Decline in merchandise

[DNS]

We have made many trips over the years to WDW and I'm finding that in the past few years, the merchandise seems to be going downhill to me. There is less and less variety of items offered, clothing quality seems to be declining and if you are not really into a couple of characters or pirates and princesses, you're out of luck. I've never understood why they have very few classic movie/character things, but it seems worse recently. Maybe it's just me, let me know what you all think. I know my bank account likes that I don't buy nearly as much anymore, but it's not as much fun.

[goofiecrazy]

The last time we went i really didnt see anything that i had to have...Ususally i come home with a little of everything.

[BrerSchultzy]

My parents just returned, and they said the exact same thing. My mom used to collect the Christmas bells, which they've pretty much stopped making. And it's getting harder and harder to find decent adult shirts.

Last time we were down, I commented that it is impossible to find anything with JUST Snow White on it. Dwarves? Only Grumpy and Dopey. Snow White with the other Princesses...sure. But we found ONE pin with just Snow White, and that was all.

My dad made the comment, though, that with all the repeat guests coming for DVC or DDP, that maybe they'll take a look at this...I can't imagine that they'd pass up the chance to sell new stuff to returning guests, who are currently just buying something on their first trip, then skipping the shops on later trips, since they've seen everything already.

[gwfx1031]

Agreed. We went a few weeks ago and it was cool out and we could not find hardly any sweatshirts, let alone ones we liked. We usually stock up too and only found a few "got to have" things.

[SgtTigger]

I too have found that every store has the same thing......
I remember when you could find things that were only in the Magic Kingdom but now it is the same where ever you go.......
Even the gift shops at the resort has pretty much the same things as the other stores. Resort merchandise is almost non existent....
DVC stuff is very limited.......

[kakn7294]

I totally agree! My fav is Ariel who happens to be everywhere but only if you are under 4 ft tall and still in elementary school. I'm long past those days. Having skipped a few years between trips in the past, there was different merchandise everytime we went but for the past couple of years with annual trips, the same stuff is still hanging around from 2003.

[comicguy]

I know what you mean. I like to find Snow White merchandice, but it is very hard to do that. They have a line of porceline princess dolls, they have 5 diff ones of princesses but no Snow White. Same thing with other merchadice, they have all the princesses rerpresnted but Snow White !! I even e-mailed disney about it. They said that "we are between merchahdice seasons" but that does not explain the lack of Snow White over the last 4 years.

I find that each time we go we buy less and less stuff.

[laward32]

I agree the variety has gone downhill. We went in April 04 and I found a huge variety of Mickey Mouse jewelry. Bracelets, earrings, rings and necklaces. I was looking for special earrings (two toned, gold & silver) and I found them, but not even a week after we got home the back broke. So when we went in Dec 06 I went back to where I had bought them in 04 (the big store in Toon town) thinking I would get another pair. Nope!!! I couldn't even find any adult earrings. They were all for kids. I looked everywhere on WDW property and nada. I was extremely disappointed. Couldn't find the bracelets from my 04 trip either. I just had to rant and agree with you.

[auntfrannie]

This is so disappointing to see!!! My favorite thing to do at Disney is to shop. What always made it so enjoyable was being able to go to different parks and even different stores in the same park and find unique merchandise.

[Spaceship Tigger]

Maybe we're not looking for as many of the same items that are no longer there like other people here are, but we never seem to have any trouble finding what we want at WDW. In fact, we always spend way too much money there. We're always in the market for scrapbook items, snowglobes, Christmas ornaments, picture frames, pins, glasses, etc. etc. and we always find plenty of it. Our only real disappointment last trip was that the AKL shop didn't have a lot of AKL specific merchandise. We went to WL on the same trip and they had a lot more.

[glenpreece]

I sent an e-mail to WDW about the lack of unique merchandise and my disapproval of the decline in Villains merchandise.

[WelshieLover]

I agree, over and over no matter what park you go to it is mostly the same stuff with very little variety. If I did not like it at the MK why would I buy it over in AK. I find that the clothes in the Poly's shop tend to be nice, some of it is not Disney stuff, but overall the quality seems to be better than that found in the parks.

[TheRustyScupper]

1) We enjoy going to WDW.
2) I like to buy unique "stuff", like the wife's English Tea Service.
3) Average or run-of-the-mill souvenirs don't interest me.
4) Unique things are getting harder and harder to find.
5) The last 4-5 trips we rode rides and ate CS, but no purchases.
6) We are different, as Pirates and Plushes aren't our "thing".

[iceicebritney]

i completly agree with DNS. it seems as if the disney parks have all depreciated the quality of their merchandise just as the disney store did so years ago.

every store is the same, every sovenier is the same. its harder and harder to find unique items in the parks or at the resorts - and dont even get me started on the clothing quality. my number one problem is the children's costumes... when i was a kid my minnie mouse and other character dresses were so well made.. and today their made of incredibly cheap fabric that looks so tacky. whats wrong with disney's merchandising department?!?

[Marker]

whats wrong with disney's merchandising department?!?

They've outsourced it. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but Disney Merchandising is no longer run by Disney.

I agree that much of the merchandise is the same from one shop to another. I also agree that apparel is over priced (heck, it's all over priced).

[glenpreece]

Wow if you think WDW is bad I was just at Canada's Wonderland and it was so much worse. We all know that they're alot of duplicates in the stores yes but this place was worse. Every store and I mean everyone had the same 3 things Dora, Spongebob and Scooby Doo. Toss in some Canada's Wonderland apparal here and there and that's it!!!! And if you WDW clothes are exspensive then you haven't seen exspensive!!! $60 for a hoodie!!!!!

[Mickey91]

I agree! We still spend alot on things that we always buy like pins,scrapbooks and ornaments etc. But, the unique things that make you skip dinner to have the cash, are no longer there! Now even the resort mugs, one of our favorite souvenirs, is generic.