Imagination Park

Disney Stores Worldwide will soon launch what is essentially "a mall-based television channel," reports Brooks Barnes in the New York Times (10/13/09). The new stores, which Disney might call "Imagination Park," represent a dramatic makeover, costing "about a million a store to redecorate, reorganize and install interactive technology." Among other things, the stores will feature theaters where children can "watch film clips of their own selection, participate in karaoke contests or chat live with Disney Channel stars via satellite."

Packages will be embedded with computer chips, so that if you walk past a "magic mirror" with a Princess tiara, "Cinderella might appear and say something to you." If "A Christmas Carol" is "playing in the theater, the whole store might suddenly be made to smell like a Christmas tree." The stores also borrow touches from the Apple Store (the theater "is an extension of Apple’s lecture spaces," for example). That’s no coincidence, as Steve Jobs "and his retailing team at Apple" have been helping Disney, reportedly urging them not only to think different but also to dream big.

Some Disney board members actually are worried that it is "so lavish that parents would try to use the stores as day care centers." But Jim Fielding, president of Disney Stores Worldwide, says the ideas is to create "the best 30 minutes of a child’s day." He adds: "The world does not need another place to sell Disney merchandise — this only works if it’s an experience." Currently in prototype in an unmarked warehouse in Glendale, Calif., the new format will debut in May in Southern California, Madrid and Long Island, with a flagship Times Square store in the works. Eventually all 340 Disney stores in the U.S. and Europe will adopt the new look.