stores.
The
Timesarticle goes on to credit an unlikely catalyst
for the makeover: Steve Jobs. Now that the Pixar acquisition
has made him a Disney board member and the company's largest
individual shareholder,
Apple 's (Nasdaq: AAPL) charismatic visionary
has inspired the chain to "dream bigger." He even offered up
a few tricks of the tradethat have made Apple's namesake
stores so popular.
Disney is taking this update so seriously that it's
considering renaming the stores. Imagination Park is the
proposed name, a reworking that opens merchandising
opportunities beyond the scope of its famous characters.
It's about to be cool again to walk into a Disney Store.
Bring on the pixie dust.
This article was originally published as
Can Disney Regain Its Retail Magic?on
Fool.com
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