Interactive cars and castles at new-look Disney Stores
Disney Store this week launches the first in a series of revamped shops that rely heavily on interactive multimedia to immerse young visitors in the Disney world.
The more-than-4800-square-foot store at The Shops in Montebello, California, near Los Angeles, includes a Disney Princess area aimed at girls and a Disney/Pixar Cars installation for boys.
The Cars feature, branded as Ridemakerz, lets young fans assemble and customise their own vehicles, while the princess’s castle offers a magic mirror and wand.
The store also has a touchscreen kiosk allowing customers to explore a 3D view of all Disney Store products and discover more about the brand using video footage, articles, and links to social media.
An in-store theatre, meanwhile, lets visitors view footage from classic and new Disney productions and get previews of forthcoming releases.
“We felt that we needed to reinvent Disney retail and create an environment that really gave children the best 30 minutes of their day,” said Jim Fielding, president of Disney Stores Worldwide.
Disney says it plans to convert more than 20 stores in the U.S. and Europe to the format this year, and its entire estate within five to seven years.
The next locations in the U.S. will be in Garden City, New York; Santa Monica, California; Tampa; and San Diego.
The format makes its European debut this month at La Vaguada in Madrid, and will then be rolled out to NorteShopping in Oporto, Portugal, Orio Center in Bergamo, Italy, and three UK sites: Thecentre:mk in Milton Keynes, the Bon Accord mall in Aberdeen and Donegal Place in Belfast.
Disney currently has more than 200 North American locations, around 40 in Japan and more than 100 in Britain, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain.
Share this article with others
Post to del.icio.us
Printed from http://www.screens.tv/article/111068/Interactive_cars_and_castles_at_new-look_Disney_Stores.html
Comment on this article
Skip to comments
We encourage users to analyse, comment on and even challenge Screens.tv's articles, including the one above - 'Interactive cars and castles at new-look Disney Stores'
User reviews and comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site.
Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. We will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site.