On Sept 14th, my local store at Woodfield Mall (the mall with the most shopping locations in America - suck it Minnesota!) will be pulling down the gate for good. The other location, located someplace called Longuyland will follow suit in early November.
"Another Doorway is about to hit the shredder!"
This news doesn't come as a terrible surprise. I live about 20 minutes from the Schaumburg location and have been there numerous times. I rarely see customers in there very long, and of those I can't imagine how many are buying. Especially the casual shopper who happens by and sees the mouse ears and the cool lenticular signage and the statue of Goofy and mistakes it for the Disney Store.
Still, I'm sad to see it go. It was nice to have that extra Disney presence in the mall. I had this borderline OCD ritual of lunch at Rainforest Cafe (or at the very least a turn through the gift shop), hit the Disney Store, and then just before leaving do a drive-by of Doorway to Dreams just to pause and take it in.
The store was beautiful inside. Even smelled like a Disney resort. And the replica rooms, first of Animal Kingdom Villas and then Bay Lake Tower were really cool. In the most recent BLT mock-up, the wall was made to look like you were staring out over Space Mountain as Wishes was going on just beyond! Pretty sweet!
While some of the Cast Members seemed culled from a local used care lot (hey it was a sales gig) they were always friendly (not quite Parks level though.) My kid always bilked them for a sleeve of stickers. And I did have this little dream of one day, when we were finally in the right place financially, casually strolling in, pointing at whichever CM I was getting the best vibe from, and saying "this is your lucky day!"
Okay, that would be really irritating and I wouldn't actually be that guy!
Guess they could have used that dream coming true. Though that's the problem, the store was really made for the Disney fan like me. The casual shopper wasn't going to pay the rent. But how many of "me" are there out there, hitting that sudden windfall to enable them to join? I've always said the DVC is a great value, but let's face it, it's not a great deal. There are other more affordable time shares / vacation clubs. We buy in because it's Disney. But it takes a certain kind of person to get that.
Of course I'm certain these closing in no way signify any trouble for the Disney Vacation Club. I'm sure DVC is doing fine. They just don't need the stores. Anyone who wants to join knows how to join. They don't need a store. Why drive to the mall? They can pick up the phone and join in their boxers (now there's an image for ya!)
What might have saved this concept? Who knows? Maybe selling some select park merch. I know local fan groups would meet there regularly, but that doesn't equate to revenue. There probably is no answer. It was just an experiment that just didn't yield results. Sooner or later, this was inevitable. I bet if they built a concept like this in one of the parks or resorts, the results would have been very different. It works in Vegas!
I just wanted to offer a little tribute in my own way to Disney's Doorway To Dreams! Like the Stones said, they can't say you didn't try!
p.s. Come to think of it, I applied for a part-time sales position there a few years ago and never heard from them. Maybe we do know why they're closing! Tribute-shmibute! On second thought . . .
Just kidding. I probably couldn't have take the job - just thought it would be cool to say I was a Cast Member without having to move! That's what I tell myself . . . to stop the tears . . . ; )
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