Report: Cherry Hill, NJ opens the second next generation Disney Store
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Disney Store dancers, executives and characters all
join arms in
welcoming guests to the new Disney Store at the Cherry Hill Mall.
In an interview prior to the store's opening, Park said the new Disney store design allows merchandise to take center stage. Guests on hand for Friday's opening were not disappointed as the curtain revealed merchandise for the upcoming release of Disney's 102 Dalmatians at the front of the store. Park said the Cherry Hill store will get a jump on the soon to be released movie as well as a television advertising campaign that offers guests "102 reasons" to visit the Disney Stores. The television ad campaign will mark the first time Disney is using the electronic medium to promote its stores and merchandise.
Park adds that the all new store design offers a modern shopping experience "that celebrates Disney as a multi-media company." Those multi-media components are quite evident as guests enter the store as well as throughout the retail floor. The new store design features a media wall on the left side that offers Disney programming, entertainment and merchandise. The Disney Store Cherry Hill also includes "Access Disney," a special online computer kiosk that Park says will allow guests to buy merchandise from www.disneystore.com, purchase theme park passes and learn more about Disney vacations and entertainment. The Disney executive said eight other Disney Stores in the chain will also feature the kiosk. Park said the online feature will not only allow store guests to purchase theme park tickets or view a trailer for an upcoming movie release, but guests will be able to shop online for a product that they may not find in the Disney Store.
Another multi-media feature of the new store incorporates a Mickey-shaped computer station where families can play and sample Disney interactive games. The new plush tower also gets into the interactive act, by offering child-high video screens around familiar stuffed Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Winnie the Pooh toys.
Disney Store executives Doug Murphy(l) and Tom
Park(r), warmed up the crowd
and worked their magic to help with the grand opening of the new
Disney Store at the Cherry Hill Mall in South Jersey.
The opening of the Disney Store Cherry Hill was a family affair for Park. A native Philadelphian, the Disney executive had his family on hand to witness the grand opening. Park, a graduate of Villanova University in suburban Philadelphia, said his mother and father, his nieces and nephews were on hand for the event.
Unlike the Southern California Disney Store prototype opening there was no special merchandise to mark the occasion. The Costa Mesa store offered limited edition Disney Store beanies for purchase to the first guests to the new store. Park was questioned about plans to have merchandise representative of a region featured in the Disney Stores. The Disney Store Executive Vice President said such merchandise was still in the planning stages adding that many retailers face a similar challenge.
Park said Disney was working on "some new supply-chain management processes to allow us to eventual do that." He added that it "was an absolute must and it is just a technology issue at the moment," pledging the company's effort to work in getting regional merchandise to become a reality.
The upcoming holiday shopping season according to Park will determine where the future of the Disney Stores is going. Disney will closely monitor business at the South Coast Plaza location as well as Cherry Hill through the holiday shopping season and then as Park said "take some time in January and February to make any changes that we need and then in the spring begin building stores." Park estimates that twenty to thirty new Disney Stores will be built in 2001 with a more aggressive building campaign to follow. Park says if everything goes according to plan by the year 2003, there could be as many as 350 new Disney Stores open for business. Park admitted that there likely will be some store closings in the years ahead as the company closely evaluates the performance of many locations and as store leases come up for renewal.
Related Links
- Report on the Costa Mesa, CA
Disney Store opening
Includes more details and pictures of the new store layout and features.
-- Posted November 16, 2000
-- Story and Pictures by Paul J. Perrello
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