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[Pete's Dragon]

Is it just me or has this topic become all about the quality of the merchandising and not about the Revenue Report

[bigrossco]

just to add on to this as well, on the Revenue Report they have added and admited to us that:

"In the coming months, the Company will be sharing details of new attractions that have begun construction and will be opened next year."

[phantom247]

They have totally lost the plot with Merchandising it isn't the economy thats the problem many Guests are still prepared to spend money on Merchandise it's just most of the Merchandise does not appeal to the Guests tastes in general.   MMP range I agree with most of you is one of the worst ranges ever conceved on resort in well over ten years of me visiting the resort.
I personally only spent 20% of what I usually spend on merchandise and felt very let down by the Merchandise provided Cast Members where even advising me to visit the Disney Store on the Champs Elysées what are things coming to when their own staff are telling you to go elsewhere to get quality products.

[ed-uk]

I wonder what range of Disney products they sell in the Disney Store in the Champs Elysees, that they don't sell in Disneyland Paris? Sounds more like a joke to me. Maybe they don't sell anything from the MMP range there. I think we would have a bigger range of products to choose from at Disneyland. Those people who don't like MMP will  on doubt blame EuroDisney for the drop in sales, but I think it has more to do with the economic slowdown which is effecting peoples spending. We all know about the world recession, why wouldn't it effect Disneyland Paris ? It's effected just about everything else.

[phantom247]

ED-UK if you want to take the company line good look to you but here is my overview of how much money in net profit various areas of the resort bring to the overall resort. (please reply to this post if you feel iv'e got anything in the wrong order)

1:Merchandise
2:Food and Beverage
3:Disney Hotels and Business Solutions (Arranges special events in the parks and conferences for large groups and Companies)  
4:Admissions
5:Travel Services (eg Eurostar bookings, Air Travel, Eurotunnel etc and VEA Shuttle service from paris airports) Real estate etc.

[ed-uk]

But you're not factoring in the recession, and I think the recession would effect their results. Merchandise, food and beverage etc, would in my opinion, be effected by that because people don't spend so much in a recession. And that's where we differ. So is it the recession or MMP range the reason why their sales are down? I think the recession plays a big part in this.

[Riebi]

They have totally lost the plot with Merchandising it isn't the economy thats the problem many Guests are still prepared to spend money on Merchandise it's just most of the Merchandise does not appeal to the Guests tastes in general.   MMP range I agree with most of you is one of the worst ranges ever conceved on resort in well over ten years of me visiting the resort.
I personally only spent 20% of what I usually spend on merchandise and felt very let down by the Merchandise provided Cast Members where even advising me to visit the Disney Store on the Champs Elysées what are things coming to when their own staff are telling you to go elsewhere to get quality products.

Exactly! No it´s not an economy crisis problem that I couldn´t spent my money! I was very willing to spent much much more money for cool stuff from DLP. But there was nothing that I really want. And that was not just my impression. The others in my group had the same feeling. So we safed a lot of money but on the other hand I had a budget for paris which DLP couldn´t get from me. With closing attractions everywhere, Cast Members that try to foist some MMP stuff that nobody want and this crappy shows at DL park I tend thinking that all what DLP wants from me is just money for garbage and without a adequate "magical" equivalent. So my purse was very closed this time. First time since hm 17 years?! For me that was noooooo recession factor. It was the factor of quality that DLP delivered. I´m a guests who payed money for a quality Disney holyday. And if the economy crisis would hit me I couldn´t spent any of this high prices Disney wants for the magic.

[ed-uk]

Your point is? Ok, you didn't find anything you liked, and the economic criss hasn't effected you. It might not be the same for other people. I found things I liked. I spent money. I saw other people doing the same.The economic crisis may effect some people(and companies) even if it doesn't effect you. EuroDisney was down 7% not 70%. It may turn out that MMP isn't their most popular range for all I know. But in a recession companies feel the heat. And we do agree there is a world recession at the moment? That's not taking the company line, it's a fact. Thinking about it, I got 40% of the price of my holiday at Disneyland Paris, so I did well from them. Sorry for you if you felt cheated. I didn't think it was money for garbage.

[davewasbaloo]

I think the point is, with the rubbish merchandise, staggered opening hours, entertainment, and things like the pointless redo of Backlot Express, the management team will blame the economy for the shortfall, rather than the fact that folks like Riebi, the Baloos et al no longer feel like the value is there. And that could hit the company much harder in the long term.

