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NorthPark’s Disney store to close

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By Doug Schorpp | Friday, May 02, 2008 | 17 comment(s)

(Quad-City Times file photo)

Debbie King of Davenport was in shock this afternoon.

“I am very, very unhappy. I cannot believe it,” she said moments after entering the Disney Store in NorthPark Mall in Davenport, only to discover that it will close in about six weeks. “We love Disney.”

The Walt Disney Co. has taken over 220 Disney Store outlets in North America from The Children’s Place Retail Stores Inc. and will close about 98 stores in the United States and two in Canada.

That includes the Davenport Disney Store.

The move to reclaim most of the money-losing operation came after The Children’s Place subsidiary that ran the chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March. Analysts said Disney’s reclamation of just two-thirds of the stores and the elimination of license fees paid to Disney would help make the outlets profitable again.

“This means I can’t come at Christmas. She loves to come in and get her Princess stuff. Look at her (sad) face,” King said of her 5-year-old daughter, Victoria. “We come once a week, maybe more than that.”

Victoria, wearing Ariel character flip-flops, was busy looking over new items she wants to buy and didn’t seem to understand that the store would close. But then the news sunk in.

“I can’t believe they’re closing forever,” Victoria told her mother.

Store employees said they were not allowed to speak publicly about the closing, but a large sign informed customers of the fact. Many items were marked 40 percent and 50 percent off.

Jenny Legare of Colona, Ill., was visiting the store with her 6-year-old daughter, Emma, who immediately hugged her mother once she heard the news.

“It’s sad. It’s just a shame,” Jenny Legare said. “But everything is changing. Now, I will have to go to Chicago if I want to shop at another Disney store.”

Employees told King and other customers that stores in Rockford and Peoria, Ill., St. Louis and Omaha also will close, leaving the Chicago area as the closest location.

Miller Tabak & Co. analyst David Joyce said part of the turnaround in the remaining stores would hinge on refocusing on high-margin products, referring to “more DVDs and video games, rather than hundreds of huge plush Goofys taking up a great deal of shelf and floor space.”

Children’s Place will provide transitional support services to Disney for up to six months. After the deal closes, Children’s Place said its Hoop Holdings LLC subsidiary would continue with its bankruptcy filing and submit a reorganization plan by the end of the year.

Disney has said that by taking over the stores, it could better manage merchandise from its growing portfolio of franchises, which now include High School Musical, Hannah Montana, and Pirates of the Caribbean.

(The Associated Press contributed to this article.)

Doug Schorpp can be contacted at (563) 383-2292 or dschorpp@qctimes.com.