Special Effects Pull Crowds to New Plaza Disney Store
People can visit the land of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck without seeing a single ride. That’s because the Disney Store officially opens today at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa.
And if Walt Disney Co. is right, the 35,000-square-foot store soon could outsell the other two Disney stores outside its theme parks: a 9-month-old store at the Glendale Galleria and a 4-month-old shop at Pier 39 in San Francisco.
Disney Chairman Michael Eisner already predicted that the Disney Store in Orange County will be “a smash,” outselling every other retailer at the Costa Mesa mall in sales per square foot.
Eisner compared the other two Disney store outlets to “the ET” of the retail industry. And to help ensure that South Coast Plaza’s store does even better, the Disney Co. has spent more money per square foot to outfit the Orange County store.
Spectacular Effects
The money has paid for some spectacular special effects, which have brought flocks of shoppers into the store since its Tuesday’s unofficial opening.
Customers are lured inside by a bright yellow wooden-sided station wagon in the window with Minnie, Mickey and Pluto at the wheel and a license plate reading “Mick.” Once inside, gigantic film strips lead shoppers past a gigantic Goofy surfing above their heads as he shoots a movie of Donald Duck and Daisy--who are also surfing overhead in turquoise, three-dimensional waves.
Disney’s usual attention to detail includes little lobsters clinging to overhead surfboards and twinkling stars in the ceiling-sky, all above a drive-in movie screen on which classic Disney movies are shown. Then there’s a ‘50s-style diner, a fireplace hung with stockings and a sand castle in the air surrounded by grinning chipmunks.
“We just happened to come in here and our mouths dropped open,” said Linda Reich of San Juan Capistrano, who Friday was ogling the displays with her son, Aaron, 8.
“It’s kind of like walking into Disneyland when you’re in here,” added Nick Maroshek of Dana Point, a government auditor who stopped by the store with his wife, Barbara, and their two boys.
Disney Merchandise
If the displays aren’t enough, there’s Disney merchandise to satisfy even the most hard-core Disney addict. More than 50 Disney licensees have supplied merchandise ranging from Mickey spatulas and Goofy underwear to a six-foot stuffed Mickey Mouse ($425) and a ceramic Cinderella and her coach ($2,700).
“The apparel, watches . . . have been going like crazy,” said Michael Cote, assistant manager of the Glendale Disney Store, who is on loan to the Costa Mesa location. “A lot of people have even been wanting to buy our store props”--such as a neon Wurlitzer clock and the turquoise satin jackets worn by the store’s “cast members,” or sales clerks.
The Disney Store officially opens at noon today, when Goofy will cruise South Coast Plaza’s parking lot in a 1959 pink Cadillac. Mickey and Minnie Mouse will be sock-hop dancing in 1950s outfits. And Disney executives will be on hand to do--what else?--a film strip cutting.
The hoopla should last about four hours.