[ed-uk]

I didn't like the staggered opening hours. I think it's a bit harsh to call the merchandise and entertainment rubbish, in my opinion anyway. As far as value is concerned we got 40% off the price of our holiday, the offers were there to be had, and there are plenty of bargains in their sales. I'll judge Backlot Express for myself when it's finished. It never seemed very popular to me anyway, so maybe redoing it isn't piontless. I do agree on the staggered opening hours. But when you're not making any money how do you maintain standards. The economy will impact on their results I'm sure. Why wouldn't it, it effects everything else. The economy has effected Disney in America, their revenues are down 26%. Or maybe people prefer to blame it on to their rubbish merchandise and entertainment.

[davewasbaloo]

While the economy is bound to have an impact (but also, remember Easter was in Q2, not Q3, and that is being ignored too), we should not underestimate the diminishing quality in having some impact too.

And FWIW, the merchandise is even worse in WDW, whereas DL is doing well with events such as the Haunted Mansion 40th Anniversary party and other campaigns.

[The Helmsman]

I'm impressed by the results so far. The management did a good job on holding the inevitable loss in revenues. And it's not really a surprise that the consumer spending did impact after all the overall revenues. As it happens outside the magic gates of Disneyland, people tend to hold their spending to only the necessary stuff. They won't buy more than they can afford, heck they even gonna buy less from what they can afford in the end. And I doubt that it has to do with the quality or the variation of the merchandise. In my opinion the quality and the variation is there to be seen. I have experienced all the phases of DLRP, from the prefect days of the first years (quality in everything), to the dark days of the middle years and this new era of growth as it appears to be. I find that my money are well spent. There's room for improvement that's for sure (I really wish to see things working as they did back in 92) and I'm confident that they are working towards this position. The last two years we have seen many good things happening.

[seanmartina]

I also like others wanted to spend all my budget, and another family with us wanted to do the same, but the stuff on offer was not appealing in any way, compared to previous years, were i could not get enough, this year, plasticy cheap , bad design , or same of the other repackged.. the high end stuff is still appealling, but also very expensive..

[ed-uk]

I wasn't going to add anymore to the debate. But I must remind people that when Disneyland Paris opened in 1992 it was a financial disaster, it bled money. It was slated in the press for being too expensive, and there were complaints about rude CMs back then. One year attendence fell to 8 million, things were so bad. Some people actually refer to this as the golden age. Ok it looked nice and new, but it could have closed, it lost so much money. What ever EuroDisney do, I don't want them to take us back to 1992. 17 years on it's going strong with 2 theme parks, that's a big turn around from the early years. Even if some people don't like the merchandise.

[ICHAPMAN]

As we are talking merchandise...

We went at the end of July (been going at least once a year since 2004).   As most people do, we tend to try and each pick up an item to 'remember' the visit by.    However, as 33yr male, I'm am now struggling with this.   Theres only so many DLRP branded mugs I can purchase!

Similarly I find that my 12yr son also struggled.   I found that he was too old for the numerous stuffed characters, guns etc, but too young to be interested in the clothing range.   It seemed - for me - that there are certain groups that aren't that well catered for.  

My girlfriend, never has a problem finding item(s) to purchase (just look at my credit card statement for confirmation of this).   Neither does my younger son, there are plenty of 'guns'*, swords*, stuffed characters and other toys for his age range.   This is especially true if pluto is involved.

Off-Topic - As I've indicated my youngest has a thing about Pluto - which isn't always the easiest of characters to find merchandise for.   During our visited in November 2007 he found this pluto, which then had a smaller one sat on top of it looking like it was biting his ear (this is as designed - a stuff toy).   No problem I said, if that's what you want, then that fines, we will pick it up as we leave the park the next day to go home.    Next day, went to purchase one from the shop in Fantasyland - and there weren't any.   I asked the staff in numerous shops, they all knew the item I was talking about but no-one had one.   In the end we ended up purchasing a large and small pluto and sewing them together to recreate the piece, giving it to him for Christmas.   He's none the wiser.

So, going back to the off-topic, topic of merchandise.  For me, some groups are other catered for, whilst other groups aren't that well catered for.    I was willing to spend, I'm just struggling to find something of interest.   Going back in October, doubt this will have changed then.

Oh...and why is it the the majority of boxed confectionary items in the shops are dull shortbread biscuit related!.


Iain