With news that California will permit theme parks to re-open starting April 1, it’s a good news/bad news week for Disney fans: the re-opening and a pre-opening ‘Taste of Disney’ experience at one of its closed-for-pandemic California parks while permanently closing sixty of its North America retail stores, about a third of the total.
At Disney’s California Adventure Park, the foods and beverages of the company’s Disneyland Park will be on offer to ticketholders who score the limited-capacity tickets for dates between March 18 and April 5. Besides the opportunity to buy the edibles, there will be events with Disney characters and a chance to pick up the latest Disney merchandise. And a chance for selfies at familiar locations. No rides will be open, though.
The Disney Store end of the business has been suffering from pandemic-induced drops in travel, but even before that to the increasing taste for online shopping, including from Disney’s website. Closing the less-profitable stores will allow the company to back out of some expensive high-visibility real estate and concentrate its efforts. Worldwide, before the announced closings, there have been about 300 Disney Stores not located at the parks.
